Bunnie Huang
COLUMN
SPARKne of the most difficult
aspects of getting started
with hardware hacking
is overcoming the fear of
breaking things. Unlike
software, you can’t
simply roll back to the last commit that
worked; if you let the magic smoke out,
it’s game over. However, this doesn’t
mean you have to fly blind or get it
perfect the first time. With the right
methodology and
a bit of planning,
there are ample
opportunities
to practice
technique and
do comparisons
against known
good versions.
My first tip is
to go dumpster
diving. You can
learn a lot with
little fear of loss
if you’re working on stuff that’s been
acquired for almost nothing. Well-funded
organisations tend to throw away gear
they think is defective, even if it’s for a
minor issue. There are also swapfests,
Craigslist, and eBay – some of my friends
have built impressive hardware labs on
a shoestring budget by trawling eBay for
great deals and fixer-uppers.
The second tip is when you’re
preparing to take a deep dive into a
single product, try to acquire three units:
one to totally tear down and trash; one
to work on; and one to keep pristine, so
you have a golden reference to checkagainst. With a little luck, you only
have to buy one of these at full price.
The tear-down unit can literally come
from a trash heap – it doesn’t need
to be functional. So long as the PCB
traces are intact, it serves its purpose.
In addition to selectively removing
components to assist with tracing out
wires, I use tear-down units to dry-run
risky soldering procedures. Once the
correct temperature, airflow and/or
soldering tip has
been determined,
I stand a much
better chance
of first-time
success on the
‘work’ unit. The
pristine unit can
be borrowed from
a friend – after
all, the point is to
keep it factory-
new, so you
have a reference
point to sanity-check against. This
leaves you with having to purchase
just one device – the target you are
working on. Of course, time is money. If
you’re impatient or don’t like planning
ahead, then perhaps your only recourse
could be to buy all the samples at
market price.
The final tip is to take apart anything
that’s destined for the trash heap.
Practice makes perfect, and stuff
intended for the trash heap is great for
perfecting the skill of opening things up
with minimal damage, from removing
bezels to desoldering RF shields.Getting started in
hardware hacking
You will break stuff, and that’s a good thing
O
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 One of the most
difficult aspects of
getting started with
hardware hacking is
overcoming the fear
of breaking things