Hacking Politics is a soon to be released book documenting the unlikely coalition which worked to defeat the SOPA and PIPA legislation in the United States. Edited by David Moon, Patrick Ruffini and David Segal, Hacking Politics is set to be released in April by OR Books in both e-book and paperback format. It is […]
Author Archives: the machinegeek
Shmoocon 2013: DIY: Using Trust To Secure Embedded Projects
At the recent Shmoocon conference in Washington, DC, Teddy Reed and David Anthony presented their DIY guide to using Trusted Computing on embedded devices. This is NOT an introduction or overview of Trusted Computing. We introduce a low-cost schematic using Atmel’s CryptoModule (AT97SC3204T) and CryptoAuthentication (AT88SA102S) ICs, and release drivers for UEFI, U-Boot, and the […]
ARUCI: Augmented Reality Universal Controller and Identifier
Frank Zhao is part of a group of ECE students at UW who just finished their design project symposium. His group’s project is ARUCI: Augmented Reality Universal Controller and Identifier. We are quite proud of it, and to challenge yourself, try figuring out how we are doing it without reading our presentation (the video also […]
RTL-SDR monitors ADS-B with ADSB# and adsbScope
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is a radio communications system used by aircraft worldwide to transmit position and identification information. It uses a frequency of 1090 MHz, sending data using a modulation scheme called Pulse Position Modulation (PPM). To monitor this system you could purchase a dedicated ADS-B receiver for several hundred dollars, or design your […]
Google guys develop lawn irrigation system with Android and Arduino
Google engineers J.J Barrons and Joe Fernandez have developed this lawn irrigation system. Dubbed Irrduino it uses Android, Ardiuno, Python, Dart and the Google App Engine. The project hardware details can be found on JoesHacks blog. The source code can be downloaded from Google code. The files include an Arduino based controller using an Android […]
Shmoocon 2013: Attacking Scada Wireless Systems
SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Access) signals are commonly used to monitor and control utility and indusrial system. They use digital modulation and operate in the sub-1 GHz range of the RF spectrum. Atlas of D00M presesnted this talk at the recent 2013 Shmoocon conference in Washington, DC wherein he covered the current state of […]
FreeDV open source digital radio protocol
Interested in new open source digital radio protocols? Check out FreeDV. FreeDV is a GUI application for Windows and Linux (MacOS and BSD are in testing) that allows any SSB radio to be used for low bit rate digital voice. Speech is compressed down to 1400 bit/s then modulated onto a 1100 Hz wide QPSK […]
CMU students organize high school hacking competition
Students from CMU will conduct a high school hacking competition from April 26th 2013 – May 6th 2013. The competition is the work of Toaster Wars, a collaboration of the Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP) of Cylab and Osiris of the Entertainment Technology Center, both student-run groups at CMU. The project has received sponsorship from […]
Chip Hack FPGA event set for London April 20-21, 2013
Hardware freedom day is coming up and Embecosm is arranging a workshop around FPGA and OpenRISC in London. The event is scheduled for Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st April 2013 at The Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG. Chip Hack is a two day workshop that provides an introduction to programming […]
ChronIC RF hacking tool for TI Chronos watch
Adam Laurie (a/k/a/ Major Malfunction) is a white hat hacker from London, UK, who has presented at a number of conferences worldwide. He’s also the Director at Aperature Labs, Ltd. His latest explorations involve the world of RF remote control systems operating in the unlicensed ISM bands. He used the FunCube dongle to monitor the […]
STB Zombifier adds IR remote control to TV box and monitor
When Ivan changed his TV provider they required the use of a SetTopBox(STB) as a receiver. Since it had HDMI output, he decided to use an old Philips 230C1 monitor as a TV screen. The monitor, however, was not controlled by the STB and had to be switched on and off manually (not via the […]
chipKIT programming tutorials
EmbeddedLab has a series of chipKIT tutorials online. This series is excellent for MCU newbies and anyone unfamiliar with working with the chipKIT platform. Check them out!
Elephant and Castle Mini Maker Faire set for July 6, 2013
London’s First Maker Faire Celebrating Creativity, Science, Technology, Art and Craft Comes to the London College of Communication in July. The first ever Maker Faire in London is being held in Elephant & Castle on Saturday, 6th July 2013 at the London College of Communication (LCC). The Elephant & Castle Mini Maker Faire will be […]
Myriad-RF open source wireless platform
Myriad-RF is an open-source project for the prototyping and creation of fully configurable wireless platforms that run on almost any communication standard and frequency. Its based on the multi standard LMS6002DFN transceiver and Altera FPGA module, allowing for the creation of applications that run on any commercial or whitespace frequency band between 260MHz and 3.8GHz […]
Graphics LCD 2-wire serial interface
In this video Debraj demonstrates his 2-wire serial interface for use with a 128×64 graphics LCD. This design reduces the pin requirement from 14 to 2. Check in at hobbydebraj for schematic and source code links. Via the contact form.
ITU radio regs online FREE for limited time
Drone has sent us this information which should be interesting to radio comm enthusiasts around the world. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has decided to offer the current (2012) full set of “Radio Regulation” documents (Volumes I-IV) for FREE download for a limited time (through mid-2014 perhaps). Yes, this set includes the “ITU-R” documents. The […]
OpenduinoGSM
Emanuele has informed us of a new open source project known as OpenduinoGSM. This is a standalone wireless remote control board which communicates via GSM. With OpenduinoGSM you have the option of using the Arduino development environment, so anyone, even those who are unfamiliar electronics and circuits, can try to realize the automation they want […]
Cornell online courses: Designing with Microcontrollers and FPGAs
Bruce Land writes: I teach two courses at Cornell University in Electrical and computer engineering. Recently I have uploaded a full set of lectures for each course to YouTubeEDU. The lectures have comments which link to lab exercises and other supporting Materials. There is a general YouTube channel for these courses. Here are the links […]
Simple LED tester/matcher
Here’s a simple adjustable current source with a PNP transistor that drives either one or two LEDs for testing and/or intensity matching purposes. The current is from 2 to 16 mA in four steps using a rotary switch. While this would make a good beginner’s project, its also a useful gadget for hobbyists of all […]
Homebrew Cray-1A on Xilinx Spartan-3E board
Chris Fenton has spent the last year and a half or so constructing his own 1/10-scale, binary-compatible, cycle-accurate Cray-1. He says this project falls purely into the “because I can!” category.” The actual design was implemented in a Xilinx Spartan-3E 1600 development board. For vintage computing enthusiasts, Chris also provides an interesting link to the […]