imagitronics

Sat, 17 May 2008 13:29:28 GMT

This blog has moved to a new home on my personal web site: http://blog.imagitronics.org/

I was never really comfortable on Livejournal. The advertisements are becoming too obtrusive, and it doesn't make sense for me to pay for a blog when I already pay for my own web server.

Please update your bookmarks, and I'll see you on the flipside.
Tim

Service Interruption

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:22:42 GMT

Not that anyone actually reads this blog, but just a note to say that imagitronics.org is experiencing technical difficulties at the moment. I have contacted my provider and should be back online shortly.

Thanks

BongoPong update

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:32:21 GMT

BongoPong is now making its rounds around the internet, and much like TrafficStop was translated to Russian, BongoPong has already been translated into another language as well.

The only downside of the attention is that everyone (even personal friends) seem to think, based on my video, that the game would be too difficult for the common couch-potato. That's just not the case. You highly underestimate my lack of basic coordination. It's quite surprising that I can even walk without falling down half the time.

In retrospect, I have some surfer friends in SoCal whom I should have asked to record themselves playing the game before I released it to the public. I'm sure they would be able to really rock out to some BongoPong.

You need more proof that I'm the antithesis of human fitness? I pulled a groin muscle playing BongoPong this weekend. Yeah, weak.

Arduino and RFID

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 04:41:55 GMT

The internet can be a terrible thing for people like myself with painfully short attention spans. I've acquired this nasty habit of finding something new and exciting on the interwebs and clicking the buy button without knowing precisely what it is that I've just purchased.

This happened to me a couple of months ago when I picked up a copy of the RFID Toys kit. Don't get me wrong, the book came highly recommended and the author is a staple in the hacking community. What I didn't know was that several projects in the book would require a Parallax Basic Stamp to complete. And while I don't have any specific reasons for not wanting a Basic Stamp, I just don't want one.

So this RFID Toys kit has been sitting around my house collecting dust for a couple of months now when I decided that it would be more fun, more interesting, and more educational if I were to complete the RFID Toys projects by interfacing the Phidgets RFID reader to my Arduino board. I have not seen this done so far, only links for interfacing the Arduino to the Parallax RFID module.

This is one of the projects that I will be undertaking over the coming weeks.

BongoPong

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:34:38 GMT

Normally I like to keep a Development journal of all the lessons learned, trials and errors, and general mishaps that take place when I begin working on a new project.

For BongoPong there isn't really much to say.

The Velleman Pong kit was (one of?) the first kit(s) that I ever soldered together. It was a fun little kit to build, but I wanted more from it. I knew that I would someday find a fun or interesting mod for it.

A couple of weeks ago I came across an article on HackADay where a clever young hacker controlled his pong kit by flexing his own muscles. That hack got me thinking about new ways to interface with the oldest video game.

Being the worlds first video game, pong has been hacked to death. There are laser pong hacks, pong that plays against itself, and even pong on the side of buildings.

Clearly, finding something new and interesting in this saturated field would not be an easy task.

The ideas floated around my head for about a week. All of them were interesting, but each suffered the same flaw. They'd been done to death. Not necessarily with pong, but with video games in general. I needed to put a fresh twist on the old game. More importantly, it needed to be simple. My meager background in electronics certainly wouldn't enable to run right out and build a mind controlled pong game.

The idea to use an Indo (Bongo) board for pong came out of the clear blue sky. Really. I have no idea what prompted me to think about it, I was driving when I thought of it. Within the hour I was at the hardware store, trying to find parts to make a tilt activated switch.

Things just kind of came together from there. I found the metal cylinders (see previous post), some PVC pipe, and a three foot piece of wood that looked sturdy enough to hold me.

The whole thing was functional in another hour or so. I was pretty terrible on the board that first night, and i noticed that whenever I would make a quick motion and the board would move very quickly to the left or right, the tilt switches would not react properly.

A quick google search taught me that this is a common problem, even for commercial mercury-based tilt switches. There is simply no way for the switch to differentiate between gravity and g-force. It makes sense when you stop and think about it. Luckily the problem became less apparent as I got better at using the board and the movements became more fluid.

The major flaw in my design was that there was no way to serve the ball without the controller. Using the Velleman pong kit, you serve the ball by pressing both buttons simultaneously. To fix this, I grabbed a cheap skateboard. Skateboards have the nose and tail curved upward slightly at the ends. I swapped the switches on the left and right side of the board, and flipped them so the trigger faced inward, and slightly down. This resulted in the same functionality as before, but now when the board is roughly parallel with the ground, both switches are activated and the ball is served without any additional user input.

