Archive for the ‘Hacks & Mods’ Category
-
Monday, January 4th, 2010
SNEAK PEAK: Myro:Home for iPhone (HAI Controller)
Here is a sneak peak of the Myro:Home iPhone application. As you can see, progress has been coming along. I’ve been getting the design finalized and now I’m just tweaking the look and feel a bit. The mobile framework has also been set in the core Myro:Home application which acts as a server on your home network. The iPhone version connects into Myro and loads and controls the HAI panel via a secure channel.
The key focus has been getting control of your home via the iPhone in the quickest time possible. As it works now, I can load and control in less than 3 seconds (if on WIFI).
- MYRO CONTROL – Myro:Home
-
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Windows XP Embedded (XPe) and DOM (Disk-On-Module)
Part of the gearing up of Myro Control’s launch, I have been busy learning how to build, license, and release Windows XP Embedded images. My plans are to offer Myro Control UI on a vast variety of platforms starting with in-wall and tablet touchscreens. The reliably and speed of Windows XPe make it a no brainer. The image is stored on DOM (Disk-On-Module’s) so no hard drives to crash, overheat or suck up battery life. I am currently building a Samsung Q1 XPe build of Myro Control (will post videos soon) and will also be using an OEM of a popular tablet.
-
Monday, April 28th, 2008
HOW TO: 12-Volt, 5A. DC Power Supply For R/C Battery Chargers
I’m back into R/C Planes (my next one is the Micro-Telemaster). I did find out that getting into electric park flyers requires using Li-Poly batteries that require expensive chargers which seem to only run on 12-volt DC power supplies. Ideally, ones that can go up to 10A, but since my needs are only 2-3 Li-Poly cells, a 5A, 12-volt DC power supply works fine. The Hobbico 12v, 10A power supply costs over $80 and my version costs under $25! Check out the video above for the details. You’ll need this Power Supply
.
-
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
E-flite S.E.5a Slow Flyer 250 ARF
I’ve wanted to get back into R/C Planes for a while now and since I live across from a park I wanted to try out the new electric planes. I went to my local hobby shop (not many around anymore) and found a E-flite S.E.5a Slow Flyer 250 ARF. The kit is pretty much ready to go, you just need to glue a few things together and put your electronics in. I already have a Futaba 9 channel controller (T9CAP) so it wasn’t a big investment to get started again. I’m amazed at how advanced electronic planes have become! I’m used to the Nitro .40+ planes but these electrics are really nice… the motors, ESC, batteries, servos and receivers are tiny! The whole plane only weighs 8oz… I will be flying
crashingit later today.One thing I did find out getting into electrics is that all good Li-Poly battery chargers require a 12v DC power source and most of these power supplies, like the Hobbico, cost over $80 and that’s not including the charger… so in my next post I will show you how to make a 12v, 5A source for under $25.
-
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
HD DVD Hacked?
Someone on the AVS Forum posted a link to this video on YouTube. It was was uploaded on Dec 18th by Muslix64, a 26yr old Canadian. Apparently, he has
brokenfound away around the AACS copy protection of HD DVD.He writes:
“I was not aware of anyone having done that, so I did.
Have a look.
The AACS copy protection system is realy Unbreakable!
The program is a simple implementation of the aacs crypto protocol freely available on the net.
No reverse engineering!
Stay tuned for source code soon!
Merry Christmas everyone!Source now avaiable at:
http://rapidshare.com/files/8318838/BackupHDDVD.zip.html“AACS is unbreakable” is the title of the video and the total running time is 2:16. The author claims that it’s not about the software (which is written in Java), but it’s all about a config file — TKDB.cfg. It looks like there is some kind of hash keys for each crackable HD DVD title. What do you guys think… is this video real or fake? I just downloaded the source… I’ll see if it works.
Update: It looks like it should work… the hard part is getting the “Title Keys”.
The author writes:
-How do you extract the “Title keys”?I won’t explain it in detail. Read the AACS doc first. You will understand.
The title keys are located on the disk in encrypted form, but for a
content to be played, it has to be decrypted! So where is the
decrypted version of the title key? Think about it…Update 2:
Chris Lanier says, “No, AACS Was Not Cracked“.
YouTube – “AACS is unbreakable“
-
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
HOW TO: Recovering Data From HD Failure — Just Freeze The Drive!
As I was about to pack up and leave work for the Christmas vacation, I undocked my laptop and placed it into my bag. I forgot to send an email so I pulled it back out and redocked it. The computer started up fine, loaded Windows and then froze. I rebooted and that’s when I saw “1781 Disk 1 Failure” on the screen, right after BIOS post. My stomach sank, I knew it wasn’t good.
Since everyone was already gone for the weekend, I packed up and went off to buy some last minute Christmas gifts. When I got home, I tried powering it up again and it displayed the same error message. I googled, “HD Failure” and the first link was this. It recommended removing the hard drive and placing it in the freezer anywhere from 2-12 hours. I placed the drive in a ziploc bag and put it in the freezer (see above photo). After about 8 hours, I put it back in and to my
amazementdisbelief, the machine booted up without any issues. I haven’t tried rebooting yet, I’m still waiting for all my data to copy.I was very skeptical, but this actually works!
-
Sunday, December 10th, 2006
Zune Expansion Port Protocol?
Has Microsoft or anybody released the Zune Expansion Port pinout/protocol? I’m particularly interested in the control and metadata (title/author) display protocol. I’d like to build an interface much like the Russound iBridge so I can control and display assets from the Zune to the whole house Russound CAV6.6 system. If anyone has any information please send it my way…
-
Saturday, March 20th, 2004
Share your Replay DVR Files
I found this little program called DVArchive that turns your computer into a virtual ReplayTV device so you can download shows from any ReplayTV 4XXX or 5XXX series DVR. This makes burning DVD/VCD’s from your ReplayTV DVR a cinch. You can also play shows from your ReplayTV right on your desktop and play shows that are stored on your computer right from your ReplayTV/TV screen. Now if only there was such a simple program that I could use with my TiVo… anyone?
-
Thursday, March 18th, 2004
Make your TiVo Series 1 faster!
The guys over at 9th Tee enterprises, Inc, have released a new version of their TiVo CacheCARD. Now it comes with a built in Network Interface and just by installing this card you increase UI speeds up to 50%. The best part, if already have a TurboNET card occupying that space, they are offering a rebate to upgrade.Except from their site:
“Caching – The Tivo database is large (512MB) and every user-interface operation goes back to hard drive to read from the database – the same hard drive that is already busy reading and writing multiple high bit-rate video streams. The CacheCARDTM caches the entire database in high speed SDRAM so all database reads can be fulfilled instantly, rather than joining the queue for access to the hard drive. Database writes go directly to the hard drive so the Tivo database is always protected and is up-to-date on the hard drive.”
-
Tuesday, March 16th, 2004
SDI mod for my DVD Changer
Exactly this time last year I started modding my DVD player for SDI out… it was a pretty exciting project. I originally posted it on the AVS Forum under “Poorman’s SDI”, it has since received over 16,000 views and it’s still going strong. I just finished modding a friends Pioneer DV-F07 DVD changer, going to drop it off Thursday night. Read up and maybe you will want to add SDI to your player!
About the archives
Welcome to the archives here at MAVROMATIC.
These are a collection of our previous posts. If you'd like to read about the latest and greatest, click here.
Welcome to mavromatic! My goal is to bring to your attention the latest DIY projects, the greatest home automation and home theater products. As well as, the occasional offbeat entry, to spice things up a bit.
