Category Archives: Hacking

Serial connection from your PC to Raspberry Pi

I needed an example device for tests of an implementation of a serial connection terminal. A Raspberry Pi is especially suited: It dumps a lot of kernel data upon boot and it listens for input as soon as the login prompt appears (after about one minute).

Required:

  • FTDI serial cable to USB converter TTL-232R-3V3 from http://www.ftdichip.com/
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Jump wires male - female

Wiring is simple: Just connect the FTDI cable as shown in the sketch below:

raspberry_pi_ttl232_serial_connection_ftdi_bb

 

  1. FTDI GND -> RaspPi GND
  2. FTDI TXD -> RaspPi RXD
  3. FTDI RXD -> RaspPi TXD
  • Fire up PuTTY and setup as in the following screenshot (speed/baud rate = 115200)

putty_serial

  • Press "Open" and you should receive the kernel boot messages followed by a login prompt.

 

 

31C3

Mit dem ICE nach Hamburg. Dafür gibt es das Spezial-CCC-Ticket der Bahn für 99 EUR (zuggebunden, 2.Klasse,Hin und Zurück). Während des Kongresses war es kalt und es gab sogar ein wenig Schnee.

image

Im Kongresszentrum selber war die Atmosphäre sehr gut. Wie immer und wie erwartet war die Organisation ein klein wenig chaotisch. Z.B. wollte die Food Hacking Base erst einmal gefunden werden oder man musste hellseherische Fähigkeiten entwickeln um zu wissen wann welcher Workshop ist nachdem der Zugang zum Wiki am 3. Tag gehackt wurde.

Die drei Tage, die ich auf dem Kongress bleiben konnte, haben sehr viel Spaß gemacht. Hier ein paar meiner persönlichen Highlights:

Vorträge:

Daneben gab es noch:

Diese Vorträge habe ich selber nicht gehört, es scheint sich aber zu lohnen den Stream dazu anzuschauen:

So, und für nächstes Jahr merk' ich mir:

  • Software daheim updaten
  • Genügend Speicherplatz mitnehmen
  • Frühzeitig (am 1. Tag?) interessante Projekte finden und darauf rumhacken. Dann kann man am 2./3. Tag jemandem Fragen dazu stellen.
  • Fahrplan / Lightning Talks / Workshops -> (mehrmals) mirroren, falls Server ausfällt bzw. gehackt wird.
  • Kopfhörer mitnehmen

My visit at the Easterhegg 2014 in Stuttgart, Germany

Interesting things I've learned at the Easterhegg in Stuggart. I've been there Saturday and Sunday only.

Day 2

  • dawanda used cross device responsive tables
  • Better presentations with a workshop by Dirk Haun. We heard about the Rule of Thirds, no bullet points, images from http://freeimages.com, http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/, ...
  • ImageMagick can create 3D software boxes from images.
  • Adafruit sells LED strips that can be used by Arduino easily
  • palava.tv uses WebRTC and an open source central signaling server to enable peer to peer (P2P) video and audio chats and conferences. Soon the server might be available in an SD card image for the Raspberry Pi.

Day 3

  • AYAB - all yarns are beautiful: Project to connect old Brother KH-910 and KH-930 knitting machines to computers to knit images of 200px width (and arbitrary height). Project located in Munich (MuCCC). Uses Arduino, Python, and (future work) PyQt. https://wiki.muc.ccc.de/ayab, http://www.ayab-knitting.com/
  • A few ideas about CNC machining, e.g. Shapeoko, importance of good common ground, ...
  • Spice up your presentations with reveal.js (e.g. http://palavatv.github.io/talk-webmontag/)and use Unicode characters, e.g. for :poop:. See fileformat.info for a detailed list. I have to learn about Emojis/Gemojis...
  • The version of a framework used in Java can be obtained by analysing its stack trace, especially the classname together with the line numbers. Maybe you should take care that your web server never prints that trace in case of errors.
  • Do not accept jobs that force you to make overtime hours that will be lost at the end of the month.
  • Baozi might be interesting to cook myself. Didn't have the time to go to the workshop.
  • A few introducery things about CAN and CANopen.
  • DMX, the protocol used for event technology (Veranstaltungstechnik) is very simple and can be used from Arduino, too. Maybe script a few cool effects using DMX isn't very hard. Just send a reset, a NULL, a node id and a value between 0 and 511 and your light starts to shine proportional - http://eh14.easterhegg.eu/pages/fahrplan/events/5772.html
  • A few very interesting details about how to sell your own electronics.
  • Weller PU 81 soldering stations are very expensive
  • There are quadrocopters that can carry 4kg

Half-height SD cards

Most SD cards seem to have only half of the plastic housing filled with electronics. If you need a half-height SD card, e.g. such that it does not stick out of a notebook too much, you can simply cut the SD card in half. Before doing this, take a very bright LED (e.g. from your mobile) to shine through the plastic and see whether there is really no electronics in this half of the SD card. Then open the housing carefully. If it's really empty, you can cut it off.

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Recommended talks from 30C3

Talks at the 30C3 that are especially worth watching

Note to myself: Watch these

Maybe I have to look into the lightning talks:

  • http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5562_-_en_-_saal_g_-_201312281245_-_lightning_talks_day_2_-_nickfarr.html
  • http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5564_-_en_-_saal_g_-_201312301245_-_lightning_talks_day_4_-_nickfarr.html