37C3: The Tech Behind Life With Quadraplegia

January 9, 2024 by Elliot Williams 21 Comments

While out swimming in the ocean on vacation, a big wave caught [QuadWorker], pushed him head first into the sand, and left him paralyzed from the neck down. This talk isn’t about injury or recovery, though. It’s about the day-to-day tech that makes him able to continue living, working, and travelling, although in new ways. And it’s a fantastic first-hand insight into how assistive technology works for him.

If you can only move your head, how do you control a computer? Surprisingly well! A white dot on [QuadWorker]’s forehead is tracked by a commodity webcam and some software, while two button bumpers to the left and right of his head let him click with a second gesture. For cell phones, a time-dependent scanner app allows him to zero in successively on the X and Y coordinates of where he’d like to press. And naturally voice recognition software is a lifesaver. In the talk, he live-demos sending a coworker a text message, and it’s almost as fast as I could go. Shared whiteboards allow him to work from home most of the time, and a power wheelchair and adapted car let him get into the office as well.

The lack of day-to-day independence is the hardest for him, and he says that they things he misses most are being able to go to the bathroom, and also to scratch himself when he gets itchy – and these are yet unsolved problems. But other custom home hardware also plays an important part in [QuadWorker]’s setup. For instance, all manner of home automation allows him to control the lights, the heat, and the music in his home. Voice-activated light switches are fantastic when you can’t use your arms.

This is a must-watch talk if you’re interested in assistive tech, because it comes direct from the horse’s mouth – a person who has tried a lot, and knows not only what works and what doesn’t, but also what’s valuable. It’s no surprise that the people whose lives most benefit from assistive tech would also be most interested in it, and have their hacker spirit awakened. We’re reminded a bit of the Eyedrivomatic, which won the 2015 Hackaday Prize and was one of the most outstanding projects both from and for the quadriplegic community.

Continue reading “37C3: The Tech Behind Life With Quadraplegia” →

Unbricking Trains, Uncovering Shady Behavior

December 28, 2023 by Elliot Williams 48 Comments

The first clue was that a number of locomotives started malfunctioning with exactly 1,000,000 km on the odometer. And when the company with the contract for servicing them couldn’t figure out why, they typed “Polish hackers” into a search engine, and found our heroes [Redford], [q3k], and [MrTick]. What follows is a story of industrial skullduggery, CAN bus sniffing, obscure reverse engineering, and heavy rolling stock, and a fantastically entertaining talk.

Cutting straight to the punchline, the manufacturer of the engines in question apparently also makes a lot of money on the service contracts, and included logic bombs in the firmware that would ensure that revenue stream while thwarting independent repair shops. They also included “cheat codes” that simply unlocked the conditions, which the Polish hackers uncovered as well. Perhaps the most blatant evidence of malfeasance, though, was that there were actually checks in some versions of the firmware that geofenced out the competitors’ repair shops.

We shouldn’t spoil too much more of the talk, and there’s active investigation and legal action pending, but the smoking guns are incredibly smoky. The theme of this year’s Chaos Communication Congress is “Unlocked”, and you couldn’t ask for a better demonstration of why it’s absolutely in the public interest that hackers gotta hack. Of course, [Daniel Lange] and [Felix Domke]’s reverse engineering of the VW Dieselgate ECU shenanigans, another all-time favorite, also comes to mind.

Add Some Blinkenlights To Your Supercon Badge

December 1, 2023 by Kristina Panos 14 Comments

We’re not sure what is more amazing here: the glow of the blinkenlights themselves, the tedium involved in creating it, or the fact that [makeTVee] soldered 280 microscopic WS2812 LEDs while at Supercon.

This hack began before the con when [makeTVee] designed the LED-diffusing frame in Fusion 360 and printed it in clear resin. Rather than solder the LEDs straight, the frame has 280 teeth that support each one at a 55° angle.

Not only does this look cool, it makes the bridging of DOUT to DIN much easier. That leaves GND and VCC to be painstakingly connected with 30 AWG wire. How, you might ask? With a little help from 3.5x magnifying glasses and the smallest soldering iron tip available, of course.

But that’s not all. Since 280 addressable LEDs need a lot of power, [makeTVee] also designed a holder for the LiPo battery pack that fits into the existing AA holders.

Want to see more awesome badge hacks? Check out the compendium.

A Look At All The Badge Hacks Of Supercon 2023

November 15, 2023 by Tom Nardi 6 Comments

For those of you who’ve had the opportunity to join us in Pasadena for Supercon, you’ll know it’s a wild ride from start to finish. Singling out a single moment as our favorite is pretty much impossible, but certainly the Sunday Badge Hacking Ceremony has to rank up there. It’s the culmination of ~78 hours of intense hardware and software hacking, and that’s not even counting the pre-show work that attendees often put into their creations. Every year, without fail, this community manages to pull off badge hacks that are beyond anything we could have imagined — and we’re the ones who made the thing in the first place.

Unfortunately, in the mad rush, we’ve never had a chance to actually photograph the hacked badges and share them with the Hackaday readers. This year, at the urging of some of the badge hackers themselves, we were able to throw together a suitable overhead light at the last minute and actually snapped shots of each badge after it was presented to the audience.

