Reverse Engineering An RF Clicker

July 5, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 17 Comments

[Travis Goodspeed] has pulled apart a TurningPoint response card, which is an RF device for answering quizzes, attendance checks, and casting votes in a classroom setting. After tearing it apart, he set out to reverse engineer it and managed to get quite a lot done. At this point he can spoof cards, so he could fake his or several people’s attendance. He can also sniff the packets as they are sent, opening up a plethora of opportunities to mischief. The one that was mentioned in the tip line was to simply repeat the answer that was most often sent for the quizzes. The writeup is very detailed and has great pictures. Good job [Travis].

[thanks Springuin]

Wireless Presenters Easily Cracked

July 4, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 18 Comments

While hacking a wireless presenter doesn’t sound like something worthwhile or interesting, [Niels Teusink] demonstrates that these little devices often are a lot more powerful than we give them credit.

With an Arduino, plenty of research, and some heavy sniffing of a wireless presenter’s SPI and then wireless interface [Niels] is able to emulate an entire keyboard. Sending commands as harmless as “next slide” to the devastating “[Win+R] Format C:”. Hopefully anyone planning such a project at the next Apple or Microsoft keynote just intends some gentle fun.

[Thanks Dan Ransom]

RFID Transplant

July 1, 2010 by Mike Szczys 21 Comments

[Zach Charat] didn’t want to carry around yet another card with him so he transplanted the RFID guts from his card to his phone. Soaking the card in nail polish remover for twelve hours got him nowhere, but when he broke out the acetone the card was falling apart in 30 seconds. Above you can see the tiny chip and loop antenna that were left after ditching the plastic. The black bits are electrical tape which he then used to embed this in his Palm Pre’s touchstone charger plate ( which we just saw this in a hack last week).

This works, and while you’re waiting for the world to implement the Leeloo Dallas Multipass it’s a great solution.

[Thanks Coveredwagonkid via Pre Central]

Wireless Accelerometer Project

June 12, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 15 Comments

[Jerome Demers] sent us his extremely detailed semester project. The two part system consists of PICs connected to XBee modules and accelerometers. By using the device a coach can monitor an athlete and correct their minute mistakes.

Did we mention [Jerome] was very detailed? He also goes into the particulars of designing the circuit, using solder paste and baking, designing and laser cutting a case, and even some fun stories. Well worth the read if you have the time.

WiMax Antenna With Auto-positioning System

June 8, 2010 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

[Andrew] certainly brings a bit of a James Bond feel to connecting to your WiMax base station. He built this antenna along with an auto-positioning system to get the strongest signal possible. The device, which appears a bit fragile, breaks down into a nice little case. When you get to your next checkpoint you can set it up and the stepper motor along with an ATtiny2313 will rescan to get you on with your mission as fast as possible. This is one of our favorite antenna builds so far, and we’ve seen a lot of hacked antennas. Don’t miss the action-packed trailer after the break. Continue reading “WiMax Antenna With Auto-positioning System” →

Parallax RFID Reader For Ten Bucks

May 29, 2010 by Devlin Thyne 102 Comments

We received a tip about Radio Shack putting Parallax’s RFID reader on clearance for around $10. The only reference we could find that indicated Radio Shack sold the reader was a review page. The reader originally sold for around $50 in the stores, so getting it for $10 made it worth a curiosity trip to a local Radio Shack. The store we visited did not have the reader marked down in the drawer, but it rang up for $9.97. It is too bad that the reader was so expensive in the first place, otherwise Radio Shack might still be selling them at full price. This is by no means a promotion, we just though we would share the information in case you were interested in getting one yourself. If Radio Shack is out, you could always build your own reader.

The reader we purchased only came with one tag, perhaps that is why the they have been on clearance. Hooked up to an FTDI USB to serial cable, it would repeatedly send out the tag’s number whenever it was in range. We tried an HID-labeled card and a tag of the kind that can be found in books and DVD cases. Neither worked with the reader, but we’ll keep looking.

Thanks to [bluewraith] for the tip.

Mister Gloves, Gesture Input

May 19, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 8 Comments

This two handed glove input setup, by [Sean Chen] and [Evan Levine], is one step closer to achieving that [Tony Stark] like workstation; IE, interacting with software in 3D with simple hand gestures. Dubbed the Mister Gloves, the system incorporates accelerometer, push button, and flex sensor data over RF where an MCU converts it to a standard USB device, meaning no drivers are needed and a windows PC can recognize it as a standard keyboard and mouse. Catch a video of Mister Gloves playing portal after the jump.

While amazing, we’re left wondering if gesture setups are really viable options considering one’s arm(s) surly would get tired? Continue reading “Mister Gloves, Gesture Input” →