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I just had an email from the good people over at EVGA about the upcoming gaming event “Insomnia I45″.

Looks great, I may consider applying for a press pass as they are looking for people willing to publicise it.

Great timing, I am looking towards buying a new gaming rig in the very near future and I could kill two birds with one stone.

Event information:
Insomnia I45
The International Centre
Saint Quentin Gate
Telford
Shropshire
TF3 4JH

The event is being held between the 4th and 7th of May 2012, and camping is available. Time to dust off my tent methinks :)

I don’t know anything about it either, I saw it on an advert for BT.

Maybe it has something to do with grass.

Mmmm lamb. Soon be barbecue season once again.

I have been trying to reflash my corrupted PIC32 (specifically a pinguino32-usb-otg board) using MPlabX IDE and a Pickit 3.

My connection was:
PC to pickit 3 via USB
pickit 3 to PIC32 via 6 pin header

I tried to flash the chip but got the following error:
Programming...
boot config memory
Address: ffffffff Expected Value: 0 Received Value: 0
Failed to program device

After much scratching of my head I finally figured out the issue – the board was not powered.

I plugged in an adapter (9v in my case) and powered the board.

I attempted to reflash again and it was successful.

Problem solved – it was as simple as the board needing external power.

I have recently been playing around with some cool toys – arduino and pinguino32.

Arduino: http://arduino.cc
Pinguino: http://pinguino.cc

The arduino is based around the Atmel micro controller AT328P or equivalent and can be programmed using a simple USB connection when you are running the Arduino software (the “IDE”) which is available for PCs running both Linux and Windows, and Macs.

The pinguino is based around a much more powerful micro controller, the PIC32 from Microchip. It can also be programmed via a USB connection, although at this time the pinguino and Arduino are not able to use the same IDE.

Programming either of these boards over USB lowers the maximum size of the program (“sketch”) that the chip can contain as it requires a small section of the memory for the bootloader.

You can also program them directly with onboard programming headers which allows full usage of the chip at the cost of the flexibility of USB programming. To do this you need separate pieces of hardware.

The Arduino can be directly programmed via the 6 pin ICSP header if you have an avrISP, avrdude or similar hardware compatible with the onboard atmega chip.

The Pinguino32 requires a pickit 3 or functional equivalent programmer and an adapter to fit the 6 pin 0.05 inch connectors onboard.

As long as you have the correct hardware, programming either of the boards is straightforward, although it should definitely be noted that at this time the Pinguino32 is far behind Arduino in the usability stakes and because of this is not intended at the inexperienced user at this point. I have no doubt whatsoever that the pinguino32 will rapidly expand the libraries available to it and allow it to catch up with the lead the arduino has.

Arduinos and pinguinos can both run the same program, subject to the libraries being available. All things being equal, this is where pinguinos would truly come into their own.

The specifications of the pinguino make it vastly superior to the arduino in terms of clock speed and overall throughput – the PIC32 runs at 80MHz and, having 32 bits means it can handle much more data per clock cycle than the arduino, which in the real world could easily amount to the same program being executed tens or even (with optimised code) hundreds of times faster than the same code on an arduino.

A big strength of arduinos has always been their expandability using boards that can be directly plugged into it (“shields”). Current shields have LCD displays, heypads, RFID receivers and pretty much anything else that someone can design. Some boards even come with breadboard areas for your own circuit development.

Arduino and pinguino boards are pin-compatible – a board that works on an arduino should also be able to work on a pinguino.

Arduinos and pinguino boards can also be given TV out capability using little more than 2 resistors and a cable to carry the (composite) video and one for the audio, with graphics currently reminiscent of early computers such as the ZX81 and others.

The arduino is restricted in that it is nowhere near fast enough to do anything other than black and white graphics. I would imagine that the pinguino, being an order of magnitude faster should have no real issue outputting full-colour apart from the amount of memory it would take to store the picture.

The pinguino has another advantage over the arduino – it comes complete with a microSD slot already on board, which can be used for writing to and reading from micro SD cards. This opens up many options for example data logging or being used as a digital picture frame.

My pinguino (the pic32-pinguino-otg) allows a great feature – USB OTG (USB on the go) which allows the board to control other USB devices or be controlled by other devices depending on the circumstance.

The pinguino also allows a much wider range of voltages to power it and is squarely aimed at the industrial market, with higher rated parts and a much wider operating temperature range.

