Alexander Chemeris wrote: > I'll be presenting XTRX - a new miniPCIe Software Defined Radio. It's > not only the smallest full duplex SDR, but also one of the top > performing ones - you can run GSM, UMTS, LTE, LoRaWAN, BTLE, WiFi and a > lot more on it.
Thanks to Kurt for sharing this with the group and Alexander for presenting. SDRs have a lot of applications in the realm of bridging open source hardware with proprietary designs. The RF interface ends up being an API of sorts. I've seen a rather mundane application of this: a hardware hacker I follow on YouTube (I think it was Great Scott, https://www.youtube.com/user/greatscottlab) used an SDR to interface something like an Arduino to some inexpensive Chinese made remote control outlets. This way instead of having to deal with relays and high voltage, or having to use a more expensive home automation outlet, a cheap RF controlled device could be used. There are thousands of similar inexpensive RF controlled devices that are out of reach for integration with home automation or D-I-Y projects. They mostly use simple protocols over 433 MHz, but don't follow any universal standard. You don't need something as sophisticated as XTRX to make use of such devices, but I'm sure some of the principles discussed in tonight's talk will apply. There are a couple of SDR applications I'd like to pursue: One is using an SDR in passive mode to listen to wireless alarm sensors. This can be a way to bridge a proprietary wireless alarm system to an open hardware home automation platform. Motion sensor triggers and whatnot can then be used to turn on lights. The home automation platform can also act as a back-up alarm panel. One with Internet connectivity that doesn't require a proprietary interface to alarm.com or some other vendor. The SDR could also detect low battery signals from the sensors or jamming signals, and trigger alerts over the network. Another is passive data collection of cell phones in the area. WiFi MAC addresses, GSM/LTE network IDs, etc. This could be logged in a loop, and saved if an alarm event happens, so these identifiers can be used to identify who breached an alarm protected property. (There are legal issues to be addressed for this use case. Most likely if GSM/LTE is used. Definitely if it is necessary to spoof a tower like a "stingray" to perform the data collection. I haven't learned yet whether you can collect useful info with just passive GSM/LTE data collection.) There are semi-turn-key solution for WiFi data collection, like: http://hakshop.myshopify.com/collections/wifi-pineapple-kits/products/wifi-pineapple?variant=81044992 Hak5 has other radio products also, ranging from cheap, receive-only SDRs, to a "hardware defined radio" (Yard Stick One), to an expensive, wide-band transceiver SDR (HackRF One): http://hakshop.myshopify.com/collections/wireless-gear -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
