Project so far.................

hi again,

2nd entry to my blog. This blog is not only about sharing my hacking/modding experience, but also keep me on track with all the different projects I am doing:

1) Raspberry Pi

Big plan for this one and since I receive my last month, I have already tested it on XBMC, which is a real kick ass Media Centre and Debian. At the moment, it is running Debian in server moment as an uPNP server (Mediatomb) and file server, serving off a 250GB External USB HD. I have other plan for it once I can get my hand on another one:

• Network Media Player/Entertainment Centre  - XBMC of course 
• This basically works, but I need another RaPi to run it on.
• Network Media/File Server 
• Done and running Transmission as well.

2) Quadcopter

• Finish my WIICopter
• Start 430Quad using DC pager motor 

Update 14/1/2013:

• New STM32F3Discovery based OpenPilot UAV. 
• https://github.com/lilvinz/OpenPilot/wiki
• http://wiki.openpilot.org/display/Doc/OpenPilot+Documentation

3) Android everywhere

• Continue to put/use Android everywhere. So far eBook, eeePC, mobile phone etc.

4) Home File Server resurrect

This is sitting sadly in a cupboard in my sitting room. Although the cupboard is space enough to house it, it has no ventilation, so have to think of a way to cool the server without making ugly holes in the cupboard.

5) Wireless router

• TL MR3020 Traveling router hacking
• Adding external Antenna 
• Wireless Network Media Player - Done. Might post something out once iron out a few wrinkle. Yes, it basically work, but the button debounce need some more work.
• Dumb AP - done
• Wireless Bridge - Still trying to figure out what is the best way to do this, since the wireless setting needs to be change.
• Internet Router
• All control by the slide switch
•  TL WR703n
• Wireless AP
• External Antenna

 6) DIY RC System

• Reinventing the wheel using an Arduino, PC Flight Stick and 2.4GHz RC TX module

7) Arduino

Making a few shield and interface circuit for Arduino. Project so far:

• Bluetooth Shield - Done
• Digital FM Tuner using TEA5767 - not all working yet. Basic tuning was ok using fix frequency, but I want all the bells & whistle, ie. manual tuning using button, LCD display, auto-scan tuning etc.
• Paper Arduino Leonado Clone - Basically, I done one, which doesn't work, there is a short somewhere, which I couldn't find and I think the ATMEGA32A is toasted! 2nd attend started, with some proper 1206 Res. & Cap. (use 0805 b4, since those are the one I got on hand, order some1206 since then). Also try to reflow solder (using a cloth iron, yes, one have make do with what one have). It works out quite good, all the joins were good and only a few need some more solder (properly work without, but just in case). No short so far, but will solder the rest of the through pin components in and see. Wish me luck!

Update: 14/1/2013

8) More toys!

• STM32F3Discovery
• Killer eval. board with ARM Cortex-M4 with 256 KB Flash, 48 KB RAM, and wait for it:
• L3GD20, ST MEMs motion sensor, 3-axis digital output gyroscope
• LSM303DLHC, ST MEMs system-in-package featuring a 3D digital linear acceleration sensor and a 3D digital magnetic sensor (what they mean is compass, yes, it got a compass build in, so you know your heading)

                A Quadcopter controller in one neat package. All you need to do is the wiring to RX and ESC and you have a complete controller. Not to mention the price, HKD100 for this! It's steal! Yes, the initial delivery schedule sucks (6 weeks I think), but it should ok now, plus they up the price to about HKD133 in element14 (RS still sells them for HK108 and have stock and ship in 2 working days). Someone has already done the software, see link above in Quadcopter section.

• TI Stellaris LaunchPad 
• Another dirt cheap ARM's development board in the same booster pack format as in the famous MSP430 LaunchPad. It host a ARM Cortex-M4 CPU with floating point, 256Kbytes of FLASH and bags of other tricks like 1MSPS ADCs, eight UARTs, four SPIs, four I2Cs, USB & up to 27 timers, some configurable up to 64-bits and so on. The price tag was USD9.95, but they up the price to 12.99 now. I brought mine at USD9.95, but have to wait about 2 mth. for them!

Android ICS x86 RC2 on EEEPC701

Hi all,

This is my first blog so bare with me while I get the hang of things.

I have been following the development of Android x86 for a while, since 1.6 and installed 1.6 and lately ICS 4.0.4 on my old battered EEEPC701, with 4G SSD and 2G RAM. I must say I am impressed, even more with release of ICS 4.0.4. Basically, it resurrected my EEEPC, which upto that point being gaining dust in the corner. 1.6 is useable, but ICS definitely make the EEEPC a viable alternative to tablet and even netbook running M$ OS.

As before, my EEEPC was running XP and even with 4G SSD, it barely able to squeeze XP onto it, let alone any usable program like Office. But with ICS x86, not only can it running a host of application from Google Play store (with Arm emulation hack, it even run Angrybird), it whiz alone in pace better than any of my purpose build Android tablet (much better than my Nook Color anyway and from the feel, on par with what Samsung have in offer). Reason could be it is running on 2G RAM, while most tablet has only 512M to 1G. But consider it is only running a single core Celeron at 1GHz or less, which in the PC world is lowest of the low end, it proves what you can do with a properly written OS. Yes, there is a lot of 'fat' in M$ OS, so much so that it seems with every new version, it demands a new generation of Intel processor.

Of course, it isn't perfect. It doesn't run HD, then it doesn't either with XP. You just can't have everything.

Anyway, for anyone who have one of those "netbook" lying around, I encourage you to try this and for those whose have some UNIX/Linux back ground, do the ARM emulation hack, it is worthy.

Where you can find the ISO and other info.:

http://www.android-x86.org/

For the ARM hack, a great tutorial and good site for other info:

http://android-x86.sceners.org/

Enjoy!


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