Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty

This book has something for everyone--from the beginner hobbyist with no electronics or coding experience to the self-proclaimed "gadget geek." Take an ordinary piece of equipment and turn it into a personal work of art. Build upon an existing idea to create something better. Have fun while voiding your warranty!

Some of the hardware hacks in this book include:

• Don't toss your iPod away when the battery dies! Don't pay Apple the $99 to replace it! Install a new iPod battery yourself without Apple's "help."
• An Apple a day! Modify a standard Apple USB Mouse into a glowing UFO Mouse or build a FireWire terabyte hard drive and custom case.
• Have you played Atari today? Create an arcade-style Atari 5200 paddle controller for your favorite retro videogames or transform the Atari 2600 joystick into one that can be used by left-handed players.
• Modern game systems, too! Hack your PlayStation 2 to boot code from the memory card or modify your PlayStation 2 for homebrew game development.
• Videophiles unite! Design, build, and configure your own Windows- or Linux-based Home Theater PC.
• Ride the airwaves! Modify a wireless PCMCIA NIC to include an external antenna connector or load Linux onto your Access Point.
• Stick it to The Man! Remove the proprietary barcode encoding from your CueCat and turn it into a regular barcode reader.
• Hack your Palm! Upgrade the available RAM on your Palm m505 from 8MB to 16MB.

TABLE OF CONTENTSJoe Grand, Grand Idea Studio, Inc., Technical editor, hardware hacker, and electrical engineer IntroductionTools of the Warranty Voiding TradeElectrical Engineering BasicsDeclawing Your CueCatUpgrading Memory on Palm Devices

Lee Barken, Wireless enthusiastWireless 802.11 Hacks

Marcus R. Brown, PS2 game developerHacking the PlayStation 2

Job de Haas, Mobile phone expertCan You Hear Me Now? Nokia 6210 Mobile Phone Modifications

Deborah Kaplan, Repetitive task automation expertOperating Systems OverviewCoding 101

Bobby Kinstle, Macintosh reliability engineerTerabyte FireWire Hard Drive Case ModMacintosh Hacks

Tom Owad, www.applefritter.comMacintosh Hacks

Ryan Russell, Computer security guru and HTPC visionaryHome Theater PCs

Albert Yarusso, www.atariage.comHack Your Atari 2600 and 7800Hack Your Atari 5200 and 8-Bit ComputerHacking the iPod

Andrew "bunnie" HuangForeword

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Warning: This book will consume your free time!, 2006-07-23
When I ordered this book, I planned to give it to my little brother in the hopes of interesting him in the delightful world of hardware hacking. I didn't expect it to contain anything I hadn't picked up doing E&M research for MIT, or engineering research for the Air Force. However, the things in the book were surprisingly advanced, even for people with experience. There are many excellent ways to kill time in here, and they can even turn out to be useful. They are explained clearly and presented without being intimidating, which makes it perfect for the motivated beginner as well. If you have the basic equipment and the drive, this book is great for you!


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

good, but not for everyone, 2005-12-18
The title is somewhat misleading since theres a fair amount of console repairing information here. The actual hacking information ranges from simple controller rewiring to completely gutting a pc. The chapters done by the main author are very indepth and maybe out of reach of some but the author knows his subject. The chapters concerning the Atari systems though are quite the opposite. All the information presented has already been published by others before or has been available online for free for years, and the author seems more concerned about promoting his website and selling homemade games. Overall there isn't much information here that is new to justify the price but it's a nice compilation with plenty of nice pictures.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This Book made My Hardware EVEN MORE fun to play with, 2005-12-11
This book is good for anyone who wants to get into either Electronics or Computers..A book like this would have been Wonderful for My Highschool years, when I started playing around with Electronics...If you have a Child in Highschool or College who likes to tinker & find out how things work in a hands on fashion, GET THIS BOOK for them...I would even recommend this books To Amatuer Radio enthusiasts


9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Major Hardware Hacks for the Hacking Inspires, 2004-12-29
The book contains 15 amazing projects that range from the truly useful to the legendary and wacky. You'll learn how to connect toasters and coffeemakers to a network; upgrade radio-controlled cars and talking toys such as the Furby; and build car-mounted periscopes and home video arcades. You'll see how to turn a classic Mac machine into an aquarium and harness ordinary batteries to power your laptop. You'll learn how to build an intruder-detection system for your office cubicle and how to track remote objects as they move around. There's even a project for hacking a 12-story building to use its windows as elements of a huge display screen.

Each project includes step-by-step instructions that even a novice hacker can follow, while also providing the necessary detail to satisfy an experienced hacker. The knowledge gained by building each project can easily be applied to your own projects. If you are unfamiliar with basic electronics, you'll find sections that teach you how to use the tools of the trade; you'll also learn how to read schematics and do basic soldering.

So, whether you're an electronics hobbyist who likes to learn by doing, a software hacker who wants to learn how the other half lives, or a neophyte who has only dreamed of hacking, "Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks" will inspire you to tinker with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos, and will serve as a jumping-off point for new and clever hacks.


9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Good stuff for the experienced hacker.., 2004-10-21
If you're the hard-core type that likes to take things apart and "fix" them, you'll like Hardware Hacking: Having Fun While Voiding Your Warranty by Joe Grand (Syngress). Your discarded toys will never be quite the same again.

Chapter list: Tools of the Warranty Voiding Trade; Electrical Engineering Basics; Declawing Your CueCat; Case Modification: Building a Custom Terabyte FireWire Hard Drive; Macintosh; Home Theater PCs; Hack Your Atari 2600 and 7800; Hack Your Atari 5200 and 8-Bit Computer; Hacking the PlayStation 2; Wireless 802.11 Hacks; Hacking the iPod; Can You Hear Me Now? Nokia 6210 Mobile Phone Modifications; Upgrading Memory on Palm Devices; Operating Systems Overview; Coding 101; Index

The first thing to know about this book is that it isn't a beginner's volume. There is some serious hardware modifications going on here. You should be comfortable with electrical theory, devices such as resistors and capacitors, and tools like soldering irons. Also, I'd recommend that you don't try these things on primary devices. I'd say there's a decent chance you could damage it trying some of these tricks. But having said all that, you'll enjoy the book if you meet the above qualifications.

Since I'm not a major hardware geek, I don't know that I could do many of these mods. One of the mods that would be useful even to non-geeks is the chapter on the iPod. You will learn how to replace the battery and how to upgrade the hard drive on your earlier generation iPods, and you don't even need to be that handy. That tip alone would probably pay for the cost of the book. Each hack is very well illustrated with excellent photos and instructions, so you don't feel like you're reading assembly instructions written by something that was run through an automatic translator.

So if you have some old video game consoles gathering dust in the basement, pull them out and see what you can do with them using this book. You'll end up being the envy of all your geeky friends. :-)

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