Several projects on this site involve the modding of consumer electronics for new and inventive purposes. The NES tv remote for example used an old remote control as the base of the whole project. However, the circuitry inside was diverted to the controls of an old NES controller. This process of redirecting the internal circuitry of a component is what I call “circuit hijacking” because essentially, the circuitry is “hijacked” to a new location and purpose. This method is by no means new, nor is it even difficult but in this article I will attempt to described the best ways that circuit hijacking is accomplished so you can begin hijacking your own circuits. Note: This is meant as an introduction to circuit modding. The elements covered in this article describe very basic techniques as this guide was written for the beginner. However, hopefully the tips recorded here will be of value to all.

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1. The first step I take whenever I attempt a project like this is to spend some time analyzing the component’s original circuitry. You should look at the circuit traces and try to follow the logic to see where and how the component actually works. You don’t have to understand all of the circuitry but it definitely helps to understand the portions of the device that you want to alter. In reference to my remote project, I studied the lines that ran to channel buttons and volume buttons. These were the buttons that I was re-routing to connect with the NES controller’s buttons.

Above you can see what typical button connections look like on most circuitry. This means that below those rubber buttons of a remote control are circuit traces that look like this. When the rubber button is pressed a connection is made between the two segments of this connection and the desired function (channel up, for example) is activated. In my plan for the NES tv remote, I had to hijack the function of these buttons and re-route them to similar buttons from the NES controller circuitry. Thus, whenever the buttons on the NES controller were pressed, the corresponding functions were activated on the remote control.

2. The next step in hijacking the circuits is to scratch off a small portion the trace material covering the circuit lines. These lines can be of several colors but in the picture above, I am referring to the light green lines. Below this trace material lies the actuall copper (orange in color) used for conducting the current. This scratching is necessary as solder will only stick to the copper underneath. If you try to solder to the trace material the solder will simply ball up and fall off. In addition to scratching off the trace material on the hijacked board, you will also need to scratch off the material covering the copper lines on the board that you are re-routing to if necessary. For example, to hijack the circuit from my remote I scratched off a small portion of trace from the channel and volume button pads in the manner shown below.

3. Next you will need to solder wires to the scratched off portions of your circuit board. So, in my example above, I soldered one end of a wire to each of the exposed points of copper. Remember that solder will only bond with the copper portion of the board, but you will still need to be careful not to touch other components nearby. It is possible to damage IC’s and other components with too much heat. You will need to make sure that you have a good bead of solder on the connection with your wire to make sure that it will be stable and will conduct properly. This will need to be done for each button you are attempting to hijack.

4. Lastly, you will need to solder the ends of the wires you previously soldered to the original board to their new button pads. The new layout should be similar to the diagram above. When the button for the NES controller is pressed, then the circuit is closed for the remote’s button which activates the desired function (i.e. Channel Up). Once this type of connection has been completed for every button you wish to hijack, you are finished. Further details about the rest of the NES TV remote project can be found here.

Hopefully, this guide helped some of you understand the principles of circuit hijacking a little better. But, as always, if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments below or send me an email.

This new game is practically guaranteed to make your office job more enjoyable. It is incredibly easily to learn, cheap/free to start, and quite addicting. Consider this your warning. I don’t want to hear any complaints about people getting fired from their office jobs for playing too much Clips. Yes, the game is fun - its designed to be that way, but you gotta show some self-control, man!

Quickstart:

The play of the game is similar to dice except that binder clips are used in the place of the dice for obvious reasons; what would your boss think if he saw you throwing dice in your cube? Two small binder clips are used as the only game pieces. The game is played by two people who alternate turns of “Flipping” (or throwing/rolling/dropping) both clips onto a hard surface (desk, table, or floor). Points are scored depending on how the clips land. There are only three possible ways for a clip to land. These positions are:

flat - worth 1 point per clip

leaning - worth 3 points per clip

upright - worth 5 points per clip

The first person to 30 wins. However, each player must have the same number of rolls (if the first player reaches 30 points the second player still has a roll left to match or beat the first).

In Depth Instructions:

While genius in its simplicity, Clips also has some complexity to it. Here are some clarifications to the rules and extra instructions.

