Image: youtube.com · Video thumbnail: EEVblog 1784: Claude Code reverse engineers 121GW firmware (YouTube)
EEVblog: full firmware reverse engineered into C from one prompt
Dave Jones (EEVblog) reports that Claude Code reverse engineered the firmware of a 121GW multimeter into C with a single prompt in under 24 hours, starting with the bootloader. Community work followed, including an open firmware assembler version.
Credits
- Post author eevblog.bsky.social Source ↗
Earliest dated source:
The full story
In EEVblog video 1784, electronics YouTuber Dave Jones hooks his own 121GW multimeter up to an ST-LINK V2 programmer and gives Claude Code a single prompt: reverse engineer the firmware. Claude installs GCC and Ghidra, finishes the bootloader first, and by the next morning has turned the whole firmware back into C source that compiles.
Dave then flashes the rebuilt firmware onto the real meter and tests it, including whether Bluetooth still works. He calls the result proof that software engineering has changed completely. The source is published on GitHub (EEVblog/121GW-Multimeter-Firmware-RE), and the video also tests a community member's independent open firmware written in assembler (zombu4/121GW-Open-Firmware).
Claims come from the author's own video and forum post.
How it was done
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From the maker's own write-up or code. We summarise what they report; we haven't tested it ourselves.
- EEVblog 1784: Claude Code reverse engineers 121GW firmware (YouTube)
EEVblog 1784, about 37 minutes: set-up, the prompt, the overnight result and testing on the real meter, with chapter markers.
- EEVblog forum blog post
- Dave Jones on X
- Bluesky: New video: EEVblog 1784 - Claude Code Reverse Engineer 121GW Firmware SUCCESS!
https://wwPost author: eevblog.bsky.socialPosted
- EEVblog Forum: EEVblog® Electronics Community Forum