Hai, I want to become a hardware hacker! I want to become a hardware hacker, whatever the products in industry whether it is Microcontroller or plc made I want to hack it? restore it? I wan to make it in new way? How to do it?
I had chased some circuits manually, but It is very panic? Multilayer circuits I can't do anything? some of Chip's datasheets only I can find it? but not for everything? is there any books for reverse engineering?
There are lots of books on "forward engineering". Learn that and reverse engineering will come pretty easy.
I realize it might be obvious but in order to hack hardware, you need a firm background in electronics
theory, preferably a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology or similar. Those who lack degrees
are usually hobbyists and technicians with years of hands on experience who have done their due diligence reading data sheets and app notes and building circuits or reading cook books. (electronics variety). Many of them disassembled electronics and learned by taking things apart. Many learned by
building circuits. Most hardware hackers have built hundreds if not thousands of circuits (breadboarded
or hand wired) in their day. Anyone who states:
"I want to become a hardware hacker " just doesn't get it.
If you got it, you wouldn't be saying that , you would be off in some surplus store shopping for junk to
play with or in front of the book rack shopping for a DIY cookbook, or home breadboarding circuits.
Unfortunately, I cannot relate to your position because I decided that I didn't want to be a restaurant cook
for the rest of my life there was no internet to post a question like yours. I simply started at the Heathkit
store and bought the first four home study courses in electronics: DC, AC, SEMICONDUCTORS & ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS, plus all the test equipment I needed. I spent the next year browsing electronics
parts and surplus stores and building circuits in the daytime and cooking steaks on a broiler at night.
I once bought 166 LM307 LM307H Metal Can package
(normally $3.95/each in that day) ON SALE for 25 cents/EACH !
Keep in mind this was 1979 and $3.95 each was expensive to me so when I saw a clearance sale price
of 25 cents /EACH, I literally jumped at the opportunity. I asked clerk how many of them he had and
he replied "How many do you need ?" to which I replied "How many do you have ?" to which he replied
"How many do you need ?" to which I replied "How many do you have ?" to which he replied "Do you
mean IN THE WHOLE STORE ?!" to which I replied "YES !". He paused a second , gave me a strange
look and checked his computer and replied "We have 166 in stock." to which I replied. "I'll take 'em."
to which he replied "How many?" to which I replied "ALL OF THEM." . He gave me an even stranger look
and asked "What are you going to do with 166 op amps ?" to which I replied " I don't know. I don't even
know what an op amp is, but judging from all the books you sell about op amps, it is something very
useful and I have the rest of my life to figure out how to use them. He gave me a really strange look
then and said , OK. Here you are. I gave him the cash (I didn't have any credit or credit cards then) and
said thank you and left. 30 years later I had 65 op amps left which I gave to a college student majoring in electrical engineering. In retrospect , I actually wish I had save about a dozen for myself. Today the
same op amp goes for about $14.00. In 1992 I enrolled in DeVry Institute of Technology in CA, USA
in the BSEET curriculum. I sat in the classroom and looked at the students on my left and on my right,
and all I saw were High School graduates, 18 years old. High School math for them was last year. I
was 47 and for me HS math was 25 years ago. Do you think I remembered Algebra or Trig ? I had to
learn everything literally from scratch. (an no I didn't trudge 5 miles in the snow to get to school)
Out of the 100 students who started that course , only 40 graduated in 1995.
I was one of them. I had 12 years of hands on experience but the classes taught me a different approach
that focused more on research and crunching numbers and less on building circuits. So when I see
someone asking the question "How do I become a hardware hacker ?" I just don't even know where to
start.
Your story is really Inspiring me, But, I found answer in your post, and I realized I'm almost on the way. You confirmed me.
Thank you.
glad to be of help. What did you find helpful ?
raschemmel:
I realize it might be obvious but in order to hack hardware, you need a firm background in electronics
theory, preferably a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology or similar. Those who lack degrees
are usually hobbyists and technicians with years of hands on experience who have done their due diligence reading data sheets and app notes and building circuits or reading cook books. (electronics variety). Many of them disassembled electronics and learned by taking things apart. Many learned by
building circuits. Most hardware hackers have built hundreds if not thousands of circuits (breadboarded
or hand wired) in their day. Anyone who states:
This is what.
