Black Panther CueCat
The good old CueCat. These were a barcode scanner that were given away by a company called Digital Convergence. But they failed after users found out that every CueCat not only scanned a barcode, but also sent a serial number to Digital Convergence.
But they still have uses!
Once you have the guts out, hacking the CueCat is simple, it takes a single wire. (Gray in photo)
You solder a wire from +5 volts to Resistor #29 (R29), or a hole near R29
This disables the serial number, and turns the CueCat into a normal barcode scanner.
What does this mean? It means that there is no special software needed to scan a barcode.
The barcode is entered into the PC as if you had typed it on the keyboard.
For a guide on hacking your CueCat click here: CueCat Hacking
Now for the eyes.
Two holes were cut into the eyes of the CueCat using a Dremel
The LED's were soldered in place.
The LED's are wired in parallel with each other, BUT in series with the Reader's LEDs.
I cut the trace in-between the two reader LEDs, and put the new LED's in it's place.
On the back side of the PCB, where the Black LED wire goes, there is a surface mount resistor with 121 printed on it. (121 = 12 x10 or 120 ohms)
But with the addition of the extra LED's I had to lower the resistance to only 10ohms.
The new Hacked finally has some eyes.
A little bit of vinyle dye, and you just turned your CueCat into a barcode reading Black Panther.