MAVROMATIC » Hacks & Mods

Windows XP Embedded (XPe) and DOM (Disk-On-Module)

Danny Mavromatis — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:16:35 +0000

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.

HOW TO: 12-Volt, 5A. DC Power Supply For R/C Battery Chargers

Danny Mavromatis — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:42:05 +0000

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.

E-flite S.E.5a Slow Flyer 250 ARF

Danny Mavromatis — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:49:13 +0000

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 ~~crashing~~ it 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.

HD DVD Hacked?

Danny Mavromatis — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 23:03:43 +0000

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 ~~broken~~ found 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“

HOW TO: Recovering Data From HD Failure — Just Freeze The Drive!

Danny Mavromatis — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:52:32 +0000

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 ~~amazement~~ disbelief, 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!

Zune Expansion Port Protocol?

Danny Mavromatis — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 17:14:45 +0000

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…

Share your Replay DVR Files

Danny Mavromatis — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 23:24:10 +0000

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?

Make your TiVo Series 1 faster!

Danny Mavromatis — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 16:25:54 +0000

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.”

SDI mod for my DVD Changer

Danny Mavromatis — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 23:59:57 +0000

Originally posted on the AVS Forum March 15, 2003
So after countless hours and help from people around the globe… we finally *may* have the POOR MAN’S SDI EAV/SAV embedder all-in-one board.
Here are the two prototypes…

I’m going to be contacting local people to test the SDI output and see if it actually works! The CLC021 chip outputs nice clean signals on it’s timing outpin pins, HSYNC, VSYNC, FIELD… these signals are basically the EAV/SAV codes that we added and couldn’t figure out until Dan came along and help rewrite/optimized the VERILOG code.
I’d like to personally thank Roberto, Dan and Gray for all their time and expertise on making this project fun and exciting… I learned a ton from this!
Anyways… you’ll hear from one of us soon if it works or not… I sent Roberto a kit to test out on his SDI input.

UPDATES

Can you explain what you mean about the timing differences for each device? I seem to be getting perfect sync timings on my CLC021 (HSYNC and VSYNC) from the FPGA… they look exactly like the input timing signals (HSYNC/VSYNC from my DV-F07)… does this mean I still may have problems with timing? We followed the BT.601 and 656 spec.
I’m waiting for a local fella to get his HD Leeza so I can run my DVD changer over to test. I’m hoping our version of code is universal… it also does PAL.
Here are the latest photo of the boards installed:

It works!! Here is an amazing SDI capture!! WOW! (click for actual size)