sirius radio

[ME123]

Any helpful information on cloning sirius radio. I have lifetime activation so looking on cloning it with another radio? Please help

[RoofleChicken]

Bump

I too would be very interested in this. Anything new?

[rg6a]

Any helpful information on cloning sirius radio. I have lifetime activation so looking on cloning it with another radio? Please help

What is 'lifetime' act.??
Never heard of that.

Cloning reminds me of the analogue cell days, where I could clone cell phones. I'd think it's still possible but a lot more difficult.

With the minaturisation, the only 'IN' is whatever I/O is on the phone/receiver, hence need the print <schematics> and haven't opened up a phone in years but if the ICs have House #'s..........well ask Skinerd.

It could be a real Bitch. It's like the IRD thing........and frankly would anyone pay $100 per yr to get 'free' sat radio???

You can logon to Sirius and get a 3 day Trial and then just keep using another freebie email addy and keep it going indefinately.

I'm a Howard Stern fan but that's too much work, read as I have a Life and need to attend to that.

[doeling]

lifetime activation is a one time fee to sirius. I have that also.

[Wiley-X]

You can logon to Sirius and get a 3 day Trial and then just keep using another freebie email addy and keep it going indefinately.

I don't think Sirius is going to keep giving the same ID/ESN number a free trial.

I seem to remember that one of these two Sat Radio companies were hackable, but only one specific model. That has since been corrected and I am pretty confident that these systems currently are NOT compromised.

As to cloning, I am sure it COULD be done, but have not heard of anyone doing it. And I live in a trailer park full of hackers....they hack everything from cell phones to electricity meters to leased vehicles odometers. If Sat Radio was hackable, someone here would be doing it.

[leeaman7777]

One thing you can do, is activate your receiver for a month. Before the month is up, disconnect your reciever from the stream and call Sirius and tell them you would like discontinue the service - it is important that you have your receiver disconnected before making the phone call. Sirius will then send the "deactivate" signal to your receiver. Now it is time to play a waiting game. Apparently due to bandwidth limitations, Sirius only leaves the "deactivate" signal in the stream for a limitied amount of time - how long, I am not sure. Some people have said 6 weeks some have said a couple of months. I waited roughly 3 months - plugged my receiver back in I still had full activation.

[joesnuffy]

Back to report my findings for the Orbiter receiver. I lifted pin number 7 on eeprom chip (which is 16 pins not 8 like I mentioned above its 8 per side) and unit would come on but wouldn't go into radio channel mode it only said Sirius. I then took a voltage measurement with pin number 7 re-connected it was around 4.5 volts. Usually anything around 2- 3 volts (thank of your jtag 2 1.5volt batts equals 3 volts) is programmable.

With pin re-connected unit would power up and go into radio mode as normal showing me that chip needed voltage to operate. I then decided to leave it connected I took my voltage meter lead and carefully scraped a clean spot into the copper trace that goes to pin 7 so I could solder a piece of wrapping wire (very small wire available at rat shack) to it which I did. I then soldered the other end to a spot of a microprosser point called U701 (its on corner of chip) with it connected the unit would power up but would not go into radio channel mode so I took a voltage measurrment on the wire it is about 2.09 volts (I had used a different spot that gave it like 2.2 volts but it still worked so I chose spot U701 to further lower voltage) . I placed a switch between the wrapping jumper wire that stays on and when pushed it breaks the contact/continuity of the jumper wire. Now when I want to change channels I simply push the button (this allows 4.5 volts to pin 7 of eeprom chip so it works) and do so then let off (back to 2.09 volts keeping it safe). With wire connected voltage is 2.09 volts thus making eeprom not programmable. Also the button also has to be pushed to power up unit. Remember pushing the button breaks the continuity of wrapping jumper wire I just installed. The switch is spring loaded that way the wife won't forget to put it back into the right posistion which keeps continuity on wrapping jumper wire when not pushd..

It is my hopes they can't turn off the sub since the eeprom can't be programmed or accessed when continuity is between pin 7 of eeprom and point U701 corner pin of microprocessor.

