Thursday, November 29, 2012

Arduino Shield Compatibility Documentation

There does not appear to be any site that attempts to cross-reference Arduino shields and compatibility between Arduino processor versions (Uno, Mega, Due, Leonardo, Micro, Nano, etc.).

I asked Adafruit during their Saturday Ask an Engineer chat if they have plans to do this (at least for their own products) and they indicated they would like to but it's not high on their list (understandable as they are working on new products and learning tools.

Perhaps some industrious soul(s) would set up a website/wiki to document shield compatibility?

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Raspberry Pi in Stock at Newark

Newark has the Raspberry Pi in stock at the standard $35 price point, no limit.  They state they have twenty but that does not decrement.  The link is http://www.newark.com/raspberry-pi/raspbrry-modb-512m/raspberry-pi-model-b-board-only/dp/43W5302


Try code MONDAY75 to get free shipping on $75 and up orders.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Lots of Sales, Items Running Out

I like to shop the early sales but I have found that certain items I want to buy, especially at Maker stores, are out of stock.  Hard to see a sale but no stock.  I jumped when Adafruit got RFID boards back in but there are still many things they carry that are out of stock (but understandable given Sandy).  The Arduino Due seems very elusive (but I have one in route from Maker Shed from a week ago).  Maker Shed briefly stated they had more stock but it was a stock error.

I may be looking for a new laptop - the Dell XPS I wrote of earlier is having issues again (not too unexpected) - it will keep running if left on but that isn't very reliable.

I have been organizing the shop a bit more so it should be easier to work.  I got some vintage parts drawers off eBay to match my vintage drawers I got back in the 70's/80s (plastic drawers really have not come down in price).

I've ordered some cool parts so I should be able make some great things.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Wiring up Bob the Robotic Head #hackfriday

No, I did not forgo Black Friday shopping altogether for Hack Friday (the new day which one spends hacking things together).  Shopping started at 7:30 Thanksgiving with a trip to Walmart and also some online shopping.

Hack Friday started a couple months ago buying a robotic head.  It comes with two servo motors and two electric motors.  About the same time I bought an Adafruit motor shield to control the head via an Arduino.  I have not had time to wire it up with other projects like the Cylon Pumpkin.  With Halloween over, I wanted to focus on the robot. Helping was receipt today of another Adafruit order from this past Sunday when they had a 10% off sale for Hack Friday.  Just in time!

The head is driven with the motor shield's two servo outputs and two of the four motor controllers.  For now, a potentiometer is read to control the motor and a rotary encoder, interrupt driven, selects which motor to control (could be done with 4 potentiometers possibly better).  The motor shield leaves enough Arduino pins free (all analog pins and digital pin 2 which is interrupt controllable).  Eventually the head will respond to sensors and possibly talk via an Emic speech board coming from a sale at Make.

Making the hookup much more enjoyable is my new Hakko soldering iron - near instant controlled heat, making the old Radio Shack model seem so 1976.

Happy Hack Friday!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Cylon Pumpkin Build Details

By request, I am posting details on my Cylon Pumpkin build from two weeks ago.
Inside the parts look like this
The Larson Scanner (moving LED array) with its AA battery pack is at top.  It is a kit from Evil Mad Scientist.  The board in the center, (underneath) is an Arduino Uno.  On top of that is an Adafruit Wave Shield.  It's a kit and yes I didn't get it right when complete, I had a cold solder pad on the SD card interface.  This plays the cylon sounds - this consists of the moving eye sound and then 6 phrases that can be triggered from an IR remote (not shown, any remote will do, more below).  The IR signals are captured by a Radio Shack IR receiver (black, between the two blue boards).

The unit is powered from a 9 volt battery connected to the Uno.  The audio out on the Wave Shield was amplified as the volume produced by the shield was not very loud.  I happened to have a vintage Radio Shack mono amplifier.  The Uno+Shield+Battery were housed inside the pumpkin in the plastic case at left (from Michaels, use your 40% off coupon).

Wiring: The Wave Shield connections are as recommended by Adafruit (using Digital pins 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10).  The IR sensor was coded to use Digital Pin 9 (along with +5 volts and ground).  The astute will notive I did not take the ausio from the 1/4" jack (not enough room in the plastic box) - I soldered two 90 degree header pins on the board's audio out and connected the yellow and orange cable to a 1/4" plug.