Thank you
Just had to plus one that!
Just had to plus one that!
Thanks Paul.
I still have flashbacks of my Russian Physics professor giving a "pop quiz" :
"Put everything under your desk and take out a blank piece of paper and a PENCIL !"
"NO CALCULATORS !!"
He was no ordinary Physics Professor. NASA hired him to check their computer calculations for the rocket trajectory to the Moon , using only a blank piece of paper and a pencil. No calculators !
(it might have been more than one piece of paper. ..)
Paul__B:
Just had to plus one that!
raschemmel:
Thanks Paul.I still have flashbacks of my Russian Physics professor giving a "pop quiz" :
"Put everything under your desk and take out a blank piece of paper and a PENCIL !"
"NO CALCULATORS !!"
He was no ordinary Physics Professor. NASA hired him to check their computer calculations for the rocket trajectory to the Moon , using only a blank piece of paper and a pencil. No calculators !
(it might have been more than one piece of paper. ..)
Hi! I didn't understand what you are saying here?
In 1992 I enrolled in DeVry Institute of Technology in CA, USA
in the BSEET curriculum.
The DeVry Physics professor was contracted by NASA in the early 1960s for the Apollo Mission calculations. You are aware that the US landed on the moon in July of 1969 , right ? (I watched it LIVE on
TV at the AIRMAN's club at Shepard AFB, in Texas , while getting drunk with my comrades in arms)
ohhhh ok
(I watched it LIVE on
TV at the AIRMAN's club at Shepard AFB, in Texas , while getting drunk with my comrades in arms)
"NO CALCULATORS !!"
Did they have calculators?
Remember my slide ruler days? :
whether they are have a calculators or not that's not a matter, how to hack a circuits that's the matter. 
how to hack a circuits that's the matter.
Experience and time.
The more you do the more you will learn.
Ask questions.
Listen to people who have the knowledge.
I thought that the bulk of the trajectory calculations were done by college kids ? at least in the mercury/Gemini days.
I remember the first digital calculator. a kid in my ... 5th ?? grade class had one. it did add/subtract/multiply and cost only a little over $100.00
as for Neil Armstrong, I was not even a teen, visiting relatives in Florida.
as for hardware hacking, I think one needs to be educated to a higher level than a design engineer. it is one thing to think of a thing and create it, it is something special to see what someone else thought of and built and have such a complete understanding of the whole field to figure it out.
whether they are have a calculators or not that's not a matter, how to hack a circuits that's the matter.
I think this is the OP's way of saying I was Off-topic with my aside about the Physics Professor. I don't think
he appreciated that story as much as everyone else did. You really had to be there. When you heard him
say those words "Surprise Quiz ! Put everything under your desk!"
you could almost sense everyone's heart skipping a beat.
Sorry OP,
You get what you pay for here.
You asked for info on hardware hacking and you got so much more... 
We are , after all , human. If you want an answer that is never off-topic, ask HAL.
"I think you forgot the ground, Dave.."
"I'm sorry raschemmel, I'm afraid I can't do that"
raschemmel:
I think this is the OP's way of saying I was Off-topic with my aside about the Physics Professor. I don't think
he appreciated that story as much as everyone else did.
No actually I like your words, but I'm just more eagerly waiting for hardware hacking. Sorry if I did something wrong.
Thank you.
"I'm sorry raschemmel, I'm afraid I can't do that"
"This is for your own good Hal..."
I'm just more eagerly waiting for hardware hacking.
Anybody ? ...Anybody? ....
(is anybody going to tell the OP he has to pick a circuit first before asking a question or are we waiting for
him to figure that out (that "hardware hacking is not a TOPIC, it is a SUBJECT. And then after you pick a
circuit you have to state an objective, and then after you state your objective you have to state your question. It's like waiting for someone to talk about electronics. You have to pick a specific circuit or formula before you ask your question. Am I the only one thinking this or is this a "quiz" ? Am I on Candid Camera ?) )