Ep050: Counterfeit Chips, Servo Kalimba, Resistor Colors, Pi Emulation, and SED Maze Solver

Hackaday Podcast · 17 Jan 2020 · 1h 00m

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams discuss a variety of hardware hacks, including a 1993 PowerBook 165 C retrofitted with a 2014 Mac Mini, and a servo-driven Kalimba. They also cover techniques for detecting counterfeit chips, such as using acetone to remove 'black topping,' and explore the history of resistor color codes. The episode concludes with a look at Raspberry Pi 4 capabilities for video game emulation.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 14m

    An Interview with Ken Shirriff

    Ken Shirriff, who runs the blog Righto.com and formerly worked at Google, discusses his reverse engineering of vintage silicon and restoration of historical computing hardware. He details his process for creating die shots of 1970s chips using metallurgical microscopes and chemical etching, and explains the technical challenges of restoring a Xerox Alto computer, including replacing decaying foam and fixing incompatible TTL logic boards. Shirriff also analyzes the internal architecture of Apple power supplies, noting the presence of microcontrollers for safety handshakes, and compares the varied internal designs of standard components like the 555 timer and 741 op-amp across different manufacturers.

  • 033 - All Over the Place

    Hosts Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto discuss their pandemic-era projects, including Alvaro's recreation of his father's 7400-series digital clock, a USB-C power adapter using a Cypress chip, and a t-shirt quilt. Jen details her reverse engineering of a greeting card chip, her exploration of Chinese manufacturing via Alibaba, and her choreography of a remote dance piece. They also cover the cancellation of hardware conferences like Hackaday Supercon and HackRF, and recommend movies such as 'Mood Indigo' and '3 Idiots'.

  • Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 2h 03m

    026 - You Can Lose in so Many Colors!

    Jeri Ellsworth, founder of Tilt Five, discusses her journey from reverse engineering Commodore 64 chips for the DTV toy to launching an augmented reality tabletop gaming platform. She details the technical challenges of emulating legacy silicon quirks, the manufacturing failures in China, and her strategy of using viral marketing to drive early sales. Ellsworth also shares insights on her current startup's upcoming Kickstarter, the importance of genuine brand personality, and her favorite tools for hardware debugging and assembly.

  • 002 - Cheap And Easy

    Dmitry Grinberg, a hardware hacker and reverse engineer, discusses his journey from writing PalmOS utilities as a teenager to his recent projects involving the Sega Dreamcast VMU and Cypress PSoC 4 microcontrollers. He details the technical challenges of reverse engineering the VMU's Maple bus protocol, creating an IDA Pro plugin for its custom Sanyo 68K CPU, and writing an ARM emulator to run C code on the device. Grinberg also explains how he exploited the PSoC 4's supervisory ROM to dump its firmware and uncripple lower-end chips by removing market segmentation restrictions.

  • Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 1h 22m

    069 - Canned Cheese and Onion Rings

    Ian from Dangerous Prototypes discusses the evolution of the BusPirate, culminating in the BusPirate 5, which utilizes an RP2040 microcontroller and features an LCD, adjustable power supply, and current sensing. He details the creation of DirtyPCBs and other services like DirtyCables, explaining how he automated PCB ordering in Shenzhen to disrupt the market. Ian also shares anecdotes about his time in Huaqiangbei, including the 'Expressway to Pleasure' project and his experiences with local manufacturing quirks.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hackaday Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.