Hands-on hardware-hacking tutorials, grouped by platform:
Raspberry Pi
— Raspberry Pi | Hacking
early Raspberry Pi reference + hacking writeup (Hakin9, 08.2012)
— Controlling LCD Screens with Buttons
Pi GPIO + 16x2 character LCD + push-button input (02.2013)
Arduino
— Arduino UNO R2/R3 as a HID Device
Linux + Windows keyboard / mouse emulation via DFU reflash
— Replacing Arduino IDE with Notepad++
command-line toolchain for people who don't want the IDE
ESP32
— Pueo — multi-radio field tool firmware
sub-GHz, 2.4 GHz, NFC and GPS on one CYD: the pin map, the shared
SPI bus, and the driver bugs that come with the territory
— Pueo user guide
operating a built unit: the menus, the SD card, and stealth mode
— Pueo: finding an unknown tracker
the Surveillance + Hunt workflow: dwell alarm, move to rule out a
fixed beacon, then walk it down on the WARMER/COLDER gauge
— Surveillance signatures
the graded WiFi/BLE identifiers Pueo's detector matches: 274 rows
over nine tables, as Markdown, CSV and JSON
— Pueo Carrier Board
design notes: why it cannot be a CYD shield, the lid-to-base
connector, power budget, and the SPI bus down a cable
— Getting Started with the ESP32-WROOM-32
specs, power, USB flashing, GPIO gotchas, a first blink, and a
3D-printable dev-board case
— Getting Started with ESP32 Development
toolchains (Arduino / PlatformIO / ESP-IDF / ESPHome), the build /
flash / monitor loop, libraries, partitions, OTA, and failed uploads
— ESP32 Web Flasher
flash blink / Wi-Fi / BLE demos from the browser over USB, on
self-hosted ESP Web Tools; auto-detects ESP32 / S3 / C3
Radio / RF
— Flipper Zero
what it actually does (Sub-GHz, NFC/RFID, IR, BadUSB), which
firmware to run, getting started, and the legal line
— Sub-GHz on the Flipper Zero
read, save and replay remotes, the frequency analyzer, and why
rolling codes defeat a replay
— BadUSB on the Flipper Zero
HID injection and Ducky Script basics, keyboard layouts, and
authorized-use only
— Flipper Zero + ESP32: Adding WiFi
the external ESP32 board (Marauder, Bruce) that gives the Flipper
WiFi, and how to flash it
— Capturing & Replaying IR / 433 MHz with ESPHome
capture your own IR / fixed-code 433 remotes and replay them from
Home Assistant, using ESPHome remote_receiver / remote_transmitter
— Reversing a BLE Protocol from Android
HCI snoop capture, btsnoop decode, APK static analysis and the auth
handshake, worked end to end on Puffco's LORAX protocol
— Meshtastic Node Build
hardware / antenna / solar build guide: nRF52 vs ESP32, the
antenna mistakes that kill range, and picking the right mesh role
— Meshtastic RF Coverage Planning
Site Planner walkthrough covering every TX / RX / Longley-Rice
setting, a worked island example, and the maritime-climate gotcha
— The Hawaii Meshtastic Mesh
local island RF meshes bridged statewide over MQTT, not radio
across the channels, plus how to read a mesh map
— Mobile Meshtastic Network
a mesh that moves with you: nodes, roles, power and the
temporary-high-relay trick for hiking, overlanding and events
Bench
— Using a Basic Multimeter
voltage, continuity, resistance, the battery-test positions,
current without blowing the fuse — on an AstroAI DM130B
— Using a Bench Power Supply
CV vs CC, the current limit as a safety net, the brownout
sweep, measuring draw — the one tool that saves boards
Power / Off-Grid
— Living Off-Grid
the systems view: power, water, and propane budgets, plus a full
hot-water shower build (12V pump + propane tankless)
— Solar Power Basics
reading a panel (Voc/Vmp/Isc/Imp), wiring in series vs
parallel, and choosing between PWM and MPPT charge controllers
— 18650 & 21700 Battery Pack Calculator
size a pack before you build it: series and parallel to
voltage, capacity, energy, max current, charge rate, and runtime
— Wiring a Daly BMS into a DIY 12V 18650 Pack
