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Charmed Labs makes a great interface card and software to interact with the gameboy. This card can (but isn't required to) interface with many of the lego sensors and motors.

Actually for relatively small scale projects, and working with embedded controllers (from "basic stamps" to 8/16/32-bit controllers, ie. 8051 and such) I've found that Circuit Cellar is a pretty good magazine. They've had articles on wireless apps, robotics, and other stuff with a focus on hardware and practical details. A pretty fun read if your into tinkering with hardware (disclaimer - I'm speaking as a EE, so your definition of "fun" may differ).

Fred was editor-in-chief, but I think I have the time period wrong. According to this web page Fred was editor-in-chief from 1988 to 1991. This was after the change from Robert Tinney paintings on the cover to photographs, but still while Steve Ciarcia had his Circuit Cellar column there.

Starting from this, building a RFID reader detector should be easy -- know when someone is scanning for tags. After that, if some reader is looking for tags with data, why not give the poor thing some? LOUDLY. Reading the data off of some existing tags should give you an idea of what format data the reader is looking for, especially if they use any CRCs or such to stop someone from feeding the reader arbitrary data. Then feed them arbitrary data. The best part is that you really aren't transmitting with passive RFID, you're just "echoing" the reader's transmission.

The gizmo used in the project is an Atmel e5551. Google for that and you'll find lots of things to read.

Steve Ciarcia of Circuit Cellar fame once said "Soldering iron is my favorite computer language."

Well, it's mine too. For those who don't know who Steve is, there was this magazine on the newstands that was really cool to read and it was called "Byte". Steve ranked up there with the Woz for hardware crafting.

I remember back in the day when you would go to the store and it was the only computer magazine there.

If you like crafting hardware, you can have a lot of fun by finding a library (most likely university) that has the back issues shelved somewhere.

Yes, I'm older than most of you here.

Many of the current MCUs are ball grid array (BGA) devices, which make them pretty hard to work with if you're not a professional, but a few can be had in PLCC or QFP packages, which means you can get an adapter board or socket.

You can also buy preassembled demo/development boards (this is the route I'm taking) and wire-up anything the board doesn't include by hand. Most of the MCUs on the market will have 32-bit memory busses (though they may not support more that 25 or 26 address lines), so you can attach just about anything you want to them.

This is exactly the kind of thing that Steve Ciarcia (of Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar) used to do: building personal computers from microcontrollers. Most of his designs used Z80 based devices, which was fine back in the mid- to late-eighties. Now, however, you can do a fair bit better.

As for speed, I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but the ARM devices can be had in speeds from 50MHz to 400MHz, and the same is true of the PPC and MIPS devices. That may not seem like much, compared to a 2GHz Pentium, but it's really quite nice.

Some good resources: Digi-Key is a reasonable source for all sorts of parts, Atmel makes some nice MCUs, programmable logic, and Flash RAM, Cirrus Logic makes some ARM MCUs and networking chips (amoung other things), Sharp, Samsung, Motorola, and AMD all make nice MCUs, Cogent Computers builds some nice development boards, and EarthLCD has good prices on LCDs and has an ARM based board in the works.

What ya wanna do is subscribe to Circuit Cellar the magazine that is today what BYTE magazine was back in the z80 days. Full of articles on using modern, small processors to do "stuff". They also run some great Design Contests supported by various manufacturers that get you a development board and software (and generally extra chips!) for free.
These days, at the low end (less than 100 MHz), there is seldom a need to wire a processor up to much of any peripherals. For example, the motorola Coldfire processors are basically 200+ Mhz 68000 (e.g. 66Mhz with single-cycle instruction execution compared to the 68000's 4-10 cycle instructions) with just about any peripherals you might ever want onboard. Not really sufficient for a JRE, but not bad for just about anything else. Also, they're roughly $10 each in quantity. Many other manufacturers are making similar types of chips these days:
Hitachi processors
Rabbit Semiconductors
Zilog