The resulting images, sorted by badge hacking category, are below. While some proved difficult to photograph, especially with an impromptu setup, we’re happy to at least have a complete record of this year’s creations. Hopefully we’ll be able to improve on our technique for 2024 and beyond. If yours shows up, or if you’d like to share your appreciation, sound off in the comments below!

Continue reading “A Look At All The Badge Hacks Of Supercon 2023” →

JawnCon 0x0: A Strong Start With A Bright Future

November 13, 2023 by Tom Nardi 9 Comments

Last month, I had the pleasure witnessing a birth. No, not of a child. What I’m talking about is something far rarer, though arguably, just as loud and danger fraught — the birth of a new hacker convention.

The very first JawnCon took place on October 19th and 20th at Arcadia University, just outside of Philadelphia. If you’re in the Northeast US and suddenly find yourself surprised to learn that a hacker con managed to slip under your radar, don’t be. The organizers, who previously helped launch the WOPR Summit back in 2019, wisely decided to keep the scale of this first outing in check. Just a single track of talks, a chill out room, and 130 or like-minded individuals.

Although, even if they’d hatched a more ambitious plan, it’s hard to imagine they’d have had enough time to pull it off. Due to various circumstances, JawnCon had to come together at a breakneck pace, with less than 100 days separating the con’s inception and kickoff. That an event such as this could not only be organized so quickly, but go off without a hitch, is a testament to the incredible folks behind the scenes.

As for what a Jawn is…well, that might take a bit more explaining. It’s regional slang that’s perhaps best described as a universal noun in that it can be used to refer to basically anything or anyone. Think “smurf” or “da kine”. According to organizer Russell Handorf, the all-encompassing nature of the word describes not only his personal ethos but the spirit of the event. Rather than focusing too closely on any one aspect of hacking, JawnCon set out to explore a diverse array of tech topics from both the new and old schools. It would be an event where you could listen to a talk on payphone remote management, try your hand at lock picking, and learn about the latest in anti-drone technology, all under the same roof.

To that end, the team did an incredible job. Everyone I spoke to, young or old, newbie or vet, had a fantastic time. What’s more, as revealed in the Closing Remarks, the con actually managed to stay in the black — no mean feat for a first attempt. With a little luck, it seems like JawnCon is well on its way to becoming one of the Northeast’s can’t-miss hacker events. Continue reading “JawnCon 0x0: A Strong Start With A Bright Future” →

Supercon And Soylent Green

November 11, 2023 by Elliot Williams 10 Comments

The 2023 Hackaday Supercon is all done and dusted, and we’re still catching up on our sleep. I couldn’t ask everyone, but a great time was had by everyone I talked to. It’s honestly a very special crowd that shows up in Pasadena every November, and it’s really the attendees who make it what it is. We just provide the platform to watch you shine. Thank you all!

It all started out on Friday with an open day of chilling out and badge experimentation. Well, chill for those of you who didn’t have a bug in their badge code, anyway. But thanks to some very keen observation and fantastic bug reports by attendees, Al and I figured out what we’d done and pushed a fix out to all 300 of the badges that were given out on the first day. And thanks to the remaining 200 folks who walked in the next day, who fixed their own badges at Tom’s Flashing Station.

From then on, it was one great talk after another, punctuated by badge hacks and all the other crazy stuff that people brought along with them to show off. For me, one of the highlights was on Sunday morning, as the Lightning Talks gave people who were there a chance to get up and talk about whatever for seven minutes. And subjects ranged from a mad explosive propane balloon party, to Scotty Allen’s experience with a bad concussion and how he recovered, to a deep dive into the world of LED strands and soft sculptures from our go-to guru of blinkiness, Debra [Geek Mom] Ansell.

Supercon first-timer Katie [Smalls] Connell gave a phenomenal talk about her wearable LED art things, Spritelights. These are far from simple art pieces, being a combination of medical adhesive, home-mixed Galinstan – a metal alloy that stays flexible at human body temperature, and soon even flexible printed batteries. That this whole project hit us without warning from out of the audience just made it more impressive.

And these were just the folks who stepped up on stage. The true story of Supercon also belongs to all the smaller conversations and personal demos taking place in the alley or by the coffee stand. Who knows how many great ideas were hatched, or at least seeds planted?

So as always, thank you all for coming and bringing your passions along with. Just like Soylent Green, Supercon is made of people, and it wouldn’t be half as yummy without you. See you all next year. And if you’re thinking of joining us, get your tickets early and/or submit a talk proposal when the time comes around. You won’t meet a more warm and welcoming bunch of nerds anywhere.

Supercon 2023 Is On: Live

November 4, 2023 by Elliot Williams 3 Comments

Supercon is in full swing! If you weren’t able to join us in person, we’re streaming the main stage and you should absolutely check out the talks as they happen.

The full schedule is here, and you’ll find all the streams over on our YouTube channel. Come join in the fun.

For those of you are here with us in Pasadena, we’ve got a signup form for anyone who wants to submit a Lightening Talk for Sunday.

Hint: absolutely don’t miss Cory Doctorow’s keynote speech, taking place at 10:00 AM Pacific.