SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492024-03-28T11:41:21-06:00SparkFun ElectronicsCustomer #894357 on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCustomer #894357urn:uuid:6433537f-b455-9771-ea74-093af807ebb52017-01-24T12:54:05-07:00<p>Is assembly language the highest level language you can get dumped? Just curious.</p>
Customer #606104 on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCustomer #606104urn:uuid:4ea1dc07-b0e6-62dc-0dff-6e91c77cd9842014-10-14T14:26:48-06:00<p>This was an awesome read - Not sure if anyone would be interested in the Green Bean hacker chip but it allows you to hack your appliances like your fridge and make them smarter. Here is a link if you want to check it out... http://bit.ly/1bgreenbean</p>
Customer #549893 on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCustomer #549893urn:uuid:7506ddb6-de24-3dff-31b6-5eae4b4e676d2014-04-29T03:18:00-06:00<p>A hacker is an adherent of the subculture that orig hacker is someone who loves to program or who enjoys playful cleverness,or a combination of the two.The act of engaging in activities such as programming or other media in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed hacking. http://passforsure.co/312-50v8.php</p>
Customer #541617 on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCustomer #541617urn:uuid:9e05ef04-cbf5-911e-8468-9dfebde5fbc42014-04-03T09:48:47-06:00<p>i had seen one the episode of 'the big bang theory'. in that episode, the guys were able to switch off and on the lights in a home at any part of the world through Internet. Is that hardware hacking???</p>
BeerCannon on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingBeerCannonurn:uuid:6af3154d-89f2-1a99-b455-c8021054b4d22013-11-19T12:04:35-07:00<p>The software in question was a heavily modified version of Fast-AMIS (Atari Message Information System), it was initially developed by a user group in Michigan. A friend and I decided to modify it to support multiple message bases (i.e. forums) because it only had email and a single public message store. The code used nearly every available byte on a 48k Atari 800 (with the BASIC cartridge installed), so we couldn't afford to duplicate any code to establish more public message areas. We had to dig deeply into the code and create our own custom message header scheme to partition the message base. We also added XMODEM file transfer routines because the original code only supported ASCII file transfers. To test our code, my cousin decided to operate the BBS from his house. You may find old listings for it, the "Grimoire" BBS in Zelienople, Pennsylvania.<p>The original AMIS software from M.A.C.E. (Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts) was coded to poll joystick port 2 on an Atari 8-bit computer. So, you could literally plug a joystick into that port, wait for the phone to ring, then press the fire button.. and your BBS software would direct the modem to answer the phone and then fall into its 'online' processing routines. To automate the pressing of said fire button, a simple 'ring detector' device could be built. It was essentially a 20uF 70V cap and a 125V AC relay. You would connect the phone's green wire to one side of the relay coil, connect the phone's red wire to the negative side of the cap, and the positive side of the cap to the other side of the relay coil. Then you would take a joystick and cut its cable (keeping the end with the 9-pin connector). The joystick connector plugged into joystick port 2 of the computer, and on the other end you'd connect the 2 wires for the fire button to the relay contacts (orange wire to the relay common terminal, black wire to the relay's normally open contact). When the phone rang, the relay would switch on and press the 'fire' button. The BBS would detect this and send the command to take the modem 'off hook' (thus ending the ringing) and send an answer-mode carrier tone which began the old dialup modem handshake process, and the rest is history.</p><p>Again, the reason for all of this workaround was that the commonly available modems of the day (Atari 835 and Atari 1030) had no auto-answer feature.</p></p>
TatankaWilly on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingTatankaWillyurn:uuid:164a83e3-cf46-226d-3a86-85a52321dd962013-11-16T06:20:05-07:00<p>This brings back some memories for me. I'm probably going to date myself a little but I remember as a young teenager going through the HUGE 18" x 9" x 3" thick Computer Shopper magazine and finding ads for BBS numbers, waiting for my parents to go to work, and then spend most of the day checking out the different BBS'. I am like brennen, I missed out on the days of programming for BBS, but I remember having to call 20 different BBS sites to find that 'one article that talked about this'. Ahhh, the good old days. Those were also the days of looking through the ads and seeing one for a 1 GB hard drive, and the thought through my head at the time was "What on earth would you need that much data storage for?"</p>
brennen on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingbrennenurn:uuid:ab4e457c-c61b-0a65-62d4-c8c6d5965ac12013-11-15T00:22:46-07:00<p>This is fascinating stuff. I'd love to read a longer writeup.<p>I was just playing around last night with listings on <a href="http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/" rel="nofollow">the BBS Corner</a>. All of the places I logged into were basically ghost towns, but there are a surprising number still in service.</p><p>I pretty much missed out on the BBS era as a kid - we were too far out in the boonies for there to be anything local, and my parents watched the phone bill like hawks. If I had it to do over again, I'd run one of my own. Lately I've been thinking about how much fun it could be to run one at SparkFun. Even better if it involved some hardware hackery...</p></p>
durka42 on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingdurka42urn:uuid:d3a7532a-c7c0-93df-86bf-0814e24ea62e2013-11-14T20:18:57-07:00<p>Whoa, awesome!</p>
Customer #150395 on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCustomer #150395urn:uuid:497cd586-d626-e01c-b064-ac2fd67159202013-11-14T15:09:28-07:00<p>Also useful for hardware hackers: see my tip on how to find schematics, wiring diagrams, and other detailed info on anything that has a FCC ID: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ivz3KKszk</p>
