﻿Hacking RadioShack Kit

Hacking RadioShack Kit

11/15/2016

RadioShack lives on where I live. We have two stores near me. I found a clock kit for $19.95 and discovered it was a PIC16F690 based design that was easily hackable. RadioShack offers the code for the clock in Microchip XC8 C language format but I chose to reworked it using Great Cow Basic compiler to create a countdown control.

RadioShack doesn't offer the schematic for download but they include it in the paper manual that is part of the kit. The kit is easy to assemble and the circuit board is designed to be hacked as a programming port is designed in. I hooked up my PICkit 2 clone and was able to re-flash the PIC16F690 with ease.

I'm working on this for a future YouTube video and I share the progress with my Patreon supporters who give me $1/month or more to keep my YouTube productions going. I'll post more here but if you want to see how it progresses into a Rocket Launcher then join me on Patreon at this link.

6 Comments

Aleks

9/13/2017 06:33:32 am

i am interested to re-flash pic16f690 to correct radioshack product

Chuck link

10/12/2017 01:52:17 pm

Check their website. They have the original code.

Marc

10/12/2017 01:46:42 pm

How would you go about turning this into a countdown timer? What additional parts would you need?
Thanks!
Marc

Chuck link

10/12/2017 01:53:12 pm

Just a code change really. Unless you want some kind of buzzer.

Marc

10/12/2017 02:00:02 pm

Oh, thanks. Any tips on changing the code? What about a countdown timer?

Hugo Cervantes link

1/2/2025 06:35:42 pm

Greetings. Congrats for your great work on this, as well as for your posts at Youtube. Have one question: I have the Radio Shack clock kit as well. I replaced original 2 AA batteries socked for a 5V DC addapter, but noticed it runs much faster. How could I fix (or reporgram) to make the clock accurate under this modification? Thanks!