How to use US military space craft to cheat at Clock Simulator

Would you like to use MILITARY RADIOACTIVE CESIUM IN SPACE to CHEAT at Clock Simulator? Sure you do!

What? and more importantly Why?

Clock Simulator is, if we're perfectly honest with ourselves, a completely stupid game. But its simple mechanics make it an interesting target for some stupid electronic trickery.

Global Positioning Systems, like the US Government's NAVSTAR GPS[en.wikipedia.org] use spacecraft with ultra-precise rubidium and cesium atomic clocks to send out precise timing signals all over the planet. By comparing these clocks you can determine your location with high degree of accuracy. While navigation is the primary product, the high-accuracy clock is what I was interested in.

GPS messages contain the time and date, but it would take a fair amount of code to tear apart the time message. With Clock Simulator, all I really need is One. Click. Per. Second.

Here's where it all came together: Almost all GPS receivers generate a "1PPS" signal -- "one pulse per second". This signal usually gets fed into clock synchronization systems, like the NTP Pool[en.wikipedia.org] that keeps your computer clock in sync, or into cell towers.

I fed it into a mouse.

Should you cheat?

This hack will net you, I think, two achievements. I think you have to decide for yourself if you think those achievements are sacrosanct. But at the very least, it doesn't impact other gamers, and doesn't ruin their experience. I don't think this hack is especially applicable to any other gaming, but if developers want to detect this hack, they should look for multiple mouse devices running at the same time. That might be okay if one is a trackpad, but for almost everyone else, having two mice running at the same time is ridiculous and suspicious.

Surely there's an easier way?

Sure. You can probably do this with macro software. I think there's another guide for that. But this uses SATELLITES and ATOMIC CLOCKS, and is therefore many times cooler.

WARNING

This is a stupid idea, and involves loose wires running around connected to your computer. If you get a wire in the wrong place, you may destroy your GPS module. You might destroy the USB port on your computer. Odds are good you won't do anything terribly permanent, but still...

This is a stupid idea, and you shouldn't do it.

Parts Needed

You're going to need a few parts. If you're fortunate, you'll already have a couple of the parts sitting around your house. If not, you can pick them up from a number of different sources.

• A Mouse - You're probably going to destroy this, so either use a cheap mouse you have sitting around (like I did), or grab something like an AmazonBasics[www.amazon.com].
  
• A GPS Receiver with 1PPS - Look for a module with a UBLOX Neo-6 receiver. Make sure it has a PPS output (it'll probably have FIVE pins, instead of just four). You will also need a GPS antenna. I used this module[www.amazon.com] which only cost about $12, included a dinky antenna and also a battery backup for quick sync!
  
• An NPN Transistor - I used the 2N2222, which is practically free... however, you'll probably end up spending $5 to buy 200 of them. What do you do with 199 extra NPN transistors? I dunno...
  
• Wires - Using a breadboard and fly wires will make your hack easier to toss together, but if you're really creative, you might be able to do this in dead-bug form.

Tools Needed

You'll need a few tools:

• Soldering Iron - You're going to need to tack some wires onto your mouse.
  
• Spudger - Most mice have their screws hidden beneath their slippery feet. Some sort of thin, flat, flexible tool will make lifting these off a bit easier.
  
• Screwdriver - You need to open the mouse once you find the screws.
  
• A multimeter - Nothing fancy. You just need to poke around inside the mouse.

Prepare the Mouse

In this step, we'll be hijacking the left mouse button, by soldering wires onto the switch.

• Open up the mouse.
  
• Identify which switch is the left mouse button.
  
• On the bottom of the mouse, identify the two contacts that go to the switch.
  
• Solder a wire onto each contact.

You should now test out your work. Launch some kind of mouse testing tool with your real mouse, then plug your mouse in. When you touch the two wires together, you should get a click event.

One of the two wires will have a positive voltage on it, and the other will be a ground return. Use your multimeter to determine which of the two wires is positive. The positive wire is CLICK, and the other wire is GROUND.

Prepare the GPS module

You may need to attach the antenna to your module. This is a terrifying process because the plug and the socket are both DINKY. Once you have it done, test out your GPS module by plugging it into a USB port. After a short time, the LED on the module should start blinking once per second.

You may want to solder a header onto your module, but at the very least, you'll need to identify two pins. There will probably be five pins on your module, and they will hopefully be labeled (look on the back!):

• VCC - This is voltage in. Stay away from it.
  
• GND - Ground. You want this one!
  
• TXD - Transmit Data.
  
• RXD - Receive Data.
  
• PPS - Pulse Per Second. This is the good stuff!

Prepare the Transistor

There's not much to be said here, except that the transistor won't fit well into a breadboard unless you bend the wires a bit.


A transistor has three pins: The Base, The Emitter, and The Collector. The pinout depends on which you pick. If you get the 2N2222 I recommended, then when the flat side is facing you, the pins from left to right are E - B - C. Find these and continue to wiring up everything.

Wiring it together

Take the wire from the mouse that you labelled CLICK and attach it to the BASE terminal of the transistor -- the middle pin.

Take the PPS wire from the GPS module and attach it to the COLLECTOR terminal -- the right pin.

Take the mouse GROUND, the GPS GROUND, and the transistor EMITTER, and connect all three together.

Trying it out

Keep in mind that, whenever this is plugged in, it is happily clicking the left mouse button every second. So, you probably want to keep it disabled until you're ready to use it. You can either unplug the GPS module from its USB power, or unplug your hacked up mouse from your computer.

When you're ready to go, plug in your hacked up mouse. Then plug in the GPS module. You might get a random click the first time. Once the GPS gets a fix, the LED will start flashing, and the clicks will start coming.

When you eventually get bored, unplug either the mouse or the GPS to make the clicking stop.

Congrats! That ATOMIC PRECISION achievement is YOURS!

[NIXXION44]

Thank you!

[EL-S]

Thanks for the guide!