
Show HN: Hacking airplane headphones - purpleidea
https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/ten-minute-hacks-hacking-airplane-headphones/
======
p1mrx
He was lucky that the headphones used standard rubber insulation. It's common
for headphones to use bare copper wire coated with some sort of insulating
lacquer, that can't be stripped mechanically.

The best way I've found to remove such insulation is to light it on fire,
which would be frowned upon during a flight.

~~~
mcpherrinm
That's "enameled wire", also known as "magnet wire".

You can sand the insulation off with an emery board, commonly found in nail
care kits.

~~~
bigiain
There's an old trick there (not for use on commercial flights...), if you
place the enamelled copper on an asprim tablet and briefly touch them with a
soldering iron, it almost magically becomes clean solderable shiny copper.

(Source: I rewound _so_ many CD Rom drive motors into model airplane motors
back before you could buy them easily... I think my knowledge of that asprin
trick predates that by a decade or more though...)

~~~
Vexs
Wow, that's a trick worth knowing. I've tried everything, but this sounds
promising.

~~~
crististm
The aspirin trick works wonders. However, the resulting smoke doesn't smell
like roses. Just remember not to breathe it :)

~~~
Vexs
Heh, reminded me immediately of the will it blend guy.

"Asprin smoke, don't breath this!"

------
x1798DE
Man, I was thinking that would be such a pain to use because whenever I hack
something together like that it's super sensitive to jostling, but tying it
off like that is just brilliant! I'm going to use that.

Also:

> The finished product worked beautifully, despite now only providing monaural
> audio and is about five centimetres shorter, which is still perfectly usable
> since the seats hardly recline.

I would consider the monoaural audio to be a benefit! When possible, I try to
set my phone to force mono. I'm considerably more likely to be distracted by
stereo effects than entertained by them.

~~~
bonestamp2
Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't you just buy the proper adapter for
$1.60?

[http://amzn.com/B00G53TDF4](http://amzn.com/B00G53TDF4)

~~~
timor
It's a long shot, but you might be missing that he was on an airplane?

~~~
kiallmacinnes
Or that he specifically says the Left (or was it right? ;)) headphone socket,
built into the seat, was broken.

------
Raed667
I'm really saddened by the first thought that came to my mind: "I could have
never pulled this off because of my skin color"

~~~
logicallee
don't worry, my first thought without that was, "holy shit what kind of an
idiot is doing this on a plane". skin color doesn't matter, that is not normal
in-plane behavior.

------
corruptio
Or, just stick a regular 3.5mm headphone jack into the two-pronged hole half-
way in. The contacts line up in such a way that one channel touch both inputs.
Just turn up the volume a bit.

~~~
dingaling
I always have one of these two-pin-to-3.5 adapters in my bag when I fly:

[http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-pcs-3-5mm-Airline-Airplane-
Earphon...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-pcs-3-5mm-Airline-Airplane-Earphone-
Headphone-Headset-Jack-Audio-Adapter-New-/121684665772)

~~~
viraptor
I recommend also adding this to the flying set:
[https://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs-35-4180-Headphone-
Contro...](https://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs-35-4180-Headphone-
Control/dp/B008DJTB32/ref=sr_1_12)

In most airlines the announcements are at fixed volume, independent of the
movies. That means you can put the video on full volume and turn it down
inline. No more announcements screaming in your ear :) (and better sound
quality as a bonus)

~~~
bonestamp2
Yes, I too travel with both of these. The volume control is convenient, but I
originally bought it after breaking a couple of my headphone connectors. Now I
break a $5 part instead of a $50 part. (Shure's with removeable cords are
great, but the cord is still $50)

------
liveshops_
Love it.

The part that was omitted:

"Hey, do you have some tweezers I can borrow?" "Tweezers? Um, no. I have an
extra pair of headphones, though. It looks like you're having trouble with
yours." "Oh, uh, no thanks--I just need some tweezers."

