I'm surprised and impressed that this works. I would've guessed phones have enough RF shielding and low-pass filters in the audio path to prevent this.
Time Station Emulator
41–50 of 62 posts
Re: Time Station Emulator
#42Shame there's no video demonstrating it working. It's a fun idea but without a demo, I'm left wondering about the efficacy.
I wasn't able to get this to work on a Pixel 8 in Chrome/Firefox on a JP region clock
I used a different app on a Pixel 8 Pro and it worked well. It uses the same principle.
Re: Time Station Emulator
#43Very impressive, I just tried it, the first time it worked but synced the wrong time, despite the device time is correct, the browser (preview part) had the wrong time however. I tried to offset the time and sync it again, the watch is detecting the signal but no sync.
Nonetheless, pretty amazing!
Re: Time Station Emulator
#44“One of the higher-frequency harmonics inevitably created by any real-world DAC during playback will then be the original fundamental, which should leak to the environment as a short-range radio transmission via the ad-hoc antenna formed by the physical wires and circuit traces in the audio output path.” Sometimes I think I’m a smart guy…and then I read of people doing shit like this.
Van Eck Phreaking dates back to 1982, which used CRTs, and if you're aware of that, it's not an insurmountably huge logical leap to realize that modern hardware can be exploited the same way (thanks to greater sensitivity in receiving devices). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking
Reminds me of the theremin. Turning an interference into something useful (or beautiful)
Re: Time Station Emulator
#45check out this guy, doing something similar sending Lora packets without a radio - https://youtu.be/eIdHBDSQHyw?si=MGteEp72Mz52qNqu
"This video explores LoRaWAN communication using a microcontroller without a dedicated radio chip. CNLohr demonstrates techniques to transmit LoRa packets over surprisingly long distances, pushing the limits of inexpensive hardware. The project involves creative software and hardware interaction to generate signals at unexpected frequencies."
Re: Time Station Emulator
#46I remember years ago I bought a clock that advertised it set itself using the atomic clock broadcast. Which it did. The very first time it was plugged in, and then never again after. The clock also kept horrible time, it lost a couple minutes every month. Truly an astonishing piece of wtf engineering.
What's weird is it seems like for a long time now I haven't seen "self setting" clocks on retail shelves in a while at big box stores. Everyone went back to just manual timekeeping and I haven't seen a self-setter in a hot minute.
Re: Time Station Emulator
#47This could be really useful in the future. NIST has been talking about retiring its radio-syncing signal, as there are better modern alternatives with satellites, the Internet, etc. But last time they suggested this there was an outcry, not just from the public with old radio-synced clocks and watches, but also industry with legacy equipment using it. This provides a solution.
Re: Time Station Emulator
#48“One of the higher-frequency harmonics inevitably created by any real-world DAC during playback will then be the original fundamental, which should leak to the environment as a short-range radio transmission via the ad-hoc antenna formed by the physical wires and circuit traces in the audio output path.” Sometimes I think I’m a smart guy…and then I read of people doing shit like this.
THIS is what you call hacking
A shame this hasn't shot to number 1 on HN and stayed there. At least it's getting reasonable upvotes.
This is a truly fantastic piece of hacking, going by the original meaning of the word as used within the dawn of the computer era.
Re: Time Station Emulator
#49“One of the higher-frequency harmonics inevitably created by any real-world DAC during playback will then be the original fundamental, which should leak to the environment as a short-range radio transmission via the ad-hoc antenna formed by the physical wires and circuit traces in the audio output path.” Sometimes I think I’m a smart guy…and then I read of people doing shit like this.
[deleted]
Re: Time Station Emulator
#50I remember years ago I bought a clock that advertised it set itself using the atomic clock broadcast. Which it did. The very first time it was plugged in, and then never again after. The clock also kept horrible time, it lost a couple minutes every month. Truly an astonishing piece of wtf engineering.
What's weird is it seems like for a long time now I haven't seen "self setting" clocks on retail shelves in a while at big box stores. Everyone went back to just manual timekeeping and I haven't seen a self-setter in a hot minute.
I recently bought 2 of them.
You have to specifically look for the feature. Most do not have it.