Category Archives: techniques

O’Reilly webcast: Applying Old Video Game Performance Techniques to Modern Web-based Games

O’Reilly is offering a free webcast relating vintage video gaming techniques to today’s web-based games. “Back in the day, game developers were in a similar position to where web-based game developers using HTML5 Canvas are today; Graphics rendering methods were slow and they had to come up with very clever techniques to squeeze every single […]

Years project uses Arduino to play tree rings

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo. Bartholomaus Traubeck presents his “Years” project. Years is a phonograph-like device which reads the characteristics of the rings in a thin cross-section slice of a tree and interprets these as piano notes depending on the appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to […]

28C3: Soundcard based radio direction finding

In this lightning talk presentation from the 28C3 conference, the zunkworks crew outlines their work using simple RF hardware and a Linux laptop with soundcard to experiment with Radio Direction Finding (RDF). RDF has long been used in commercial and public safety activites, and the approach employed here attempts to bring RDF development down to […]

How to read several infrared sensors using one MCU pin

Oscar has written an article describing a technique he’s used for reading multiple analog sensors with one MCU ADC pin. He was designing a line-following robot and wanted to read several infrared sensors without having to dedicate an analog read pin for each. His solution uses “a Schmitt trigger inverter whose output has resistors connected […]

Bus Pirate to breadboard cable hack

Joe Desbonnet writes that he’s found a quick and cheap Bus Pirate to breadboard cable hack. “I needed to check out a I2C temperature/humidity sensor with the Bus Pirate on a breadboard. So I hacked this connector comprising a short length of 10 wire ribbon cable, a 5×2 IDE connector to mate with the BusPirate […]

MCU-in-the-middle attack on Diebold voting machine

Computerized voting machine vulnerabilities are nothing new, but this video demonstrating a man-in-the-middle wireless attack on a Diebold voting machine takes a different tact than most others. A vulnerability assessment team at Argonne National Laboratories was able to compromise the security of the Diebold machine, rendering it vulnerable by using a homemade MCU board at […]

Let the sparks fly with flyback transformers

Flyback transformers are used to drive the large odd shaped coils surround the neck of CRTs in TVs and computer monitors. They operate in the 15 to 150 kHz range, and can be used to generate high voltages! Uzzors2k decided to experiment with generating voltages high enough to produce arcs, driving the the transformers with […]

How to find your location using GSM data

Boris Landoni writes to call attention to his interesting article in Open Electronics describing how to find your location using GSM Cell ID data: The radio mobile network is made up of a number of adjacent radio cells, each of which is characterized by an identifier consisting of four data: a progressive number (Cell ID), […]

APCO25 protocol encryption cracked

The APCO25 (P25) communications protocol is a form of digital radio communications technology growing in popularity in police and other public safety radio systems in the US and abroad. Many such systems are unencrypted and can be received on digital radio scanners. Others employ encryption in an effort to prevent civilian monitoring. Now researchers with […]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation device

This video describes a prototype of a transcranial magnetic stimulation device designed by Ben Krasnow. He explains: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a technique to stimulate brain tissue directly through the skull. It works by sending a very high current pulse through a coil that is located on the subject’s scalp. The fast-rising edge of […]

eLabBench digital laboratory workbench

Researchers at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre (iNANO), Aarhus University, have just started using a combined computer and laboratory bench. This will not only streamline their research, but also kickstart the transition to the paperless laboratory. The bench is essentially a large touchscreen with combined capabilities allowing researchers to simultaneously work with data and equipment while […]

Reverse engineering the HRD remote serial protocol

Sivan Toledo likes to use Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD), a free program that serves as a user interface to radio transceivers. Modern transceivers can be controlled either from their front panel controls (if they have a front panel), or from a computer through a serial or USB connection. He writes: One cool and useful feature […]

555 based FPGA/CPLD debugging oscillator

Randomgarfield from fromorbit posted the above video, depicting his use of a 555 timer as a small oscillator tο clock CPLDs whіƖе debugging a small state machine. I needed a variable slow speed clock to help me debug a design I’m creating with a bunch of CPLDs. Given the current focus on the venerable 555 […]

Broken laptop recovered using Arduino

When Jack the Vendicator’s laptop display malfunctioned, he thought all was lost. He developed a rescue strategy using an Arduino as a USB bridge between the laptop and a desktop PC. He plugged the Arduino into the laptop, and connected a USB serial converter from his desktop computer to the Arduino’s serial pins. In effect […]

When FPGAs attack hashes

What could you do with an array of 15 FPGAs? Why not attack hashes! NSA@home is a fast FPGA-based SHA-1 and MD5 bruteforce cracker. It is capable of searching the full 8-character keyspace (from a 64-character set) in about a day in the current configuration for 800 hashes concurrently, using about 240W of power. The […]