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Show HN: Hacking airplane headphones

146 points| purpleidea | 9 years ago |ttboj.wordpress.com | reply

107 comments

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[+] p1mrx|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
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.

[+] x1798DE|9 years ago|reply
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.

[+] dingo_bat|9 years ago|reply
I feel that stereo makes for more spacious sound. The sound feels like it is filling the room, whereas mono feels kind of claustrophobic.
[+] purpleidea|9 years ago|reply
Glad you liked the hack! With some bad stereo signals, I've found the audio dialog to be softer in one of the two channels, and the music in the other, so if you're watching that sort of film you might not get the best mix!
[+] Raed667|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
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.
[+] purpleidea|9 years ago|reply
I actually tried this initially, but unfortunately it did not work. And this way you got a (cool?) article out of it.
[+] liveshops_|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
Nice. I wonder if he's a climber?

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. :)

[+] purpleidea|9 years ago|reply
I used to climb, yes, and I've learned a lot of knots. I used a figure-eight for one of the reasons it's used in climbing: the bend radius isn't as sharp, thus putting less strain on the knot.
[+] mads|9 years ago|reply
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.
[+] viraptor|9 years ago|reply
You get to choose connection mode when you connect to any computer. The entertainment system tries to connect to your media storage so that you can play your own music/videos. (this system is often just a Linux terminal) You can always use the charging-only USB cable if you're worried about the data connection of course.
[+] yoo1I|9 years ago|reply
I remember at least one system where the USB port allowed you to plug in USB stick and then let you listen to the music you had on it. So it's just a proper USB host.
[+] ufmace|9 years ago|reply
Mine seems to say that anytime you connect it to any computer, even if that computer doesn't even have ADB installed, much less running. Probably a subtle defense-in-depth encouragement to leave debug off when you aren't actually intending to use ADB.

I wonder if it's left in from before they had the PC fingerprint check, and nobody ever bothered to take it out.

[+] iLoch|9 years ago|reply
This is also a great way to get arrested thanks to some overly concerned seating neighbour.
[+] x1798DE|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
I was thinking the EXACT same thing, especially considering the UPenn professor who was reported for writing mathematics on the plane.
[+] grawlinson|9 years ago|reply
I'm surprised that someone actually managed to smuggle tweezers onboard!
[+] guessmyname|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
> 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)

[+] justin_vanw|9 years ago|reply
Despite the media amplification and muckraking, and general 'agitprop', millions of Muslims fly every day without being murdered by other passengers or flight crews.

They are horribly profiled in security, but again, claiming they will be murdered is a bit of an exaggeration.

[+] jlg23|9 years ago|reply
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 :{
[+] aaron695|9 years ago|reply
I think HN should bare some if not all of that comment.

People didn't have to comment this way, but they chose to.

Society are not idiots. No people would not report you for doing this, no more than people might murder you. Yes it could happen but it won't.

[+] reviseddamage|9 years ago|reply
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.
[+] SixSigma|9 years ago|reply
I'm sad that anyone thinks this is hacking
[+] tommoor|9 years ago|reply
Makes note never to fly Emirates internationally incase I get stuck with these anti-customer audio jacks.
[+] viraptor|9 years ago|reply
I think that's a bad decision on N=1 samples. I find international Emirates flights to be one of the most modern and comfortable ones. I mean, you even get power sockets in economy most of the time, which is still pretty rare.

Connectors like these are pretty much a standard for whatever crazy reason as well. (the third hole seems to provide some power, since their noise-cancelling version in business uses it)

[+] rodgerd|9 years ago|reply
I've yet to buy a set of noise-cancelling headphones that didn't come with an adapter for these, which seems like a better option. You'll have a hard time finding airlines that use a standard 3.5mm jack.
[+] voltagex_|9 years ago|reply
It's not the airline, it's the aeroplane manufacturer. Boeing and Airbus use different connectors.
[+] nness|9 years ago|reply
Emirates Business class gives you a really nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones instead. Not that that is much of a work-around.
[+] alex_young|9 years ago|reply
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.

[+] x1798DE|9 years ago|reply
It's headphones, not some wire hidden behind anything, or anything carrying a significant current. He stripped the wires on the headphones they gave him to listen to the in-flight audio.
[+] guynamedloren|9 years ago|reply
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.

[+] dsr_|9 years ago|reply
Max voltage there will be about 2V DC. (Could be up to 3.4V, but much more likely to be 1.73V).

Dry paper is roughly as conductive as glass: that is, no fire is going to happen here. You can't get a spark.

[+] monochromatic|9 years ago|reply
I would be absolutely floored if this headphone amp had enough current capacity to even noticeably heat up under a dead short.