Free Stuff - January 2026

The January 2026 recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Hank Fordham, a cybersecurity specialist and public speaker from Alberta, Canada! Hank, better known online as “Hank the Hacker” delivers live hacking demonstrations at conferences, higher education institutions, CTF competitions, and public sector events. We have sent Hank a HackRF One and YARD Stick One to use as core components of these demonstrations at upcoming conferences this year. He tells us that his presentations focus on demystifying wireless attacks by showing audiences how real-world RF threats work in practice. Rather than relying solely on slides, he builds...

ZimaCube 2 Personal Cloud NAS Opens for Pre-Order with Multiple Configurations

IceWhale has opened pre-orders for the ZimaCube 2, a compact NAS and mini server platform designed for storage, media processing, and self-hosted applications. The system is based on 12th Gen Intel processors and adds updated connectivity, expansion options, and storage flexibility compared to earlier ZimaCube systems. The platform is offered in multiple configurations, including a […]

Free Stuff - December 2025

The December 2025 recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Nikos Gerogiannakis, applying on behalf of the Epictetus Wireless Security & Signal Research Initiative at the Hellenic Mediterranean University. Nikos says that their group has established a solid foundation in digital signal analysis and embedded security through hands-on projects such as an FPGA-based logic analyzer and Smart Locker systems. With the HackRF One we have sent their way, the group plans to proactively audit systems like their RFID scanners, probing for real-world vulnerabilities such as signal replay to develop genuinely robust, open-source access controls. They also plan...

Self-Repair Guide for HackRF Pro USB-C Connector

Since HackRF Pro began shipping at the end of 2025, we have become aware of an ongoing issue with USB connectors on some units received by customers. Our engineering team has investigated further and discovered that the connector manufacturer changed tooling between our prototypes and full production, resulting in less reliable ground/shield contact. The next production round has started and we have corrected the issue by using a replacement part, so this issue should only affect units from the r1.2.1-p1 round.

If your HackRF Pro tends to lose USB connectivity easily when the USB cable is touched, first try a different...

Restoring an Xserve G5: When Apple built real servers

Recently I came into posession of a few Apple Xserves. The one in question today is an Xserve G5, RackMac3,1, which was built when Apple at the top—and bottom—of it's PowerPC era.

This isn't the first Xserve—that honor belongs to the G41. And it wasn't the last—there were a few generations of Intel Xeon-powered RackMacs that followed. But in my opinion, it was the most interesting.

Unfortunately, being manufactured in 2004, this Mac's Delta power supply suffers from the Capacitor Plague. The PSU tends to run hot, and some of the capacitors weren't even 105°C-rated, so they tend to wear out, especially...

Microscope Light

[Hardware] Illumination improvements

Фамипия. Оживляем раритетный домофон с тремя ручками

Приветствую всех!

Не так давно я уже рассказывал про раритетный венгерский домофон «Фамипия». И вот очередь дошла до другой панели этой же серии. По виду экземпляр очень похож на домофон «Сезам», отчего зачастую его путают именно с ним. Тем не менее, ничего общего с «тем» сезамом у него нет. «Питерский сезам», «сезам с оптическим ключом», «сезам с кнопкой освещения» — это всё он.

Самое время узнать, как он устроен, и попробовать его запустить. Именно этим мы сейчас и займёмся...

Can the MacBook Neo replace my M4 Air?

Many of us wonder if the MacBook Neo is 'the one'.

Because I have a faster desktop (currently a M4 Max Mac Studio), I've always used a lower-end Mac laptop, like the iBook or MacBook Air, for travel. I've used MacBook Pros in the past, but I like the portability of smaller, cheaper models.

In fact, my favorite Mac laptop ever was the 11" Air.

Baochip-1x: A Mostly-Open, 22nm SoC for High Assurance Applications

One of my latest projects is the Baochip-1x, a mostly-open, full-custom silicon chip fabricated in TSMC 22nm, targeted at high assurance applications. It’s a security chip, but far more open than any other security chip; it’s also a general purpose microcontroller that fills a gap in between the Raspberry Pi RP2350 (found on the Pi Pico2) and the NXP iMXRT1062 (found on the Teensy 4.1).

It’s the latest step in the Betrusted initiative, spurred by work I did with Ed Snowden 8 years ago trying to answer the question of “can we trust hardware to not betray us?” in the context...

A PTP Wall Clock is impractical and a little too precise

After seeing Oliver Ettlin's 39C3 presentation Excuse me, what precise time is It?, I wanted to replicate the PTP (Precision Time Protocol) clock he used live to demonstrate PTP clock sync:

I pinged him on LinkedIn inquiring about the build (I wasn't the only one!), and shortly thereafter, he published Gemini2350/ptp-wallclock, a repository with rough instructions for the build, and his C++ application to display PTP time (if available on the network) on a set of two LED matrix displays, using a Raspberry Pi.