noworries on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingnoworriesurn:uuid:63040d0c-4566-4536-84ff-680a039cd3df2013-11-14T14:46:25-07:00<p>Is this a type of "Method 1" hacking?<p>http://cheezburger.com/7879559168</p></p>
Dougie on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingDougieurn:uuid:4e5bad55-c475-2d64-5a02-d6301be64c592013-11-14T14:23:49-07:00<p>:)
Nice article btw..</p>
CTaylor on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCTaylorurn:uuid:669d9176-fcc5-bdd5-a446-a45a25f17edd2013-11-14T13:39:07-07:00<p>Thanks for the heads up! I still want it to be the old URL. If only I could get ahold of Dan...</p>
Dougie on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingDougieurn:uuid:9e6ce47f-7730-94c0-1dd1-d9b5961efc762013-11-14T13:31:19-07:00<p>Hey CTaylor:
This link (http://www.solidstatedepot.com) on your profile is bad. Should it be more like http://boulderhackerspace.com/
??</p>
Customer #325766 on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCustomer #325766urn:uuid:9477cd74-74a9-83b1-ce3c-ed02135499f82013-11-14T12:45:17-07:00<p>Not sure it counts as "hacking" but you forgot a very important option:
Beg the OEM for docs. This can be surprisingly effective with the right contacts.</p>
BeerCannon on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingBeerCannonurn:uuid:7586f7ab-d84a-c6d6-9d94-5febf95bb2ca2013-11-14T12:29:09-07:00<p>Thanks for the article. It reminded me of the days when I was developing BBS software on Atari 8-bit computers, and had an Atari 1030 modem, which had autodial but no auto-answer feature. To make the BBS able to
answer the phone, one had to build a 'ring detector' circuit which threw a relay's contacts when the phone rang. Those relay contacts were wired to a joystick port's "fire button" pins. The BBS code would poll in a loop waiting for the 'fire' button to be pressed, then send a command to the 1030 modem to pick up the phone in answer(host) mode. It worked like a charm for those who dared to hook non-FCC approved devices to the public switched telephone network.</p>
sgrace on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingsgraceurn:uuid:af38acff-f268-69c2-9ef2-e139dc3366292013-11-14T10:35:06-07:00<p>I agree with CTaylor, and that this is really case modding.</p>
dksmall on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingdksmallurn:uuid:fce6fbed-4dbf-ff5c-01d4-fc7a91ac9a842013-11-14T10:21:36-07:00<p>Years ago I purchased several POS (point of sale) displays. These are large dual-sided 2x20 VFD displays that mount to a pole as part of a cash register system. Communication used an RS-485 interface and while others had managed to figure out some of the commands, I wanted full control of the display. The device uses POSLAN protocol, which wasn't available publically. The board was 8051 based, using internal flash, but there was also a 28-pin ROM socket available on the board. By grounding the EA line I could run code from the external ROM, rather then the internal FLASH. Once my code was running, it copied itself to RAM, jumped to RAM and continued running. Now it switched the memory back to internal FLASH and performed a ROM dump out the serial port. I captured this output and was able to disassemble the code and modified it into a simple terminal program that used both sides of the display.</p>
CTaylor on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingCTaylorurn:uuid:acc3c01b-d941-a10e-80c9-82417629b9652013-11-14T09:58:30-07:00<p>I would consider this the extreme example of case-modding. I've certainly gutted my fair share of toys to make them do something strange and/or terrible.</p>
sirkha on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingsirkhaurn:uuid:cf26fb59-6648-2299-7e2b-63dac53e392d2013-11-14T09:52:08-07:00<p>I am thinking about eventually doing this to my (now out of warranty) washer and drier.</p>
LightManCA on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingLightManCAurn:uuid:c10f4be8-b089-13a3-aabf-962d7afe1eea2013-11-14T09:40:55-07:00<p>Say you had a toy, like maybe a remote controlled car you wanted to run autonomously. Wouldn't it be possible to yank out the receiver and and any other electronics other than the motors and servos?<p>Then add your controller board with it's own motor drivers, attach extra sensors, and what not.</p></p>
sgrace on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingsgraceurn:uuid:7729da16-7585-6789-d6ba-ab7d1be340df2013-11-14T09:36:59-07:00<p>How would that work? I don't see it ever working even from a remote controller to a PLC system.</p>
sgrace on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingsgraceurn:uuid:c2553606-c24a-df41-1994-31af7bee8d792013-11-14T09:36:01-07:00<p>In my opinion Method 1 and Method 3 are the best ones to use on reverse engineering a black box system. Method 4 is nice, if the chip does debug communication through JTAG. (As for FPGAs, once the chip is programmed through JTAG, it will not blindly send data to JTAG unless there's a debug core in it).<p>In a world of digital signals, a logic analyzer is your best friend on analyzing EVERYTHING. With some LAs having upwards of 32 channels, you can build a very nice waveform that you can monitor. If the system has user inputs, tie the LA to all the signals you can, and start systematically pressing buttons. This way you can build a behavior model which you can then analyze and use.</p></p>
LightManCA on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingLightManCAurn:uuid:82befdbe-1e9d-b96a-09d1-1841c117f2d02013-11-14T09:33:23-07:00<p>I wasn't thinking replace just the chip. I was thinking of replacing the entire controller board!</p>
sgrace on The Common Methods of Hardware Hackingsgraceurn:uuid:674cca69-fa60-1633-f550-12fe531c34222013-11-14T09:31:52-07:00<p>This would never work. IC manufactures do some pretty interesting security to lock the IC down from being reverse engineered. So yanking a chip and replacing it won't do anything but cause more headaches.</p>
LightManCA on The Common Methods of Hardware HackingLightManCAurn:uuid:85e07c29-7b5f-c63f-fe9d-639af3177bf02013-11-14T09:26:18-07:00<p>Isn't there the "Replace the controlller" method? Yank out all of the chippy insides of a device, and replace it with your own.</p>