One of the problems you'll have to deal with if you want to build your own systems is that Wire Wrap is simply unusable in this day and age. Not only is it impossible to find a socket for somthing like the 256-ball BGA that the coldfire comes in, or the more standard 144-pin QFP packages, the speeds make it unlikely you'll be able to use that technology successfully. I've built fine-pitch boards in my garage using photosensitive PCBs, but the best solution is something like PCBExpress or ExpressPCB and get 2 or 3 3"x3" double-sided boards for $60-$80. Even so, building high-speed systems is not for the amateur; laying out a system using PC-133 SDRAM is not something you want to do without a bit of up-to-date layout knowledge. Good luck, hope this gives you some pointers to get started with! /frank

Oh, and it's IR, not UV.

Yeah, I'm a smartass.

OnTV-21 won second place in the Circuit Cellar PSoC 2002 contest. The device is a box that sits between your cable/sat box and your TV. It has a telephone interface and a WiFi interface to your PC. It uses the closed captioning decoder built into most TV's to display caller ID information when the telephone rings. It also displays the sender and subject line for new e-mail.

OnTV-21 won second place in the Circuit Cellar PSoC 2002 contest. The device is a box that sits between your cable/sat box and your TV. It has a telephone interface and a WiFi interface to your PC. It uses the closed captioning decoder built into most TV's to display caller ID information when the telephone rings. It also displays the sender and subject line for new e-mail.

OnTV-21 won second place in the Circuit Cellar PSoC 2002 contest. The device is a box that sits between your cable/sat box and your TV. It has a telephone interface and a WiFi interface to your PC. It uses the closed captioning decoder built into most TV's to display caller ID information when the telephone rings. It also displays the sender and subject line for new e-mail.

Start up your Computer controlled barbecue slow cooker and have a party! Yeeha!

A good place to start are the ads in Curcuit Cellar I *think* they still do printed copies. I haven't been round to a good magazine store in ages.

Actually, this is a project I've been dreaming about for a number of years. I'm a big Lego Mindstorms tinkerer, and have a fondness for sensing/mapping devices.

In short, what I would propose is a pair of optical/LIDAR mapping units, with a tripod or other stable mount. One would also be equipped with a GPS for initialization. The way they would work is:

Set up the GPS-equipped unit outside the entrance to the underground system. Allow it to acquire a GPS fix to reference the entire system to the real world. This is optional if you don't care about georeferencing.

Next, set up the other unit just inside the entrance, within line of sight of the first unit. Trigger the second unit. It communicates with the first unit over short range digital networking (IR, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM modem). They negotiate who will go first. The winner begins firing a low-power IR laser 360 degrees panoramically around itself, waiting for the other unit to signal via the network that "I've been hit". When the hit is detected, the firing unit records the direction (angle/elevation/azimuth) to the other unit. Now, the two trade off, and previously firing unit becomes inert waiting to be struck by its mate. When it is, it signals its mate and they once again communicate the angles and bearing between them. They both perform a laser rangefinding (LIDAR) measurement to record the distance between them.

Now the spatial relationship between the two is known, and if the original unit outside the cave had determined its position by GPS, the real-world position of the interior unit can also be determined. Now, the outside unit can be packed up and moved.

At this time, the interior unit could be commanded (from a short distance, by a WiFi-equipped Palm or PocketPC) to perform a LIDAR vicinity scan, perhaps waiting a few seconds to allow the intrepid spelunkers to get out of the picture.

A vicinity scan would fire the IR LIDAR panoramically again, but not looking to hit the original unit, rather seeking to map the distance to the first obstacle in all directions, low, and high. Optionally, a visible light emitter and color sensor could record the color of the surface in each direction, creating a sort of panoramic Quicktime VR.

The mapping unit would signal when the vicinity scan was complete. The other unit would then be transported to a new location deeper into the complex, still within line of sight of the currently-parked unit. Once the deeper unit was securely parked on its tripod, it would be switched on, and the process begins again.

