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FBI Tracking Device Teardown
- alecco 15y agoI'd love to see how much those devices cost. And the TCO.
- rglover 15y agoChecking under my car with a mirror after work.
- sebastianavina 15y agoSo, can we study the frequency and if the out signal uses any encryption? Maybe we can use a homemade receiver to find the people the FBI is tracking...
- runjake 15y agoFrequency and transceiver information are already posted. My guess is that the transmissions aren't encrypted, or are encrypted trivially or encoded (to obfuscate). Since you said "we should", you should get started on it and post your findings here or better yet on a blog. The iFixit article provides a lot of bases to research from.
- chopsueyar 15y agoThe board is running at 4MHz, so I'm not sure if too much can be done with such hardware.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- daniel1980fl 15y agolol sebastianavina! I am sure your "eagerness" got you noticed by the Federalies. the fixi guys put their bare hands in the honey jar, and I am sure those bees are really pied now. Wouldnt be suprised if you get questioned "randomly" soon, LOOL!
- SpacemanSpiff 15y agoWow, the components on the GPS board look like they are hand soldered, which to me means very low volume/specialized production.
- kwiens 15y agoYeah, that was the first thing I noticed. Some of the solder joints look rather suspect.
- 18pfsmt 15y agoWhat I found interesting by component: -Battery pack --The device is powered by four lithium-thionyl chloride (Li-SOCl2) D cell batteries --Each cell is good for 13,000 mAh and are suited for extremely low-draw applications where longevity is needed, making them ideal for powering an always-on transmitter/receiver --Minimal service life is 10 years. -GPS antenna --A quick peek at the antenna board indicates it was manufactured by SIgem, a company that partnered with Tyco in the early 2000s to make GPS components. --The FBI really did not want anyone tampering with the innards of their tracking devices. The screws were coated with so much threadlocker that we had to break out the power drill and eliminate the screw heads. --The module providing the GPS signal processing on this device is a µ-blox GPS-MS1 that's sort of ancient in the realm of modern electronics. --This module was 1st released June 29, 1999 and it features 0.125 MB of SRAM and 1 MB of flash memory. -Transmitter/receiver ICs --XEMICS XE1201 Ultra low power single chip transceiver ---The XE1201 allows for data transmission and data reception in half duplex mode. --RFM RF1172 SAW (surface-acoustic-wave) filter ---The RF1172 provides front-end selectivity (the capability to separate signals in one frequency from all other frequencies) in 433.92 MHz receivers. [Edit: Please note, much of the text above is c/p'd from the ifixit post.]
- joezydeco 15y agoIf the FBI didn't want anyone tampering with the unit, they would have potted it in heavy epoxy or welded the case shut. Maybe even put a light-sensitive thermal charge inside. More likely they were worried about the screws vibrating themselves off while stuck to the underside of a car - thus the threadlocker glue everywhere.
- 18pfsmt 15y agoThe fact that they didn't pot it is interesting. I hadn't thought about that. Potting seems to be on the decline over the last 10 years from what I've seen.
- kwiens 15y agoI had to drill it open. There's a video of the process here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps-video/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps-video/ Re: software—we linked to the reference design, which includes a lot of information about the software. There should be plenty of information available to start investigating their implementation.
- jrockway 15y agoThose batteries are impressive. I did some Googling and found: http://www.batterymart.com/p-ls33600-ba-d-size-lithium-cell.html http://www.batterymart.com/p-ls33600-ba-d-size-lithium-cell.... 61 Watt-hours. That little battery could power a 60W light bulb for an hour! (I'm currently working on a bluetooth -> IR bridge. I was worred about battery life from a coin cell, but now I'm not anymore. I will get one of these in half-AA size and keep the thing powered for the next decade :)
- kwiens 15y agoThey're not cheap, either. They cost us $25 EACH plus a $10 Hazmat shipping fee.
- tomsaffell 15y ago>That little battery could power a 60W light bulb for an hour It's a useful 'analogy', but it's not actually true. They are 3.6V, max continuous current 250mA, so max continuous power is 0.9W
- jrockway 15y agoTrue. I bet it would release its energy a bit more quickly if you dropped it into a nearby fire.
- chopsueyar 15y agoP = v*I
- weaksauce 15y agoBatteries(maybe not these but definitely car batteries) are typically rated at the 20hour drain rating. If you increase the current draw you will increase the power dissipated over the resistance inside the battery and reduce the amount of available power in a non linear fashion.
- adolph 15y agoI wonder where they got the device? In Wired's account, the FBI demanded back from a fellow who found one on his car: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device...
