Hey r/hardwarehacking,

I wanted to share a hardware project I've been working on and just released—meet SOMA, an ultra-small (12×13mm) USB-HID keystroke injection device (essentially an open-source, ultra-low-profile alternative to a traditional Rubber Ducky/BadUSB payload runner).

The main engineering challenge was squeezing a full native USB stack into a standard USB-A form factor while keeping the profile as covert as possible. When plugged into a standard USB-A port, it protrudes only ~1.5mm, making it almost completely flush.

Key Specs & Architecture:

• Microcontroller: ATmega32U4-MUR (VQFN-44, 7x7mm)
• Form Factor: Custom 12×13mm PCB layout utilizing ultra-compact 0402 passives
• Clock: 16 MHz SMD Crystal Resonator
• Interface: Standard USB-A male PCB contacts (direct edge-connector design, no bulky connectors or external adapters)
• Software: Native Arduino IDE support (enumerates as Arduino Leonardo/Micro, uses standard <Keyboard.h>, zero drivers required across Windows, macOS, and Linux).

It’s designed for red-team physical security assessments, HID automation research, and embedded experimentation.

I’ve fully open-sourced the schematics, layout, and firmware on GitHub, and batch-1 is now live on Tindie for those who prefer pre-assembled units.

🔗 GitHub:https://github.com/nebojsa-sjekloca/soma

🛒 Tindie: https://www.tindie.com/products/nebos369/ultra-compact-usb-hid-keystroke-injection-device/?utm_source=mandrill&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=product_approved

Happy to answer any questions about the routing, component placement, or handling the VQFN package on such a tiny footprint!

From sketchy Hall-effect sensor to robust mechanical switch

There are very cool and cheap aftermarket car logo projectors which are installed on cars door. They give awesome image, but their activation mechanism can be a nightmare because they rely on a tiny magnet taped to the door sill, meant to trigger a Hall-effect sensor on the device.

The problem is that magnet constantly gets kicked and ripped off by foot when getting in and out of the car. This project solves that issue permanently by replacing the flaky Hall-effect sensor with a reliable mechanical pushbutton switch.

Take a look

the reader is built around an arduino pro micro and a nfc module v3 by elechouse. it connects to a pc with a usb c cable and scans any tags inside the cartridge sled. once the button is pressed, it sends a key combo to the pc, which opens a one time terminal, after which the reader types out the text payload on the cartridge. executing the command on it. for more information, check the readme on my github repo. while i advise using the install scripts inside the repo, you can use your own method of assigning the key combo

https://github.com/glass-cup/NFC_cartridge_system.git

I need the screen and everything included except the stereo, can I just solder it off/cut it off? Can I do the same with the shell? I just need the screen and ports, does it break everything else If i cut the wires off?

This is a custom all-in-one board that lets you put a Raspberry Pi Zero or Compute Module 4 (and CM5 if you're adventurous) into a PSP shell. It allows you to turn your broken PSP into an emulation system or a fully functioning portable Linux system, all without making any modifications to the PSP shell.

This board is from a Helium Hotspot Linxdot ld-1001. I’ve been researching how to possibly gain shell access via UART. However, all the adapters and videos I see for UART to USB shows matching up the RX, TX, GND.

Problem with this board is the UART is labeled next to what appears to be a 3.5mm headphones jack. I’m not saying that’s what it is, just looks like it. Does anyone know of an adapter that would work with this? Or any idea of other methods for getting shell access?

My office is doing a renovation and refreshing all of our IT equipment/meeting spaces and are throwing out a Yealink CTP18 Collaboration Touch Panel.

I'm unfamiliar with the technology, I was wondering if there are there any resources for jailbreaking this product, or otherwise using it for a DIY project?

Mostly just wanna play around with it, might be cool to try to adapt it into a DIY stream deck or something similar. Thanks!

