John Boxall of Tronixstuff has posted on the XOBXOB Internet of Things Platform. “The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a new platform – XOBXOB (pronounced “zob-zob”) that gives users (and Arduino users in particular) a method of having remote devices connect with each other and be controlled over the Internet. At the time […]
Author Archives: the machinegeek
CreepyDOL WiFi surveillance project debuts at Blackhat/DEFCON
CreepyDOL, the Creepy Digital Object Locator, is a distributed tracking system that uses low-cost hardware sensors, a robust communications system, and simple observation to give near-real-time identification of humans and tracking capabilities to anyone. It’s goal is to develop hardware and software for passive surveillance of WiFi data and draw inferences regarding human behavior therefrom. […]
Graphical cheat sheets for ARM dev boards
Gordon Williams has developed cheat sheets for ARM dev boards. He writes, “I got pretty frustrated working with ARM development boards – every time I’d choose a pin for some function I’d find out that it was used for some peripheral on the board – so it either wouldn’t work or it would break something […]
Arduino robot
The Arduino crew introduces the Arduino Robot. “The Arduino Robot is the first official Arduino on wheels. The robot has two processors, one on each of its two boards. The Motor Board controls the motors, and the Control Board reads sensors and decides how to operate. Each of the boards is a full Arduino board […]
Tracking low earth satellites using RTL-SDR
Travis Goodspeed has been experimenting with remote satellite tracking over the internet. His setup uses a satellite dish originally used with a mobile earth station on maritime vessels. Movement of the dish is accomplished with servos and an EiBotBoard” wired into a BeagleBone. Travis describes further, “My initial build using an RTL-SDR dongle. Data processing […]
Parallel virtual stack machine firmware for Arduino
Nakul Rao has been working on a virtual machine for the Arduino. He notes, ‘Why a virtual machine? Firstly, I had a lot of time. Secondly, because it can be done. Also, it is fascinating to me that a device can keep its actual hardware hidden and project an entirely different hardware to the user. […]
Video: Massimo Banzi’s Arduino tutorial series
Arduino co-creator Massimo Banzi has produced a series of video tutorials covering all aspects of the Arduino platform and IDE. These videos were produced in cooperation with RS Components and feature their Arduino Starter Kit (though any compatible Arduino board should work as well.) The introductory video appears above, with the remainder available on their […]
HackRF Jawbreaker PortaPack
Jared Boone, who along with Michael Ossmann developed the HackRF Jawbreaker SDR has designed a LCD/control/audio “shield” PortPack for the HackRF Jawbreaker. He’s displaying the gadget at this month’s BlackHat and DEFCON conferences.
DEFCON: The Documentary video download
The video entitled DEFCON: The Documentary has been released for download at the DEFCON XXI conference currently underway in Las Vegas, NV. The production by Jason Scott chronicles the first 20 years of the legendary hacker conference. You can obtain your own copy free from the “DEFCON torrent link. For those wishing to purchase a […]
TI Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) training
Ti is offering free online training on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) devices. The materials are designed to cover topics appealing to a broad spectrum of experience levels from basic to advanced. You can find more information and start the training at TI’s
Xbox RF module controlled by R-Pi
tin0 decided to explore the hardware on an Xbox 360 and harvested the RF Module with the intent on using it with the Raspberry Pi. He wrote up this detailed tutorial posted at Astrorats, including links to the source code written in Python using the wiringPi2 library. Via the contact form.
HackRF Kickstarter
Michael Ossmann has announced that the HackRF SDR is now being offered on Kickstarter! He notes, “This is my first announcement, so you’ll get the first chance at the early-bird reward.”
TI offering FRAM Experimenter’s Board + SimpleLink CC3000 WiFi module for $57
TI is offering the FRAM Experimenter’s Board + SimpleLink CC3000 WiFi Evaluation Module as a bundle for a limited time for $57. The FRAM Experimenter’s Board is The MSP-EXP430FR5739 Experimenter Board is a development platform for the MSP430FR57xx devices. It supports this new generation of MSP430 microcontroller devices with integrated Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM). […]
Ford Mustang haptic feedback shift knob using OpenXC
The Haptic Feedback Shift Knob is a replacement for a manual transmission shift knob that adds haptic and visual feedback to help drivers shift appropriately. An Android application monitors the vehicle’s speed, RPM and accelerator pedal position. Based on this information, the application calculates and then indicates to the driver when he or she should […]
DEFCON XXI online contest
With DEF CON XXI scheduled for August 1-4, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV, the conference crew has posted an online Human Badge Challenge. The challenge consists of a word search puzzle contaning contest names, along with a hidden puzzle element. Download their Contest PDF for contest and entry rules, puzzle hints and links to submit […]
RIP: Barnaby Jack, hacker
Reuters is reporting the sudden and untimely death of New Zealand-born hacker Barnaby Jack. Barnaby was scheduled to appear at this week’s BlackHat conference in Las Vegas, NV, with a presentation entitled Implantable Medical Devices: Hacking Humans. His body was reportedly found at an apartment in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood, according to a police […]
Video: Blackbox JTAG Reverse Engineering
Felix Domke has been working on reverse engineering blackbox devices using the JTAG interface and presented this talk at the 26C3 Chaos Communications Congress conference. JTAG is an industry standard for accessing testmode functionality in almost any complex microchip. While the basics of JTAG are standardized, the exact implementation details are usually undocumented. Nevertheless, JTAG […]
Getting started with Bluetooth Smart for Android 4.3 “Jelly Bean”
Android recently released version 4.3 of their “Jelly Bean” OS which includes support for Bluetooth Smart. TI has posted a how to page on getting started with Bluetooth Smart for Android 4.3.
Android phone used as Arduino GSM shield
Kerimil has made a new video on how to interface arduino boards with Android devices using MIT app inventor and Bluetooth. This time it focuses on using the phone as a GSM shield. “I used texting functionality which let’s you use GSM on the phone to send and receive text messages. So if you ever […]
Using TI Chronos .NET dll with C#
The TI EZ430 Chronos watch allows for wireless transmission of button push and accelerometer events to a PC. This SourceForge project by elmariano provides a helpful example for developers of how to use the EZ430 Chronos .Net dll in conjunction with C#. It was created in Visual Studio 2010 Express, tested under 32 bit WinXP […]