Hardware Hacking Your Devices

[fillibar]

Has anyone done any hardware hacking on any of the sensors they have gotten that can actually control some power? I have been debating about looking deeper into a GE Link bulb. Obviously it is controlling the LED driver board and able to tell it the level to drive LEDs. If you disassembled one... could that same $15 part then be connected to something else and tell it (with optoisolation, relays, etc...) to do what is needed? Obviously not safe... obviously voiding your warranty on your bulb... but at $15... Probably a lot of people here have spent more buying something and then finding out it was not compatible or breaking something or buying something "as is" only to find out it does not work.

So... any experimenters? I may be making a trip to Target tomorrow... If I start working on this I will try to document it a bit if anyone shows interest. Let me know.

[eldaria]

Well that should be possible, I have not really seen the bulb in question but I have hacked other stuff such as Ikea LED lights to control it from Arduino, and I hacked the securifi water sensor to be a hidden reed sensor. Everything is hackable if you have enough time(And knowledge). :-)

Hacking the Water sensor.
http://forum.securifi.com/index.php/topic,1051.0.html

[fillibar]

That thread came to mind. I should be stopping by Target today. May have some more info tonight.

[fillibar]

So I started writing up a bunch about how I was working at getting this bugger apart, and stumbled across a YouTube video that gets into MUCH more detail for a teardown than I was working at. Rather than recreate all of TheHouseBlog's work, I will link to that and recommend people look at that first. I will note though that I had much more trouble than he did getting the outer dome off. As I will put in my page, I found there are V+ and V- points on the LED board that have the same connections as the V+ and V- for the LEDs themselves. Seems like a good source for the "end result" signal.

Here is the teardown I found (please note I have no knowledge of the creator):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa6v4-5LDdk

[eldaria]

Nice when someone does the tear down for you. ;-)

[fillibar]

I know. Had I found it at first it might have saved me some trouble.