--- title: Accidental Engineer: Building My First Hardware Tool the... description: A red teamer at Bishop Fox with no electrical engineering background recounts building a custom, field-durable badge cloning tool from scratch. The story... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/accidental-engineer-building-my-first-hardware-tool-the-hard-way-zsg9weoo4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Accidental Engineer: Building My First Hardware Tool the Hard Way | daily.dev og:description: A red teamer at Bishop Fox with no electrical engineering background recounts building a custom, field-durable badge cloning tool from scratch. The story... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/accidental-engineer-building-my-first-hardware-tool-the-hard-way-zsg9weoo4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zSG9WeoO4.png og:image:alt: Accidental Engineer: Building My First Hardware Tool the Hard Way og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Accidental Engineer: Building My First Hardware Tool the Hard Way **[Sliver C2 Documentation](https://daily.dev/sources/bishopfox)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A red teamer at Bishop Fox with no electrical engineering background recounts building a custom, field-durable badge cloning tool from scratch. The story focuses on the learning journey rather than technical specifics: reading datasheets, leaning on an experienced friend, and using AI tools like ChatGPT cautiously since it invented nonexistent components and specs. A key breakthrough involved misunderstanding USB-C Power Delivery negotiation signal polarity, resolved by learning the term 'low-side switch.' The takeaway is that unfamiliar technical domains are more approachable than they seem, and the biggest barrier is simply deciding to start. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why would a USB-C Power Delivery IC pull its negotiation signal low instead of high when power is successfully negotiated? Some USB-C Power Delivery ICs signal successful negotiation by pulling the output low (to ground) rather than driving it high with positive voltage, which is the opposite of what many designers initially assume. If a downstream component needs positive voltage to turn on, a low-side switch can be added as an intermediary to translate the inverted logic into the expected behavior. _Developers debugging power sequencing logic can find similar hardware gotchas explained on daily.dev._ ### Can I trust ChatGPT to give accurate specs and component recommendations when designing a PCB? No, AI tools should only be used as explainers or sanity checks, not as authoritative sources for hardware design. In one real build, ChatGPT suggested components that did not exist and cited specs that were inaccurate; blindly following those suggestions would have resulted in a nonfunctional PCB, so every AI-provided detail needs verification against datasheets and independent sources. _Anyone weighing AI assistance against hands-on verification for technical projects can track similar lessons on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Lessons Learned After A Head-First Dive Into Hardware Manufacturing](https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-after-a-head-first-dive-into-hardware-manufacturing-pn7mccqlt) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Home Hardware, Part 1: My Control4 Revenge Arc](https://daily.dev/posts/home-hardware-part-1-my-control4-revenge-arc-jsj4sfar8) · Reid Burke · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Simplify, Then Add Lightness](https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-then-add-lightness-0c1italp5) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [An Event Badge Re-Imagined As A Cyberdeck](https://daily.dev/posts/an-event-badge-re-imagined-as-a-cyberdeck-yqapkukqe) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ignition: Flashing 2,300 conference badges with Temporal](https://daily.dev/posts/ignition-flashing-2-300-conference-badges-with-temporal-4bgcem7oo) · Temporal · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#red-teaming](https://daily.dev/tags/red-teaming) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/accidental-engineer-building-my-first-hardware-tool-the-hard-way-zsg9weoo4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Accidental Engineer: Building My First Hardware Tool the Hard Way","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/accidental-engineer-building-my-first-hardware-tool-the-hard-way-zsg9weoo4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/accidental-engineer-building-my-first-hardware-tool-the-hard-way-zsg9weoo4"},"datePublished":"2026-08-23T12:21:40.827Z","dateModified":"2026-08-23T12:40:53.206Z","description":"A red teamer at Bishop Fox with no electrical engineering background recounts building a custom, field-durable badge cloning tool from scratch. 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