Code: The code is at https://github.com/TheKitty/CylonPumpkin. You should get the WaveHC and WaveUtil libraries from adafruit.com. IRremote library by Ken Shirriff at http://arcfn.com. You should use one of the IRtest programs with Ken's library to discover the codes for whatever remote you chose. I used an old Creative RM-1500 remote but you can use any remote and map the codes you discover to the keys you push. This project used number keys 1 to 6 for effects, mute to turn off sound, Volume + to turn it on. The code is not overly clean as there was a bug with the mute button so I ignored presses that turned out to be just over 1.5 seconds. It was frustrating - you'll probably have better luck. The sounds can be found via Google "Cylon WAV". I cannot post the sounds as they may be copyrighted.

Other than the mute issue, it was a straightforward and fun build.  I'll look to reuse the Uno and Wave Shield to try out the Adafruit Voice Changer.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Online Courses - Refined and Redefined Learning

Online learning is finally coming into the promises made in the early Internet.  From MIT CourseWare to Khan Academy to today's offerings, it's all getting better.

If you haven't heard of Caltech's "Learning from Data: Introductory Machine Learning Course", it's well worth a look.  Dr. Yaser Abu-Mostafa is one of my favorite professors and I learned a great deal in his courses.  He's redefined excellence in online learning with his course.
This quarter's issue of ENGenious (the magazine of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech) has a great interview article about the course, the professor, and the process.  If you've thought about jumping into university level courses from a top (well, #1) rated institution, I seriously recommend checking out the course offering.  And the price is right.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Deals at MicroCenter

Last month, I blogged that MicroCenter had been touting their "Arduino" (which turned out to be a Ghio clone) for $19.99.  Today's ad is out and the new and improved prices are out.  They state they have the Arduino Uno Rev 3 for $17.99 (item # 869016) and the Mega 2460 Rev 3 for $34.99 (item # 864504).  No sign they are the clone models in their ad.  If that is the case, their Mega costs what Radio Shack charges for the Uno, the prices approaching half what the maker shops charge.
Such pricing could threaten Radio Shack's foray into the Maker market.  I hope not, I have encouraged them to get back to their golden days of electronics.  I spent much of my teen years pocket change buying Radio Shack parts and books.

If you'd like a Maker's kit, MicroCenter has the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit at $69.99 (item # 434324).  It was selling at $99.99 but Sparkfun recently redesigned the box so this is last year's box (link to current model) but it is still cool and $30 off.

If you like PC's, it's hard to beat some of MicroCenter's prices.  They have several stores around the US (yes, there is one nearby here) but you can get most of the same prices online (except processors which are only discounted in-store).

Monday, November 12, 2012

Resurecting a Dell M1530 Laptop

I got a great deal at Dell outlet four years ago - a Dell XPS M1530 aluminum laptop for just under a thousand dollars.  Yes, today you can get a darn good ultrabook for that but that was then.

Well that bargain worked well even though it's powerful (then) 8600GT nVidia display chip was flawed from the start.  The chip was put into several high-end laptops from Dell and Apple.  They acknowledged the problem but failed to recall the chips, instead having manufacturers handle things.  For Dell, this was an extra year of warranty (big deal).

Well my time bomb went off about four months ago - first intermittently then for good two months ago.

I read up on the home cures.  Pretty iffy.  Then I finally had time to call Dell today - $378+tax and shipping to send to a depot for repair out of warranty.  For a Core2Duo, not a bargain.  So I got out the hair dryer.

The procedure is detailed in this blog post.  Forget the hair dryer in the intake or with the heat sink on, temporary at best.  One has to remove the heatsink/fan unit (not that hard really, 7 screws after opening the cover).  Then you clean the old thermal paste off the chips and heatsink with rubbing alcohol and a coffee filter.  Aim your hair dryer on high to the nVidia chip for 5 minutes (avoiding other components).  Allow to cool to room temperature.  Then apply a half-pea size dab of ceramic heat paste to the CPU and graphics chip and place the heatsink/fan back in, tightening according to the numbering next to the screws (hand tight first, then final snug fit).  Fire up and hopefully you see Windows again.

