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Bunnie Huang

COLUMN

SPARK

ardware hacking can

seem unapproachable, but

the good news is that its

core framework – namely

physics – has been stable

since the beginning of the

universe. This is unlike software, where

it’s a constant struggle to keep up with

the deluge of new platforms, languages,

and trends.

 One of the best

ways to learn

about hardware

is to just start

opening stuff

up and looking

inside. I started

a monthly

‘name that ware’

competition

on my blog

[bunniestudios.

com] about twelve

years ago to

encourage this kind of thinking, and now

you have iFixit [ifixit.com] and eevblog

[eevblog.com] doing amazing teardowns

all the time. The purpose of taking things

apart isn’t to understand everything.

Rather, it’s to start populating your brain

with patterns and memes. There’s a

certain shape and size to everything, and

there are common themes.

 And then you start making

observations. Why, for example, is it that

almost every circuit board is somewhere

between the size of your palm and a sheet

of paper? Turns out it has something

to do with the speed of light. It also has

something to do with the fact that it’s

hard to make things absolutely perfect.

And it also has to do with how quickly you

can get heat out of objects. Pick any thread

and pull, and you’ll find frameworks that go

all the way down to quantum mechanics.

The deeper you go, the more you’ll discover

that everything is related to everything

else in some way – it’s all choreographed

by the laws of nature. 

Now imagine you are presented with

a piece of unknown electronics that you

want to hack. It’s

like looking at a

chess match, in its

final positions, and

figuring out what

went through the

players’ minds.

First, look for

exceptions to

common design

patterns. It

takes real effort

to make new

design patterns,

so engineers only make exceptions, or

create new ones, if they really have to.

Then, look for debug and test facilities;

economic realities inevitably demand

their presence. Finally, feel out the cracks

between abstraction layers. Look for

assumptions that might not have been

checked carefully. Standard interfaces

can often be exploited to do new and

interesting things.

This is where it helps to be a practising

design engineer – when implementing

standard interfaces, take note of where

the specs are weak or have ambiguities.

Drive wedges into these weak spots; often

just the tiniest breach in the wall is all

that’s needed to bring about the flood!

Hacking hardware

Learn how things work by taking them apart

H

 And then you start

making observations.

Why, for example, is it that

almost every circuit board

is somewhere between the

size of your palm and a

sheet of paper?

Bunnie Huang

Andrew ‘Bunnie’ Huang is a

hacker by night, entrepreneur

by day, and writer by

procrastination. He’s a

co‑founder of Chibitronics,

troublemaker‑at‑large for the

MIT Media Lab, and a mentor

for HAX in Shenzhen.

@bunniestudios