Hacking Ya Life

Goofy, but they make one think.

• How to Get Rid of Your Scariest To-Dos: have a "reckoning" day to flush old to-do items
• How to Make Japanese-Style Iced Coffee: not earth-shattering, but the headline is amusing

mods.dk

For ham radio hacking, there's mods.dk.

BaoFeng Radio Hacks

RJS sent me a link to a page with some information on hacking the BaoFeng UV5RA.

GPS over SDR

The thought occurred to me that perhaps the RTL-SDR dongle could be used to pick up GPS signals.  GPS L1 is 1575.42 MHz and L2 is 1227.60 MHz, which are within the range of the R820T tuner's 1700-or-so MHz.

Why, you ask?  Because an RTL2832U + R820T dongle is $10, which is a lot cheaper than most of the pluggable GPS modules out there (usually $40+).  If the base system is an SBC anyway, then this route is much more economical and flexible.  This would also have applications in an SBC-based telemetry system.

Wikipedia has the basic details on GPS and the signals used.  The C/A code is 1.023 MHz and the data is 50 bps, so when the SDR is tuned to the carrier this is well within the bandwidth of the RTL2832U.  Oddly enough, the R820T spec notes that it only supports up to 1002 MHz.

The University of Colorado has a useful GPS overview that includes more specifics, such as how to calculate the PRNs.

And of course there's already a guy who's been working on GPS over SDR, one Michele Bavaro.  Development seems to have stopped, though; and the GPS-SDR site has been converted into a lunch scheduler.

Skype on RPi

I was curious if there was a way to get Skype running on the Raspberry Pi--as a way of cobbling together a video call box.  Apparently it's possible to make voice calls (with the original forum post) using the binaries in the Skype developer's kit ($5 fee required), but there's no video support.  Somewhat of a bummer, but not entirely unexpected.  Perhaps Google Chat will come out with video support for the RPi since Microsoft has little incentive to port Skype video.

Adding Towing Capability to a RAV4

I'd like to add towing capability to my RAV4, but before I go ping the Toyota dealer, who seems to be way expensive on things like 30k service, I did a little searching.  One guy posted an installation guide on the OEM hitch itself.  However, the factory towing package also has an upgraded radiator, alternator, fan coupling, and wiring harness; one forum post indicated that the first three could be had for $160.  Installation of course would be another matter....  RAV4World, which had a link to the installation guide above, also has a thread on the OEM hitch.

I suppose I should confirm whether my "trucklet" (apparently that's the in-term for SUV...) has the mount points on the frame; I doubt anything extra would be added, though, in these days of cost-cutting.

Full-Auto Battery-Launching Airgun

This is bad-ass.  This would be a cool project, except I'm more interested in launching smaller, more practical projectiles!

Saiga Conversion

It's possible to modify a Saiga rifle to an AK-47esque pistol-grip configuration.  Apparently a different modification is necessary to make the rifle compatible with standard AK-47 magazines.

WECSOG

The Wile E. Coyote School of Gunsmithin'.  Interesting how-to on building a FAL out of a parts kit.  Maybe after I build an AR-15 upper I'll try that one next.

Keep Tube

I was using TubeSock to download YouTube videos, but it doesn't handle the high-resolution MP4 versions. Thus I found a site called Keep Tube that acts as a gateway to pick up the MP4 stream. The direct URL is:

http://keep-tube.com/?url=XXX

XXX should be the YouTube "watch" URL.

iPhone Tethering

Found a site that allows the enabling of tethering with iPhones. Cool.

Well, I do want an iPhone, there's just the matter of $400 (two phones) plus $100/mo for 24 months (with company discount but without taxes and fees)....

The Homebrew Channel

/. had a link to some hack for the Wii called The Homebrew Channel, which allows running homebrew code on a Wii. I knew there was a good reason for buying the Zelda Twilight Princess game: even though I haven't played it yet...installing the "Twilight Hack" apparently requires the game. A software hack sounds a lot more attractive to me than having to install a hardware mod that may get screwed by a Wii firmware update.