Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

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Part I: Basic Hacks, Tools, and Techniques

This project may take a couple of weekends to complete if you don’t have

any soldering experience. You will be soldering very small parts, so you

might want to practice your techniques on a simpler project first.

The Furby hack described in this chapter is the brainchild of Andrew Staats

and Jeff Gibbons. They detail some of the steps of their Furby hack at http://

www.appspec.net/products/UpgradeKits/FurbyUpgrade/root.html.

Hardware Assembly Instructions

The cost of materials for the hardware you need for this project will include

$25 for the Furby, and $75 or so for the kits or the parts. You can order a

complete kit that includes a printed circuit board and all the required chips

and connectors from http://www.appspec.net/index.html.

After you’ve assembled the hardware, you will have a chance to program

your creation. I’ve included several sections outlining the software struc-

tures available for this hack under Software Setup Instructions, including

a description of the tools and of an API (applications programming inter-

face).

1. Skin the Furby

Before you begin, remove the Furby’s batteries. Inside the battery compart-

ment, remove the FCC tag; it won’t be FCC-approved after this. You may

also want to remove the “Tiger” tag from the Furby’s side.

Now it’s time to remove your Furby’s skin. Feel underneath the fu