- jrockway 15y agoI suppose its as simple as their demands not being met. "We want it back." "Nope, I already took it apart and posted it to teh intarwebs." "Well then."
- phsr 15y agoThe device torn down was one given to them by a woman who kept it after being tracked in 2005: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps/
- kwiens 15y agoThis story gives background on Karen Thomas, the environmental activist who was tracked by the device. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps/ The FBI demanded the device back and she said no. Amazingly, that was the end of the story—until the Afifi story came out, and she decided to give Wired the tracker. The interesting legal question (in addition to whether you need a warrant to do this sort of thing) is who owns something attached to your car?
- TillE 15y agoThe article indicates that court rulings have been mixed as to whether a warrant is required. I suspect the FBI doesn't want to force the issue, in case they lose. If the tracking were completely legally sanctioned, I can't imagine that the trackee would have any claim to ownership over the device.
- goatforce5 15y agoTo force the issue they'd have to prove they had the right to put it there in the first place, right? Alternatively they expect these to go missing and it's not worth the hassle to get them back.
- kwiens 15y agoI did the teardown, and I'm a regular hacker news reader. I'll answer any questions for the next hour or so.
- 18pfsmt 15y agoVery cool. Have you all done any firmware/software hacking?
- evilpie 15y agoCould you estimate the price of this thing, as the FBI told him it was expensive (and at least the batteries seem to be).
- 18pfsmt 15y agoOff the cuff BOM for this thing is on the order of $30 in 1K quantities (maybe add 20% for government bureaucracy).
- kwiens 15y agoFor the manufacturer, maybe. But then you have to factor in bribes to the federal procurement officers and junkets to Atlantic City to land the contract, and then medical payments for the workers who burned themselves hand-soldering resistors on that board. That's gotta up the price to at least $3K/unit or so! :-)
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y agoCan't really. Cost of BOM bears no relationship to selling price. His post below says it costs about $30 in 1k quantities. So estimating about $50 in 10pc prices, if I were building a few for a government agency/large corporation, ignoring NRE charges I'd probably price them upwards of $1000 each. This is not exactly something you can purchase at Best Buy...
- kwiens 15y agoWe have not—I had limited time with the device at Wired's office. We powered it on and used a frequency analyzer on it, but that was the extent of our investigation. We were concerned that black helicopters might show up if we left it on too long. But I hope someone else does!
- SlowOnTheUptake 15y agoIf the trackee removed this from his own car and attached it to some other car, would he be violating some law?
- ahi 15y agoI am sure they could find one. When dealing with the government it's heads they win, tails you lose. edit: I still think it would be worth it. One of these cars for maximum effect: http://homeland.house.gov/about/membership http://homeland.house.gov/about/membership
- pavel_lishin 15y agoIt might be more effective, and more legal, to just sell your car as soon as you become aware that you've been tagged. Bonus points if you sell it to someone who is either taking a cross-country drive, or shipping it overseas.
- mattmanser 15y agoSurely it's much, much easier to just put it on your neighbour's car. They'd probably believe they were getting real data or your partner was using the car. And could probably never accuse you of tampering as they couldn't be sure it wasn't just a mistake by the planting agent.
- VladRussian 15y agoif he does it to tamper with federal investigation - then i'd guess it'd be a violation. If he does it to improve fuel efficiency of the car and remove unnecessary weight from the car ... it'd be interesting whether it is possible to bill the government for the service of carrying their stuff around. Or for not being able to use the car at all as having the GPS tracker attached the car may become unsuitable for your use. Shouldn't anybody whose property taken over and used by the government to be justly compensated?
- rdtsc 15y agoWell you can bill the govt. but not sure you'll get paid ... ;-) In general, and most people are surprised by this, you cannot sue the US govt in court. Well you can, but only in certain cases where it allows itself to be sued -- tort cases and some IP laws and even then you almost never get a trial by jury, only a federal judge. So you'd have to construct this as a tort case and use Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) to your advantage. I suspect if you try that, FBI will invent some reason to arrest you or at least harrass you (interfering with an investigation, obstruction of justice, damage of federal property, etc etc...).
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- daimyoyo 15y agoI don't want to trivialize how scary it is that the FBI does this, but what I found interesting about this story was the insane capacity of the batteries. Why aren't more consumer electronics(especially iStuff where they aren't user serviceable) using this technology?
- tlb 15y agoLithium thionyl chloride batteries are not rechargeable. You get 2-3x the capacity of a rechargeable battery, once. Makes sense for this application but not consumer devices.
- leot 15y agoTo be honest, I think it's perfectly fine for the FBI to do this if there's judicial oversight. The problem is there ain't.
- pyrhho 15y agoI want a kit! Would be good fun to play with.