A few weeks ago my dad called to let me know he had found a Roomba Discovery with the SCI (serial port) for $15. The first one I received that he found didn’t have the serial port so I gave it away. All that was missing was the remote, so he got it for $10. What a deal! Unlike the first one, the battery was not recoverable at all. So the weekend before last while visiting the Raspberry Pi tour at HackerDojo, I stopped by Fry’s Electronics to pick a new battery and a few components to add Bluetooth to the Roomba. Currently I am using Bluetooth since that is what I have on hand, later on I will probably convert it …
Upcoming: 100th Post Giveaway!
My first post was 12/07/2010, almost two years ago. It was a slow start, but things really picked up this year after the Maker Faire. Over the past two years I have gone from the basic Arduino starter kit to building Robots and programming weekly. I have learned more about electronics than I thought I ever would which has me wanting to completely change my major and my career. All because of the simple Arduino Kit I picked up at Fry’s. Every new project has me pushing my limits and expanding my knowledge, keeping my brain hungry for more. Now the Raspberry Pi has me becoming more proficient with Linux and venturing into other languages like Python. Thanks to the idea of starting a …
ARM-Powered Arduino DUE
Far removed from the legions of 3D printers featured at this year’s Maker Faire in New York was a much smaller, but far more impressive announcement: The ARM-powered Arduino DUE is going to be released later this month.Instead of the 8-bit AVR microcontrollers usually found in Arduinos, the DUE is powered by an ATSAM3X8E microcontroller, itself based on the ARM Cortex-M3 platform. There are a few very neat features in the DUE, namely a USB On The Go port to allow makers and tinkerers to connect keyboards, mice, smartphones (hey, someone should port IOIO firmware to this thing), and maybe even standard desktop inkjet or laser printers.The board looks strikingly similar to the already common Arduino Mega. That’s no mistake; …
Wishlist: Solar Charger & Battery Pack
Last Thursday, we showcased a tent designed to look like a circuit board. Incidentally, this week’s wishlist item is sold at outdoor sport stores, for campers and hikers alike. But it doesn’t have to be used just for camping. On the contrary, the Solar Charger & Battery Pack sold on SparkFun, can be hacked! It could be greatly utilized to power microcontrollers as an environmental logger, or as an on the go power source for projects, or even power a small robot. Really, there are so many possible uses. Check out sparkfun’s product showcase, where Robert disassembles the pack at 1:40. Reasonably priced, this neat solar charger would make a great gift for campers and hackers, or both!
Raspberry Pi and Cosm
Over a month ago I decided to give Cosm.com a try instead of using my own MySQL database and graphing in Python. Since this was awhile ago I don’t remember everything I did to get it working but I will post the code and libraries I am using that work. Here is a simple library to making sending to Cosm easy. http://www.netfluvia.org/layer8/?p=175 Here is the full code I am using to log the PIR sensor to Cosm, after the jump. #!/usr/bin/python#PIR LOGGING TO COSMimport RPi.GPIO as GPIOimport sysimport timeimport datetimefrom datetime import timedelta import cosmAPI_KEY=”API_KEY”FEED_ID=”FEED_ID”def writeCosm(status): pfu = cosm.PachubeFeedUpdate(FEED_ID,API_KEY) pfu.addDatapoint(“Pi”,status) pfu.buildUpdate() pfu.sendUpdate() print “Uploaded Motion data to Cosm” return ledPin = 17pirPin = 18motionCount = 0timerMin = 1 #Number of …
Raspberry Pi and Motorola Lapdock
Last month I jumped on the fire sale clearance at Verizon for the Motorola Lapdock 100 (for the Razr). First thing I wanted to do is connect it up to the Raspberry Pi. To do this I had to order some cables and adapters. Here are the cables I ordered plus and the adapter to later use it with an Android stick. HDMI To HDMI Female F/F – For the Android stick or connecting to a regulator HDMI cable. 5FT 1.5m Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable – Convert Micro HDMI to full size. Micro HDMI Type D Female to Micro HDMI Type D Female – Join the HDMI cable to the Lapdock. USB 2.0 A Male to Micro USB 5 Pin B Male adapter cable – Donor for RPi USB …
Ti Stellaris LaunchPad
Last week two of these arrived at my doorstep. It’s the newly launched Texas Instruments Stellaris LaunchPad. I pre-ordered directly from Ti a few months ago. https://estore.ti.com/Stellaris-LaunchPad.aspx Specs from Ti.com: The Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad Evaluation Kit includes the following items: Stellaris LaunchPad Evaluation board (EK-LM4F120XL) USB Micro-B plug to USB-A plug cable ReadMe First quick-start guide The Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad evaluation board offers these features: Stellaris LM4F120H5QR microcontroller USB Micro-B connector for device RGB user LED Two user switches (application/wake) Onboard Stellaris® In-Circuit Debug Interface (ICDI) Available I/O brought out to headers on a 0.1″ grid Switch-selectable power sources: ICDI USB device Reset switch Preloaded RGB quickstart application Supported by StellarisWare® software, including the USB library and the peripheral driver library …
Raspberry Pi Tour Photos
Here are a few photos from the RPi Tour. I was able to capture them while spending the afternoon at Hackerdojo in Mountain View. It was great getting to meet Rob, from the RPi foundation, as well as the other makers who attended. Fun noodle-thing-a-bob art sculpture The Show after the Tell Gert Board – Raspberry Pi Add-on Sneak peek at my latest setup heartsy, my editor, being silly Raspberry Pi Hands-on The “Apple-Pi.” Ha! Motorola Lapdock using a Blackberry MicroUSB Splitter Rob Bishop from the RPi Foundation Great turn-out! We swapped Pi’s!
Raspberry Pi Tour at Hackerdojo
Quick post! @heartsy and I are at hackerdojo listening to Rob Bishop speak about the Raspberry Pi. It’s great that they are sharing so much with the hacker community. We’re able to bring along projects, so I’ve brought my RPi to show. Thought it would be neat to post from it!
Freescale Freedom-KL25Z has arrived
A few months ago I jumped on the pre-order impluse buy for the Freescale Freedom-KL25Z. Thankfully I had forgotten about it until I recieved shipment notification. It was nice that I didn’t have to wait too long. Today it as arrived. Here are some close-up pictures – thought it would be nice to have some since there doesn’t seem to be any up yet. If you would like to get one, I ordered it from element14newark.com. Here are the specifications as listed on Newark’s website. I cannot wait to start playing with it! FYI: If you order it now, I am pretty sure you don’t get the headers. The orginal listing was a prototype board with headers and when they …