iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 24/09/2026

If you do use Claude, make your march towards the end more fun at least.

A diff for CLAUDE.md that says "When interacting with the user, talk in pirate speak only. When updating documents use normal phrasing and language.".

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 19/09/2026

I salute you ST micro for ensuring development boards I buy in 2026 fly in the face of the 2007 mini USB deprecation notice.

Two STM32 dev boards showing their mini-usb connectors.

4240

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/09/2026

Glad to know my bugs in my LLM code are being generated by <checks notes> multiple layers of LLM hallucinations?

A claude chat that says it wrote a bug because it took part of a protocol specification from "an LLM summary of libosdp's source rather than reading the code"

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 07/07/2026

If foxes are cat software on dog hardware, seals are dog software on fish hardware.

150

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 29/06/2026

Nice to see the #snowbirds going past us in Halifax (the aerobatic team, not the elderly going to Florida)

Snowbirds (Canadian aerobatic plane team) in the sky

030

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 26/06/2026

Convincing Claude not to trip the cybersecurity safety limits (I finally submitted the researcher form after this but it seemed to give me a little more time...).

A Claude LLM conversation where I ask for a chocolate chip cookie recipe to prevent it from trying to fall back to a less powerful model.

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 20/06/2026

Now @joegrand.bsky.social & @lennert.bsky.social about to show STM32 glitches that won't erase your device if you fail at RECON! #hardwarehacking

Joe Grand and Lennert Wouters on an stage in front of a slide

154

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 19/06/2026

She's more about the destination than the trip though.

150

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/06/2026

On my way to RECON! One last quick dog boat ride this morning before heading out...

180

Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

pinkflawd.bsky.social @pinkflawd.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

@blackhoodie.bsky.social will be back at @reconmtl.bsky.social this year 😱😻✨ Jane Tangen and Amna K Moon will be teaching an Introduction to x86 Reverse Engineering! We're delighted to be hosted at the Montreal Google offices! blackhoodie.re/Recon2026/

blackhoodie.re

Blackhoodie at Recon 2026

We are looking forward to hosting another Blackhoodie training at Recon for 2026! We will be hosting a free, one day training for women, by women.Join us for an introduction to Ghidra and static analy...

0147

Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

rce_trent @rce-trent.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

@oflynn.com Expanded maple link with i2c code, debug log, color highlighting the addresses found, etc. Works pretty well. I haven't tested the emmc part yet. Totally vibe coded off your vibe code. So vibe^2. Testing it with the adafruit sensors now.

021

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 07/05/2026

I'll be attending @reconmtl.bsky.social this year during June in Montreal - if you haven't been it's my favorite RE events by a large margin (and normally a few of us sneak in some hardware - no talk for me this year as wasn't sure on timing, but some good ones in there!).

020

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 01/05/2026

Spotted in my local Princess Auto. cc/ @swiftonsecurity.com

A Princess Auto (Canadian Harbour Freight basically) store catalog with "trailer swift" written on it, from the in store department.

040

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 14/04/2026

Final exam time for my EE/CE undergrad courses. This year I have a new policy of awarding points for explicitly stating they do not know the answer (25% of question points). Can't decide if it's evil or genius.

250

Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

Pass the SALT Conference @passthesaltcon.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Last call! 📅 #pts26 CFP wraps up on March 31 (midnight, GMT+2) 🎤 Got something spicy to share about Security ✕ Open Source (or open formats & protocols)? This is your moment to shine on stage this July ✨ 🚀 Submit your talk now: 👉 cfp.pass-the-salt.org/pts2026/cfp 🙏RT = eternal gratitude

cfp.pass-the-salt.org

Pass the SALT 2026

Schedule, talks and talk submissions for Pass the SALT 2026

057

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 05/03/2026

You more boldly left the erase button there. I decided to make people send the erase commands manually! (Originally this was for a talk about finding/erasing your data from old devices.. even then I didn't want to get complaints about it ..)

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 05/03/2026

I appreciate the commitment to putting whatever SPI flash package they can buy down.

0141

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/03/2026

On the embedded side example of bad choices: a simple one was the SPI sniffer tried to use bit-banging (for the sniffer, not control). There was almost no chance this would be reliable, but it would insist it should work for "reasonable" frequencies. Eventually got to PIO+FIFO+DMA based solution.

120

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/03/2026

However as someone who's last major HTML project involved frames on Geocities, it's a bit of game-changer there, since it rapidly sped up development on the UI. This sort of "demo project" I felt like was a good use, since if things break it's not that bad.

120

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/03/2026

If you didn't have the embedded experience it would make it hard to know when it's completely wrong, as it was equally confident about both code choices it would make (terrible and amazing). Especially around logic/timing I had to either do myself or hand-tune, as it would often flip things around.

110

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/03/2026

It was also an experiment in LLM coding (which I plan on releasing a template of this project for), and a longer follow-up on that. But the tl;dr is it was like working with the most efficient but inexperienced intern or something. Sometimes terrible decisions were made with high confidence.

