Google Groups: alt.2600Groups Home | Help | Sign in Web Images Video News Maps more » Books Froogle Groups even more » Advanced Groups Search Preferences alt.2600 > Demon Dialers Fixed font - Proportional font From:locklin - view profile Date:Fri, Mar 4 1994 12:01 pm Email: lock...@phyast.pitt.edu Groups: alt.2600 Not yet ratedRating: show options Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse | Find messages by this author In article <1994Feb25.192311.14...@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> you write: >How do I get one of those HackTic Demon Dialers,and what are they good for, >or do they just generate tones? Uh, "Just generating tones" is an incredibly useful ability, if one can generate whatever tone one likes. Shucks; in some sense, that is all your computer does to connect to the rest of the world through a modem. I've included a manual for the hac-tic dialer at the end of this post which shows its capabilities. The main problem with the hac-tic dialer (aside from hardware problems; they're rather bulky IMHO) is the fact that they are unavailable & may _never_ be available again, unless they switch to a different MPU platform. The M68HC705 MPU that the hac-tic dialer is based on is pretty much unavailable these days; my sources at motorola tell me that it may _never_ be available again; it's just too outdated. It would be a trivial task to port the software to a M68HC11 platform & upgrade it significantly, but I see no indication that hac-tic is planning on doing this. On the brighter side of things, I know of at least one american who is building a device which is similar but superior to the hac-tic dialer; the new device will be 1/4-1/2 of the price, will be smaller, and easily disguised as a 'more legitamate' device, use superior/faster technology, have more features (CID tones for example), have more & non-volatile memory & so on... Unfortunately, he's bogged down in other projects right now & hasn't had time to put finishing touches on the software, but this thing _will_ be made available to the general public in some form. >Also, does Radio Shack make a modular connector that takes a standard size and converts it down to the smaller size (the handset size)? I need this for tapping into the net locally on campus.... Actually, yes they do sell this stuff. -Lupo *************************sorry about the controll keys************************** Do it yourself Demon-Dialer Operation & Software reference manual (v 1.40) Hack-Tic Technologies tel/fax: +31 20 6000581 1 The basic functions 1.1 Getting started Once the device is powered up by pressing the shift-key, a short upward tone sweep will emit from the system speaker. When changing batteries hold down the shift key when the power comes on to make sure the device starts up properly. If you power-up for the first time since changing batteries, all the settings will default to their standard values. This will also mean that in order to gain access to the system you will first have to type your system password. This password is supplied with the Demon-Dialer and should not (repeat NOT) be lost. The password that we supplied with your device is not archived at Hack-Tic Technologies or anywhere else, it's only in your device and on the piece of paper that came with it. 1.2 Getting in As said, when the device starts up for the first time, you have to type a password. While you are typing this, the device will act like a normal Touch-Tone here: Touch-Tones all sound similar, but a trained ear can identify all the digits. If you wish to keep your password a secret, it is advisable to cover the speaker with your hand while you type the password. If the wrong password is keyed in, the device will remain operative as a Touch-Tone To get access to it's more sophisticated functions, leave the device untouched for 30 seconds. The device will then auto- power off (6 seconds after a four beep alert-sound), at which point you can restart the device with the shift-key and start over. Once the correct code is entered a victorious tune sounds, signalling you that it is now ready to emulate any in-band signalling system. Of course the security of this device depends fully on how secure the data is within the heart of it, the MC68HC705C8/ DD. The program in this chip (which also contains your password) is protected with a security-bit that tells the processor not to allow the outside world to read the contents of its PROM. We do not know of any methods to read the contents of a security-bit protected PROM short of probing on the surface of the chip itself, which is a hyper-expensive operation, even if you did get the bare silicon out of the package in one piece. In other words, it is VERY HARD for someone who does not know the code to prove that your device is anything but an ordinary DTMF-dialer. If you decide not to deal with all this ultra-paranoid password nonsense, you can switch off the password protection using a special command sequence discussed later on. 1.3 Getting used to it Of all the in-band signalling systems, Touch-Tone known as DTMF to the more technically minded) is the most well-known. The Demon-Dialer includes many more systems, whose only similarity is that they use tones to get a message across. Modems all over the world use in-band signalling to send data. One might even find in-band systems used to signal information between phone-switches, or from mobile phones to their base-stations. Rumour has it that there exists countries that have payphones using in-band signalling to indicate coin deposits. An unlikely story, but you never know. The Demon-Dialer starts up in Touch-Tone mode, but can be switched to a lot of other modes. Modes are numbered 0 through 19. Modes 0 through 9 are accessed by pressing shift and the * key together followed by the number of the mode. From now on we will refer to keys that are pressed with the shift down by printing a ^ in front of the key. Modes 10 through 19 are accessed by pressing ^* followed by ^0 through ^9. Here is a list of modes currently implemented: l 0 Touch-Tone l 1 ATF1 l 7 line signalling menu l 2 R2-forward l 8 tone slot l 3 CCITT No. 3 l 12 R2-backward l 4 CCITT No. 4 l 18 user programmable l 5 CCITT No. 5 / R1 Mode 18 is a RAM-mode, which means it can be user-defined. See chapter 5 for more information on mode 18. 