One of the strengths of arduino is that you can swap chips in and out of the board to make standalone devices that require the bare minimum to get working – an atmega328p IC, 5 volt power supply, 2 capacitors and a 20MHz crystal will give you a fully working arduino once programmed. I know, I made one :) You can even program the standalone chip using the arduino main board using a couple of wires. Suddenly the board that cost £20 as a one-off can replicate itself many times over for around £3 each time.

As the pinguino32 is based on the PIC32 it does not have that luxury as the PIC32 does not come in a DIP package, only TQFN (thin quad flat no leads) which can realistically only be soldered using professional tools which come at a professional price tag.

So far my projects have included:
* a web based remote control that was featured on the front page of instructables http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-browser-based-remote-control-linux
* an OPEN sign for a shop made from LEDs
* a temperature and light monitoring station, an early prototype of a full weather station I intend to build and uploads the data to a remote website
I am currently working on:
* a simple video app that outputs black and white images
* an interrupt-driven burglar alarm that has keypad and RFID access, LCD information and uses multiple sensors to monitor different parts of the area to be protected
* a clock that gets a real time from an internet time server

I also regularly annoy my family by walking past things, or seeing them on TV and saying “I could do that with an arduino”. The sad thing is that it is actually true – the arduino is so flexible that I could easily twist it to do pretty much anything I want.

Case in point: I am sat here typing this at my desk and there is a rabbit in its cage a few feet away (it is a baby so I am constantly checking on it). An arduino could be used to monitor the water level and alert me when it falls below a certain level. 2 wires and a buzzer or LED will warn me at once if the water level drops.

When you are experimenting with arduinos the world truly does open up.

I am currently teaching my seven year old son how to use an arduino (he helped me create the software for the aforementioned “OPEN” sign so I could teach him the basics of how it worked and then asked him to come up with other ideas. Let’s see what results he comes up with. Probably something to zap his sisters knowing him.

Edit:
My sincere and heartfelt thanks go out to http://pblog.ebaker.me.uk/2011/09/processing-usb-ports-devttyacm0.html for the original idea.

I have just reinstalled linux and am in the middle of setting everything back up to play with my new Arduino Uno.

For some reason best left to the gods to fight over the naming convention for the USB serial device has changed breaking the functionality of Processing under linux with regard to Arduino Uno.

Previously when an Arduino was attached to a USB port the system would identify it as a standard serial port and call it /dev/ttyUSB[i]n[/i] where n is a number (for example /dev/ttyUSB0). Now the serial port is identified as /dev/ttyACM[i]n[/i] (for example /dev/ttyACM0) which Processing does not recognise as a valid serial port and the command Arduino.list() fails to return it.

The Processing dev team are aware of the issue and have fixed it in the next release but that does not help us.

There are two ways of dealing with this problem, a simple way and a difficult way:

Simple: rename the USB serial ports
Pros: easy
Cons: you need to monitor the /dev/ directory for new devices
Method: run a script that polls /dev/ and watches for /dev/ACM* creation or removal and link or unlink /dev/ttyS8* devices

Difficult: Fix the code in Processing
Pros: When it is fixed it is fixed
Cons: time consuming
Method: You would need to unpack the .jar file, find the code that enumerates serial ports and add /dev/ttyACM* as a recognised device and then repack the .jar file. I will look into this and amend this post at some point.

Here is a simple bash script to fix the issue the simple way, install it as a root cron job to run @REBOOT
#!/bin/bash
# Check if Arduino virtual serial ports exist or have been removed
# Fix for Processing Arduino enumeration issue
# Automatically creates or removes a serial port at /dev/ttyS80 and above if an Arduino is plugged in via usb
# Assuming Arduino is /dev/ttyACM6 new serial port will be /dev/ttyS86, /dev/ttyACM0 will be /dev/ttyS80 etc
# Basically, add 80 to the ttyACM{n} to give you ttyS8{n}
#
# Written by and for http://labby.co.uk/2012/02/setting-up-processing-under-ubuntu-devttyacm0-devttyusb0-fix

while true; do # run forever
for i in {0..9}; do
if [ -c /dev/ttyACM$i ]; then # check if /dev/ttyACM$i exists and is a character file
if [ ! -e /dev/ttyS8$i ]; then # check if /dev/ttyS8$i does not exist
ln -s /dev/ttyACM$i /dev/ttyS8$i # it does not exist, create a symbolic link to /dev/ttyACM$i
fi
else
if [ -e /dev/ttyS8$i ]; then # check if /dev/ttyS8$i exists
rm /dev/ttyS8$i # it does and it should not exist - someone unplugged the arduino?
fi
fi
done
sleep 1 # wait a second before starting checking again
done


When this script runs it automatically creates or removes a serial port at /dev/ttyS80 and above if an Arduino is plugged in via usb

Thanks to the hard work of Ken Shirriff over at http://www.arcfn.com/2009/08/multi-protocol-infrared-remote-library.html I am having great fun playing with infra red remote control.