As always, there are a million things I could do to make the project better. Imagine using an accelerometer to get analog values and then interfacing the board with a console or PC to play games like SSX, or even breakout.

It's interesting to point out that I lost my entire weekend playing this game. At no point did I stop because I was tired and/or bored. Each gaming session ended when something on the board broke. On the first night one of the wires snapped off of a tilt switch. On the second night the PVC pipe cracked. I'd like to get a real Indo board, but the prices start at around $80 and work their way up. That just seems too expensive for a piece of wood and a rubber coated roller.

Be sure to check out the BongoPong project site for videos of BongoPong in action.

Simple homemade tilt activated switch

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:59:12 GMT

I started working on my next project tonight and realized that I needed four tilt activated switches. I wasn't exactly sure what would make a good tilt switch. The majority of online videos and tutorials for tilt switches were either undocumented, mercury based, or actually accelerometers. Luckily I found these small steel hooyahs. I have no idea what they were actually designed for, but they make pretty handy little switches.

So, now I've decided to try my hand at this online video craze that's leaving me behind, so peep the video for a simple demonstration of the tilt switches and try not to be too harsh.

SuperDrive Firmware update

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:13:00 GMT

Apple released a SuperDrive firmware update the other day, and all over the internet users are reporting that they now have access to older DVD+R discs. My MacBook Pro, on the other hand, still cannot even read my official AirPort Express install disc.

In addition, the update utility registered itself in my Login items. This causes the utility to complain, "No Updatable Devices Found," each time the computer starts. Thankfully, this problem had already been exposed by MacFixIt.

To stop the program from running at system startup, launch System Preferences - Accounts and remove the entry from the list in the Login Items tab. See below.

Welcome visitors

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:52:31 GMT

The other night I posted about TrafficStop to the forums over at HackedGadgets. Alan was kind enough to throw me up on the front page for June 27. Honestly, I was pretty stoked about that. It may sound odd to those of you that have already achieved internet notoriety, but it was something akin to losing my internet virginity.

If that had me feeling pretty good, then imagine my surprise when I was reading my daily RSS feeds and read about my project on engadget! The project even got dugg, although the last time I checked it only had three diggs, I still feel that's quite an accomplishment when you consider the fact that I have almost no experience in the hardware hacking arena.

I just wish that I'd have had the forethought to configure some stat gathering tools for my site, so I could get an accurate count of how many visitors I've had in the last 48 hours.

That's enough ego stroking for one day. I think it's time to post some "lessons learned" from this whole ordeal.

Weller Replacement Tips

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:40:29 GMT

I've been working with a Weller WP30 soldering iron for a while. It's a great iron but the included tip is a little big for my tastes. I was watching the video for DiggTheDiggButton last night and I noticed that Limor from adafruit uses a very fine tip. I had no idea what tip I would need, but I was lucky enough to stumble across the image below from Action Electronics. So I ordered myself a couple of ST7 tips tonight tonight replace that cumbersome ST3 that came with the iron.

meh

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:40:26 GMT

I wound up spending a ridiculous amount of time just getting the Delcom driver to work on OS X. The program was written years ago by an Apple developer, and a lot has changed since then. There were a few minor problems that caused me a great deal of headache.

For instance, there were a few lines of code that checked for null values using the tried and true:

if(something != null)
doSomething();

GCC kept complaining that I was using an object in a mathematical operation. I wasn't having much luck finding anyone else on the internet who seemed to have the same problem. Once again, Tom came to my rescue when he commented that he always used the form:

if(!something)
doSomething();

I think I wasted roughly two evenings just getting the Delcom drivers to compile, and that wasn't the last time that Tom would ride to my rescue.

The software

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:31:34 GMT

Even though the project was born out of a need at work, I decided that I would target the Mac platform first. There's no good reason for this decision, other than the fact that I love Macs.

My original design idea was actually to calculate the number of windows open on the system at any given time, and change the light based on that figure. There's actually a major distinction between how many windows you have open, and how many applications you have running. I was violently opposed to polling the system for status changes. I demanded that the light changed instantaneously when a new event occured.

My friend Tom recommended that I check out the NSDistributedNotificationCenter feature in Cocoa. This is a class that is available to all applications, and allows you to get some pretty interesting information from your computer such as when a new application is launched or the computer is preparing for sleep. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow you to find out how many windows are open on the system.

