Hacking the Retail 4Cube

The retail version of the 4Cube foregoes some of the features found in the kit version, name control switches and USB. We made this to try to keep the retail cost as low as we can, but for the hackingminded its not too hard to add back in. We didnt remove any functionality from the firmware (software costs us nothing after all,) so its just a matter of adding the necessary hardware.

DISCLAIMERS
Hacking the 4Cube just might be as easy as hacking is portrayed in the movies. Hey, its UNIXUART! I know this! <pokes at things for a 30 seconds> Im in! However hacking the 4Cube will not allow you to gain access to secret government networks. Unless you use it to distract security with the shiny. Which you can do without hacking the 4Cube anyway. In any case, at the point you decide to take soldering iron or drill bit to the 4Cube, youre taking full responsibility of its fate. I intend this guide to help you do your thing, but understand that it is outside the intended use of the 4Cube, and I make no guarantees of any sort. You are responsible for any damage you cause. If in doubt, stop and think it through. You can even email me with questions.

General Points
Make sure the Cube is unplugged before proceeding. If this isnt laughingly obvious you probably want to stop now. Access to the underside of the PCB can be gained by peeling off the rubber feet on the bottom, and unscrewing the screws under them. Careful you dont send your Cube spilling when doing this. For more information on what you can do with all this newfound functionality, see http://www.hypnocube.com/Docs/UserManual.pdf.

USB
The 4Cube PCB exports the UART pins from the microcontroller to a pad labeled UART (of course.) It is in the middle of the picture below. To add USB connectivity, you need to connect the UART pins to a USB-UART bridge chip, such as the popular FTDI FT232R. There are many USB-UART modules out there that wrap this IC (or similar) into a neat little package. The only thing to keep in mind is that this is 5V TTL, so your IC or module has to be compatible with that (almost all are.) Note: youre not limited to USB bridges of course. You could also attach a RS232-UART bridge if you have something with an actual serial port, or just another microcontroller.)

The pin-out on the UART pad is, from left to right as seen in the picture below: 5V GND TX RX Ignore the 5V; I only added it there in case there was some future use-case that required it to be powered from the cube. Any USB module youll find will be powered from the USB bus.

So, time to actually do something! You will simply need to connect the ground to your devices ground, RX to TX and TX to RX. Note: Sometimes UART can be confusing to people because instinct is to connect RX to RX and TX to TX A to A and B to B, right? But thats not the case here. Make sure you connect RX to TX and vice versa. Remember, you want each device to [R]eceive what the other is [T]ransmitting. Otherwise itll turn into a political debate between the two sides and no one wants that.

Rather than soldering wires directly to the board, you might want to attach a header like I did below.

And of course if you want a permanent installation, youll probably want the wires coming out the bottom of the PCB.

Buttons
Wiring buttons back into the 4Cube is slightly more difficult than the USB: theres 4 wires to do instead of 3! Basically you just need to attach momentary-make switches across the pads marked K1 and K2 which can be found along one edge of the PCB. Since you will just be shorting the two pins, theres no polarity or anything to worry about. I suggest getting a couple small panel mount pushbutton or toggle switches. Just be careful if you decide on drilling the plastic case because it has been reported as quite tricky (I havent tried it myself yet.) Start with a small hole, go slow, and stay clear of the corner posts (thanks for the warnings Eric!) Sorry, no pictures for the buttons yet! Ill update this doc when I have some.

Enjoy!
Gene 10.28.2011 hypnocube.com