Connect an RF 433 MHz Transmitter and Receiver to a Raspberry Pi

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I’ve been dabbling with 433 MHz devices over the past few days and tying those devices in with my home automation software named HomeAssistant.  A decent transmitter receiver kit will set you back a whopping $10 or so.  I opted for this one.

It performs extremely well in a home environment and has great specs.

One of the gotchas of this device though is it comes with ABSOLUTELY NO DOCUMENTATION WHATSOEVER.  You’d be hard pressed to find much useful on line as well. So that’s where I come in.

Fortunately the wiring is pretty basic and the pins are clearly marked on the back side of the circuit boards.

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RpiTX Replay Attack on GE MySelectSmart Remote Control Outlet

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Was walking around Target and saw an inexpensive remote outlet which I was pretty sure I could perform the Replay Attack on.

The Replay Attack  is when you record a signal from something and transmit it back to perform the operation.

These devices typically transmit around 433 MHz and have no encryption of any kind whatsoever.  Just a simple transmit burst for on and off functions.

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ProScan on Virtualbox

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Proscan  is a wicked cool hunk of software for Scanner Junkies like me.  It lets you take your expensive overpriced Uniden SDS100 (and other) scanners and do cool things with it, like make your scanner accessible to the web, or upload your feeds to scanner apps, etc.  It is worth every penny and then some.

If NOTHING ELSE ProScan allows you to display your LCD screen on a much larger computer screen.

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Swiss Army Knives – The Emotional Side

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If you were to do an exhaustive search online regarding the subject of Swiss Army Knives (SAK) you would be prone to find lots of historical and technical details and there is a plethora of “What Is The Best Swiss Army Knife?” web lists out there.  If you are a collector, or in my case a new collector, all of that information is GREAT!  But it doesn’t explain  WHY there is a connection between a boy or man and his pocketknife.

First and foremost, it is a tool which grants you independence.  I got my first knife (that I can remember) when I joined the Cub Scouts probably around 8 or 10 years old and in fact it is still in a drawer at my parents house.   Man oh man was I proud of that knife.  I’m sure as a Cub Scout I used it for whittling or to sharpen sticks when playing in the woods or maybe even used the screwdriver on my bicycle to tighten things up.

I truly get the emotional connection when a young boy gets a hardened steel knife. It’s DANGEROUS and by golly you were entrusted to operate it responsibly, and to use it as a TOOL and a LIFE SAVING DEVICE as any good scout is taught.  You are MAN ENOUGH to have something hazardous, maybe for the first time ever.

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Swiss Army Knives and Cameras and Tethering and Shit

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Hobbies are fun.  Hobbies are hard.  If you have a hobby you somehow or another want to document it for posterity.  If you own widgets such as Swiss Army Knives, Coins, trinkets, whatever then still photography is probably your medium of choice to preserve and document your collection.

But, let’s face it.  Most of us suck at photography.  If only there were a way to use a computer to improve your photography skills…….oh wait, there is.  It is called “Tethering” and tethering is nothing new.  I can’t provide a history lesson but I know I’ve been doing it since the late 90’s or so and it probably came along right with the advent of digital cameras, whenever that was.

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Spyserver on Raspberry Pi

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What’s a Spyserver?  And why would you want one?  Spyserver is a program for a Software Defined Radio (SDR) that allows you to access that radio from anywhere.  It also allows you to share your radio from anywhere and you can likewise share other people’s SDR radios.  Why would you want to do that?

First when the word “radio” comes to mind we tend to think of AM or FM radio only.  An SDR device is so much more than that.  It can literally listen to things from 0 kHz to 2 GHz or so.  That’s EVERYTHING that you can think of that uses a radio signal.   Short Wave, CB, Ham, pagers (yep they still use pagers), Police, Fire, EMS, the Space Shuttle flying overhead (not kidding), the tire pressure monitor sensors on your car, tracking aircraft, tracking ships, tracking weather balloons…………the list is almost endless.

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Common Problem with OP25 in Virtualbox

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I REALLY struggled hard to learn to use OP25 and once I figured It out I made a simple tutorial for myself to recreate on other computers and for others to use.  On my blog it is one of the more active pages and almost every week I get emails from people requesting help getting it working.  This is the page of instructions I made:  (there are a couple more pages that are Raspberry Pi specific but you’ll have to poke around my blog to find them).

OP25 For Dummies – Or how to build a police scanner for $30 (Part 1)

I would LOVE to help everybody but alas, I met a hot neighbor lady walking dogs a few months back and she’s cutting into my geek time!  Trust me when I say that I’m not complaining!

Most of the time I find that many users are installing Ubuntu under Virtualbox in either Windows or on a Mac and this is one of the most common errors:

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BEST Swiss Army Knife To CARRY

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Oh boy, the age old question for people who carry a Swiss Army Knife………Which one is best?  However the question should be……..Which one is best for me for the conditions I’m going to encounter?

I have LOTS of Swiss Army Knives.  LOTS.  And I try very hard to carry and use them all so I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my money.  But invariably you wonder if you could only have one, which one would it be?  I’m going to just get to the point and name the knife I’ve chosen.  Many may cringe.  Some will agree.

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