Red Bull got hacked by Alpha One Labs

I swung by the new Alpha One Labs digs in north Brooklyn last night for their weekly open-meeting. Just before the meeting was about to begin, a representative from Red Bull (one of our sponsors from the World Maker Faire last year) stopped by to drop off some product, along with a mysterious wooden box. The contents of the box are for an upcoming hacker challenge organized by Red Bull in Brooklyn later this Summer. Did we solve the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that’s the box? Of course we did, we’re hackers!

Because other hackerspaces around the U.S. will be receiving these mystery boxes, I don’t want to give too much away. There is some soldering, some unzipping, some cracking, and some retro gaming involved — I’ve already said too much! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. A1 Labs look forward to meeting other challengers at the Red Bull Creation event later this year!

12 Responses to Red Bull got hacked by Alpha One Labs

Randy Addison on March 23rd, 2011 at 9:56 pm said:

That is going to be awesome! Well, that is an awesome way to invite people in an event! lol Thanks for sharing this invitation. I hope I receive one as well.

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Richard Ford on March 23rd, 2011 at 11:17 pm said:

U can has rick roll is a classic troll irl

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- Anonymous on March 24th, 2011 at 3:00 pm said:
  
  hi Richard, well let’s just say there was more to the “invitation card” than I can show – we definitely got rick rolled! loL
  
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Ryan Barnes on March 24th, 2011 at 1:36 am said:

Alphaone isn’t alone! http://thelowtech.com/2011/red-bull-creation-cracked/

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M. "Shadyman" Lange on March 24th, 2011 at 4:23 am said:

Epic Uzebox PCB.

I assume part of the challenge was adding parts like composite video/audio out.. I also see what looks to be headphone out as well? Sounds like it will allow for plenty of interesting hacks

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- Con Verge on April 11th, 2011 at 2:49 am said:
  
  Black Lodge Research managed to get hold of one of these and had some fun with it today. We managed to solve the puzzle immediately through inquisitiveness, but spent the afternoon soldering and plotting for the hell of it. I was starting to go blind chasing the blue dots and at 48007 googled reltham’s contribution to stop the insanity.
  
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beakmyn on March 24th, 2011 at 1:26 pm said:

Hmm
U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start ?

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Christian Hedegaard-Schou on March 24th, 2011 at 10:19 pm said:

Looks like it’s got Pac Man on it:
http://charliex2.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/redbull-marketing-whats-the-latest-craze-campaign/

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Bob Cat on March 25th, 2011 at 4:01 pm said:

You failed to give credit to reltham in #fmcg on freenode for decoding the blinking Morse code, which says WINSTONCHURCHILL48007E2

psytek and MAKE blogger guy -booooo!!!!

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- psytek on March 28th, 2011 at 4:17 am said:
  
  We had actually solved the riddle before I asked about the Morse code.
  
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Bob Cat on March 25th, 2011 at 5:18 pm said:

psytek comes into #fmcg and asks if anyone knows Morse code, links a video of the redbull board blinking…

2011-03-22 23:07:07 I think the first letter is .– which is W
2011-03-22 23:08:33 This is what I had so far .-. .. — … —-
2011-03-22 23:09:14 psytek: looking at the first bit of video.. that first letter really looks like .–
2011-03-22 23:10:00 reltham, ok yeah I see it now
2011-03-22 23:16:48 psytek: first 3 letters, WIN (.– .. .-)
2011-03-22 23:17:06 nice
2011-03-22 23:17:24 lol
2011-03-22 23:22:12 psytek: so far.. WINSTON CHUR (think it’s going to be CHILL next)
2011-03-22 23:22:21 no space
2011-03-22 23:24:45 reltham, thank you!
2011-03-22 23:25:20 yeah, its WINSTONCHURCHILL so far
2011-03-22 23:25:35 is there more? I think it may just be that…, it restarts
2011-03-22 23:25:45 2:16 of 13:45
2011-03-22 23:25:54 it loops
2011-03-22 23:26:09 ok I’ll see what the next few letters are
2011-03-22 23:27:25 psytek: yeah the next 3 letters are WIN … so that must be it for that one… the other one I am not sure yet.. need to start over and focus on it
2011-03-22 23:31:16 psytek: the other one is a number in morse… 480 so far
2011-03-22 23:31:43 oh awesome
2011-03-22 23:31:46 http://charliex2.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/redbull-marketing-whats-the-latest-craze-campaign/
2011-03-22 23:37:13 k, double checked the number… it’s 48007E2
2011-03-22 23:37:45 Winston Churchill?? 4800 baud, 7 Even 2 …. what the heck are we decoding?
2011-03-22 23:37:48 reltham, awesome! Thank you. I wonder what that does…
2011-03-22 23:38:04 eFoobar: the RedBull thing
2011-03-22 23:38:05 it’s morse code from blinking leds
2011-03-22 23:38:14 i bet there’s a serial port on that board
2011-03-22 23:38:30 psytek, how did you get this item?
2011-03-22 23:38:38 Redbull thing? Is this on stream or something?
2011-03-22 23:38:44 oh, there is a sound that is output from the speaker jack, I bet it needs to be decoded at 4800 baud 7 Even 2
2011-03-22 23:38:58 psytek you want to stream the hacking on this thingy?
2011-03-22 23:39:03 BobCat: a RedBull rep dropped it off at the meeting
2011-03-22 23:47:43 have you tried plugging a controller in and doing the Konami code on it?
2011-03-22 23:49:18 up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A
2011-03-22 23:49:51 there’s a base64 encoded message next to that port
2011-03-22 23:53:44 Setec Astronomy
2011-03-22 23:57:39 psytek: is that blog link your blog? charliex2?
2011-03-22 23:57:45 charliex2
2011-03-22 23:57:55 I searched for the base64 string and I found it
2011-03-22 23:57:57 the first comment on that entry is from someone named Winston Churchill
2011-03-22 23:58:37 saying it’s a riddle, wrapped in and enigma, wrapped in foam

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