The reason this is so cool is because it's a perfect example of problem
solving, and how our determination kicks in when we have an innovative
solution. Even if that means skipping over the easiest or the most common
solution.

~~~
MrZeus
Hehe, ironic response about missing the obvious, since the first thing the
hacker did was check it wasn't the headphones that were faulty :-)

Asking a co-passenger for a spare set of phones would have left him with the
same problem: the plane socket was only feeding audio from one hole, not both.

------
jsingleton
Nice. I wonder if he's a climber?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure-
eight_loop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure-eight_loop) is a classic
climbing knot and I guess most people would just use an overhand knot.

I usually prefer a bowline for tying in, but that's not as safe. :)

~~~
phelm
looks more like an overhand loop to me
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhand_loop](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhand_loop)

~~~
hobbyjogger
Definitely figure eight. He says as much in the article.

------
mads
Anyone know anything about those USB connectors? I was on a flight some time
ago and noticed that my device said that USB debugging is now connected
(Android), when I plugged it in, so I don't think it was only for charging.
Don't remember which airline it was.

~~~
x1798DE
I don't plug my USB devices into strange USB ports (because I don't own a USB
condom):

See: [http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/08/beware-of-juice-
jacking/](http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/08/beware-of-juice-jacking/)

~~~
dingo_bat
Not needed since android will ask you to verify PC fingerprint before
exchanging any data or allowing debugging.

~~~
ygra
I guess it's a case of defense in depth. Software may have vulnerabilities
that still allow for data connections despite the prompt. But no data wires
being physically present cannot have that problem at all.

------
smoyer
I carry an adapter for these connectors in my Bose headphones case:

[https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Plated-Airline-Airplane-
Adapte...](https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Plated-Airline-Airplane-
Adapter/dp/B00G53TDF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468934521&sr=8-1&keywords=airline+headphone+adapter)

------
iLoch
This is also a great way to get arrested thanks to some overly concerned
seating neighbour.

~~~
x1798DE
So you're thinking something like this?

Author: <fiddles with headphone jack>

Author: <fiddles with headphone jack some more>

Author: "Hey, can I borrow some tweezers? I think this headphone jack is
busted and I want to adjust these headphones so they'll work."

Seat Passenger: "No problem."

Author: <starts stripping the wires from his headphones>

Seat Passenger (thinking): "Stay cool, Phillip, this guy is clearly a
terrorist..."

Author: <plugs in headphones>

Author: "Hey, it works! Thanks, bud!"

Seat Passenger (thinking): "Where is that god damned air marshall. Oh god,
what am I going to do?!"

~~~
Hydraulix989
Never underestimate the depths of people's stupidity.

~~~
ma2rten
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/iv...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/ivy-
league-economist-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/)

------
gedy
That's cool. Reminds me of being a kid in the 70s and switching though the
channels on a 747 flight - one channel was playing all music backwards, and
finally recognized one as Dolly Parton's 'Jolene'
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9re90HG2dw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9re90HG2dw)

~~~
Bromskloss
This is a good opportunity to post the surprisingly good slowed-down version
of _Jolene_.

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=CMrfM711vXI](https://youtube.com/watch?v=CMrfM711vXI)

------
guessmyname
Try this as a Muslin and you are (probably) dead...

Actually, try this as a non-white person and you are dead...

Actually, try this, and you are dead (not sure how the author got away with
it).

Once I was flying to the United States and in the middle of the flight the
screen in front of me printed a familiar image, Tux, the famous penguin icon
of Linux (the entertainment system was rebooting or something). I thought it
was interesting so I decided to take a picture, the woman that was sitting on
my side asked me what was that and why was I taking a picture, so I smiled and
said "Somebody hacked the plane", as you can guess she didn't get the "joke"
and started (nervously) to look for one of the flight attendants, 3-5 minutes
later she went to the bathroom but oh surprise (or maybe not) she returned
with two of the flight attendants that started asking for my passport and to
allow them to check my cabin bags. They were cool after I clarified the
situation, but this was a lesson for me to 1) don't try to do stupid things in
a plane, 2) don't joke with nervous people.

I just remember the story of this mathematician that was writing some formulas
in the plane and the person on his side thought that he was planning a
terrorist attack. This is why it surprises me that the author of this article
was able to get away with his "experiment" just like that.