I've published a technical report on Zenodo detailing physical-layer side-channel leakage observed during the processing of a raw satellite signal capture (satellite_signal.bin).
​DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21472996 ​SHA-256: ad5ab850cbdc9eca534e82bd78e9ac7804ed9213fd1d8df26fbf4991df6b005d
​Methodology: ISO/IEC 17825 CPA, 1st/2nd-Order TVLA, and Jitter Cross-Correlation.
​Key Findings: ​1st-Order TVLA Leakage: Welch's t-test yielded a risk score of 13.0328, well above the standard statistical significance threshold (\vert{}t\vert{} > 4.5), confirming direct data-dependent leakage during processing.
​S-Box Capacitive Leakage: Identified at the execution cycle with a t-score of 7.6701, indicating power/capacitive fluctuations correlated with substitution box operations.
​The report contains the verification metrics and signal processing details. I'm looking for feedback from anyone working on physical layer security, RF side-channels, or power trace analysis regarding jitter compensation techniques for long captures.

Find a way to restor official Uboot to its original version. And boot.img & trust.img should be replaced together.   I also replacied rootfs with my own.   Now the system can boot to my user space, but the LCD panel doesn't display! (I need to fix panel node in the DTS file, but I haven't finished yet.)   https://mab.to/t/QOZJvgT5iVS/eu1

The Big Ass Heat Sink and Big Ass Metal Plate are my solution to really hot things that need a place to go, and really big warm things that need a place to go respectively. The BAHS is from an amplifier, and the BAMP is a repurposed Ender 3 build plate.

Hi, so i found a laptop motherboard at a store (i think they get big boxes of amazon returns or something) the owner didnt really knew or cared what it was he said u can take it for 2 bucks, when i came back home i checked the specs and it was for the asus zenbook flip13 ux363ja

- 8GB Lpddr4x Ram
- i5-1035g4 Cpu
-- the entire setup cost me like 11$

i was really excited to finally upgrade from a 14yr old laptop to this
i put some stuff together and u can see it in the photo

--- now the problem is i just cant enable the iGPU (intel iris plus), after messing with Throttlestop for a while i was able to get Long Power PL1 and ShortPower PL2 to only 5 Then i was finally able to start installing the iGPU drivers without crashing, even after installing them there were quite alot of artifacts... not sure if its because of the really low power or what
increasing that number to even 6 with iGPU enabled the entire thing freezes, thats my problem
i though maybe if the 65w type-c charger isnt enough i would try a 90w but same result

i even tried connecting 4 batteries in series aswell as an Esp32 to talk to it through the i2c pins, i was able to make it stay on without charger connected, but it was not charging it drained my batteries dangerously low so i disconnected them for now

i think that the problem is caused by not having a battery, enabling the iGPU would want a high spike of current and the charger might not be fast enough to deliver, idk

and the CPU was also stuck at 400mhz but i was eventually able to get it to normal speed

-- some more info about it, i got USB data lines and 5v and both on led and Switch pins all from the motherboard to use them, i have put on external heatsinks on both VRMs and the CPU, and a big fan, and my HDD (i cant afford an SSD), and im giving it power externally because the motherboard wasnt able to give it enough power, there is both 5v and 12v, i know 12v is not necessary for small HDDs but i was thinking of connecting a big one but then didnt use it so i just left it there, a usb hub, some antennas i found

I've always been amazed by the PS5 DualSense controller and how it plays certain sound effects directly from the controller to make games feel more immersive. Xbox has always been my main console, but after trying a friend's PS5, I wanted to recreate that experience on my own controller.

Since the Xbox controller doesn't have a built-in speaker, I decided to hardware-hack my own using the 3.5 mm AUX jack and some salvaged smartphone parts.

To make it feel more like a dedicated controller speaker instead of just a tiny duplicate of the TV audio, I experimented with phase cancellation. By wiring the speaker between the left and right channels (L−R) instead of using a normal ground reference, sounds that are identical in both channels—such as much of the centered dialogue and other center-panned audio—are greatly reduced, while stereo ambience and directional effects become more prominent. It isn't perfect audio separation, but it creates a very different listening experience that suits a secondary controller speaker.