Tom also gave me some applescript code that would enable me to count the number of open windows on the system, but I insisted on using notifications. I was certain that other programs, such as Mail.app and iCal would post useful notifications that I could use to determine the number of unread emails, scheduled appointments etc

Progress

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:21:37 GMT

I set out in search of a novelty stoplight again. By now I was certain that I could complete the project, and it was time to get the rest of the hardware on order. I selected a generic looking Random Flashing Traffic Light from www.blacklight.com despite never having heard of the company.

It was time to focus on the software.

More disappointment

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:17:06 GMT

Now that I had a working USB interface and a means to control lights through it, I started to think that this project might actually become a reality. I really needed this to become a reality. I needed something in the "win" column to boost my self esteem.

And now that success seemed reasonable, I started thinking about the software. The Delcom USB module came with Windows drivers, but I was curious if Mac and Linux drivers were also available. I use all three Operating Systems in my home, and I am a huge advocate of interoperability. I quickly found a sample program for Mac OS X that used the IOKit Framework to communicate with the Delcom USB controller, and I found several open source Linux drivers on sourceforge.net.

But it was an entry on the main page of the Delcom site that intrigued me the most. On the front page of their site, labeled "New" was a set of USB Traffic Indicators. I was simultaneously overjoyed and disappointed. On the one hand, it was like having your lunch money stolen by your best friend. The very same people whom I was using to develop this product, had coincidentally stolen the rug right out from under me. On the other hand, it was a sense of validation that I was really onto something here. Delcom was charging $54 for a three color lamp like mine. It was the first time that my wife finally took note, and realized that maybe my idea wasn't so crazy after-all.

I must have stared at the page for 30 minutes. Living in the state of mixed emotions. Then, true to form, I noticed something. Check out the picture below:

Either that's the world's largest USB connector, or that thing is the size of a freaking keychain! What gives? Is that thing seriously three LED's in a tiny little case? I was more inspired than ever before to finish this project and share it with the world. I was convinced that there would be an interest in a product like this.

Back in business

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:57:52 GMT

Now that I had stumbled across a circuit that would drive my light bulbs from a DC voltage, I finally decided to troubleshoot the USB Interface board.

Now, I'm telling you this because I want you to know exactly how stupid I can be sometimes. I had shelved the USB Interface board for an entire week because it didn't work, and I was certain that it would be weeks of probing before I would be able to find the single cold solder joint responsible.

This time when I pulled the board out, I noticed something. Look closely:

I want to note that I assembled this board (well, not this board, exactly. This is a product shot - but you know what I mean) with my own two hands. I am going to admit to you right now, publicly. I did not realize that those headers acted as jumpers. Thankfully, it dawned on me this time. I quickly snatched up a handful of jumper wires, ran the demo program included with the board, and like magic I had a working USB Interface board. It would have only taken a moment of probing before I realized what the jumpers were for, but I had allowed my procrastination and fear of failure to stand in my way yet again.

It was not my finest hour.

Lucky me

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:44:35 GMT

So, at this point I can't find a reputable seller for the novelty store traffic light, I have no idea how to power three individual light bulbs from a 5VDC device, and the project was shelved due to technical difficulties with the USB Interface board.

Basically, the project was totally finished.

My work had asked me to install some new cubic scanners, these fancy devices that measure height, width, depth and weight and transfer the information to a PC. Our software is configured to read the input from the devices and automatically assign the information when new gear is scanned into the warehouse. Unfortunately, these fancy new devices connect through an old school RS232 serial cable which, of course, did not come with the scanner. I hate ordering anything through the Marine Corp. It takes weeks to get anything, and you have to justify everything. I decided it would be easier to stop at the electronics store on my way home and pick one up for a couple of dollars (or couple of hundred Yen).

Whenever I go to the electronics store I'm compelled to stop by "kits" section. I've always been attracted to electronic kits. It's something of an addiction. As a child I would carry around those old Heathkit (Zenith at that time) catalogs and fantasize about building my own computer. Alas, it was never to be. My parents would never pony up the dough for something like that and by the time I got my own job I discovered why they were so reluctant to part with the money.

Anyways, I'm looking through the kits. Which are all written in Japanese. When this kit caught my eye:

The kit itself was only the top board pictured. The other board was part of a separate kit. I didn't need to understand Japanese to figure out what this kit was for. It would allow me to control up to four light bulbs (100W was clear on the package) using the same DC signal that would drive an LED. I'm no electrical engineer, but I did recall a certain USB interface board that had four LEDs built in.

