Keypad Interface Module Reverse Engineers Pinouts So You Don’t Have To

If you’ve scavenged some random keypads and want to reuse them in a project without the hassle of figuring out the pinouts, then [Cliff Biffle] has an interface module for you. The Keypad Go …

Learning About Ferroresonant Transformers While Fixing A 1970s Power Supply

While troubleshooting the power supply of a 1970s Centurion system, [Usagi Electrics] came across a fascinating feature of these units: the ferroresonant, or constant voltage transformer (CVT). The…

Designing A Macintosh-to-VGA Adapter With An LM1881

If you’re the happy owner of a vintage Apple system like a 1989 Macintosh IIci you may know the pain of keeping working monitors around. Unless it’s a genuine Apple-approved CRT with th…

A 1970s Mask ROM Microcontroller Spills Its Secrets

If you buy any kind of electronic gadget today, chances are it’s powered by a microcontroller with a program stored in its internal flash ROM. That program’s code is often jealously gua…

Beating Apple’s Secret Lid Angle Sensor Calibration With Custom Tool

Among the changes made by Apple to its laptops over the years, the transition from a Hall sensor-based sleep sensor to an angle sensor that determines when the lid is closed is a decidedly unpopula…

DIY Repair Brings An X-Ray Microscope Back Into Focus

Aside from idle curiosity, very few of us need to see inside chips and components to diagnose a circuit. But reverse engineering is another story; being able to see what lies beneath the inscrutabl…

Reverse-engineering The Milwaukee M18 Redlink Protocol

In an ideal world, every single battery pack for power tools would use the same physical interface and speak a clearly documented protocol with chargers. Since we live in a decidedly less-than-idea…

Logic Analyzers: Capabilities And Limitations

Last time, we’ve used a logic analyzer to investigate the ID_SD and ID_SC pins on a Raspberry Pi, which turned out to be regular I2C, and then we hacked hotplug into the Raspberry Pi camera c…

Exploring Hidden Lyrics On 1990s DCC Audio Tapes

Having a fondness for old and obscure audio and video media formats, [Techmoan] recently revisited the Philips Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) format introduced in 1992. Despite being billed as the …

Rare Arcade Game Teardown And Mods

[Video Game Esoterica] loves a 1990s video game called Operation Tiger. Apparently, there are only a few of these known to exist in 2023, and he managed to find one of them. Well, it is really just…

RGB Graphics On A DEC Rainbow With Reverse-Engineered Monitor

One of the delights of the boring pre-VGA era is that you get to express your creativity when it comes to making a random color CRT work with an equally exciting dual CPU computer like the DEC Rain…

An Unexpected Appearance Of An Iconic Motorola Chip

Generally when you crack open a cheap car-to-USB charger unit that came with some widget, you do not expect to find anything amazing inside. That’s why it was such a surprise to [Big Clive] w…

Diving Into Starlink’s User Terminal Firmware

The average Starlink user probably doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about their hardware after getting the dish aligned and wiring run. To security researchers, however, it’s anothe…

Decompiling Sonic Runners

Usually, when you hear about games being decompiled and rebuilt, the games are often decades-old relics, loving and saved from the ravages of time. [MattKC] recently set out to decompile the 2015 g…

Audio, Not Video Over The LKV373 HDMI Extender

[eta] found herself in a flat with several LKV373 HDMI extenders. Find the corresponding transmitter, plug it into your device, and you’ve got a connection to the TV/sound system, no fussing …

DisplayPort: Tapping The Altmode

Really, the most modern implementation of DisplayPort is the USB-C DisplayPort altmode, synonymous with “video over USB-C”, and we’d miss out if I were to skip it. Incidentally, o…

Closing In On A PC Enabled PSVR2

When the PlayStation VR2 headset was released, people wondered whether it would be possible to get the headset to work as a PC VR headset. That would mean being able to plug it into a PC and have i…

Root, On An Amazon Echo Dot

The Amazon Echo has become an indispensable device for many people unconcerned by its privacy implications. It’s easy to forget that it’s not quite a new product anymore, with the oldes…

Reverse Engineering Reveals Hidden API In Abandonware Trail Camera

It sometimes seems like there are two kinds of cheap hardware devices: those dependent on proprietary software that is no longer available and those that are equally dependent but haven’t bee…

Tesla Door Phone Decoded (Not That Tesla)

[Danman] has digital door phones manufactured by Tesla — or at least, a Tesla, as they’re not to be confused with the carmaker, though. The problem is if someone comes to the door when …