I don't hold my breath on this but so far so good.  I shouldn't sweat buying a new laptop, as they will be getting much cheaper as a glut shows itself (I posted on this earlier today).  But as I've said before, most true Makers are cheap.  Plus the unit has all my personal configurations and software, something that takes a good half day to get loaded and configured.

If this works, I will use it on my test bench rather than moving a desktop over there.  Space is at a premium.

Laptops - get ready for the touchless glut

Not many people know we're in a laptop glut except manufacturers, retail outlets, and the refurb shops.  That is to say the consumer has not been informed there is a glut to ensure they don't demand better prices.

The notebook market has taken a serious hit from tablets.  Everyone has seen the near-disappearance of the netbook due to tablets.  The netbook segment isn't unneeded though as very small notebooks are still very desirable for certain tasks.  But they are not sexy and the demand is smaller now.  Perhaps the smaller need can be fulfilled by refurbs?  Microsoft wants that market segment to use their new Surface tablet with the keyboard "click-on" cover.  They are not quite the same as tablets and do not have the connectivity options that a netbook or notebook has.

The killer: Windows 8 and touchscreens.  If (when) Windows 8 gains acceptable, what will people want?  Touchscreens.  Once more: Touchscreens.  In past years, adding touch to screens was rather expensive so to keep costs down such a little-used option was not included.  Those that tried used the older stylus-type screens that never gained much popularity.

So Windows 8 works best with a touchscreen.  What about all the machines that do not have a touchscreen?  They either run Windows 8 without touch (gasp!) or they run "legacy" operating systems like Windows 7, linux, etc.  You cannot retrofit these devices with touch on the screen.  There is a HUGE pool of new and refurb laptops out there.  The prices are coming down a bit but the market does NOT want you to know of the glut as you'll demand rock-bottom prices.  You should.  This market will be hitting a bottom so the consumer who does not want touch will benefit greatly.

In the ashes we have some companies that may exit the laptop business if they do not innovate.   Certainly Intel and AMD have been squirming by the tone of recent articles.  This week, talk that Apple will move eventually from Intel to ARM.  Microsoft Surface RT devices use ARM.  The x86 architecture may finally be approaching the reef.  I've thought that Intel i3 and i5 laptops have been overpriced by $100 to $300 (and on Ultrabooks, some corner cutting on features without price cuts has been absurd).

Again, who may benefit?  You.  If you need computing, do a bit of searching.  Find better, make offers to pay less.  When the market finally tanks, who knows what will happen, but who usually wins in the short term is you.  In the longer term, it will be a brave new world and who knows how the market will shape up.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Backup, Backup, Backup

I think I lost a 3TB drive on my Windows Home Server 2011 box today.  All the client PC backups were on that drive but no data that I recall so it's not a great loss.

Of course I have not automated a backup of the servers pictures, videos, and documents.  I do have a Microsoft Richcopy script to do so manually to another 3TB drive on that server.  I miss the Drive Extender technology in the old Windows Home Server to manage a copy of the data that would survive a one hard disk crash.

My last ditch backup is on such a Windows Home Server V1 box.  I haven't had that running in awhile so there are 23 patches to apply before looking to make a copy there.

Maybe my life will slow down enough so I can get all the solutions automated and bulletproof.  Or Microsoft could make an alternative to do it for me (Apple - hah!  They abandoned the server space).  There are some interesting articles on using Windows 8 and the Storage Spaces capability acting as a home server but I'd like something more tried & true.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Adafruit Electronic Character Plush Toys Signup

The Adafruit folks have had the circuit playground characters as part of their Ask an Engineer Ustream wallpaper for awhile (circuit playground is the name of their popular electronics app on iTunes).  Well, they came up with the cool idea (after the success of the resistor crossstitch) of making plush characters.


The gang consists of Adabot and his friends:

The puppet designs are by Anney McKilligan Ozar, AKA Anney Fresh, a creator and performer of costumes and puppets in New York City. She has been nominated for seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Costume Design/ Styling with wins in 2007, 2009, and 2010 for Sesame Street.  Adabot's art is by Bruce Yan.