And just like that, my USB controlled stoplight was back on track.

Friends and Family

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:21:27 GMT

At this point, I should take a moment to mention the typical responses that you might get from your friends and family. My wife, bless her heart, has always been supportive of me, but I could tell that this project was a little much even for her. You know that look that your loved ones give you. It's the same look your parents probably gave you when you told them you want to be an astronaut. It's part love, party pity, and all sympathy.

The typical response from my friends was pretty much the same affair. "You want to make a what?" I simply refused to let this kind of thinking stop me. I knew that I wanted this device, and I hoped that others would find it interesting as well. To their credit, a couple of my friends did really enjoy the idea; and I knew who amongst my friends would find it amusing even before I pitched it. I know who my target audience will be. Watch this. I can say with 100% certainty that if you're reading this blog, you shop at ThinkGeek. There's a also strong likelihood that you also enjoy Make: Magazine and Penny Arcade. I know there are others out there like myself, and I know where they dwell.

Setbacks abound

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:11:57 GMT

I've stated before that the purpose of this blog is to outline my shortcomings. It was almost a month before I finally got around to soldering together my USB Interface board, so this was probably sometime mid-May. I have a bad habit of procrastinating things like this. I think it's a fear of failure; a fear that I hope to alleviate via this blog.

The board didn't take long to put together, but after everything was assembled it didn't work. I was completely discouraged. It was such a simple design, how could I not solder a couple of dozen joints properly? I would have to probe out the board with my multimeter. Once again, I let my fear of failure takeover and the project was shelved once again. I had a sinking sensation that this project would never see the light of day.

Research

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:10:19 GMT

As luck would have it, I stumbled into the local library a few days later and noticed a novelty store stoplight hanging on the wall. The lights flashed randomly, and it ran on typical wall power. I was relieved to know that such products actually existed, and that I would probably be able to modify it relatively easily. Unfortunately I had absolutely no idea how I was going to drive 117VAC lights from my 5VDC USB port. I decided to worry about that later.

I went home that night and started searching for stoplights on ebay. There were actually quite a few of them listed, but most of them were being offered by dodgy distributors in Hong Kong. I've had bad run-ins with those organizations on ebay before.

I decided not to buy a light that evening. At this point I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to actually complete the project anyhow. What on Earth would I do with that atrocious thing if I couldn't hack it into something more useful.

The USB Interface Board

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:55:18 GMT

Astute readers will notice that I first posted a link to the Electronix Express USB Interface board on my Tumblog way back on Mar 27, 2007. That's how long this idea was kicking around in my head before becoming a reality.

I haven't updated my Tumblog recently, but it generally gives a pretty fair indication of what types of projects I have brewing in my head.

Beginning the project

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:50:46 GMT

I had this idea for a USB controlled stoplight, but I still wasn't quite sure where to begin. I decided to pick up a simple USB development board, so that I could learn the basics of controlling a USB powered device. I stumbled across this USB Interface board from Electronix Express. The board makes use of a pre-programmed USB controller chip manufactured by Delcom Engineering and comes with USB drivers for Windows.

The greatest thing about this board is that it's so simple. This board looked incredibly easy to build, troubleshoot, and replicate if necessary.

I was sold.

The saga begins

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:41:16 GMT

Work is becoming increasingly frustrating. For those of you who don't already know me, I work as a database administrator for the US Marine Corp. More specifically, Marine Corp Logistics and Supply Battalion. While working with the Marines usually has it's share of perks, my patience is being worn thin as of late. This is mostly because the Marines don't understand exactly what I do for a living. They find it hard to imagine that someone actually gets paid to sit in an office and make sure things run smoothly. They've had every opportunity to understand. In the past 6 months, every single time that I've missed work due to an official function or vacation, turmoil ensues. By now it should be very clear to all involved that I am a vital asset to their organization. Apparently it's not.

Three or four times a day, someone will barge into my office with some menial request to fix something minor. Maybe their barcode scanner isn't working; even though there are dozens more to choose from they feel compelled to stop whatever they are doing and tell me about their dilemma. Since my job doubles as wireless network engineer, system administrator, and C programmer, it's hard to tell what I might be doing prior to the interruption. To the Marines, it all looks like I'm screwing off.

