Squirrelcage blower keeps small form factor PCs cool
by firestorm_v1 on Aug.14, 2010, under Embedded devices, Hardware, How-To's
As long as there has been electronics, there has been the problem of how to keep them cool. Unfortunately, the problem gets more complex the smaller that computers get and what works for one PC might not work for others. This is clearly the obstacle to overcome when trying to cool down a settop box. Read more to find out how I was able to pull it off very well for a little over $10 in parts and still maintain all my hair.
Seagate Dockstar: Add an accessible serial port
by firestorm_v1 on Jul.21, 2010, under Embedded devices, Hardware, How-To's
Ok, so not long after I published the article on the hardware teardown of the Seagate Dockstar, I couldn’t help myself so I started working on things to do with this device. I did a lot of research in regards to the capabilities of the Dockstar, including being able to push a customized Linux OS on the device. Once I saw the article at Hackaday that covers exactly how to replace the OS, I knew I had to do it for myself. There are two ways to perform this upgrade however in order to capture syslog output and to be able to get to the bootloader, a serial port is required. Just about all of the sites will describe the pins needed to make the connection, however none of them detail how to do it very clearly and none of them address the issue of aesthetics. Read on for my method of adding a serial port to the Dockstar without affecting the look of the device.
Hardware Porn: Seagate Dockstar teardown
by firestorm_v1 on Jul.14, 2010, under Embedded devices, Hardware Pr0n, Linux
I was given a very interesting product by a friend of mine that happened to catch a good deal on woot.com a few days ago. Apparently Seagate has made a network fileserver device for their Freeagent Go line of portable USB drives called the Freeagent DockStar. (I can only think that this is a play on Battlestar Galactica’s Baystar – a cylon “aircraft-carrier” of sorts.) When I went to look for pictures online of the hardware, I was dismayed to find nothing about the inside of the little thing. So here they are in all their exposed glory, the innards of the Seagate Dockstar.
Site News: Our Facebook Page needs a Logo!
by firestorm_v1 on Jun.17, 2010, under Site News
It has definitely been another busy week and I’ve been trying to come up with a good picture for our Facebook page. Don’t get me wrong, the ? is a pretty snazzy placeholder, but it doesn’t quite convey the awesomeness of YWIV.
This is where you come in! I’m holding a contest for the logo for our Facebook page and our Twitter account. The winning entry will receive awesome notoriety, image credit, and satisfaction knowing that you contributed to a great site.
Contest Rules:
- Image must be gif (non-animated), jpeg, or PNG format.
- Image needs to have either “Your Warranty Is Void” with or without the “.com” or the initials “YWIV”
- No Pornographic images, please.
Contest Ends July 18th, 2010!
To Submit an image, upload to TwitPic, or any other public photo-sharing site and post a link in the comments to your image. Make sure your email is valid because I’ll email you if you’re the winner.
Thank you and Good Luck!
Firestorm_v1
Parts: Parallax RFID scanner now $10!
by firestorm_v1 on Jun.14, 2010, under Embedded devices, Hardware, Microcontrollers
Image courtesy of Parallax.com
Hello Everyone! If you’ve been in a Radio Shack sometime in the last year or so, you’ll know that Radio Shack and Parallax have teamed up to bring some variety to the parts drawers. This once $50 serial RFID reader kit is now $10 at Radio shack although it only comes with two tags. Read more for additional details about the Serial RFID reader now on sale! (continue reading…)
Site News: YourWarrantyIsVoid.com is now on Facebook!
by firestorm_v1 on Jun.06, 2010, under Site News
Well, after taking a bit of time to think about the site and all the hard work I’ve put into it, I decided to do some site work and created a Facebook page and a Twitter account so you can be informed of the next update. For facebook click here and for Twitter, follow @WarrantyIsVoid. I’m still in the process of fleshing out both profiles so it might be a bit, but for now, I’m up and running.
Lasers: Barcode scanner “gun” has real laser inside!
by firestorm_v1 on May.18, 2010, under Hardware, How-To's, Investigative Dissassembly
I know it’s been a while so here’s another post. In this post, I’ll go over the hardware in this gun style barcode scanner that holds a real helium-neon laser tube with power supply! Although this post only covers the basic modding, there’s nothing to stop you from gutting the gun and using the HeNe tube for your own nefarious plan. 
(continue reading…)
Web: Stupid HTML trick to get past content filters
by firestorm_v1 on May.02, 2010, under How-To's, Miscellaneous, Software
I know it’s been a while since I posted, and I do apologize. Life has definitely not been kind to me in the regards of time however I have not forgotten anything. I have two major posts coming up hopefully within the next week, however here’s a quick article about a trick I discovered while working on a project with a friend. The project was to see if their content filter could be broken in their chat application andthrough a little bit of HTML know-how and some PHP code, I was able to crank out a generator to do just that. Read more to find out the details. (continue reading…)
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