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Hack – Hacking Your Intercom System

Ever need to hack your intercom system? I asked my friends on NYC Resistor and they helped me figure out how:

1. Get an RF remote transmitter and receiver and power adapter – they’re pretty cheap from electronickits.com
2. strip the power adapter wires
3. wire the power adapter wires into the RF receiver (check voltage to know which is negative and positive)
4. test the power by pressing the “learn” button on the receiver
5. “learn” your receiver – press the “learn” button on the receiver and start transmitting with your key transmitter
6. open up your intercom system and find the wires that hook in the “unlock door”
7. using the voltometer, test your intercom to see if your circuit is closed and needs to be opened (via the relay) or opened and needs to be closed (again via relay)
8. wire from the RF reciever to the intercom, then from the intercom back to the receiver to complete the circuit – it’ll either be Normally Closed or Normally Open
9. test the transmitter triggers the relay (button one does Normally Open, button two does Normally Closed for me) and it should trigger the intercom “unlock door”
10. Celebrate!

Here’s another solid example of keyless entry from Make

Below is a quick gallery of images of the process! Hope this helps!

FTD



RF Remote Control Relay Board



Stripped Power Adapter



Intercom System






Intercom System – Faceplate Removed



Tools – Transmitter, Receiver, Wire, Screwdrivers



Receiver – with Power






Receiver – With Transmitter Testing



Intercom System – green wires into receiver + system



Intercom System – green wires into receiver + system (CLOSE-UP)






Wireless Receiver – Top



Wireless Receiver – Inside Box



Wireless Receiver – Inside Box 2






Wireless Receiver – Inside Box 3




Popularity: 1% [?]

Pirate Radio – USB FM Transmitter

The war is on. The robots / aliens / zombies take down our communications and you’re stuck in pre-net era. Now is the time of the pirate. How do you communicate?

Radio.

You need radio to communicate. Well before Thunderstruck, I was fascinated by radio. How does it curve around the globe? (bounces off the atmosphere) How does it go through walls? (magic) To fight the forces of dark, you need radio.

Thanks to Jens, a kickass pirate radio technocrat in Germany, I assembled the components and instructions to build my own pirate radio USB FM-transmitter…allowing me to broadcast my own pirate show: “Tales from the Rusty Pelican”. You could gather the parts yourself but Jen’s sells everything you need in his store. Support pirates. Buy from (relatively local) pirates.

The instructions for assembly are here…and interestingly, completely in german. But I’ll help out. Please forgive the fuzzy pictures. I left my camera in Chicago and had to make do with the iPhone’s 2.0 megapixel.

First: lay out all your components and your instructions. You’ll have:

1 x 510 ? (grün – braun – braun) (green – brown brown)
1 x 100 k? (braun – schwarz – gelb)  (brown-black-yellow)
2 x 1 M? (braun – schwarz – grün) (brown-black-green)
1 x Kondensator 0,1 µF (0,1) (red condensor)
1 x Kondensator 47 nF (0,047) (light yellow condensor)
1 x Kondensator 4,7 pF (479) (red condensor)
2 x Kondensator 22 pF (22) (brown condesnrors – look like advil)
1 x Drehko 1,5..15 pF (blue dial)
2 x Transistor BF 246 (F246A) (two black transistors)
1 x Leuchtdiode rot (red diode)
1 x NF-Anschlußleitung  (cable wire for input)

And a red wire to bridge a connection as well as act as antenna!

Translate all the german instructions using babelfish and label all your components. Set our your workspace (3rd hand, soldering iron, wet sponge, solder vacuum, solder cleaner, and of course…solder!)

I’ve actually mislabeled one of the components. The 1u condensor is mislabled (yellow – 4th down) with the 0.047 condensor. It was only after examining this image and the schematics did I realize the error. Always double check.

Read your schematics, set up your clamp to hold the board in position.

I used the third hand to hold in place all the components. My right hand held the 500 degree soldering iron…the left held the solder metal…and since the board was flat, it was up to the hand to hold everything in place. Generally, I soldered one end, then removed the hand, and soldered the other (since it stayed in place). My first project without ANY burns!

Now being a pirate isn’t all blood and glory. Plugging in and transmitting sound waves is illegal and automatically qualifies you as pirate.

But when the s hits the f, here’s one more way I fight the dark.

Popularity: 8% [?]