EDIT: Re-reading the article, he says that "the flight staff weren’t angry
that I had cannibalized their headphones" and then continues with "If you work
for Emirates, let me know and I’ll give you the seat and flight number".
Considering this I will assume that they weren't angry because a) its a rich
airline so they assume that people taking their flights are "harmless", or b)
Middle East citizens are used to plane hijacks (this is actually a really bad
joke, and I will accept the downvotes with resignation).

~~~
viraptor
> its a rich airline so they assume that people taking their flights are
> "harmless"

It's your average airline that spans from Europe to Australia from bases in
middle east. Nothing really rich about it. (although, it is quite comfortable)

~~~
nstj
Emirates has some of the highest revenue and cost numbers per average seat
kilometre [0]. It's also subsidised to a large extent by the UAE [1]. I don't
find the word "rich" to be very descriptive, but "high end" could easily apply
in this circumstance.

[0]: [http://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-
wyman/global/e...](http://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-
wyman/global/en/2016/jan/oliver-wyman-airline-economic-analysis-2015-2016.pdf)
[1]: [http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/emirates-confirms-
bi...](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/emirates-confirms-billions-in-
government-subsidy-for-airport-terminal-300134208.html)

~~~
viraptor
I don't necessarily disagree with the high end. But looking at the CASK it's
worth noting that they're almost exclusively long-distance flights. I'd like
to see the graph from [0] split into long-haul and others. Currently they've
got Emirates flying 10+ hours on the same graph as EasyJet doing 30min in
Europe. Same for Quantas which does domestic 1h flights as well as
international Dubai, or west coast US but is in one bar only. I know these are
normalised per kilometer in theory, but there's a threshold when you need 2x
the crew, can't really go without entertainment system, etc.

Or specifically why I didn't say rich is that it's not like you have a lot of
choice flying long-haul over middle east. You're likely to get a stop-over in
Dubai and if you're flying One World, you're likely to have an Emirates code
share.

~~~
spacehunt
Of the ME3 Qatar is the one that's in oneworld. Though it is Emirates who
usually codeshares with Qantas because of their separate partnership
agreement.

~~~
viraptor
You're right. I got so used to flying Emirates/Qantas codeshares I was sure
it's because of One World. You learn every day...

------
jlg23
I think it is a sad commentary on our society that all comments so far revolve
around the possibility of being arrested for this simple hack :{

~~~
reviseddamage
it's not sad, it's cautionary. It's impressive to me, but it's also incredibly
difficult to keep hacking and doing cool stuff from inside prison.

------
tommoor
Makes note never to fly Emirates internationally incase I get stuck with these
anti-customer audio jacks.

~~~
voltagex_
It's not the airline, it's the aeroplane manufacturer. Boeing and Airbus use
different connectors.

~~~
themartorana
...which are still there only to make you pay for proprietary headphones.

~~~
lokedhs
Pay for headphones? What airline is that? I've flown on a lot and I've never
had to pay for them.

I've always assumed they used the weird connectors to prevent people from
taking the headphones with them (since they can't easily be connected to
anything except an airline entertainment system)

~~~
soundwave106
Some do. I think in the US it's somewhat common for many domestic flights
still. It used to be way more common.

[http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/862199-does-any-
ai...](http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/862199-does-any-airline-
charge-sell-headphones-anymore-they-always-free.html)
[http://www.fodors.com/community/air-travel/headsets-on-
delta...](http://www.fodors.com/community/air-travel/headsets-on-delta-
international-fee-or-free.cfm)

I've heard that also historically one of the big reasons for the odd jack was
to prevent theft (back when headphones were relatively more expensive and all
airline headphones were designed for reuse...)

------
alex_young
Wait. You insulated some live DC wires with _paper_ and then hid that behind
some plastic in an airplane somewhere? I'm way more concerned with the fire
hazard you introduced than the profiling stuff others are mentioning.

Please don't do this to my airplane.

~~~
guynamedloren
Do you have any resources to show how this is potentially a fire hazard?
Genuinely curious.. because I often hear people talk about even the most basic
electronics as this Big Scary Thing, and in my mind, it is quite simple and
harmless.

Please share.

~~~
StavrosK
Easy: Because the wires are wrapped in paper, if you simply light a lighter
next to them and hold it to the paper for a few seconds, you have kindling.
Then, if you can find something in a plane that's not fire-retardant and heat
it with the flaming piece of paper enough, voila: an inadvertent fire.

~~~
gcr
Why go to the complicated step of insulating a wire with the paper? You could
make the situation much easier by just tearing some paper out of your notebook
for kindling.

Not sure how one would manage to sneak a lighter onboard though.

~~~
StavrosK
I was being facetious.

~~~
sundvor
And I was laughing. :-) Good one.

