Visit my weblog: John Tokash's Weblog
-- WELCOME TO HACKFURBY! --
Other great Furby hacking sites:
HACK FURBY News
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Check out the FURBY UPGRADE KIT!!!
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Blank Frank has software for using laptop PC's to mess with Furbies!
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Furby Series 4 is on its way.
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Special Edition Furbies are on the way, too.
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HackFurby is now a my.netscape channel and a my.userland channel.
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Darwin Teague has a program for recording and playing back furby ir signals with a PC and a custom circuit called the CIR.
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Eelke de Vos has put together a file for OmniRemote users with a few commands for the furby. OmniRemote is software for your PalmPilot. The patch can be found here.
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Jason Pelzer has rebuilt Furby from the inside out and hooked the result up to a computer. Check it out here!
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Check out the Open Directory(NewHoo) category for Reverse Engineering Toys!
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Gabrielle, in the discussion group, reports that her autistic child is learning words from the Furby! Anyone know how to pipe arbitrary sound through the Furby's speaker? Join the discussion!
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Chris Brown updated his Furby Schematic!
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Peter van der Linden, author of Just Java, has posted a challenge: make Furby 'programmable' and win $250+ dollars.
Details are at his site.
This contest is not affiliated with the HackFurby website or the HackFurby discussion group, but I think he is on the up and up.
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HackFurby made Slashdot!
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Chris Brown(chris_furby@yahoo.com) sent in this schematic of the Furby circuit boards. Let him know if you have any comments or errors to report about it. The schematic is in pdf format. You'll need Adobe's Acrobat Reader. THANKS CHRIS!
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Here are some preliminary samples of Furby IR:
out.gif(13K).
Look closely. The first 5 are attempts at capturing the webtv button that makes the furby sing Twinkle Twinkle. The next 3 are the wetv button that makes him reset. The next group are good samples from the furby. I think they were TICKLE, INVERSION, TICKLE, TICKLE, TICKLE, etc. The next set are RESET, WAKE, and a random. The last 3 all happened when I inverted the furby.
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Jessica wrote in to list the Easter Eggs in the Furby Trainer's Guide. THANKS!
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Saw this story at the New York post. Apparently our beloved Furbies were
built in a sweatshop. GRRR. I'll look for an email address to bug Tiger about it.
built in a sweatshop. GRRR. I'll look for an email address to bug Tiger about it.
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Meanwhile, this site has been getting a lot of attention. The Washington Post has a story on us and Dave Farber and Memepool have both mentioned us.
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Added two sites to the furby links section. Both are great reading.
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HackFurby made the news on Saturday. Here is the article(by Margie Wylie). Apparently, we are also mentioned in the book Furby Trainer's Guide.
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Phobe's autopsy site has an updated hack faq and a technical faq.
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Lee Hunt wrote in with information about one of the chips.
(Hex Inverting Schmitt Trigger)
Looking at the datasheet, it's a hysteresis switch. That is, a switch that turns on when the input voltage reaches a certain threshold, but will stay on until the input voltage is significantly lower.
I suspect it's being use to "debounce" furby's sensors; or at least to let furby to "keep his attention" once a certain stimulus (e.g. light) has been recorded.
HackFurby is a site devoted to investigating the geek-appeal of the Furby toy. The primary goal of HackFurby is to fully document the Furby IR protocol.
Furbies are no longer available at retailers and I am no longer updating this site.
