Without a doubt the solder paste dispenser is a cool tool. Compressed air hisses and solenoids crackle while precise amounts of solder paste extrude into beautiful droplets on a PCB. A few minutes with a paste dispenser saves $15-$25 (or more) on stencils, a life saver if you want to pick and place a one-off […]
Category Archives: Videos
DEFCON 20: Hacking Measured Boot and UEFI
UEFI secure booting has been on the minds of many hackers and open sources advocates. Some believe that it will lock out certain operating systems in favor of vendor’s proprietary systems. (There have even been recent reports of bricking Samsung laptops just by trying to boot Linux.) In this video from last Summer’s DEFCON 20 […]
29C3: Hacking CISCO phones
At the recent 29C3 hacker conference in Hamburg, Germany, speakers Ang Cui and Michael Costello drew attention to kernel vulnerabilities in CNU (Cisco Native Unix), the operating system that powers all Cisco TNP IP phones.
WORKSHOP VIDEO #53: Unboxing reflow oven, hot plate, and test rig
Unboxing a shipment of tools we sent back from hua qiang bei electronics market in Shenzhen, China. We got a test rig which will help us standardize manufacture testing for our boards. We got two tools for solderpaste reflowing, one is a digitally controlled hot plate, and the other is a reflow oven with programmable […]
29C3: Travis Goodspeed – writing a thumbdrive from scratch
In this presentation from the recent 29C3 conference, Travis Goodspeed provides an interesting explanation of his from scratch implementation of a USB Mass Storage disk in user-land Python for the Facedancer board. . He also covers aspects of antiforensics are they relate to thumbdrives. His demo show how a thumbdrive’s own firmware can recognize and […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO #52: Bus Pirate educational kit, VFD tube module
This week some musing over a Bus Pirate educational/learning kit, and we received the PCBs for the VFD tube module of the Nixie Tube thing. ARDX is an extremely popular electronics learning kit based on the Arduino. It has an Arduino, breadboard, motors, servos, ICs, and jumper wires. Enough bits and pieces for 11 experiments […]
Nexus 7 dock teardown
Anton Gorbunov did a teardown of his Nexus 7 dock and discovered that there are only some passive components on the PCB. He notes that with some pogopins it should be easy to make your own Dock. Via the contact form.
WORKSHOP VIDEO #51: Fake flash drive, QFP protoboards, 1 year of workshop video retrospective
Teardown of a fake USB flash drive from India and a USB charger from China. A look at the new xQFP protoboard v2 PCB, and a new filing system for free PCBs. We’ve been doing workshop videos for more than a year now, so we look back on the evolution of the weekly updates. While […]
DEFCON 20: SIGINT and traffic analysis for the rest of us
At last Summer’s DEFCON 20 conference Sandy Clark and Matt Blaze from the University of Pennsylvania discussed their research into the security of the P25 (APCO Project 25) digital radio protocol. Here they explain the basics of the P25 protocol and examine some of the problems and flaws they uncovered in its security. They highlight […]
29C3: Safecast – DIY radiation monitoring project
In this presentation from the ongoing 29C3 Chaos Communications Conference in Hamburg, Germany, Sean Bonner shares his experiences overcoming technical and bureaucratic obstacles while attempting radiation monitoring in the wake of the March, 2012 Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant disaster. His observations led to the development of the Safecast DIY radiation monitoring device. The project’s […]
29C3 Chaos Communication Congress video stream
The 29C3 Chaos Communications Congress is in full swing. The annual conference, held this year from December 27 through 30 at the CCH Congress Center Hamburg, Germany, attracts thousands of hackers from around the world and focuses on “technology, society and utopia”. For those unable to make it this year, the CCC crew is making […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Beers in Akiba’s Workshop
Akiba at FreakLabs brings wireless tech to the open hardware community. Recent geek credits include the Safecast radiation measurement project, and designing wireless EL wire controllers for Wrecking Crew Orchestra. You also saw him in our tour of Akihabara parts market last year. Recently he welcomed us into his Tokyo workshop for a tour and […]
Retro tech – magnetic logic
Jeri Ellsworth is facinated by retro computing technology. In her latest endeavor she’s researched the principles behind magnetic core logic, a technology used to store data in the pre-transistor days. We’d have appreciated a close up of the device under test as well as the oscilloscope screen, but an interesting presentation nevertheless. For more information […]
DEFCON 20 – NFC Hacking: The Easy Way
Eddie Lee, a security researcher at Blackwing Intelligence, gave this presentation at last Summer’s DEFCON 20 conference. His technique involves using NFCProxy, an open source software tool released at the conference to analyze 13.56 MHz RFID protocols and proxy transactions using Android phones. NFCProxy can view the wireless transmissions from the perspective of the tag […]
Simple surface mount reflow process done at home
This video explains a simple reflow PCB assembly technique. The board is first prepped with solderpaste using a stencil. Then a manual pick and place machine populates the board. This is followed by a 5-6 minute cook in the reflow oven.
Indie movie trailer: Software Wars
Kaspar sent in a link to this video trailer for the indie film Software Wars. Its stated focus is “about how free software will save you thousands of dollars and lead to a better world.” They report having conducted many hours of interviews thusfar, with a goal of producing a 90 minute movie in the […]
OWASP AppSecUSA 2012: reverse engineering .NET applications
Last October the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) AppSecUSA 2012 conference was held in Austin, Texas. In this conference video Jon McCoy presents the practical information on reverse engineering .NET Framework Desktop Software. The presentation goes beyond basics to illustrate modification of security areas of apps. The speech is intended to give a security […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Tokyo Hackerspace new Shibuya location tour
Tayken, from the forum and the Akihabara video, takes us on a tour of Tokyo Hackerspace’s new location. The shop was in a frenzy preparing for the Tokyo Maker Faire during our filming.
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Interview with Dimitri from Smartduino
Last week we met with Dimitri, designer of the Smartduino, in Shenzhen, China. Dimitri is a 6 year veteran of the Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale market. He first arrived 6 years ago, and quickly opened his own stand because it seemed like the best way to make deals in the market is to become part of […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Interview with Mitch from Hackvana
We caught up with Mitch from Hackvana in Shenzhen, China. Mitch has spent the last year and a half sourcing parts in the giant Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale market. His goal is to harness the resources in Shenzhen for hardware hackers around the world. Like many hackers, Mitch was annoyed by how much time it takes […]