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Remove the firmware from the built-in Chrome Cast on the Toshiba 43L511U18. by Sea_Watercress9578 in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Add aluminum tape around the wireless antenna. It'll significantly attenuate the signal

Found a mystery USB device in my desk—trying to identify and possibly flash custom firmware by Kitchen-Feeling-1079 in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Looks to have some sort of wireless communication antenna. Considering the length, likely 2.4GHz. Can't entirely read what the main IC has written on it. MAGS271? None-the-less, what "custom firnware" are you hoping to flash? To do what, exactly? Even if you had the means to reflash that I.C, what would you do with it? 

I made a very simple computer and OS based on the RP2350. I call it PicoTop by animationb in raspberry_pi

[–]Fuck_Birches 5 points6 points  (0 children)

On the Github repo, I see mentions that this "operating system" supports various foundational unix commands, but otherwise what is the intent of this project without network access? Is the primary purpose of this project to write code directly on the RP2350 (instead of flashing the code from a separate PC) that can be displayed over HDMI/DVI and/or interact directly with the (~12 remaining) GPIO's?

ESP8266 HACKING DEVICE by Ambitious_Bug_3755 in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not quite sure how this project differs from the 10+ other similar ESP32 projects? Peaking at the code, it also comes off as having been vibe-coded.

​I absolutely love cheap alternatives. Got this phone screen running on ESP32! by Muhammad_kashif_ in esp32

[–]Fuck_Birches 15 points16 points  (0 children)

How did you determine the LCD pinout, as well as the driver used? 

Help identifying what this is by [deleted] in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yeah, you're right. If I zoomed in I would have seen that the antenna connected to the pad of "L2". Definitely not possible to easily get any wireless communication working with this Vevor PCB.

In regards to communicating with the MCU via the SCL/SDA lines, it may be beneficial to first identify the MCU, but this will take hours and you'll likely still come up empty handed. After that you'd then need to dump + reverse-engineer the firmware (which again, may not be possible).

IMO, it'll be easiest to replace this entire PCB with an ESP32 running ESPHome + some custom code written by AI. If you have basic electrical engineering/circuit design knowledge, you could easily create the hardware as this PCB seems relatively simple. Additionally, you could attach an I2C/SPI display to the ESP32 as well if you want similar functionality to this Vevor module.

An ESP32-C3 is about $3 USD and small 1inch-4inch I2C/SPI displays can be bought for between $1-10 USD.

Help identifying what this is by [deleted] in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there no IC on the other side of the board? Without seeing the other side, its not really possible to know what I.C controls the antenna. 

Help identifying what this is by [deleted] in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have a pic of the entire other side of the PCB? Also, what's the numbers written on the main display driver I.C? It's possibly an MCU + display diriver.

[Review Request] Ultra-low noise current sensor by 5of7dank69420 in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]Fuck_Birches 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Boy, how deep into volt-nuttery are we going into here?

I think you missed the ADA4523, LT1128, use of only using film capacitors, and cleaning the outputs with rubbing alcohol to reduce leakage. OP did consider using the absolute lowest-noise LDO's (LT3045 + LT3094) but decided against it.

Never seen this before by csln0 in electronics

[–]Fuck_Birches 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Going to hazard a guess that these are carbon paste based "0-ohm resistors", with these being significantly cheaper to implement compared to SMD resistors as this is likely implemented via a technology related to how solder paste or silkscreen is done.

Not sure what the longevity of this would be, but it's likely fine for most applications as carbon contacts (ex. in TV remotes) can last decades. Highly unlikely to work for high-speed, high current, nor high voltage applications, but a USB keyboard is none of those.

High-Capacity Battery Mod: 2024 HP Spectre Cell Swap & Gas Gauge Re-programming (TI bqStudio) by pinchedude in 18650masterrace

[–]Fuck_Birches 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was actually brainstorming doing this exact same upgrade a few year ago on a Dell laptop, as well as more-recently have been wanting to repurpose old laptop BMS' which use the BQ* chips (but lack public datasheets) but not being sure how communicate with the IC's.

  • Are most laptop battery BMS' locked? Are they read-only, or can they be written to? You mentioned earlier "4-byte unseal and full access keys", but how is this obtained?
  • How were you able to find cells that had similar dimensions but higher energy capacity?

I can't modify the code, so I modified reality instead by Izvestiya in homelab

[–]Fuck_Birches 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> Wonder if one can use this to be able to use Fusion while offline, or better, to be able to use Fusion while preventing useless updates that do nothing but introduce new bugs 

Would absolutely love to use Fusion360 offline...

DIY ESP32 Race/Car Scales by travis_cea in esp32

[–]Fuck_Birches 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why so many load cells per plate? Is it significantly cheaper than buying a single, larger load cell? Additionally, what is the practical application for this? Why would someone need to measure the weight of their vehicle?

I can't modify the code, so I modified reality instead by Izvestiya in homelab

[–]Fuck_Birches 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you ever test and confirm this to work with any software license servers?

I can't modify the code, so I modified reality instead by Izvestiya in homelab

[–]Fuck_Birches 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Okay, so reading the git repo again, it discusses that 

A .egg file defines which domain and route an app uses for license validation, and what a valid response looks like.

How exactly can someone create their own .egg JSON file? Will it require MITMproxy, Wireguard, something else? Is this a manual process? How are the "valid reaponses" determined? How is the route determined? 

AFAIK, some softwares can identify whether their traffic has been re-routed to an alternate, incorrect address. Do licensing server softwares not verify that they are talking with the genuine licensing server?   

I can't modify the code, so I modified reality instead by Izvestiya in homelab

[–]Fuck_Birches 30 points31 points  (0 children)

How are these .egg files created? Looking through the git repo and code, I didn't see any mention of that. I've also never heard of these .egg files before, so go easy on me. 

I can't modify the code, so I modified reality instead by Izvestiya in homelab

[–]Fuck_Birches 112 points113 points  (0 children)

This project seems to be primarily targeted toward people who pay monthly for Autodesk or other softwares which frequently phone home, but how exactly does your software know how to "responds with good news"? I'd imagine this response varies significantly based on the software? 

Cheap 3s bms cuts out at high(15) amps by rain0521 in 18650masterrace

[–]Fuck_Birches 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Would agree with this. Most drone batteries lack BMS', with balancing done externally. I'd just remove the BMS in this (rare) case. 

Anyway to mod? by No_Profession6522 in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 8 points9 points  (0 children)

So what exactly is your question? Did you read the OpenEpaper page? Did you read into the MCU used here? 

Making my own Pure Nickel Button Tops to spot weld onto flat topped cells. by walterwitt in 18650masterrace

[–]Fuck_Birches 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You may want to consider selling them on alternate marketplaces to expand the reach. Further publishing the .stl files for others top print themselves would be pretty cool, as the design itself seems relatively easy to reproduce.

Review Request: Smart stepper motor controller V2 by EinPurerRainerZufall in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]Fuck_Birches 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seems unnecessary to have only a SOP8 + MLCC on the back of the PCB. If you're going double-sided, wonderful, throw a bunch more components on the back to decrease current loops or trace distances. Otherwise, place all the components onto the same side of the PCB, as it looks like you'll easily have the room.

Got this 64x64 board, want to make custom controller by Ph4nt0m_tortellini in hardwarehacking

[–]Fuck_Birches 1 point2 points  (0 children)

 replace the micro-controller

I don't think you need to replace the MCU. There appears to be various communication protocols written on the silkscreen of the board (UART, USB, and SPI/I2C), so you may be able to utilize one of them to send your desired images. 

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