What can you do with a cheap Linux machine with limited flash and only a single free GPIO line? Probably not much, but sometimes, just getting root to prove you can is the main goal of a project. If that happens to lead somewhere useful, well, that’s just icing on the cake. Like many interesting […]
On an x86 system the BIOS is the first part of the system to become active along with the basic CPU core(s) functionality, or so things used to be until Intel introduced its Management Engine (IME) and AMD its AMD Secure Processor (AMD-SP). These are low-level, trusted execution environments, which in the case of AMD-SP […]
Is your multimeter one of your trusty friends when building up boards, repairing broken gadgets, and reverse-engineering proprietary ones? Is it accompanied by a logic analyzer or an oscilloscope at times? Having a proper probing setup is crucial for many a task, and the standard multimeter probes just won’t do. As a PCB is slipping […]
Remember when dead batteries were something you’d just toss in the trash? Those days are long gone, thankfully, and rechargeable battery packs have put powerful cordless tools in the palms of our hands. But when those battery packs go bad, replacing them becomes an expensive proposition. And that’s a great excuse to pop a pack […]
[Ryan Miceli] had spent a few years poring over and reverse-engineering Halo 2 when a friend asked for a favor. His friend created an improved Xbox with significant overclocks, RAM upgrades, BIOS hacks, and a processor swap. The goal was simple: patch the hardcoded maximum resolution from 480p to 720p and maybe even 1080p. With […]
One can only imagine the wonders held within the crypto labs of organizations like the CIA or NSA. Therein must be machines of such sophistication that no electronic device could resist their attempts to defeat whatever security is baked into their silicon. Machines such as these no doubt bear price tags that only a no-questions-asked […]
There was even a day not too long ago when printers appeared to be going the way of the dodo; remember the “paperless office” craze? But then, printer manufacturers invented printers so cheap they could give them away while charging $12,000 a gallon for the ink, and the paperless office suddenly suffered an extinction-level event […]
We’re not sure what [Aaron Christophel] calls his automated chip glitching setup built from a 3D printer, but we’re going to go ahead and dub it the “Glitch-o-Matic 9000.” Has a nice ring to it. Of course, this isn’t a commercial product, or even a rig that’s necessarily intended for repeated use. It’s more of […]
Like many creative individuals who suddenly find themselves parents, [Marta] wanted to make something special for his children to play with. Anybody can just purchase an off-the-shelf electronic toy, but if you’ve got the ability to design one on your own terms, why not do it? But even compared to the fairly high standards set […]
There was a time when an intercom was simply a pair of boxes with speakers joined by a couple of wires, with an audio amplifier somewhere in the mix. But intercoms have like everything else joined the digital age, so those two wires now carry a load of other functionality as digital signalling. [Aaron Christophel] […]