The deeper third station (actually the same hardware as the first station) calculates its position relative to the second unit, which now knows its position courtesy of the (now removed) first unit. It scans its vicinity, and adds the data points to the shared map (stored onboard, or on the controlling mapping handheld computer).

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Mindstorms are not sophisticated enough to do this -- too few IO ports, not fast enough processing to do real LIDAR, poor internode communications network. However, all of the individual techniques used in the design are singly possible with Mindstorms. All of the technologies together would be possible using a slightly more powerful development system (advanced PIC or Dragonball) and dedicated hardware. Accurate LIDAR systems are available COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) but are pricey. A number of hobbyists use ultrasound for rangefinding. A combination of IR laser (for directional beacon) and Ultrasound (rangefinding) could be used to cut costs.

http://www.greenwich-observatory.co.uk/leicalrf800 .html
http://www.ascscientific.com/impulse.html
http://www.rieglusa.com/
http://www.circuitcellar.com/library

Check out Circuit Cellar Magazine -- they are a steady stream of articles and advertisements covering just the thing you want to do.

While you're reading it, also pay attention to PIC Chips and Basic Stamps, which would be a great way to control your orbs without needing a PC (especially the cheaper PIC chips from someone like Microchip Technology)

If you're married to the PC concept, you'll also find advertisements for devices which are controllable via USB. Kinda nice for furure serial-less PCs.

Lastly, though it's a bit out of date at this point, take a look at "Controlling the World With Yor PC" by Paul Bergsmann (ISBN: 1878707159). Great stuff about parallel port interfacing.

Good luck!

This entry won 2nd place, and for good reason...Here's the gist of it:

This device sits in between your TV and your cable or antenna source. It strips out the close captioning information, and replaces it with custom information from your PC and/or caller ID, and prints it as a headline on your TV using the close captioning feature.

He says the box itself can decode caller ID info from your phone, and has a wireless link to get IM or 'You've Got Mail' type updates from your PC...Pretty sneaky. er...Geeky

eg. See this Ultra sonic mapper which does all what the No. 1 does plus MUCH more, and Geeky Keep-in-touch device.

Regards
- Mritunjai

eg. See this Ultra sonic mapper which does all what the No. 1 does plus MUCH more, and Geeky Keep-in-touch device.

Regards
- Mritunjai

Motorola makes a couple of PowerPC based microcontrollers. These come with a number of usefull peripherals (USB endpoints, ethernet interfaces, serial ports, parallel I/O ports, etc.), some RAM and some EPROM all on a single chip. In decades past, Steve Ciarcia built a small publishing empire on the practice of building homebrew personal computers on similar microcontrollers (Z80 variants, in his case). The same approach could be used today. If you don't want to use a PowerPC, there are similar beasts available based on other popular architectures.

I know the interface that this was written for already exists (and has for a long time), but this could be quite useful for mobile/wearable computing.
Unfortunately, most mobile devices don't have a parallel port, but many do have USB.

Anyone think of creating a USB interface for it?
There are some cool (and cheap) USB interface chips out now.
(check out Circuit Cellar Magazine)

Circuit Cellar was a fixture in the back of Byte magazine back when it was worth reading. Hosted by hardware guru Steve Ciarcia, it was the beginning of many a budding computer hacker's career. Fortunately, it got spun off into its own magazine. Back issues are available on CD-ROM - get them, they're worth it. You'll be an expert hardware hacker in no time by reading the CD-ROM back issues.

Circuit Cellar was a fixture in the back of Byte magazine back when it was worth reading. Hosted by hardware guru Steve Ciarcia, it was the beginning of many a budding computer hacker's career. Fortunately, it got spun off into its own magazine. Back issues are available on CD-ROM - get them, they're worth it. You'll be an expert hardware hacker in no time by reading the CD-ROM back issues.

