Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

[kallahar]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

I've also got about 6 kits ready for the Robot Contest. The parts cost is about $300, which sucks, but it comes with everything someone would need to enter into the contest. We could have them buy a kit, put it together in the HHV and get help and stuff, then compete! The kit is at http://robotairsoft.com

Kallahar

[jedi]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

I think we're going to try to have a couple of session on the kits we're putting together. This will be more for the person who wants to get into electronics. The second kit will work with the primary kit (I've taken to calling it the expansion pack for the HHV kit!).

When you folks have firmed up the talks and activities, any chance you can post a rough schedule of days and times?

[afterburn188]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

A linksys box is exactly like what I was describing. The idea of using a WRT54GL with its 200MHz processor and abilities to join/host a wireless network make it quite attractive. Add a uC on the serial port and it becomes a very attractive piece of equipment. Think robot with IP camera mounted on top and able to be controlled via the internet. Of course we would never be able to get that in depth but it still is a fun idea...

Do you mean something like a linksys box? So if we used a wireless router then I assume we could put that box/bot/uC on the network too? That would be cool. Would there be any after session hands on options to try it out?

[LosT]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

I may also bring some SB70s (Netburner) or WiPort (Lantronix) or Tibbo modules as well.

Things are coming along nicely!

As for the request for a schedule I'll try to get a rough time line put together this weekend.

LosT

A linksys box is exactly like what I was describing. The idea of using a WRT54GL with its 200MHz processor and abilities to join/host a wireless network make it quite attractive. Add a uC on the serial port and it becomes a very attractive piece of equipment. Think robot with IP camera mounted on top and able to be controlled via the internet. Of course we would never be able to get that in depth but it still is a fun idea...

[mouseling]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

I've been wanting to learn the hardware side for so long - this sounds great!


-mouse

[russ]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

I hope to have a rough schedule up next week. Just keep in mind that it's likely to change a bit by the time Con actually rolls around. My plan is to have a white board up outside the HHV with the updated schedule for each day, too.

When you folks have firmed up the talks and activities, any chance you can post a rough schedule of days and times?

[jedi]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

I hope to have a rough schedule up next week. Just keep in mind that it's likely to change a bit by the time Con actually rolls around. My plan is to have a white board up outside the HHV with the updated schedule for each day, too.

Thanks Russ. Appreciate the effort and look forward to the talks for folks new to hardware tinkering.

[sugardaddy]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

Howdy Folks.

I was at HOPE last weekend and wanted to share what they did from a hardware hacking perspective. Mitch Altman and Lady Ada were speakers and both were selling small electronic kits that were ready made with all the components and online instructions (MAKE was also selling kits). There was also an area (4 tables) with soldering irons and various small tools (cutters, pliers, solder, multi-meters, etc) already in place for people to sit down and start assembling their kits. Some folks took time to hack their badges here too (the HOPE badge was a battery powered RFID tag experiment with a few extra holes for mods).

This area was constantly filled with people assembling their kits, many of which had never soldered before. Mitch and helpers were available to assist folks with the basics as well as some troubleshooting if things weren't working. The kits really seem to be the key with getting folks involved. They were simple enough to fully assemble within an hour or two, had all the parts, and since the folks had purchased them directly, they had a vested interest in putting them together as a tangible result of their efforts. I built a SIM card reader (LadyAda kit) and a simple LED game called Mignonette that Mitch designed.

From an attendee perspective it was great just to sit there for a few hours and build stuff, even if it was as simple as stuffing boards. There was another table close by filled with electronic toys that people were taking apart to see what else they could do with the parts. Lots of "circuit bending" as they called it. I don't think it was nearly as popular as the soldering stations but it seems like there were parts from these old toys that could be useful as "burner" parts for folks to experiment with. Mainly small DC motors, speakers, LED's, etc. Since the parts were coming from partially broken toys and the like it wasn't a big deal if they were destroyed in the building process. Perhaps a bin of parts like this might help folks get into the spirit of hacking their badges or just trying to build something with their HHV kit/board.

I don't know how feasible it is to replicate this or if it's close to what you're already planning for the HHV but I thought you'd like to know what seemed to work well at a similar conference. What do you think?

SD

[LosT]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

You must not have been following the threads here...

Limor's stuff is always great.

Don't worry, we will have classes/tutorials/soldering in the HHV.

LosT

[sugardaddy]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

You must not have been following the threads here...

Limor's stuff is always great.

Don't worry, we will have classes/tutorials/soldering in the HHV.

LosT

Hey LosT.

I've been following the threads and I knew the soldering instruction is going to be offered. I just thought I'd share what I saw since it seemed to work so well and I know this is the first year for HHV. I'm not nearly as hard core as many of you on the hardware side but I can still solder and was planning on helping folks with that while I'm working in the HHV. Are there going to be any other kits besides the ones already mentioned here? I think I've seen mention of 2 (1 as possibly an expansion to the HHV kit).


SD

[LosT]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

As you've pointed out this will be the first year...kits that you will see floating around the village will include (but won't be limited to): Xilinx FPGAs (think Spartan kits), BASIC kits for beginners, kits that won't be mentioned yet for badge hacking, badges themselves, and the myriad of others that people will be bringing. Our focus this year is getting the electronics n00bs into the scene, and we hope to shift this focus in following years as we get more and more people involved.

LosT

[mouseling]

Re: Interest in Hardware Hacking Village

As you've pointed out this will be the first year...kits that you will see floating around the village will include (but won't be limited to): Xilinx FPGAs (think Spartan kits), BASIC kits for beginners, kits that won't be mentioned yet for badge hacking, badges themselves, and the myriad of others that people will be bringing. Our focus this year is getting the electronics n00bs into the scene, and we hope to shift this focus in following years as we get more and more people involved.

LosT

I am really excited about this. As a matter of fact, I am under direct orders to imerse myself as deep as I can in the hardware side of things at con. There doesn't seem to be anywhere at my uni that someone can get this knowledge - even the EEs are have to pick it up on their own.

Can't wait!

-mouse