Good starting point for electronics/reverse engineering? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: sjheiss
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 25, 2013, 11:23:11 am
content: All my life I've been very curious about how things work, especially electronics. For a few years I have been programming (albeit very intermittently), and have recently been getting into computer hardware. I currently have an Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi, but want to get something cheap to tinker with, that wasn't specifically designed for that.What I mean is, I love electronics engineering, but enjoy much more hacking and modifying things that weren't made to be hacked. While I do love experimenting with my Uno and Pi, I get a sense of discovery and control when modifying hardware for unintended purposes. I am mostly a noob (in the sense of following verbatim guides that real hackers have written) when it comes to hacking, but have begun to foray into reverse engineering software and hardware on my own.While it's not very likely I'll become the next Dennis Ritchie, Linus Torvalds, Jay Freeman, or the like, I at least want to aspire to finding things out for myself and being able to teach and help others.I had an old NES lying around, and am thinking about using my Uno as an EEPROM programmer and making a dev cartridge so I could make native NES games/programs, but don't have the money for needed parts yet.Other than that, is there any computing device someone could recommend to learn about hardware and software engineering on one's own? I'd prefer something cheap, like no more than $30-40. I know older computers and other devices have less security and are easier to work with, but since they aren't in production anymore they can be expensive. You can get used Android phones for under $30, and while most of the OS is open source, the hardware is very small and not very "tinkerable". So, something with little security, non-hand-cramp/eye-strain-inducing, relatively cheap, and usable for a variety of purposes would be perfect.Most of my programming knowledge is with C, but I have quite a bit of knowledge with Java, C#, and x86 assembly (mostly MASM), but can learn any programming language fine (the lower-level, the better. I'm not very good with high-level, abstract BS), so whatever languages the prospective hardware uses is not an issue.TL;DRWhat computer/gaming system/mobile device would you recommend to someone wanting to teach themselves about electronics/reverse engineering?

author: Anks
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2013, 11:42:55 am
content: I would suggest getting yours hands on some old arcade pcb's and messing with the rom's or just pulling the address lines high and low to see what happens. You would really need a scope to see the out comes most of the time but I used to used these methods to trouble shoot game boards and learned a lot along the way.

author: sjheiss
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 25, 2013, 11:52:11 am
content: That sounds like a good idea. I don't have an oscilloscope, but it might be difficult to get one, unless you can get used ones cheap. I don't really know anything about arcade machines; would it be easy to get at least video from them easily? I mean, I have an old CRT TV and a VGA monitor, but I'm sure an entire arcade machine with screen would be expensive. Wouldn't be too useful for me if I can't see what's going on.EDIT: After searching Ebay, I think arcade board would be a bit too complicated to work with. They don't seem as easy to modify as something like an NES. With an NES all I need is a cartridge with two easily replaceable ROM chips to make my own programs/games, compared to I don't even know how many on an arcade board, not to mention they aren't standardized.

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2013, 12:36:01 pm
content: How about a game boy? The original one. Uses a reduced Z80 instruction set and would be interesting to use as a control interface for other hardware. Plans for dev carts are simple and widely available and RGBDS was quite good the last time I used it.I learned a lot fiddling around with mine!

author: sjheiss
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 25, 2013, 12:55:43 pm
content: The original grey brick Game Boy I actually did consider. Well I bid for one on Ebay, maybe I'll get it.But in case I don't, and if I do, for future reference for myself and/or others, I'm still open to suggestions.

author: Markybhoy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2013, 09:06:10 pm
content: You might find this vid interesting -http://youtu.be/WOJfUcCOhJ0

author: sjheiss
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 26, 2013, 01:14:35 am
content: Thanks! That was very interesting. I'm sure you can get Tamagotchis for cheap, but they are too limited in (possible) functionality I think. As jeremy said about the Game Boy, it would be possible to use it to run custom code and interface with other devices, which is what I want to do.