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Hacking the SmarTrip - Part I

Thanks to DCist - http://tinyurl.com/5spogg - I got inspired to rip apart an extra SmarTrip card I had lying around for when friends/family visit me in the D.C. area. Unfortunately for them, they will now have to buy the day-long pass until I am done playing! To start, today I took the extra card and soaked it in acetone for about an hour and after that time I was able to rip off the initial plastic of the card. After that hour-long of soaking you'll find the card becomes very flexible and if you attack the corners with tweezers you'll eventually realize the 3 layers of the card. The face of each side should peel off rather easily, although a minute amount of force is required. See the Flickr set here: http://tinyurl.com/6ck5q5 If you take a look at the images you'll see that all of the electronics (controller, antenna) are now exposed and we can start to play. My girlfriend just handed me a Faraday flashlight with a GIANT coil of magnet wire inside of it, so now we're working on extracting that wire to use as the antenna for the smarTrip's microcontroller. More to come...

Hacking the SmarTrip - Part

I might add that the attempt above at transplanting failed when I took it to the Columbia Height Station. I had another SmarTrip card with me which did work. I did take a quick 30sec video of the normal one working and the transplant failing, but I haven’t put it up yet.

increase height

  • By Anonymous at 06/27/2009 - 9:58am
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I am starting a project based

I am starting a project based on Smart Clothing @ HacDC - if anyone is interested please e-mail me if you haven't done so already. The goal is going to be to raise money to buy a machine that the DC community could use and are in need of. (Something of the 'techshop' variety)

Cheers,

  • By Q (not verified) at 07/22/2008 - 12:14pm
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You were much more methodical

You were much more methodical in dismantling yours than I was. :) If you're interested in bringing yours to HacDC one of these evenings, let me know and I'll come by with mine too.

  • By katie (not verified) at 07/21/2008 - 5:07pm
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Hey, this is Tom Lee, the guy

Hey, this is Tom Lee, the guy who wrote that DCist post. Just wanted to say that I'm glad someone is picking up the gauntlet and doing more work on the SmarTrip. I'll be curious to see what you find out. I've thought about it a lot over the years, but haven't been willing to splurge on an RFID devkit.

I've been following HacDC and dropped by your equipment drive; I'm hoping to make it to at least one of your upcoming inaugural events. I'll try to catch you there.

  • By Tom (not verified) at 07/20/2008 - 7:32pm
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