I would like to document my experiences as well as what I have gleaned from it.

Main notes:
The IR receiver needs to have a connection to +5v, gnd and the output goes to digital pin 11 (hardcoded into the library).
With my particular IR receiver it looks like this:

I found that the IR transmitter needs to be amplified to allow the equipment to detect the IR signal, I am using a bc547.
My amplifier circuit looks like this:

arduino digital pin 3 — 120 ohm resistor — bc547 pin 2 (base)
bc547 pin 1 (collector) — IR LED cathode (short pin/negative/flat side) –IR-LED– IR LED anode — +5v
bc547 pin 3 (emitter) — gnd

————
Placeholder
coming soon: networked remote control code for ethernet/SD header
————

Important notes:
* when sending RC6 IR signals each alternate emulated button press needs ORing with 0×80000 (setting the toggle bit) or the code will be ignored by the receiver.
* Send the signal at least twice with a delay(50); between them to ensure the receiver receives and processes the signal.
* If you transmit a signal and need to receive a signal, reinitialise the receive code every time or the IR receiver will not work (I have been led to believe this by a comment on the arcfn blog)
* In testing, replace the IR LED with a normal LED so you can see if the circuit is transmitting

—————————-
9 January 2012 update:

<?php
$p = $_GET['command'];
$device = "/dev/ttyACM0";
exec("echo $p > $device");

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And the images:

I bought a Garmin Etrex H for geocaching. Geocaching is the equivalent of finding buried treasure mapreading, using GPS coordinates instead of a map and directions.

I have ubuntu linux on my main computer, the other computers in the house are laptops with no serial ports.

You can purchase leads from Garmin themselves or resellers, although they tend to be prohibitively expensive.

I purchased a pfranc lead from http://pfranc.com – a great idea and it saved a lot of money compared to a Garmin lead.

Connecting it to my computer was easy – it just plugs into the serial port.

Getting it to work was anything but easy, but I finally figured out the problem today after months of arguing with my computer, stripping down leads and many sleepless nights.

The problem: Garmin etrex talks to the serial port at 9600 baud.

I tried several times to get the etrex to talk using the terminal command
[code]sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 baud_base 9600[/code]
But that gave me no joy whatsoever.

The solution, and the reason for this post:
For some reason even though the garmin wants to talk at 9600 baud the serial port needs to be set at 115200 baud using the following command:
[code]sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 baud_base 115200[/code]

Why I need to set the UART to 115200 baud is beyond me. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I understand serial ports and have done for many years down to the hardware level.

So, to recap:
[code]sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 baud_base 115200[/code]

I use qlandkarte GT under ubuntu for all my geocaching needs, it works great with my etrex and it is free and open source.

One day I will write a howto on here for that program as it is a very tidy bit of code when used to its full potential.

A little bird over at http://www.windows8update.com has announced that the Windows 8 release date is rumoured to be the 26th of February 2012.

I am on linux but I suppose I could put one of my old laptops to good use to review it when the time comes.

Let’s see what the future brings.

Mocality http://blog.mocality.co.ke are a company that have manually created a large database (a white pages) of Kenyan businesses to fill a gaping hole in the market.

Google Kenya http://www.google.co.ke are google. Say no more.

Google Kenya have allegedly been trawling through Mocality’s online database and cold calling the companies on the list claiming to be in partnership with Mocality and offering to sell them a website. Nothing wrong with that so far.

The problems are:
* They are not partnered with Mocality
* They have been recorded stating several mistruths to place Mocality in a negative light:
They claim that Mocality is and has been charging a fee to be included in their online directory which is a blatant falsehood that has not and according to Mocality will not happen in the future.

Google Kenya are due to release a statement shortly.

I will conclude this with my opinion upon seeing their statement as so far I have only one side of a story and to be fair and impartial I need both sides.

Just received another email from the team at Project Honeypot:

Gregory –
Regardless of how the rest of your day goes, here’s something to be happy about — today one of your donated MXs helped to identify a previously unknown email harvester (IP: 82.159.122.38). The harvester was caught a spam trap email address created with your donated MX:
mail4.labby.co.uk

You can find information about your newly identified harvester here:

http://www.projecthoneypot.org/ip_82.159.122.38

Glad to be doing my bit to help cut down the number of spammer IP addresses.