2 Macro mode 2.1 Using macros Now that you are familiar with the basic operation of the unit it is time for macros. A macro is nothing but a stored sequence of keypresses that can be played back. It means that you do not have to retype something that you may need to send multiple times. It also means that you can send sequences of tones at speeds otherwise impossible. To work with macros you must first put the device in "macro mode". This is done by typing ^#. Two tones, the last one lower than the first tell you that you are now in macro mode. There are 10 different macros and they can be played by pressing 0 through 9 while in macro mode. To record anything in the macros first press ^ (where is the macro you wish to record). If the macro you are recording into is not empty the four-beep alert sequence will sound. Press # to confirm programming, or any other key to abort it. If it was empty you will get only two beeps and you can start programming right away. Now just press the keys that you want to put in the macro. The keys will produce one beep when you press them; they will not produce the sounds they would when pressed outside the macro mode. Don't worry, they'll sound just fine when the macro is played. If you wish to change modes inside the macro just do what you would normally do: press ^* followed by the mode you want. Of the special functions (see section 4), only ^* * 4 and ^* * 5 (guard tone on and guard tone off) can be put in a macro. To end macro recording press ^# followed by #. To go back to normal operation just press #. Two tones, the last one higher than the first will sound to indicate that you have left the macro mode. You can stop a macro while it is playing by pressing #. 2.2 Macro nesting It is even possible to nest macros. This means that inside one macro you can tell the device to play the contents of another macro. The nested macros are called by name which means that if macro B is nested inside macro A and the contents of macro B are changed, the change will also affect the nested B that is played as part of macro A. To nest a macro press ^# followed by the macro you wish to nest while recording. 2.3 Macro aliasing It is possible to set up a macro-alias. This enables you to "rename" one of the macros to another macro. If we for instance alias macro 3 to macro 4, it means that whenever macro 3 is referenced, macro 4 is played instead. Macro 3 is still there, it can just not be accessed until this function is disabled. To use macro aliasing go to macro mode and press * where is the macro that aliased to . If you now press you hear . To turn this off press *. In effect, you are then aliasing the macro back to itself. Only one alias can be in effect at any time. It is also possible to alias a macro to silence by pressing *#. 2.4 Macro pausing and retry You can include special sequences in the macros to tell the Demon-Dialer to wait for shift to be pressed, and you can place retry points. Using ^* # 0 in a macro places a retry marker. ^* # 1 means that at this point, when the macro is played, the Demon-Dialer waits for the shift to be pressed before continuing. ^* # 2 means that at this point the Demon-Dialer macro just continues. unless shift is pressed. If it is, it waits until shift is released and pressed again before continuing. ^* # 3 is the same as ^* # 2 except that in order to continue shift has to be repressed within 125 ms, otherwise the macro is 'rewound' to the last retry marker (nifty huh?). ^* # 4 is like putting ^* # 0 and ^* # 1 in the macro. If you programmed a macro with some of the above sequences and you want to play the macro normally, use ^* # . This will ignore all pause and retry sequences. 3 The FIN-table Inside your Demon-Dialer is a frequency table. This table contains twelve RAM-based frequencies that you can change and 82 ROM-based (fixed) frequencies. The frequencies are referenced to by number. These numbers are called Frequency Index Numbers (FIN). Apart from the tone made during frequency stepping and sweeping, these are the tones the device will produce. Some of the RAM-based frequencies have been used in modes 3 and 7 and have a default value that is loaded in them every time you change the batteries or reset the device. The FIN-table is listed in full in Appendix A. 4 Special functions A number of special functions is built into the device. They are all accessed by pressing ^* * followed by the number of the function. 4.0 Device init This function will initialize the device, deleting all macro definitions, RAM mode 18, all time-templates and RAM frequencies. It will also turn the password protection back on (if it was off). In other words: EVERYTHING YOU EVER PUT INTO THE DEVICE IS GONE. When you press ^* * 0 an alert will sound. If you press # the Demon-Dialer will initialize, if you press anything else it will not. 4.1 RAM FIN programming The Demon-Dialer has 12 FIN-locations in its memory where the user can define frequencies. Type ^* * 1 # # The frequency number ranges from 0 to 11, the frequency has to be entered in Hertz. The system will acknowledge programming by playing a short sample of the frequency just programmed. These user-defined FINs as well as the ROM-based FINs can be used when programming your own keys into mode 18, they can also be used as guard tones. The C3 mode uses two RAM frequencies (0 and 1) as its mark and space frequency respectively so that you can use it to emulate any Single Frequency system. 4.2 Time template programming The user of the Demon-Dialer can define up to 8 periods in milliseconds and then use these periods in the User Defined Mode as durations for tones. Most of the time-templates are also used in the ROM-modes of the device. The fact that a certain time-template has been used in a ROM-mode does not mean you cannot use it in one of your own modes. Time templates are programmed in a manner similar to the user- defined frequencies above. Typing ^* * 2