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From: Michael A. Terrell on 8 Aug 2010 20:54

Grant wrote:
>
> On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:08:50 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >
> >N_Cook wrote:
> >>
> >> Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm(a)mendelson.com> wrote in message
> >> news:slrni5tik9.1ih.gsm(a)cable.mendelson.com...
> >> > N_Cook wrote:
> >> > > Got a few no-name URCs from UK Poundland "pound shop" , badged as
> >> Signalex ,
> >> > > 81415, 10 in 1 . 1 GBP for all the functionality of a URC. This type you
> >> can
> >> > > set it to flicker away to itself until it reaches the end of a batch of
> >> > > codes.
> >> > > Removed the 3.58MHz resonator (why so apparently accurate?) .
> >> >
> >> > That's the NTSC color carrier frequency. Not only were they made in the
> >> > billions over the years (every US/Canada/Japan, etc) color TV had one,
> >> > so did every VCR, and lots of other things.
> >> >
> >> > I'm sure they will still be around for a while because while digital TV
> >> > has taken over in the US, it has not in the entire world and anything with
> >> > a composite video input or output needs one.
> >> >
> >> > They became the defacto standard for things like telephone dialers,
> >> > and many things that needed about a 4mHz crystal because they were so
> >> cheap
> >> > and plentyful.
> >> >
> >> > One of the famous "blue boxes" (telephone hacking devices) was made by
> >> > taking a Radio Shack tone dialer and replacing the 1mHz crystal with a
> >> > 3.58mHz one.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > > With 1.5V
> >> > > pk-pk locked in with receiver over range 2.7 to 5.1M, and again about
> >> 300K
> >> > > to 11M would operate using 1.5V. So far have only used with original
> >> 3.58M ,
> >> > > 6M and 7.5M sine inputs. Am I serendipitously likely to get a hit
> >> > > somewhere, at least the unit on/off model recognition code if not
> >> function
> >> > > code plus the model code
> >> > >
> >> > > So 2 out of 2 of these URC have been amenable to this mod but no match
> >> to
> >> > > the unit in question found so far. Is there any general guidelines for
> >> > > makers to choose certain types/ranges of coding for different types of
> >> > > equipment or is it totally open for them to choose? Assorted bits of kit
> >> > > show at least partial responses to some of these off-spec codes, but not
> >> my
> >> > > target one so far.
> >> >
> >> > Look up LIRC (Linux Ifrared Remote Control). There is a library of remote
> >> > codes, a way of capturing new ones from a remote and since the definitions
> >> > are in a text file, they are easy to "hack".
> >> >
> >> > There are all sorts of input and output devices, if you have a PC with a
> >> > regular serial port (not USB), you can build a transmitter from the proper
> >> > plug, a resistor and an IR LED.
> >> >
> >> > Geoff.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
> >> > To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must
> >> order
> >> > dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat
> >> it. :-)
> >>
> >> I was not aware of that frequency as being significant , the equivalent over
> >> here is millions of 4.433619MHz and x2 of that , quartz crystals for Phase
> >> Alternate Line. That would explain why it was Never The Same Color (twice)
> >> if they could get away with using ceramic resonators rather than quartz.
> >
> >
> > Sigh. The ceramic resonators were used as a chroma trap. Quartz
> >crystals were used for the color reference. As far as 'Never The Same
> >Color', network programing was carried across the US on buried coaxial
> >cables or by microwave relays. Unlike tiny European countries, we
> >couldn't broadcast from a singe site. Because of this, they were video
> >amplifiers and equalizers spaced at regular intervals. Because it was
> >mostly tube, and there were thousands of them in each network they
> >required constant maintenance. When the network switched to a different
> >feed from a different studio, there was a phase difference. temperature
> >changes on the coax caused it's properties to change, as well. That was
> >why VIR and VITS were developed. It allowed for automatic equalization
> >to compensate for temperature changes, or when a signal had to be
> >rerouted. There were a lot of redundant paths, to allow for equipment
> >failures, or live remote feeds in the days before STL equipment. The
> >flexibility of the system was proven when Bell Telephone technicians
> >tied every TV station in the country together in a couple hours, to
>
> >allow full, live coverage of the assignation of President Kennedy. I
> I thought he kept them secret? --'^^^^^^^^^^^ Freudian slip?
>
> Wonderful what slips a careless spellcheck will show ;)


Laugh all you want. My eyesight is very poor.
From: Michael A. Terrell on 8 Aug 2010 20:55

Meat Plow wrote:
>
> On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:19:53 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
>
> > N_Cook wrote:
> >>
> >> So was that Allen Funt who televised the assignation between JFK and
> >> Marilyn Munroe?
> >
> >
> > Yawn. Keep proving your stupidity. The President being shot to
> > death was a national tragedy. Maybe the next one will be in England, so
> > you can have an even bigger laugh. Maybe you'll get to roast
> > marshmallows at the wake.
>
> I remember that day as well as I do 911. Us kids were having a 'circus'
> in a neighbor's back yard. I went home to get something, forget what it
> was, and my mom was pissed off and crying and told me I couldn't have
> what I wanted because the pres had just been shot. That was Nov 22 of 63
> so we must have been experiencing global warming back then if it was warm
> enough to play outside with normal clothing as I remember.


