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Notes & write-ups5 posts · 2020–2026

Write-ups from taking things apart: protocols, firmware and hardware I reverse engineered, and how I did it.

$ head reverse-engineering-smartbox-hw501.md

Taking apart a twenty euro AliExpress wireless CarPlay adapter: 32-bit RISC-V firmware pulled from the vendor's own update server, a version-to-version binary diff, and a guarded patch that lies about the head unit's physical size to get 15 app icons per page instead of 8.

sections

  1. 0x01What is actually inside
  2. 0x02Getting the stock firmware
  3. 0x03What the vendor changed between releases
  4. 0x04Making CarPlay show more icons
  5. 0x05The part where I nearly killed one
  6. 0x06Where it stands
read

2026

  • Taking apart a twenty euro AliExpress wireless CarPlay adapter: 32-bit RISC-V firmware pulled from the vendor's own update server, a version-to-version binary diff, and a guarded patch that lies about the head unit's physical size to get 15 app icons per page instead of 8.

    sections

    1. 0x01What is actually inside
    2. 0x02Getting the stock firmware
    3. 0x03What the vendor changed between releases
    4. 0x04Making CarPlay show more icons
    5. 0x05The part where I nearly killed one
    6. 0x06Where it stands
    read

2021

2020