The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware

Great book for people who want to know what working with manufacturers in Shenzhen is all about.For anyone who doesn't know, there's a renaissance currently in computer parts. Maybe you're learning to program with Arduino or connecting parts to a Raspberry Pi. Maybe you're learning to solder a kit and need a cheap LCP screen. Maybe you have the next big idea for a connected IoT device. Any computer part you want- an mp3 player board, capacitors, SD card readers, sky's the limit- can be gotten from China at jaw-dropping-low prices. But, you have to know your sources. You have to be able to read a datasheet, to deal with ordering through Mouser or AliExpress, and to avoid dangerous counterfeits. If you're in this world, you must read this book. Do it now.Pros: Gives you real-world tours of Chinese factories and processes, warts and all. The author ended up working right on the line, teaching assembly line workers how to debug his product or how to install anti-RF "cans" to protect his chips. This is the 100% down and dirty of how Chinese knockoff electronics work, how they're made, and how you can take advantage of this market to get your product made. He talks about combing through racks of knockoff SD cards and discovering which were counterfeit- and sometimes even the company responsible was reselling these counterfeit parts! The counterfeit SD cards were breaking his devices, so there's a ton to learn and study on how supply lines work and how to operate safely when sourcing parts for a product.Cons: The product the author was making for most of the book is Chumby... which was terrible. It's an overly expensive internet device. It's wrapped in Italian leather and priced like a premium product, yet it has a terrible low-resolution screen seriously limiting its uses. It's just a bad idea all over. You kind of wish he was making a product that had some market feasibility, because it makes you distrust his judgement elsewhere. I think his hardware skills are all in order so I trust his factory stories, but the kid is/was terrible at reading the market before launching a product.Overall, it's a must-read for hardware hackers. I really want to do a field trip to Shenzhen and buy a $5 cell phone just to play with it. Maybe get a sleeve of SD cards just to see how many actually work. Who knows what you'll find.

This book is incredible. The author uses first-hand experience to discuss the concept of "hackable" hardware. When I first heard of this book on AdaFruit's blog, I figured their hype was due to kickbacks or something, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, their words pale in significance to how incredibly fabulous this book is. This book is not just conceptual material -- it has very practical information on how to go from concept, to design, to manufacturing to final product and support -- and it's not just an outline; ever step of the way is presented in deep detail. The content is a little "how to" mixed in with the author's personal experiences, even thoughts on how these processes and techniques can be used for non-technical things. This book will remain on my shelf for a very long time and I'm sure I will be referring back to it quite often.

In college, I switched my major away from EE specifically because of intro circuit analysis. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to find this a very readable, relatable account of the path I didn't follow. Having worked in structural design for more than two decades, I think that it is neat to see that while the details are different, engineering problems have similar themes regardless of the specific discipline.

Having no experience in outsourced custom electronic manufacturing, this book was enlightening on many levels. Almost makes you feel like an intern along for a ride with a great engineer as he navigates and conqueres the cultural differences exposed in chinese physical manufacturing and managerial oversight.

Great for the beginner starting to create projects in electronics and want to take it further for a potential money making project beyond the hobbyist who only want to entertain themselves with their own creations. I like the explanation on counterfeit section i briefly read over... Nicely written by "bunnie"

Andrew "bunnie" Huang's new book "The Hardware Hacker" is full of surprises. The most notable is that the final chapter is all about biohacking from a reverse engineering hardware developer perspective. While you might know Bunnie as a guru of reverse engineering he admits at the end of the book that he flipped a coin when he went to MIT about his major. The EE side of the coin toss won, but biology was the road not taken.As an open hardware developer I loved the first nine chapters. Bunnie shares all of his trials and experiences offering many valuable lessons about designing hardware which he learned the hard way. He goes further than most and gets into laptop, phone and FPGA adventures where as many of us have not ventured passed simple microcontroller projects. The book is easy to follow as it is loaded with stories, people and factories from around the world."The Hardware Hacker's" final chapter blew my mind. Bunnie dives into H1N1 virus compared to computer viruses, analyzing DNA sequences with UNIX CLI tools, decompiling protein sequences and patching our genome. These topics are often explained by biologists, but it was much easier to absorb when the biology was explained with hardware analogies.

This book will save me a lot of trouble as we bring our product to market.Not perfect, just an excellent sharing of information well above other books on the topic.

The book is consist of stories about hardware, hardware hacking, bioinformatics, hacking H1N1(that was an interesting topic) and bunnie's adventures on hardware startups. I really enjoy reading the book and learnt new things. Nevertheless i was expecting a book about how to hack hardware and chips. So if you expect this as a tutorial, you are gonna be worried. This is a story book, but an exclusive one.

Really great book that gives an unexpected insight not only into how electronics industry works in China, but how the Intellectual Property system works. (Part of the reason why China was able to respond to ventilator and medical hardware demand so well.)Cleaver guy and has written an engaging and sometimes numerous book.

Immer wieder hört man hier zu Lande: billiger "China Schortt", das kaufe ich nicht. Liesst man dieses Buch versteht man endlich, das in den Fabriken hochmotivierte und bestens ausgebildete Leute sitzen, die sich den Arsch aufreißen und dabei viel zu wenig verdienen, damit alle auf der Welt freudig konsumieren können. In der Produktionslinien werden an einem Tag iPhones und an anderem Tag Teddybären zusammen geschustert von ein und den selben Leuten. Es gibt keinen billigen "China Schrott", es sei denn er wurde HIER explizit bestellt.Einen Punkt Abzug, da die ganzen Bilder nur in Graustufen und für mich schlecht erkennbar sind.

L'auteur est un personnage unique de par son expérience et sa plume.On apprend beaucoup, on découvre les coulisses de fabrication des produits électroniques.Une véritable bible pour qui s'intéresse à l'Open Hardware, au design au développement de produits, au DIY, Arduino, etc.De plus 'Bunnie' a une bonne plume :)

If you like this stuff you're gunna love this book,

Non è quello che mi aspettavo dal titolo ma forse per questo è stato molto interessante. Offre una prospettiva insolita ma interessante.Lettura di valore