One other thing I have noticed is that the display stays on the song which it starts on meaning in order to change a channel I have to break the continuity of the jumper wire by using the switch for like 2 seconds then when that channel starts I let off switch and continuity returns you see the artist and name of song then but it stays like that even when new song starts not a biggy though if they can't hit it.

Whatcha Thank Pretty Cool eh!

Joe

PS.....One thing that is interesting is that I did 2 of them yesterday and when I would push (breaking continuity of jumper wire) the switch the unit read activation updated push any button to continue and I did and everything worked as normal. I did that like 3 times and it worked all 3 times but then I haven't got that message since. The antenna wasn't connected. Might have been a fluke who knows.


PSS...Their will be some sceptics that say what if they hit the box while you have button pushed changing channels. Easy solution you can always disconnected antenna wire wait 8 secs since box holds about 8 seconds of streamming then push button and change channels let off switch then reconnect antenna. I primarily listen to about 4 channels depending on my mode or how much beer I have so the real pain in the arse is not having my music when I get some time off.

I will try and draw a diagram if any one is interested. Not a hack but sorta like lifetime activation for a 1 month payment.

Be Cool,
Joe

[Wiley-X]

I'm sure there is an engineer at Sirius that thought of this. I'm sure if you are on a month-to-month subscription, there is a built-in expiration date that (because of your mod, will not get updated) and therefore expire.

Nice thought process though...let us know if it's still runnning after a few weeks. There must be a way to gate the processor to allow internal processes to complete, but block certain activation/deactivation signals.

[joesnuffy]

"There must be a way to gate the processor to allow internal processes to complete, but block certain activation/deactivation signals".

I may have the processor gated. Like I said when I first hooked up the wire crossover and then disconnected while box was running it said thanks for updating your sub or something like that push any key to continue which I did and it immediately kept working. The jump wire goes to the processor point U701. Also what deactivates exactly?????? no body knows but it could be the eeprom???? or if eeprom is locked so is processor programming capabilities.

Also the display only works when button is pushed and antenna doesn't need to be hooked up for that to happen no date or time displayed when antenna is disconnected and button pushed to start process I am hoping no date gets to processor or if it does it is read-only.

Any way might be more than a few weeks since my last one lasted 2 years but I have been running the pis out of it hasn't been hit yet and they did hit a sportster I had last week so they are knocking them dead I will let folks know if this one gets knocked down.

I don't thank their is a date for unit to deactivate I thank when you cancel a sub they send the stop the music signal. They have been knocking out all the old units recently so I will let folks know if I get knocked down. I am betting I won't.


Keep those comments coming.

Joe

[rg6a]

That was an interesting article, but if one doesn't know where the act/de-act. info is stored.........well it won't work.

Obviously back to the old Zenith Z-tack days, strip the 'smarts' out of it since it's a half duplex device. ;-)


Oh, when I mentioned a 3-day Pass...............that's online listening only............and limited channels.

[bsinned]

Im not sure what if any updates these units get once you activate.I have a Sportster in my RV that Ive taken out of the stream, no ant/ power for 3 month periods and it works just as soon as you turn it on.Unlike the STB's where you have to wait for a key update or even have them send a hit down.

[joesnuffy]

Just for the record my units are working. The article is to keep it working not for activation . It is most likely above some folks knowledge just trying to help those who have been around a while. I have been around since short wave radios long before rabbit ears.

The goal is to keep them working keeping them from a de-sub. I don't thank they take updates either as the gentleman above this post. I also do not thank they have a date they stop working. I thank they are put on a black list to be de-activated by their esn or type of receiver. I further believe the esn/serial number is contained on tsop chip that looks like the one used in charlie boxes like 24 legs per side. I thank that info is non-changeable that would explain why someone can plug their unit up 4 years later and it work with no updates and no problem with date. I thank the eeprom chip controls the activation and de-activation that it is the first stop and last stop at least on an orbiter.

What I did find interesting is that when pin 7 of eeprom was attached to U701 and powered up then the continutiy between the 2 broken it said my subscription had been updated. That means the voltage was 2.09 on power up then up'd to 4.5 volts it might be that simple kinda like the junkyard fix.


