writings.
Hardware deep dives, embedded firmware notes, software craft, and the occasional opinionated take. Filter by category or tag, search by keyword.
Hacking Another ₹249 Smartwatch: Custom Firmware on PHY6222
My second ₹249 smartwatch hid a PHY6222. I found its reset pin, stole the display init from the stock firmware, and updated it over BLE.
Run Node-RED 24/7 for Free on Render with Turso or Neon
Heroku killed its free tier. Here is how I run Node-RED 24/7 on Render for free, with flows saved to Turso or Neon so restarts lose nothing.
Making a WCH-Link clone program the unsupported CH32V003
The listing said CH32V003 not supported. The hardware was never the problem, the firmware was, so I replaced it.
Building Clipix, a Clipy-style clipboard manager for GNOME
I missed Windows clipboard history on Linux, tried every manager I could find, then spent a weekend building my own GNOME extension.
Building a USB display from a salvaged smartwatch LCD
2 Mbps of UART proved software USB was pointless. Then came an RP2040, a DMA rewrite, and a colour bug I could not see.
Turning a ₹249 Smartwatch Into a DIY AirTag Tracker
I lost my wallet on a night bus, so I turned a hacked ₹249 smartwatch into an Apple FindMy tracker and built my own app to follow it.
Hacking a ₹249 Smartwatch: Custom Firmware on TLSR8232
A bike navigation idea led me to reverse engineer a ₹249 smartwatch, crack its SWire debug port, and flash my own firmware on it.
Reverse Engineering MoYoung Watch Faces in the Browser
A gifted Porodo watch, no SDK, and a binary format nobody documented. How I ended up writing a watch face editor.
How I Built an HLS Streaming Stack on Shared Hosting
Can shared hosting stream HLS? I built a browser-powered HLS pipeline, measured its limits, and shared the lessons learned.