3S 18650 pack + Daly BMS: the balance-tap order, the meter
checks, charging at 12.6V, why the BMS is not a fuse, and
going up in voltage to 4S or 6S
— Wiring a 5S BMS into a DIY 20V 18650 Pack
roll your own 20V tool battery: five cells, the six-wire
balance ladder, wiring order, and charging to 21V
— Using a Power-Tool Battery as a Power Source
a 20V DeWalt is a 5S pack with a charger ecosystem: finding
B+/B-, adapters, buck converters, and fusing the terminals
— HOWTO: DIY Power over Ethernet
cheap passive PoE injectors for sub-10W, 10/100-only loads
3D printing
— Calibrating 3D Printer Filament
dial in a new filament in the right order (temp tower, flow,
retraction, pressure advance) with SUNLU PLA+ 2.0 as the example
— PrintVault
local-first manager for a messy STL / 3MF / gcode folder; indexes
in place, reads slicer settings out of gcode, finds duplicates
— WisBlock Case Generator
parametric OpenSCAD enclosure for the RAK19007 + RAK4631
Meshtastic kit, snap or screw lid, every dimension tunable
— Heltec V4 Case Generator
parametric OpenSCAD enclosure for the Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4,
with OLED window, SMA antenna option, snap or screw lid
Misc
— Analyzing, Reversing and Emulating Firmware
binwalk + QEMU + radare2 workflow for IoT / router firmware
— HOWTO: Parallel Port LCD
LPT-driven HD44780 LCDs (yes, on a real parallel port)
— Convert PCB schematics to Toner Transfer Images
Eagle CAD → mirrored print → toner transfer for DIY PCBs
For the full landing page with descriptions, dates, and the
platform-by-platform layout, visit Guides_and_Tutorials.html.
Shell script (hexcoder.sh) for converting assembly
source into Intel hex files suitable for flashing an Arduino or other MCU
supported by avrdude via
ArduinoISP.
Shell script (objdumptoshellcode.sh) for backing up
the flash, eeprom, hfuse, lfuse and efuse of ATMEGA328P or other various
microcontrollers supported by avrdude.
Optional ability to disassemble the hex files for further reverse engineering.
Schematic to a NON-buffered ISP programmer I use for programming my ATMega8
microcontrollers. Works well with AVRDude on Linux.
I have not tried many others, though should be compatible with most software
for writing to the chips.
Curated outbound links across hardware hacking: dev boards, firmware
RE, serial interfacing, PCB design, references, and the blog circuit
worth bookmarking. All on their own page now, same structure as
pubCarHacking/links.html.
Development boards & prototyping
— Arduino
Reference platform, getting-started docs and ecosystem
— Raspberry Pi
Foundation site, model lineup, official docs
— BeagleBoard / BeagleBone Black
Linux-on-board ARM dev platform
Firmware reverse engineering
— Binwalk
Standard tool for fingerprinting + extracting embedded firmware
— Firmware Modification Kit
Unpack, edit, and repack squashfs / cramfs / etc.
— bflt-utils
Flat-binary executable tooling for uClibc / no-MMU systems
Serial & hardware interfacing
— baudrate
Auto-detect UART baud rates by listening
— libmpsse
FT2232 / FT4232 MPSSE wrapper for JTAG / SPI / I2C bit-banging
PCB / schematic design
— Autodesk Fusion Electronics
Modern Eagle successor for schematic + PCB layout
— Fritzing
Breadboard-first PCB design, beginner-friendly
— Tinkercad Circuits
Browser-based circuit simulator with Arduino emulation
Calculators & references
— Engbedded AVR Fuse Calculator
The canonical AVR fuse-byte calculator
— Ohm's Law / Resistor calculators
Bench essentials
Resources / blogs
— /dev/ttyS0 (Craig Heffner)
Firmware RE deep dives by the binwalk author
— AVR Freaks
Community forum for Atmel / Microchip AVR work
— OscarLiang.com
Drones, FPV, embedded electronics writeups
For the full annotated catalog including IDE / editor recommendations,
3D-printed accessories, IDA plugins, books, and external tutorials,
visit HardwareHackinglinks.html.