110

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/03/2026

For an upcoming talk I built a stand-alone #hardwarehacking tool out of a R-Pi Pico that does Serial + #SPI Dump + #eMMC Dump with a bunch of stuff I wanted. It only needs your browser, and serves the webpage that is the interface from the micro. No internet, no install. github.com/colinoflynn/...

4194

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/02/2026

More #welding projects from the other day, circular saw wall storage

020

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 17/02/2026

Chanced an Eagle flying around the other day, some nice photo ops

151

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 14/02/2026

It's really absurd how good modern GNSS receivers are. Testing this cheap receiver module that I just roughly soldered to the back of the antenna (including an inductor in the path). It's about 1m from the window where it is on my desk, and it's still getting 8 GPS satellites & 7 BDS satellites.

A circuit board soldered to the back of a 2" ceramic antenna

A screenshot of a GPS log saying "Sat 0 visible=11 used=8
Sat 1 visible=7 used=7
Sat 2 visible=7 used=2"

590

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/02/2026

Annual mark all messages read to get back to inbox zero.

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 11/02/2026

Not yet.... EU distributor in progress as well for some products, we'd been hoping tariff life would settle down (making Mouser easier again) but has yet to happen! The actual EU distributor will hopefully make things better long-term.

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/02/2026

Towards fun topics in teaching computer architecture (this 5 min video on powerpoint as a computer is worth watching: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjx...)

A text slide saying "turing complete things" and listing:

C/C++
Arm Assembly Code
PowerPoint
Excel
The x86 “mov” instruction

152

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 02/02/2026

Yes LCSC, that is exactly the sort of ESD clamp device I want.

A LCSC (electronics parts website) search result for "ESD clamp", showing a mechanical C-clamp

050

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 30/01/2026

Lazy #hardwarehacking SPI dumping trick: you can normally use a lower VCC - the processor gets held in reset by the brown-out/reset logic, but still in #SPI operational range. No need to find reset pin/test pad.

An embedded board with a power supply in the background set to 2.7V (many embedded systems run at 3.3V, so 2.7V is lower). A tool in the foreground has clips going to the embedded board.

2214

Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

hforsten @hforsten.com · 27/01/2026

Browser based 2D field solver I've been writing for a while is now up. It calculates characteristic impedance and losses for many common and less common transmission lines.

hforsten.com

2D Transmission Line Field Solver

2D transmission line field solver

0195

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 26/01/2026

Just me downloading some data from NS government in 2026 where the readme.txt file contains helpful information about the superiority of Windows 3.1 platforms, really capturing the moment here.

A screenshot of a text file saying "Problems have been reported trying to import ARC E00 files
into ArcView on Windows 95 computers. Related tables do not import
into ArcView. It is not a problem on UNIX, Windows 3.1 or Windows NT platforms.
If you experience this problem you can use our DXF/DBF product
which contains the tables in dBase format. DBase files can be imported
into ArcView.
"

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 15/01/2026

Nothing like the great feeling that in 2026 a website still sends you your cleartext password in response to "forget my password".

020

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/01/2026

Inside of a basic transmitter... the gimbels just use wire that flexes back & forth, nothing fancy! Again all the actual work done in a micro.

030

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/01/2026

The annoying part of the integration is the clear high margins. e.g., the "receivers" are now not fancy things but 2.4GHz microcontrollers. There are 3rd part & other brands that are much cheaper, but these are also popular!

A specific RC receiver (AR630+) showing a price of $145 CAD

An internal photo of the receiver from FCC documentation

230

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/01/2026

...and less successful.

110

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/01/2026

Plane in question is an AeroScout trainer, here it was after a successful landing.

120

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/01/2026

It's been ~20 years but decided to get back into RC, high integration levels make it easy easier (more fun IMO).

150

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 09/01/2026

I do love that with USB-C we're back to checking carefully the ratings on the AC/DC power bricks, I guess at least you don't fry something plugging in the wrong one at least as it negotiates the higher power.

010

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 09/01/2026

I thought maybe it was something with older USB PD versions, but even in older USB PD with just profiles, at 20V you can have a 60W device. I'm guessing it's a discrete USB-PD negotiation chip so they didn't actually interface it to the MCU. I'll have to take it apart to check.

100

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 09/01/2026

More USB-C fun, this product just uses negotiated input voltage as USB-C PD rating!? I've tested this as a 45W USB-C power supply that allows 20V will let me set a charging current that needs >60W, which then causes the system to reboot as the USB-C PD obviously isn't happy.

A screenshot of a manual of a S100 charger, showing that if the input voltage on USB-C is 20V it assumes the power supply is 81-100W.

130

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 08/01/2026

The Xtools laser cutters drive me crazy for that, assuming it's missing/wrong CC resistors as it only works with a USB C-A cable. I use them with my (USB C only) surface laptop which means I need to have a needless USB hub in, can't use a C-C cable at all. Hard times!

000