Reverse Engineering Automation Script
Goal
A solo entrepreneur I know was reverse engineering a wireless audio device by manually analyzing its voltage output with an oscilloscope. The process involved manual cross referencing of a manual with the raw bits, and took hours of error prone labor. I was asked to assist by automating this workflow to allow this founder to work on more meaningful parts of the development process.
My Contributions
- Developed a simple Python script in a couple of days that completely automated the data transcription and analysis process.
- Implemented logic to clean the raw, noisy voltage output from the oscilloscope into a clean stream of binary ones and zeros.
- Integrated the rules and command structures from the device's manual into the script's parsing logic, to the founder's spec.
- Designed the output as a clean spreadsheet that details each command chronologically with its raw bits, hex value, and the name of the command.
Challenge
The biggest challenge was translating the dense hardware manual into the base logic for the script. Certain commands would change the way data was to be read, requiring a broad understanding of how each command works first, then a deeper dive into the specific commands the founder needed parsed. The script also had to account for inconsistencies in the data stream, such as variable length data packets and specific control signals that changed the meaning of subsequent bits.
Solution
The script operates by first identifying key control signals in the data stream. Different signals will move the script into different parsing states, depending on if the incoming bits represented an instruction of one type or another, each requiring its own particular formatting rules. The script then looks up the instruction's hex code in a dictionary to find its plain English meaning, and formats everything into a spreadsheet.
Outcome & Impact
The script turned a process that once took hours of manual work into a task that completes in under 30 seconds. This represents over a 99% reduction in data analysis time, eliminating a major bottleneck in the R&D cycle and allowing the founder to move at a much faster pace.