One day I noticed that the amount of work I was doing was directly proportionate to the number of running programs I had on my system. I noted that when I was really sitting in the air conditioned office, screwing off, I would have only one or two programs running. Usually Firefox, and one secure shell terminal. When I was busy, my computer would have so many windows open that each of the icons were but tiny little slivers across the windows task bar.

I immediately started to think of ways that I could identify to the Marines that I was busy. I wanted something that would actually monitor my actions, and warn the Marines that I was indisposed so they would not break my concentration while mentally working my way through a recursion, or thinking of how to best query data from three tables with no primary keys. (hey, I didn't write the system!)

The problem, I noted, was that I needed something non-technical. Something anyone could readily recognize without putting much thought into it. Not that Marines are stupid, they're just trained not to think for themselves. "A big red stoplight is the only thing these guys will understand." And TrafficStop was born.

My first project

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:23:31 GMT

To the one reader out there, who I don't know personally, who actually reads this blog from time to time - I apologize for my continued absence.

That said, it is with great pleasure that I announce my very first electronic/hacker/do it yourself project: TrafficStop.

Now that TrafficStop has reached the point where I feel comfortable publicly sharing it. I would like to post the complete development journal. I wrote the journal in hopes that others could learn from my mistakes. It is a chronicle of mistakes made and lessons learned.

Thanks for sticking around (all one of you).
Tim

Office Productivity Tip

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:52:06 GMT

Microsoft Office is better than Open Office under MacOS X.

You know it's true, stop trying to fight it.

Navy Program May Allow Sailors Time Off for Good Behavior

Mon, 28 May 2007 11:57:18 GMT

I couldn't help but notice an article in The Stars and Stripes today. Apparently the Navy is flirting with a new concept that will allow sailors the opportunity to withdraw from active duty for upwards of two years while they explore other possibilities, with absolutely no commitment to return to active duty upon completion of the program. The program will offer time off to start a family, finish a degree, or venture into the corporate world.

I tip my hat to the Navy for devising such a revolutionary recruitment tool. There is little doubt that such a program will do wonders to alleviate some of the short-term recruitment problems. It's the long-term implications that concern me. In theory, sailors returning from a two year hiatus will come back more motivated than ever before with a new sense of purpose in life. The Navy should be a stronger, more cohesive organization with less active duty sailors held against their will – in theory.

Based on first hand experience, I can assure you that this will not be the case. I was unfortunate enough to witness a similar event three years ago when the Air Force started voluntarily separating members from active duty service. I'm confident that there will be two distinct groups of people who take part in the program: those who are talented, educated, hard workers that will discover successful careers in the civilian sector, and those who will use their two year pass to move back home and regress into their childhood selves. At the end of the two-year period, which group do you think is most likely to return to active duty? How many of these people will be willing to walk away from $65,000 jobs and return to the military lifestyle, earning less money and being deployed to sea six months out of the year.

I mentioned before that I had personal experience in this area. About three years ago the Air Force began offering a program whereby active duty members could be honorably discharged, no questions asked. There was a mass exodus of competent technical workers almost overnight. Within a matter of weeks my life had become completely miserable. Long hours, extra duty, and late night phone calls. I was surrounded by only those workers who knew that nothing better awaited them on the outside (even if they'd never admit it). I had no choice but to leave myself. I knew that staying in the Air Force meant being surrounded by incompetent workers with no life goals. So I bailed.

I sincerely hope that the Navy finds a way to make this program work. I think that it will be an amazing tool for those sailors who want to start a family or finish their degrees without concern of deployment and military lifestyle. If the program is a success then perhaps the other services will follow suit. We've grown so accustomed to the idea of a four-year service commitment that many people never stop to think that perhaps it isn't necessary any more. I just hope that Navy has measures in place to protect itself, from itself.

The Phoenix

Sun, 27 May 2007 04:08:33 GMT

Like The Phoenix I have risen from the ashes of English grammar. Anyone that has stopped by this blog in the last two months would have surmised that I had given up on this little venture. Not true. I was doing entirely too much writing in my English course to write here regularly. This semester I have enrolled in, "Introduction to Object Oriented Programming," and "Analytical Trigonometry." These courses are far more inline with my hobbies and interests, so they should provide some additional fuel for my blogging effort.

I've also made a commitment to myself to write daily. This means that I'll be writing about topics outside the genre of electronics. I'll try to keep my personal political and religious views from seeping into the blog, but I can't make any promises promises. I sometimes spend hours pondering world affairs, and I may find it's the only topic I'm inclined to write about on a given day. Just hang in there.