What's the big deal with that? Micronas has had their MAS3507D MP3 decoder available for several years!

Some cool real DIY MP3 projects are Mike Neufield's Ethernet-based remote audio player using an Atmel 8 bit 8535 processor, and Pieter Conradie's FAT32 Hard-drive-based MP3 Player with 512 bytes of SRAM. Both of these were entries to Circuit Cellar's recent design contest.

In my opinion, fitting either of an Ethernet driver or (especially!) a FAT32 IDE driver into an 8 bit processor with less than 1K of ram is quite an accomplishment!

What's the big deal with that? Micronas has had their MAS3507D MP3 decoder available for several years!

Some cool real DIY MP3 projects are Mike Neufield's Ethernet-based remote audio player using an Atmel 8 bit 8535 processor, and Pieter Conradie's FAT32 Hard-drive-based MP3 Player with 512 bytes of SRAM. Both of these were entries to Circuit Cellar's recent design contest.

In my opinion, fitting either of an Ethernet driver or (especially!) a FAT32 IDE driver into an 8 bit processor with less than 1K of ram is quite an accomplishment!

What's the big deal with that? Micronas has had their MAS3507D MP3 decoder available for several years!

Some cool real DIY MP3 projects are Mike Neufield's Ethernet-based remote audio player using an Atmel 8 bit 8535 processor, and Pieter Conradie's FAT32 Hard-drive-based MP3 Player with 512 bytes of SRAM. Both of these were entries to Circuit Cellar's recent design contest.

In my opinion, fitting either of an Ethernet driver or (especially!) a FAT32 IDE driver into an 8 bit processor with less than 1K of ram is quite an accomplishment!

Besides... I'm the guy who WON $10,000 on Bounty Quest and I always wanted to do it.

Check out your local library - microfilm, march 1987 Byte Magazine for a completely great hardware hack that won me $10,000 ba hahahah....

To be specific, most companies and patent lawyers have years of experience in circumventing copyrights. The large companies routinely use two attacks to destroy the copyright. First, they throw money at it and hope the developer is too poor to fight. Second, they assume that small developers do not keep good documentation.

There is not much that can be done about the money. Lawyers must be hired; expert witnesses paid; bonds must be negotiated. In a more cynical world, congressmen and judges must be bought.

There are things that developers can do for documentation. For instance, in olden times developers snail mailed themselves copies of their designs. The postmark dates a design until the seal is broken. On a more sophisticated level, laboratory notebooks can be kept that have approval space and perforated copies. (Of course, I am not a lawyer, so I say this only as an example of why we would expect the DMCA to be ineffective and how I have seen people deal with it in the past.) Look at it this way. If I published a book remarkably similar to the "Confederacy of Dunces" a few years before Toole's mother allegedly 'found' the manuscript, who would own the copyright?

A quick flip thru a mag like Circuit Cellar reveals several embedded pc's like this one or, hey, this one is sporting a Penguin logo - what's sweet (and expensive) about the unit here is is the 340Mb microdrive.

Check out Circuit Cellar Ink , and Embedded Systems Programming. Both of these are pretty decent techie print rags. Good stuff, by and for hackers.

Lots of embedded stuff, like real embedded stuff, out there using freedos. The GPL makes using it on some types of embedded systems a bit iffy, but other than that it's nice for embedded single board computers of moderate complexity. It's nice to have a nice know quantity to work off of when doing rapid prototyping.

I vaguely recall the Fred Eady?? from Circuit Cellar Ink running some articles on freedos in embedded PCs.

dv

Note - I don't work for these mags, nor am I being paid by them, etc. I am promoting them merely because I think they're awesome.

