Cyrozap's Tech Projects

My Enhancement Request to Apple (and Verizon, AT&T, et al.)

Posted on December 27, 2011 by cyrozap

I just sent this Enhancement Request to Apple. I’ve reproduced it below:

Unlocked Verizon iPhone 4S To Work On U.S. GSM Carriers

This may be more of a problem with Verizon, but I really would love it if an unlocked Verizon iPhone 4S could be permitted to work on any GSM carrier in the world–including the United States. Currently, it only works on Verizon in the U.S. and GSM carriers internationally, but not AT&T, T-Mobile U.S., nor any other U.S. regional GSM carriers. I was going to buy an iPhone 4S, thinking that this was the dawn of the age of easy migration between wireless carriers, but upon learning about this crippling of the iPhone’s enormous hardware potential, I have resolved to not purchase one. I also find it absurd that Verizon will not let an Apple-unlocked iPhone 4S be permitted on its network. This stifles innovation and reeks of monopolistic practices. If iPhone owners got fed up with AT&T’s lack of expansive 3G coverage, they could switch to Verizon. If they got tired of Verizon’s slow 3G data speeds, they could easily switch to AT&T or T-Mobile. If consumers were allowed to freely flow between carriers, the superior carrier would have more subscribers by nature and not by force. I’d prefer it if companies would bring about this change by themselves instead of legislation forcing the change. Either way, it must happen eventually. Apple has the power to protest these anti-competitive habits by allowing the activation of U.S. SIM cards in unlocked Verizon iPhone 4S’s. I don’t know if this request will actually do anything, but it makes me feel better to know that someone will see this and might even stop a moment to think, “What if…”

Go to http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html to send your own Enhancement Request.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Apple, CDMA, GSM, iPhone, iPhone 4S, monopolism, request | Leave a comment

Peek Linux With GSM Support

Posted on December 5, 2011 by cyrozap

The Peek is a mobile device that uses a GSM radio to get your email and display it. Basically, it’s a single-purpose email device.

A month or two ago, I bought a Peek on eBay for $22. I thought it might be useful, but it ended up being useless without the Peek service. So far, I’ve managed to upgrade the firmware, but I still need the Peek service to get it to work. Peek customer support has been unresponsive to my request to activate my Peek, so I now want to install Linux on this thing to at least get SOME functionality out of it. Unfortunately, without the GSM radio drivers of the TI Locosto chip, this device is still useless (even on Linux). My new side project is to now get access to TI’s Locosto dev info so I can make binary drivers for the chip for Linux. I would only be able to make binaries because of TI’s NDA.

Any help with this would be appreciated!

Here’s some info on the Peek’s hardware: http://elinux.org/Peek

Posted in Hacking/Modding | Tagged Linux, Locosto, Peek, TI | Leave a comment

How To Get an iPad 3G Data Plan Without an iPad

Posted on November 29, 2011 by cyrozap

Because there aren’t any up-to-date guides on how to do this, I decided to make my own.

All you need is an unactivated (never used) AT&T SIM card.

To start, go to http://www.att.com/ipad.

Scroll down to where it says “Need More Data?” Click on that link (or click here, but this direct link might not always work).

Click “Get Your Pass.”

You will come to a “Device Information” screen. Here is where you will enter a fake iPad IMEI and your unactivated AT&T SIM number. The IMEI should be in the form of 01222300******* or 01222400*******, where ******* is a random 7-digit number. The SIM number should be right on your SIM card.

As an alternative to guessing IMEI numbers, you can also get the IMEI from an iPad Wi-Fi + 3G in your local Apple or AT&T store. Just go to Settings->General->About to see it. Taking a picture with your phone would probably look less suspicious than writing the number down, but either way YMMV.

Click “Next.” If it doesn’t work, try again with another fake iPad IMEI. I got my first number to work on my first try (what are the chances), but the second valid IMEI I hit took over 20 more tries to get, so keep trying till you get it!

Once you get past this screen, you’re home free! All you need to do is enter your name, address, email, password for your new AT&T account, Credit Card info, agree to the terms, and your set. Also, from now on, you’ll be able to manage your account from the email and password you set up earlier.

Have fun with your new data plan!

Posted in How-to | Tagged 3G, AT&T, broadband, data, DataConnect, iPad, mobile | Leave a comment

Any Recommendations for Prusa Mendel Parts?