Joe

[bsinned]

I know that cancelling a subbed reciever after pulling it from the stream, then reinstall after sometime ( 3 months in my case ) does work. Ive got one of those puppies going on almost 2 yrs. now. Ive never disconnected it since its been up.

[joesnuffy]

What receiver are you running?? They are going through the gammit turning them off. I have lost an orbiter and a Sporster. If you running an orbiter I thank you would have been hit is it an orbiter??? My guess its not an orbiter or sporster, and one more mentioned in this thread but something different. If its something diff pull it from the steam now especially around weekends fri-sun. Then based off your experience find the eeprom chip on board 16 leg chip use pin 7 reduce voltage to say 2 volts. If you need help pm me.
Thanks,
Joe

[bsinned]

Sportster,still up as of now but Ijust unplugged in to be safe.

[joesnuffy]

Thats most likely the smart thing to do. We have 2 sportsers one got hit that stays on at the buisness the other is in the car and we have left it off so it doesn't drain battery so it didn't get hit I am going to take a look inside it hopefully this evening I will let you know what I find out.

Joe

[joesnuffy]

Pulled my sporster apart today. I have one that was de-activated and one that has not been de-activated. I found the eeprom chip it is inside a metal housing that has to be carefully removed from the board and then screws taken out so it can be opened it is sorta like a clam shell. They hid a screw on mine under a one sided sticky pad. Anyway it is a 16 pin chip (as normal). The chip will have a dot one one side of it that is pin 1 just count left to right till you get to pin 7 that is the one you need. I also found the processor chip it is on the main board under the clam shell the point is called U501. Tommorrow I will solder a jumper wire to both to see if I get the message "the your sub has been renewed". If not I will definetly put one on my still sub'd sporster with a switch between the jumper that keeps continuity and when pressed stops continuity so I can change channels to stop de-activaiton. I know a lot of follks say this is a waste of time but I have been jamming with my orbiter all night and its friday thats when they have been hitting them. Anyway I will post results. If I don't get it to renew its sub with my jumper wire I am going to pay to and then stop the sub a week later to see what happens.

Whatcha Thank,

Joe Snuffy

[bsinned]

now thats testing ! great info thanks for sharing. if it works,a couple of pics in a stickey would be helpful for those who dare. diff. sounds like your on 2 something.

[jimmy]

I have a stiletto that I bought off of ebay. It was activated when I bought it. I left it in a drawer for about 4 months and then gave it to me girlfriend. She's been running it off of a wifi connection for about a year with no problems.

[joesnuffy]

I didn't have as much luck with the sporster as I did with the orbiter. I put the jumper wire from pin 7 of eeprom to U501 corner pin of microprosser. It locked the eeprom I couldn't access the menu features like receiver id number or frequency it is putting signal out on thats most likely a good thing if I can't access eeprom they most likely can't. The bad thing is that when I disconnected the jumper wire I still couldn't access the eeprom info as I could with the sporster. It still let me save channels however so who knows we will just have to see if they can shut it down hope they can't. I left the jumper wire in place to be safe. The radio worked still but I couldn't use the category button and select a channel I had to turn the knob to find them but it would let me save them. Anyway thought I would let folks know. One other thing I couldn't find a tsop chip but I did switch the claim shell part of sub'd unit with eeprom in it to the de'subd unit it was stuck on the channel it was deactivated on and wouldn't change so the channels must be stored in that half of reciever.

Joe

[bsinned]

interesting... thanks for sharing. I threw my Sportster back in the stream to long it will last.

[llzel]

interesting info. i had a sirius unit deactivated 2 years ago, I took it out of the drawer and it works! I'd like to use on my boat, do you think they still send the kill code?

[joesnuffy]

They were killing off all d'subd units especially near the weekends. They may have stopped though. I installed the eeprom locks on mine so can't really say if their still killing them. If you have an orbiter I know how to put an eeprom lock on them which prevents de-activation.


Joe

[llzel]

I have the Sirius ACT portable unit.

[joesnuffy]

I don't have one of those units. I have noticed folks haven't been posting here lately of units being de-activated so it may be safe for now.


Joe

[llzel]

awsome, thanks

[bsinned]

the old sportster's still up