Author Archives: Mike Szczys

Ken Shirriff Chats About a Whole World of Chip Decapping

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Reverse engineering silicon is a dark art, and when you’re just starting off it’s best to stick to the lesser incantations, curses, and hexes. Hackaday caught up with Ken Shirriff at last year’s Supercon for a chat about the chip decapping and reverse engineering scene. His suggestion is to start with an old friend: the 555 timer.

Ken is well-known for his work photographing the silicon die at the heart of an Integrated Circuit (IC) and mapping out the structures to create a schematic of the circuit. We’re looking forward to Ken’s talk in just a few weeks at the …read more

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Everything Supercon: This. Is. Big.

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Come one, come all, this is the megapost about the Hackaday Superconference. Join us in Pasadena on November 2-4 for the hardware conference you cannot miss. Get your ticket quickly as they will sell out!

These Are Your People

You get excited about cool hardware. We do too. This not the case at most conferences. Come to Supercon because these are your people. Experience the most excellent “Hacker Village” vibe, a siren song tempting you to skip the organized talks as you get sucked into fascinating conversations at every turn. Load up that hardware hack you’ve been putting off and …read more

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Supercon Talks That Inspire You to Take On Something New

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There’s wealth of activities at the Hackaday Superconference but we’ve saved a few for today’s announcement that will inspire you to take on something new and different. Check out the eight talks below that will push you to try the unexpected, to look at old things in a new way, and to propel your hardware adventures for another year.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Samy Kamkar
Ultra Low

…read more

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Supercon: How Many Hardware Talks Can Be Packed Into One Conference?

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How can we fit so many impressive talks onto two stages at the Hackaday Superconference? We’ll be bursting at the seams in November as the hardware world gathers in Pasadena for this annual pilgrimage. This year’s Supercon will have more talks and workshops than ever before!

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Ken Shirriff
Studying Silicon: Reverse Engineering Integrated Circuits

From the outside, integrated circuits are mysterious black boxes.

…read more

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Supercon on the Rise: More Amazing Talks Revealed

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The drum beat of the Hackaday Superconference grows louder. Are you ready for it? We’re spending the week revealing the talks and on our third day we’re barely half-way through. Check out the incredible speakers who will be at Supercon to share tales of hardware creation.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Jeroen Domburg
Magic Paintbrush: Everyone Can Paint with Printer Cartridges

Always wanted to paint like Bob Ross,

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Eight More Speakers You’ll See at Supercon

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Level-up your hardware chops at the Hackaday Superconference. We’re delighted to share more of the amazing speakers who are headed to Pasadena in just a few weeks. Scroll down for eight incredible talks that will inform, inspire, and excite the engineering muse inside of you.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Kitty Yeung
Tech-Fashion Designs and the Wearables Industry

Driven by creative designs, the wearables industry has tremendous opportunities

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Just a Taste of the Talks at Supercon

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The Hackaday Superconference is taking on a life of its own. Speaker selection is done and invitations are on the way out. Below is a taste of the confirmed talks in store for you this November in Pasadena.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Ben Krasnow
Depositing copper circuitry and optical displays onto 3D-printed parts

Producing printed circuits on plastic mechanical parts can be accomplished with a standard laser

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Kipp Bradford on the Importance of Boring Projects, Medical Tech, and Sci Fi Novels

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If someone suggests you spend time working on boring projects, would you take that advice? In this case, I think Kipp Bradford is spot on. We sat down together at the Hackaday Superconference last fall and talked about medical device engineering, the infrastructure in your home, applying Sci-Fi to engineering, and yes, we spoke about boring projects.

Kipp presented a talk on Devices for Controlling Climates at Supercon last year. It could be argued that this is one of those boring topics, but very quickly you begin to grasp how vitally important it is. Think about how many buildings on …read more

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Giant Connect Four Pits You Against the Computer

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You can build a Connect Four solver in software, but it won’t be all that much fun. Now apply that same automation to a 15-foot-tall plywood version of the classic board game and you’ve just created a smile-making-machine for everyone within eyesight. Behold the Mono-Purpose Automated Robot Versed In Connnect4 (Marvin) which Ben and Jonathan dreamed up on their way home from Maker Faire last year, and made into their exhibit this year.

On the physical side of things they got really creative in lifting the discs and sorting them into the column chosen by the software brain of the …read more

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World’s Smallest LED Blinky

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[Mike Harrison] is known for incredibly tiny soldering. Now he’s claiming a “world’s smallest” in the form of a stand-alone LED blinker, and we think he’s got the record.

He brought it along with him to Friday’s Beagleboard Bring-a-Hack, and we got a close look at the diminutive assembly. The project was dreamed up when [Mike] saw an announcement from Seiko about a new supercapacitor in a tiny package (likely the CPH3225A giving the blinky a footprint of 3.2 x 2.5 mm). With that in hand he added a PIC 10f322 microcontroller in a SOT23 package, an 0603 smoothing capacitor, …read more

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