After the first player throws, and the point values for both clips have been added, it is then the second player’s turn. After, he has thrown and his points counted, one “round” has been played. Play continues in this fashion, adding the current round’s scores to the previous ones, until a round has ended with one or both players scoring more than 30 points. If a round has ended with both players scoring above 30 points, the player with the highest score is the winner. So, reaching the score of 30 does not necessary equal victory. If the first player reaches 30 points on a roll, then the second player still has a chance to catch up as the round is only halfway over (i.e. each player has the same number of turns). If a round has ended with both scores above 30 points and are tied, then a “sudden death” will serve as a tie-breaker.

In the event of sudden death, each player takes 1 clip. Both players throw their clips at the same time. The player with the highest score is declared the winner of the tie-breaker and the game. If the sudden death results in another tie, players continue to be in sudden death until someone wins.

Clips is already being proclaimed an instant classic. It is my ultimate goal to spread the news of this game, and have every office in America playing by this time next year. Enjoy.

You know that cool little icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Firefox browser? That is your Firefox throbber - yeah, I don’t like the name either. However, its job is to let you know when there is still data being transferred from a site’s server by going through its animation cycle. In reality, the throbber is simply a combination of gif images. When no data is loading, and it is sitting still, you should see a still gif. However, when data is being loaded and the throbber is activated then the browser displays an animated gif. The process of making your own throbber is really simple, and it gives your browser a customized feel.

The first thing you will need is an idea that will translate well to a tiny square no bigger than 50×50 pixels. For my throbber, I made an animated gif that fit the look of Zerosign.net. I made a simple design using MS Paint and drew out four different gifs that could be combined together to form an animated gif. I used a really simple gif animator program that I found online here. Once you’re happy with the animations, all that’s left is modifying some Firefox code.

Navigate to “C:/Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxx.default/chrome”. In this directory, there should be a file called ‘userChrome-example.css’. Edit this file by adding the following lines of code to the top of the file and renaming it to ‘userChrome.css’.

toolbar #navigator-throbber { list-style-image: url(”newzero1.gif”) !important; }
toolbar #navigator-throbber[busy=”true”] { list-style-image: url(”newzeroani.gif”) !important; }

Of course, you would change the gif names to correspond to the names of your own image files. Then, after adding your gifs to this directory, restart Firefox. When your browser comes back, your new throbber will be there. For a slightly more detailed explanation of this process you can check out UrbanMainframe’s post about the topic.

If you would like to use my image files, you are welcome. They are really simple and if more than five minutes was spent on the process, I’m sure you could get some better effects. But if you so choose:

[newzero1.gif]
[newzeroani.gif]

This is one of the coolest promotions to come out in a long time. Currently, Wendy’s has a promtion worked out with AirTran Airways in the form of travel coupons and, if you take advantage of the program in the right way, this can be very profitable for you. For their current promotion, they are placing coupons for 1/4 credit for an A+ Rewards Credit voucher on their 20oz and 32oz cups betweeen 11/1/05 and 12/31/05. For 8 A+ Rewards Credits you get a free one-way coach ticket.

What exactly does this mean? Well if you get 32 drinks you get a free one-way coach ticket! 64 drinks gets you a round-trip ticket. 128 drinks gets, you guessed it, 2 round-trip tickets! Incidently, in the promotion stipulations 128 drinks is the most you can cash in per AirTran Airways Award accounts, but 2 round-trip tickets to anywhere in the US is pretty freakin sweet.

Here’s the math. Say one 20oz beverage is $1.29 (I’m sure this won’t work with water purchases but it couldn’t hurt to try)

64 drinks * $1.29 per drink = $82.56

Now, for example, I just searched for a round-trip ticket from Atlanta, GA to LA, CA and (if I’m reading this page right) the total price was $291 for one-way and $582 for round-trip. Of course, this was a last minutes search of flights that left today - so I’m sure if you planned ahead you could get better deals.

$582-$82.56= $499.44 = the amount of money you save/make on this deal!!

$499.44/64 drinks = $7.80 of profit you make on every drink you purchase. And that’s not to mention the enjoyable beverage you have too!

Now, if you want to take this to the extreme (and I encourage that) you can try other methods, including but not limited too:

- dumpster diving
- stealing other’s cups from their table
- bribing a Wendy’s employee for the coupon cups out the backdoor
each of these methods would decrease the $82.56 investment and theirby increase your profit. This game is wide open and ready to be taken advantage off!

link to the AirTran Promotion site
AirTran - Route Map[thanks utch]