On the side you see the bagpipe tuning. In the past, I replaced one of the LEDs. But now it didn’t turn on any more.
So I took it apart, and what did I miss when replacing the LED? This tuner has more functionality hidden.
This is more often the case with devices, because it keeps the costs down. Make one print and use in many. (See the diskman story below)
A working tuner!
When looking at the cover plate, you see only 4 buttons. But there are six! Then I noticed some solder pads with the lettering Buzz. So button 5 and 6 are for a metronome! You see the little piezo buzzer I got from my component’s drawer.
A similar hack was the Diskman player in the 90s.
It was something like the model below.
There was only play/pause stop and skip whole track or back whole track.
When opening, I figured out which chips were doing what. Saw that some signals were not connected to the control panel. These were : Fast forward, and reverse. And skip 30 seconds.
So I glued some buttons on the side and presto.
A few years later, I took it apart and connected a DB-9 connector to it.
I’m running loads of housekeeping scripts on my servers.
I thought it would be cool to see states in HA.
Steps:
Log into your HA instance, and press your profile icon in the bottom left. Scroll to Long-lived access tokens, and create a new token. (Save the token string in a text file, you need it later)
Goto Settings > Devices & services > Helpers Create helper: Text and give it a name (bashnotification)
Next create a script in a path on your server, or place in an existing script directly. (Change SAVEDTOKENSTRING,HA-IP and bashnotification)
Today I wanted to have a little test using above code and some additional script to get a little website which enables me to quick start playing an album using LMS.
When connecting to public Wi-Fi, watch what you are doing, it can be dangerous. (Use a VPN whenever you can, like OpenVPN or Zerotier.)
But it also can be fun to have a look on those networks.
Sometimes there are IP camera’s you can find. Use an App like Android TinyCam to scan for camera’s
I found at least 5 this way. Getting access, is something else. One had access to RTSP without password. 🙂 But I found IP camera’s in the wild using a default password also. (Just google for default passwords. Don’t know the brand of the device? Sometimes you can use the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) part of the Mac Address to find the brand)
Other fun things to scan for are devices you can cast to!
At one time I was in Woerden, getting my Car fixed. I started working on my Laptop using their guest Wi-Fi. And checking out the network, I saw some TVs with Casting enabled. Let’s Cast a Youtube video with a fireplace to it. Next moment, the display behind the desks started playing the video. The guys behind the desk were not facing the display.
I tried to revert my test, but I could not found/start the original cast stream. I told them to get this fixed, and the network security.
Another idea is to scan for hidden camera’s in Hotels or B&Bs. (There are more tricks to find these, like Flir/IR)
Some Hotels or B&B have a paid Wifi or a one device only policy.
Some tricks for that are:
Using a device which acts as an Access Point/Router.
I started using this trick with a Ravpower (RP-WD01)
I used this device to copy my Nikon photos to an external storage device.
I patched the OS on this Linux device. Now it autocopied files from sdcard to usb-drive when inserted.
But it also could act as an AccessPoint. Laptops/tablets and phones can connect using this hotspot.
When connecting with the first device which was a phone, I wanted to switch to an accesspoint. So I spoofed the MAC address of the my AP, because it was mac-address locked in the B&B’s main access point.
Now it’s even easier, current mobile phone’s have dual Wi-Fi interfaces. Connecting to an AP and at the same time setting up a hotspot is a breeze. (Not that this is needed any more, Wi-Fi is not limited to one device any more. And mobile internet is almost everywhere)
Some access points still require payment, or you don’t know the password.
Some tricks below (use wisely):
Access point with a captive portal: These are not protected initially. But you have to enter a username/password to gain access to the internet.
Try to start a VPN client (without logging into the captive portal) Sometimes those ports are not blocked. (Even more change to use UDP instead of TCP, try zerotier)
Sometimes only DNS works though those AP’s. Then you could use a DNS tunnel. This is a method to embed your network traffic in DNS packages. (Note: you have to make your own DNS tunnel server!) https://github.com/yarrick/iodine
Copy the Captive Portal website, write some logging code. And start AP using the same SSID you want the credentials for. Get close to someone using the real AP, so they try to log into your fake AP, using their credentials. (This is also illegal, and I won’t post code to do this.)
Doing a project using leather is something I do not often enough. So I’m always looking for new ideas/projects.
This weekend, I made some straps for portable painting easels. Keeping the poles of the tripod together with multiple straps and a longer leather strip allows for easy carrying on your back.
A simple project, I need some challenge next time!
I modded it and was planning to rebuild this using pluggable eurocard-prints. Then it got lost, somewhere.
Today I went to Almelo with Tyrone. In the morning reverse engineering a lift controller print, and afternoon going to a guy selling a lot of Retro stuff.
And there it was, an Action Replay II for Amiga just catching dust.
I had to buy it, and got a sh*tload of 27256 Eproms for free!
With my own copy of the manualRipping graphics and music
Action Replay Mk I
This version is compatible with the A500/A1000 version only. It also plugs into the side expansion port. It introduces the following features:
1.0 Version
Shows and modifies registers (even read-only ones) and memory contents.
Trainer maker.
M68000 assembler / disassembler.
Copper assembler / disassembler.
Sprite editor.
Virus detector.
Picture / music (tracker format) / sample ripper.
Save computer memory (freezed programs) to disk.
Shows computer status (disk parameters, ChipRAM, FastRAM…).
Features added to the 1.5 Version
Mempeeker.
Ability to save freezed programs to RAM.
RAM testing.
Illegal opcode – jumps to freezer mode.
Action Replay Mk II
A special A2000 version is available for this particular revision. Instead of plugging into the side expansion port it plugs into the 86 pin CPU slot.
Features added since MK 1.5 version
Boot selector.
Picture editor.
Sound tracker.
Turbo fire manager (separately for both joysticks).
Disk encoder.
Start menu.
Disk monitor.
Integrated DOS commands (Dir, Format,…).
Diskcopy.
80 characters display with two-way scrolling.
Calculator.
Notepad.
Memory and drive switch (enabling / disabling).
Music ripper now finds all tracker formats (SoundTracker, NoiseTracker, other formats with 32 samples).
Mikrotik is in netboot mode only, not accessible using winbox/web or IP. (This is one of my smaller AP’s)
Below the log from my DHCP server
Mar 12 23:30:43 shibari dhcpd[3559351]: BOOTREQUEST from c4:ad:34:aa:aa:39 via p1p1.10
Mar 12 23:30:43 shibari dhcpd[3559351]: BOOTREPLY on to c4:ad:34:aa:aa:39 via p1p1.10
