A
Angus Gratton
projectgus.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2010
Angus Gratton, an embedded engineer, writes teardowns and reverse-engineering notes on cheap hardware, old peripherals, and an EV conversion.
What HN saysHN links it for hardware teardowns and the Griffin iMate mystery. Commenters cite it on Android tablets and GPL compliance, and follow his EV series.
29HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
31stories submitted
1.8Kstory points
5 months agolast shared
2010people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Anatomy of a cheap USB-to-Ethernet adapter7 people · 286 points · first shared 2013 · 74 comments on HN
- 2Mysteries of the Griffin iMate and the Apple Extended Keyboard II6 people · 127 points · first shared 2023 · 27 comments on HN
- 3Inside a $34 smartphone2 people · 169 points · first shared 2015 · 94 comments on HN
- 4The Sad State of Open Source in Android Tablets2 people · 41 points · first shared 2010 · 15 comments on HN
- 5Salvaging a Kona2 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 6Bing & Google - Finding some facts2 people · 2 points · first shared 2011 · 2 comments on HN
- 7Simplifying the Bench Kona2 people · 2 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 8Kona Can Decoding2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 9Unremarkable2 people · first shared 2024
- 10The motor turns too much1 people · 386 points · first shared 2024 · 192 comments on HN
- 11BMW F Series Gear Selector, Part Two: Breakthrough1 people · 186 points · first shared 2022 · 112 comments on HN
- 12BMW F Series Gear Selector, Part One: Failures1 people · 140 points · first shared 2022 · 89 comments on HN
- 1318 Months with a Framework 131 people · 132 points · first shared 2024 · 91 comments on HN
- 14$34 Smartphone Part II – Teardown1 people · 98 points · first shared 2015 · 34 comments on HN
- 15Sharing bikes in Shanghai1 people · 84 points · first shared 2017 · 23 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
nl · 2010-07-28
This is great news, because it might be possible to put pressure (via K-mart) on the manufacturer to live up to their GPL obligations. See http://projectgus.com/2010/07/open-source-in-android-tablets/
osterwood · 2018-03-02
It's really anything branded as by "Apple" on Amazon.
Look at the reviews of the Apple Thunderbolt Cable [1] -- 40% are 1 star reviews and many mention the cable being fake.
Similar story on the Apple USB Ethernet adapter [2]. I bought one a few years back and it identified itself with Chinese lettering in System Preferences.
Ken Shirriff did an amazing teardown of fake Apple chargers [3] and found a number of safety hazards relating to high voltage isolation. Teardown of the USB Adapter [4] found it used a part that doesn't exist (label does not match any known package for that IC).
1: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thunderbolt-Cable-2-0-White/dp/B00YHUBV6Q…
2: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-USB-Ethernet-Adapter-MC704LL/dp/B00W7W9FK…
3: http://www.righto.com/2014/05/a-look-inside-ipad-chargers-pricey.html
4: http://projectgus.com/2013/03/anatomy-of-a-cheap-usb-ethernet-adapter/
rgovostes · 2024-11-12
I spent a few minutes looking up whether a Mac could be booted from a Bluetooth keyboard but couldn't find any documentation of that. Back in the day some(?) Mac models could be booted by a USB keyboard, see https://www.projectgus.com/2023/04/griffin-imate/ for technical details.
schiffern · 2024-11-02
If you're interested in this check out the previous posts:
Part 1 https://www.projectgus.com/2023/03/ev-conversion-one/
Part 2 https://www.projectgus.com/2023/03/ev-conversion-two/
Part 3 https://www.projectgus.com/2023/10/kona-can-decoding/
...and the follow-up posts:
Part 5 https://www.projectgus.com/2024/04/unremarkable/
Part 6 https://www.projectgus.com/2024/10/simplifying-bench-kona/
wolfgang42 · 2024-01-31
Somebody just last year finally worked out what that battery is doing and why the adapter doesn’t work after it dies: https://www.projectgus.com/2023/04/griffin-imate/#mystery-battery (discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35772131)
(TLDR: compatibility with Apple’s off-USB-spec keyboard power button, but the circuit they used accidentally injects noise which wreaks havoc on the data lines when it’s unpowered and left floating.)
sp332 · 2021-10-31
You can configure udev to blacklist the device. https://projectgus.com/2014/09/blacklisting-a-single-usb-device-from-l…
angusgr · 2013-09-03
Freescale i.MX6 is a really nice platform. Shame it hasn't gotten broader traction, I think because it is moderately more expensive than its competition.
Since May I've been using an imx6 based gk802 ($70 quad core "Android TV" stick) as a personal server (email, RSS, VPN, etc.) Has worked really nicely considering. (Blog post about installing debian on it: http://projectgus.com/2013/05/debian-installer-for-zealz-gk802-android… )
Natsu · 2011-02-04
You don't need VMs or a fake Google or anything that complex. That said, I will grant that it might be harder to detect or easier than reversing the protocol itself. Even so, take a look at what HN user angusgr posted in another thread:
http://projectgus.com/2011/02/bing-google-finding-some-facts/
I'll save you some reading and point out that this is the important part, the exchange with Bing:
http://projectgus.com/files/googlebing/seaport-trace.txt
I bet I could duplicate that with a few lines of Perl. Then I could feed Bing whatever I want, no VMs or clicking or DNS/hosts files to worry about. You might have to harvest a valid identifier (such as the one linked there) or do some figuring out so that you submit this to the right Microsoft IP.
If I were working for Bing, I'd start looking at hardening this a little, before the SEO people figure it out.