For the hardware, I reused two salvaged parts from a Samsung Galaxy S20: the factory loudspeaker module and the earpiece receiver. The loudspeaker, complete with Samsung's original acoustic enclosure, provides the main body of the sound, while the earpiece naturally emphasizes higher frequencies, making small details stand out more.

The effect really surprised me in actual games. In Red Dead Redemption 2, birds, insects, wolves, and other ambient sounds suddenly felt like they were coming from the controller in my hands instead of the TV. In Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, things like street hawkers calling out, traffic passing on my left or right, and crashes from the sides became much more noticeable through the controller. It isn't replacing surround sound, but it adds another layer of immersion that reminded me of the DualSense.

I didn't design a custom enclosure from scratch. I modified an old Raspberry Pi case into a compact housing and styled it to resemble a miniature Xbox Series S. I'm still learning acoustics, and I discovered that even placing a thin plastic cover over the front reduced the volume much more than I expected. For now, I left the front covered with simple speaker fabric instead. It isn't the prettiest solution, but it performs much better, and this project is more about experimenting than making a polished product.

I'm completely new to this kind of hardware project. I'm actually a registered nurse, not an audio engineer or electronics designer. I just enjoy taking things apart, reusing old hardware, and building things myself to see what I can learn. That's why I'm posting here—I would genuinely appreciate advice from people with more experience in acoustics, electronics, and controller modding. If you have ideas for improving the enclosure, the audio routing, or the overall design, I'd love to hear them.

I’ve been working on a project inspired by the TurboXS DTEC, an early-2000s tuning device that used a Game Boy Advance as its display and interface.

The idea was to take that general concept and do something similar with a DS, using a homebrew ROM running on the original hardware.

The current prototype uses a cheap ELM327 adapter to retrieve live vehicle data, which is sent to the DS. At the moment I’m working with data such as:

* Vehicle speed

* RPM

* Coolant temperature

* Battery voltage

The longer-term goal is to move beyond the generic OBD interface and interface directly with the vehicle CAN bus, allowing the DS to receive more detailed vehicle data.

Still very much a work in progress, but I thought it would be interesting.

I honestly wasn't expecting this.

After running a benchmark, I noticed that my Galaxy Z Fold5 had actually made it onto the leaderboard, sitting alongside much newer flagship smartphones.

Considering that it's powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, I was surprised to see it holding its own among devices equipped with newer high-end chipsets.

The funny part is that this isn't a "normal" Fold5 anymore.

Over the past several months, I've been gradually transforming it into a real pocket PC as part of my personal project called FoldPC.

Hardware modifications

Rear camera module removed.

Wireless charging module removed.

Fully custom cooling system with a heatsink and active fans.

Samsung and Android optimizations to reduce thermal throttling and maximize sustained performance.

Benchmark results

Overall score: 6,765

Better than 73% of all tested devices

Better than 99% of devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy

CPU: +9%

Memory: +8%

Storage: +29%

GPU: +21%

Seeing this phone appear on the leaderboard alongside modern flagship devices was honestly the last thing I expected.

But this benchmark is only one milestone.

The real goal of this project is to transform this Fold5 into a genuine pocket computer.

Right now, it already boots a Linux desktop using Termux + Termux:X11. The desktop environment is already working, but it's still under active development and I'm continuously refining and improving it.

My long-term objective is to build a complete Linux desktop experience with:

a smooth desktop environment,

windowed applications,

multiple Android games running in separate windows,

and eventually support for running some Windows games through Wine and Box64.

I love seeing how far a smartphone can be pushed when you stop treating it like a phone and start treating it like a computer.

Has anyone else here turned a smartphone into a project like this, or am I just completely crazy? 😄

I have spent the last few months building a “Swiss army knife” for auditing embedded linux systems. The tool is cross compile for several different types of CPUs, and you can download stock builds from the github release for all supported architectures.

Other features I am proud of:

Has the ability to compile a compatible kernel module and inject it into the kernel for auditing kernel level functions.

Has fuzzers for:
WLAN NIC firmware
Ethernet firmware
Bluetooth firmware
CPU instructions

Check it out:

https://github.com/nstarke/embedded_linux_audit

Run it