You can listen to Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone talk about the new characters at Maker Faire NY with Pete from Sparkfun here (go to about 3:10).  They promise a 10 minute live-action segment on ASK AN ENGINEER soon.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Arduino Micro and Other Tiny Boards

Arduino introduced their latest product today - the Arduino Micro comes with headers, operates at   5V and sports a 16 MHz ATmega32u4. The unit is basically a mini-size Arduino Leonardo as the unit can act as a USB host and it does not have an FTDI USB chip.  The unit has a USB micro socket.  The price is $24.95 US plus shipping.

I was reading the comments on Adafruit's post for the product and they appear somewhat mixed.  I would tend to expect this myself.  Why?
  1. The Freetronics LeoStick came out many weeks ago and is priced at $28.50 shipped in the US from reseller EpicTinker or direct from their Australia based operation.  The product plugs directly into a full-size USB port so no cable is needed for programming or interfacing as a USB host.  It also has headers (not standard shield compatible but you could make your own).
  2. The large number of small form-factor Arduino-compatibles.  Very successful Kickstarter projects like Digispark and TinyDuino bring compatible devices at around the $22 mark (about the same price as a full Arduino Leonardo.
  3. The new 32-bit tiny powerhouses led by the Teensy 3.0 at $27.95 US have much of the power of the Arduino Due in the small form factor.
All this would probably not be possible without leveraging the existing Arduino integrated development environment (IDE).  But is loyalty to the brand enough to guarantee volume sales? 

The Prius was the first mass produced hybrid and has a strong following.  But there are many electric or hybrid cars now, some rather reasonable.  Does one stick with the market leader or consider something like the new Tesla Model S?  The choice is yours - viva la choice.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Link your Internet of Things Easily with the WiPi Wireless Bridge

You may be familiar with radio wiz Rick Winscot and his easyRadio modules for Arduinos.  They are popular as you pop on the shield and via serial you have an instant mesh network, operating in US and EU licensed 868/915 Mhz bands.  Now he's on Kickstarter with the WiPi Wireless Bridge for Raspberry Pi.  It is a low current USB device that works on the Raspberry Pi and also with PC/Mac (with the standard FTDI driver).


These items are dead simple, easier than Xbee in my opinion.  They also have solid antenna links and have a range of at least 300 feet, more outside/line of sight.

The Kickstarter has bundles with various USB and Arduino bundles.  These will be sold later by Farnell/Element 14, CPC, Saelig, or LPRS after this offer for full retail so snap some of these up while they're available.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Electronic Halloween - My Pumpkin 2012

Halloween is a natural time for Makers to show their skills, be it a simple but effective decoration or costume or something way over the top.  I wanted a sound project so I had the choice of using a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino with a sound board.  I chose Arduino with an Adafruit Wave Shield as the programming is very straightforward, reading and outputting sounds via an SD card.  The pumpkin is controlled using a IR receiver to decode keys representing commands to the pumpkin.  I chose IR over radio control for simplicity and time.  The LED array is a Larson Scanner kit from Evil Mad Scientist - it can vary the scanning frequency and eye size.
The remote can select from five phrases and can mute/unmute the cylon eye sound.

I plan to reuse the Arduino/Wave Shield in upcoming projects, perhaps my robot/home automation project.

If you would like to see a video of it, go to Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gCXfIj1xyY

The sad thing overall: many of the younger folks in the office did not know what a cylon is.  I thought it might be confusion over new Battlestar vs. old
vs 
but that wasn't it - must be Geek vs. The Rest of Humanity :(

Picade - a Kickstarter for a Raspberry Pi based arcade game

Out of the gate fast, Picade is the first UK based Kickstarter and it's not far from it's goal of 32,768 pounds on day 2.  The Picade and Picade Mini are high-quality desk top arcade cabinets for your Raspberry Pi® that are designed and manufactured with care in Sheffield, UK.



Each comes with a screen (800 pixels or so on the mini, 1024 on the full version).  The costs are not great but not unreasonable given they are kits and do not come with a Pi.  Shipping to the US is 20 to 25 pounds extra.

I'd jump on this if they made a version that did not include the display but had the buttons and control circuitry with video out to the Pi's HDMI or composite out - it would keep the price and bulk down.