Circuit Cellar Ink is an excellent magazine focusing on hardware and software interaction. Articles on embedded computers and software/firmware implementation, with real life examples of what techs in the business are doing. Current issue deals with making a MIDI sustain pedal, details of dual-slope analog-digital converters, Infrared Device technology and how to use it in your own projects, and other informational articles such as description of the current status of HDTV. One really awesome article that ran 1 or 2 months ago dealt with an engineer homebrewing his own microprocessor based on the Z-80 instruction set, but with little goodies thrown in. Way cool. Someone in an above thread mentioned they liked the ads in some good computer magazines. Same with this magazine, all sorts of embedded-related ads. Oh yeah, this mag is big on the PIC and Basic Stamp. If you don't know what these are, take a look!

Another good one is embedded systems programming . I haven't had the time to read the current issues in-depth, but I keep meaning to do so. Going through my father's collection back a few years, there are some majorly good articles here. This mag devotes itself, obviously, to embedded systems programming. Current issue deals with communication issues, real-time stuff, embedded web servers, etc. Another good thing is their tech columns, which deal with real-life examples of coding. They've had a series aimed at moving C coders (like me) to C++ through specific examples. Also mathematical applications, such as a multi-part indepth review of Z-transforms and Fourier Transforms, and DSP programming, and how to implement these in your systems. Way cool stuff, too, IMHO.

Just for browsing the net, an amazing source of info is from Don Lancaster's Lair . Rightly named the guru, this guy is a tech genuius (sp), and does all sorts of great stuff like working with PIC's inside and out, programming in raw Postscript to make his printer act as a peripheral computer, and other stuff. Go check out his page. Now! Engage.

"In a world without walls, who needs Windows" - Someone from LinuxToday

He's around in spirit, though he doesn't actively write articles any more (aside from the closing editorial of each issue). He publishes a magazine that's a loose descendant of Circuit Cellar called Circuit Cellar, Ink. Companion website is http://www.circuitcellar.com/

Debian, or whatever distribution (roll your own distro?) Linux kernels can be used in a wide variety of applications. Pare it down and it can run kiosks, or handheld computers, put a user friendly GUI on it for new users, xterms and Emacs for people like me:) I agree with you. Development on the Linux kernel will continue, regardless, and those who don't like distribution X will be free ot use distribution Y.

A bit of a ramble, but I can really see the embedded applications taking off. Circuit Cellar has ads for many types of embedded procesor systems, and more and more of them are mentioning Linux in their ads, some even display the "sign of the penguin".

If you want software and information about Linux Home Automation (HA) please check out my pages http://members.home.net/ncherry or http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52. The software, documentation and link are just a collection of the stuff I've found over the years. It should work with other flavors of unix. I have some other links to HA pages. If you find any interesting Unix/Linux HA projects, software, or documentation please email with the info and I'll add it to the pages.

I've noticed quite a few errant statements about Linux HA and X10. First the X10 technology has been around since the early 70's (which explains it's weird protocol). X10 is a lot like running a Unix operating system (if you just want to sit back and not know much about it I wouldn't recommend it). X10's customer support is weak and their documentation is poor. For the best source of info on HA (and X10 in particular) check out comp.home.automation. Now that I've said all these bad things about X10 I'll add that I use it and I can make it work pretty well. Mine runs correctly 99% of the time and last 1% is probably my fault. This doesn't include when I'm playing with software (which may tend to crash the system from time to time when you're experimenting with new coding ideas).

I've been using X10 with Linux for over 10 years and I have it working pretty well. The only thing that we're really missing is a good GUI to make the software collections easier to use. I currently have 5 devices under X10 control at all times (and at Christmas time I have a lot more). The reason for so few is that I'm working on the rest of the house and I haven't a need for more just yet. I have quite a few more devices I'll begin controlling when the time is appropriate. X10 is not the key technology in HA. But it is useful and when used with other technologies can be very nice. Steve Ciarcia (editor of Circuit Cellar Ink and a great many Byte magazine articles) has a fully automated home (he uses a custom controller which can be purchased ( HCS II).

I hope this is enough to whet some peoples appetite for the HA field.

--

Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52 (Graphics GB)