No. Kids don't notice the cold, till they need at least three coats.
:)
From: N_Cook on 9 Aug 2010 03:19
whit3rd <whit3rd(a)gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c310732f-10af-471e-a5fa-ab5160e81b5e(a)g19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
On Aug 8, 4:46 am, "N_Cook" <dive...(a)tcp.co.uk> wrote:
> Am I on a hiding to nothing? trying to crack a device with unavailable
> remote control, and no button functions to speak of.

Many universal remotes need to know what KIND of box
before the code search works. It helps to know the
corporate entity that built the box (for instance, TiVO
responds to Philips satellite converter box commands,
because some Philips satellite converters were TiVO
equipped). And some of my Apple computers responded
to (? Samsung or Goldstar) TV codes. It seems odd that TV
codes operated the FM radio in a desktop computer.

reply

There is a collation of a lot of useful background info links off this page,
I'm gradually wading through
http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/televisionrc5.htm
but linkages between makers seems a route to take.
But I still get the impression that types of kit whether air conditioners or
PVRs or whatever seem to have related structures of coding within the group
rather than by maker


From: Arfa Daily on 9 Aug 2010 20:13


"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm(a)mendelson.com> wrote in message
news:slrni5tu2k.61c.gsm(a)cable.mendelson.com...
> N_Cook wrote:
>> In the UK we were deprived of Cap'n Crunch 2600 Hz whistles and the phone
>> routing system to go with it
>
> I remember visiting the UK in 1984 and trying to call back to the US. The
> only
> way to do it was to call the long distance operator and place a request
> for
> your call. When your turn came up, they would call you back.
>
> Trying to call from a pay phone at a rest stop on a motorway was a comedy
> routine straight out of Monty Python. The operator needed the area code
> and number of the phone I was calling from to place the call.
>
> In those days, there were no area codes on the phones themselves nor was
> there
> any marking on the phone as to where I was or the exchange it was on.
> All I knew was that I was at a rest stop a tour bus had made somewhere
> between London and Bath.
>
> Another time, I wantedto leave a message on an answering machine, as in
> "look up the EUROPEAN size you want and I'll call you from Paris when I
> can buy it". After ten minutes of standing at a pay phone in a B&B, the
> oeprator finaly got through and as soon as he heard the recording, he
> hung up.
>
> Geoff.


In 1984 in the UK, you could direct dial any country in the world. I worked
for an American company then, and was on the phone to them in California
from our UK office virtually every day, as well as to our offices in France,
Germany and Holland, and customers in other countries. There were some
restrictions on direct dialling from payphones, and maybe trans-continental
was one of them, I don't remember for sure. If you could not find an area
code and exchange on a payphone, then either it was *extremely* badly
vandalised, or you weren't looking in the right place. Most had the phone
box's details, including geographical location, area code, number and
exchange, behind an armoured glass plate, mounted on the wall. The number
and area code should also have been on the phone itself, if it was a dialup
type, but this was admittedly often missing.

Arfa

From: Cydrome Leader on 10 Aug 2010 14:06
Meat Plow <mhywatt(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:44:09 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
>
>> Meat Plow wrote:
>>>
>>> I could whistle at 2600hz and hang up the central opertator line. I
>>> made a blue box for a friend but he got busted before he used it. He
>>> was a greek with dual citizenship and had a girlfriend in Greece he
>>> would call using a reel to reel tape with some prerecorded tones on it.
>>> He got the idea from one of his greek buddies that was here visiting
>>> that built a working blue box and recorded the tones and their
>>> sequences on tape. The box was easy to build, all tin can 741 op amps
>>> on a self etched PC board. Problem was tuning it, I was only 17 back
>>> then and had no way to tune it. Said friend was set to take it to
>>> school electronics class and tune it when the FBI hauled him off one
>>> early morning in his boxer shorts :) He was deported back to Greece and
>>> lost his US citizenship.
>>
>>
>> Even 'Dr. Johnny Fever' knew not to mess with the Phone Cops! ;-)
>
> They found out in part by talking to his girlfriend. She explained that
> he used a tape device. I stayed at his place the night before so i was
> there at 6 am Sunday morning when they came a knockin on his door. I was
> zipped up in a sleeping bag peering through an opening when he answered
> the door (had a safety chain) opening it part way just enough for an arm
> holding a gold badge to pop through :) I stayed in the bag while they
> looked for a tape device which he didn't have there at the time. They
> found a loop of tape on an Echoplex tape delay box for guitar that he had
> and un-looped it with a pencil thinking they found the evidence :) They
> asked him who was inside the sleeping bag and he said just a friend and
> they never bothered me. He had hid the blue box pretty well and it wasn't
> found because they found the tape quickly so they were satisfied they had
> what they were looking for. When they left I dug out the blue box and
> destroyed it. Since they really had no evidence of a device that could
> make the calls but knowing the calls came from his number back when he
> was living with his parents they could only deport him and revoke his
> citizenship. He never went on trial for the calls. Just was given a plane
> ticket and said see ya later. They probably made it impossible to get a
> visa back into the country since I never saw him again. But he did call me
> maybe 10 years later from Greece. He said he was in a friends recording
> studio. That was in 1982.

that's amusing.

in the early 90s I recall red boxes still worked in some parts of Chicago.

You'd frequently get an operator who would ask something scripted like
"are you using an illegal dialing device?" and then they'd keep requesting
that you add quarter to the payphone.

They'd even ask you to "please wait by the phone" if you just kept jamming
on * and 6 or whatever the buttons were emulating a quarter.


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