Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

2

Part I: Basic Hacks, Tools, and Techniques

A Tour of My Toolbox

“Voiding the warranty” on any product occurs when you open up a piece

of equipment and rummage around to see what new features you can add.

More often than not, to hack any given electronic equipment, you will need

to construct circuits and/or solder on connectors. All of these activities

require some basic tools and knowledge of a few techniques.

Here’s what I keep in my toolbox so that whenever I get a hankering to

hack, I am ready to go:

Basic soldering equipment. I like to have both a small 12-watt iron for

soldering surface mount parts, and a larger 75-watt iron for soldering

large connectors. You will also need solder, solder flux, and either a

solder sucker or a solder wick. Most of the projects in this book involve

soldering, which I’ll review later in this chapter.

Basic hand tools. I like to have a set of fine-tipped wire cutters for trimming

wires and cutting off the leads of components after they are soldered.

A good set of wire strippers also allows you to prepare wires for solder-

ing. A set of needlenose pliers makes it easy to bend component leads

to fit in tight spaces. A set of tweezers can help you pick up tiny parts

and hold them in place while soldering. I keep a set of jeweler’s screw-

drivers along with a set of normal drivers to open up enclosures and

cases. Fine-blade X-Acto knives are useful for cutting traces on a circuit

board. A sheet-metal nibbler will allow you to slowly cut through both

plastic and metal cases without having to get out a large power tool. A

handheld metal reamer will allow you to cut clean holes through most

metal and plastic. The Dremel moto-tool can be a great help in quickly

cutting and modifying cases and circuit boards. I strongly recommend

a “helping hands” workstand to hold the circuit components you are

soldering in place. I also have a magnifying glass to inspect my work.

You will likely use one or more of these tools for each project in this

book; you can see some of them in Figure I-1. Clockwise from top left

are wire strippers, printer’s knife, needlenose pliers, wire cutters, and

helping hands.

Multi-meter. I have an inexpensive “no-name” brand meter that works

well enough. I cover how to use a multi-meter later in this chapter.

Plug boards. These are useful for quickly checking if a circuit idea works

before you solder all the parts permanently together. I will cover how

to use this in Part II.

A Tour of My Toolbox

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