Surya writes with this reference to a guide for a tool an Online AT Command Tester for use with an attached wireless/cellular module. This topic refers to Machine to Machine (M2M) device communications which take AT commands over serial connections. The tool was developed with the M10 Quectel Arduino GSM shield in mind. Via the […]
Author Archives: the machinegeek
DCC/TAPR video: HackRF – A Low Cost SDR Platform
In this talk from the 2013 Digital Communications Conference (DCC) co-sponsored by the ARRL and TAPR, developer Michael Ossmann discussed the origins and development of the HackRF Jawbreaker SDR transceiver. This is Michael’s first talk at an amateur radio oriented conference.
GrrCON 2013 – Pwnage from the Skies!
At the GrrCON 2013 conference last Fall, Philip Polstra presented on the use of the AirDeck Linux based aero mobile pen testing device. This presentation will introduce the AirDeck which is the latest extension to The Deck penetration testing and forensics program. The Deck made its US debut at GrrCON 2012. The Deck is a […]
STM32F429 discovery board running Sega master system emulator
Fabrice Muller writes informing of this recent efforts using the STM32F429 Discovery Board to run a Sega emulator: Yesterday I made this adaptation from the Alessandro Rocchegiani sega master system emulator. You can seen the original work here. After trying to adapt this emulator to my smt32 VGA output board I faced some problems with […]
USB IR Toy – Infrared modulation frequency review
Chris from AnalysIR presents this review on setting the modulation frequency on the USB IR Toy. Via the contact form.
Online course – Embedded Systems: Shape the world
Jonathan Valvano, professor at The University of Texas at Austin informs us of his upcoming embedded systems course. Myself and Professor Yerraballi are teaching a course this semester in collaboration with edX called UT.6.01x Embedded Systems: Shape the world. It is an online class (aka MOOC) introduction to embedded systems. The class starts Jan 22 […]
FUNcube dongle and satellite update
It’s been awhile since we’ve covered the FUNcube dongle, but their updated extended frequency coverage hardware and new software dashboard merits a new look. The FUNcube Dongle is an SDR device covering the 150kHz to 1.9GHz frequency range (with a gap in coverage between 240 MHz and 420 MHz). It retails online for around GBP125, […]
Digital Speech Decoder 1.7.0-dev adds D-Star support
DSD is a popular software tool for decoding various unencrypted digital radio protocols about which we’ve previously posted. We noticed that there is now a release of DSD which purports to be capable of decoding the amateur radio digital protocol known as D-Star. This is in addition to P25, X2-TDMA, ProVoice and NXDN offered in […]
HOPE X conference preregistation opens
Our friends from 2600 write informing us of the kickoff of preregistration for their HOPE X conference. We’ll be offering tickets for sale at a discounted rate from the door price. The direct link to the ordering form is http://store.2600.com/hopextickets.html. Tickets will be emailed to you later this month. That also applies if you’ve participated […]
30C3 Video: Hardware attacks, advanced ARM exploitation, and Android hacking
Stephen A. Ridley gave this presentation at the recently concluded Chaos Communications Conference (30C3) in Hamburg, Germany. He outlines his recent research into practical ARM exploitation on Linux and Android (for embedded applications and mobile devices). He demonstrates these techniques and discusses how they were discovered using several custom built ARM hardware development platforms. He […]
NSA wants to build quantum computer to penetrate “hard targets”
The Washington Post is reporting that the NSA is building a computer to defeat all forms of encryption commonly used to ensure privacy of personal communications and data. The project seeks to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” which would open the door to easily breaking the strongest encryption tools in use today, including a […]
CCC Video: Extracting keys from FPGAs, OTP tokens and door locks
This presentation on extracting keys from FPGAs, OTP Tokens and door locks is from the recent Chaos Communications Conference (CCC) in Hamburg, Germany. In it David briefly introduces implementation attacks and side-channel analysis (SCA) in particular, along with related methods to bypass security mechanisms and extract secret keys. “The main focus is on three case […]
Video: Maker Faire NY 2013: Arduino NFC
In this video from the 2013 Maker Faire New York, Don Coleman takes the stage in New York to discuss Near Field Communication (NFC) using the Adafruit and Seeed Studio NFC shields on an Arduino. Coleman is a software developer and is co-authoring a book on NFC, PhoneGap and Arduino for O’Reilly. Via Make.
30C3 Video: FPGA 101 – Making awesome stuff with FPGAs
This presentation by Karsten Becker was given at this week’s 30C3 Chaos Communications Congress (CCC) conference in Hamburg, Germany. In this talk I want to show you around in the mysterious world of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, or short FPGAs. The aim is to enable you to get a rough understanding on what FPGAs are […]
Microchip’s Harmony supplements MPLAB
Users of Microchip’s MPLAB will be interested to know about their latest addition to the IDE known as Harmony. MPLAB Harmony is a new process for software design, development, testing and documentation. It consists of a set of peripheral libraries, drivers, system services, middleware, and third-party code that will make it easier to create all […]
Improved digital voice P25 decoding with DSDPlus
We previously posted about the DSD digital decoding software and it’s usefulness with the RTL-SDR dongle and other signal sources. Now there’s a newly released version known as DSDPlus which promises to deliver improved decoding and clearer audio of unencrypted APCO Project 25 (P25) radio signals. This program is designed to be used with your […]
Black Hat 2013 video – build of an Android SpyPhone app
Ever wonder what it would take to code up an Android based spyphone app? In this presentation from the BlackHat 2013 conference, Kevin McNamee outlines his build of an Android SpyPhone service that can be injected into any application. “The presentation includes a live demonstration of how phones can be tracked and operated from a […]
Updating CC3000 firmware with Arduino
Kyle Gordon purchased a CC3000 module from EBay and found that it wasn’t completely compatible with the Arduino library available from Adafruit. The problem arose from the module having an earlier firmware version. So Kyle devised a method using two Arduino Pro Minis to load updated firmware to the CC3000. For more details, you can […]
BlackHat 2013 video: rooting SIM cards
Karsten Nohl gave this presentation at the 2013 BlackHat conference in Las Vegas. “The protection pretense of SIM cards is based on the understanding that they have never been exploited. This talk ends this myth of unbreakable SIM cards and illustrates that the cards — like any other computing system — are plagued by implementation […]
Modified Arduino DS1307RTC library that also works for MCP7940N
Ray writes, “When your project needs a real-time clock (RTC), don’t you hate that the popular DS1307 costs several dollars? I recently came across Microchip’s MCP7940N, which is an inexpensive alternative to DS1307. On the hardware side it is pretty much a drop-in replacement (although Microchip recommends adding several extra elements). The software requires a […]