Posted on November 25, 2011 by cyrozap

Progress on the RepRap has slowed to a crawl and it’s really bumming me out. Building from kits is SO much easier than sourcing the parts yourself. I’ve probably gotten the final cost estimate into the $600-$700 range by now.

Anyway, I need your help. I just need to print out the new X-carriage, get some M3x25mm bolts, buy some MDF for the Y-stage, and get a hot end. However, I don’t really know what to get. What are the recommended dimensions for the Y-stage (LM8UU bearings)? What’s the best hot-end for 3mm PLA that I can get in the U.S. for a Wades extruder?

Feel free to comment with your suggestions!

Posted in RepRap | Tagged extruder, hot end, MDF, Mendel, parts, Prusa, vitamins | 3 Comments

RepRap Prusa Mendel 8mm Rods

Posted on November 22, 2011 by cyrozap

A week ago, I bought three 3′ lengths of 8mm smooth rod for my Prusa Mendel because I wanted to use LM8UU bearings. After receiving the rod and cutting it, I’ve fond that they make a huge difference in reducing play between the linear bearings and the rods. With 5/16″ rod, you could feel the bearings wiggle. Now there is no wiggle at all! If you’re building a “United States customary units” Prusa Mendel and are ordering online and might use LM8UU bearings now or in the future, get 8mm rods. They’re only a $1 more each on McMaster-Carr, so it’s not a huge expense.

tl;dr: Get 8mm smooth rods. They’re the best.

Posted in RepRap | Tagged LM8UU, Prusa, Prusa Mendel, rods | Leave a comment

Vimeo Free Music Exploit

Posted on November 6, 2011 by cyrozap

Well, calling this an “exploit” is really stretching the truth a bit– all I did was poke around in Chrome’s Developer Tools. Basically, to download any track for free, all you have to do is go to http://vimeo.com/musicstore/preview?id=###### and put the music track ID after the equals sign, where the pound signs are. The track ID is the ###### at the end of any http://vimeo.com/musicstore/track/###### link.

I was going to notify Vimeo of this huge security hole, but then, after test-downloading a track (it has since been deleted from my computer), I noticed that the bitrate of the file was 64kbps. 64kbps is good enough quality to give you a sense of the song but too poor quality to use in a video or listen to regularly. This way, they can give you a full preview of the song without worrying about piracy of the full-length song preview.

Clever Vimeo.

Posted in Hacking/Modding, How-to | Tagged exploit, free, music, Vimeo | Leave a comment

My Current MakerBot Setup

Posted on November 3, 2011 by cyrozap

I haven’t added any good pictures or videos of my work area in a while so, a few days ago, I decided to take some with my Nikon D5100. Continue reading →

Posted in MakerBot | Tagged D5100, Nikon, workbench | Leave a comment

Cool Stuff

Posted on October 28, 2011 by cyrozap

The parts for the Unicorn circuit board arrived! The circuit boards themselves sill aren’t here, of course (cheap shipping from China is cheap and slow). Anyway, I went through the parts I received and, lo and behold, I got one wrong. Thankfully, it was only the switch–I had ordered a surface-mount version instead of a through-hole version. The good news is I can still use the switch. I have corrected the part number and price in the part list spreadsheet.

On a slightly related subject, I finally assembled the Magnetic Rotary Encoder board!

Sorry for the poor DoF; I was shooting from a bad angle.

It’s pretty cool. The surface-mount soldering, while not impossible, is still a pain in the butt. Also, getting the rosin flux off the board was fairly difficult, too. I feel like Hackaday did a how-to for using flux, but I can’t find the post right now. If any of you has a good method or a link to a good method of removing rosin flux, leave a comment.

Posted in MakerBot | Tagged board, circuit, minimalist, pen, plotter, Unicorn | Leave a comment

Unicorn Pen Plotter Circuit Component Cost

Posted on October 26, 2011 by cyrozap

Ok, so I’m a few days late with ordering the parts. No big deal, right? Anyway, I got them ordered today and it ended up costing around $16 (including shipping, from Digi-key). That parts cost reflects a full set of RoHS-compliant and lead-free parts, so it is possible to get the parts cheaper. Tentative BOM after the break. Continue reading →