nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category moved from livejournal

Silly iPod Remote

April 12, 2007

If things go as I hope, the following will take an iPod with it’s serial RX line connected to RB0 and skip it forward one track when the tactile switch RA0 on my dev board is pressed:

program ipod_next_track_test

dim buttonstate as byte

Soft_Uart_Init(PORTB, 1, 0, 9600, 0)

main:
while true
  if Button(PORTA, 0, 1, 1) then
    buttonstate = 255
  end if
  if buttonstate and Button(PORTA, 0, 1, 0) then
    Soft_Uart_Write(0xFF 0x55 0x03 0x02 0x00 0x08 0xF3)
    buttonstate = 0
  end if
wend

I just have to make an appropriate cable and I can test it. (The one I had made broke.)

Now, if that works I can get to work on making the EUSART on the chip respond to the Honda Music Link with enough intelligence to make it think that an iPod is present.

Then, if that works I can get to work on making some of the commands received from the HML act as the aforementioned button press, and I’ll have negated the function crappyness of the HML.

After that point I can make up a cheesy little PCB for the circuit and a PIC16F688 (the smallest PIC I could find with an EUSART) to sit permanently in the car. It shouldn’t need much more than the PIC, a crystal (because I’m not sure the mikroElektonika stuff can set the frequency on the internal oscillator), either a LM78L05 or small switching regulator, headers for the DIN connector cables, and a couple of caps. If I’m bored enough I might even make it my first SMT board.

automotiveelectronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

TV Stand Ideas

April 11, 2007

So, I purchased an LCD TV earlier today via Costco’s website. (This one, if you are curious.)

Well, I need a stand for it. I think I’m going to make one, using a spare part from my desk. Due to a somewhat complicated story I have a spare right hand side desk surface from this shelf. I think I’m going to use it to make the LCD TV stand, but I’m not certain how to make the base.

First off, I think I want the base to be around 20″ off of the ground, so there should be room for a shelf in the middle. I’m thinking I’ll make the base out of black iron pipe, with a shelf supported with tees in the center. The shelf will probably be a random piece of melamine-covered stuffs from Home Depot / Lowes, fastened to the black iron pipe with some manner of pipe clamp.

Or, I could use multiple sets of flanges between some large, flat boards.

I was also thinking of large round PVC uprights, notched, with the shelves set into that.

Hmm. Any better ideas?

acquired thingsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Basement Cleaning

April 4, 2007

Clean, more-empty basement.

Looking towards my workbench in the clean, more-empty basement.
(Click for more photos…)

Well, after dragging my feet on it for a while, I finally finished up cleaning my basement this evening. I still have a pile of things to take to Salvation Army (hopefully tomorrow) and a whole bunch of bottles to get rid of. Anyone who wants to return them to Red Wagon — where they will all be accepted — is welcome to have them all, and any deposit obtained from returning them. I just don’t feel like it. There is probably $20 worth, too.

While I know it won’t sound as good as it could, I also hung the rear speakers from the ceiling in the basement, getting them off of stands, wires out of the way, and generally making things look nicer.

As can be seen here I also did away with the very large green ping pong-like table thing, and turned what was the rack of computers into a shelf for things. This shelf wasn’t needed as I spent a good bit of time earlier in the year condensing many of my computing things on to my desktop, saving power, cutting down on maintenance, etc.

So, all in all this is a good thing. Hopefully I’ll get to cleaning the bathroom(s), kitchen, and doing a general dusting and vacuuming sometime this holiday weekend.

around the housemoved from livejournal

NES 72-Pin Edge Connector Replacement

April 3, 2007

NES Internal Screw Removal

NES Internal Screw Removal

After acquiring some replacement NES 72-pin edge connectors to fix NES’ for both replika and I, I decided to take step-by-step photos of the replacement and write up a tutorial on it. So, I give you my NES 72-Pin Edge Connector Replacement Tutorial.

This is actually really easy to do, fixes the blinking-gray-screen problem which plagues almost every front-load NES (you know, the problem which were supposedly resolved by blowing on the connector in the cartridges), and can be done with just a screwdriver and replacement connector. There is no soldering or electrical repair skill needed for this.

Also, please Digg this story.

electronicsgamesmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Archiving Atari 800XL Floppy Disks

April 2, 2007

I took some time today to write up information about archiving Atari 800XL floppy disks. This is as simple as copying them from an Atari 1050 to images on a PC using some special hardware and software, but I hadn’t found any this-is-what-I-did writeups, so I figured I’d do one.

After I’ve had time to sort through the images, carve out personal data, and come up with a template for the pages about the disks, I’ll make them available to others.

For now, though, feel free to read the article in its current, mostly-unedited form: http://nuxx.net/wiki_archive/A/Atari_800XL_Disk_Archiving

computerselectronicsmoved from livejournal

Poutine!

April 2, 2007

Poutine!

Poutine from HARVEY’S.
(Click for more moblog photos…)

Danielle and I headed over to Point Pelee National Park yesterday. I’ll post photos of it later, but for now I wanted to post the photo of an order of poutine acquired at HARVEY’S in Windsor, just before crossing back into the US. This was part of our dinner, where I had a veggie burger (with onions, lettuce, and hot peppers), poutine, and 7-Up, while Danielle had a normal burger, poutine, and root beer.

Also, this was some tasty candy from Friday.

foodmoved from livejournaltravel

Atari Disk Images

March 31, 2007

Ahh. 49 disks, 81 sides (some disks only have data on a single side), two unreadable sides, and 7,466,256 bytes later I now have images of all the disks available to me on my parents’ Atari 800XL.

Now to do a bit more cataloging, sort out what contains personal data, and find a good way to post them. That bit may come another day. ;)

computerselectronicsmoved from livejournal

Atari Floppy Images

March 31, 2007

Imaging Atari floppies.

Imaging Atari floppies.

I’ve spent most of today thus far imaging floppy disks using my work laptop, an Atari 1050, an Atari 800XL (as a SIO power injector), a Universal SIO2PC Interface, and ProSystem.

I still haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to archive and distribute them, but it’ll probably involve serially numbered disks, a page (or pages) on nuxx.net, a listing of files on each disk, bad sectors in each image, and an optical scan of each disk. There will also be scans of the different varieties of Tyvek and paper sleeves, including logos of the computer stores advertised on them.

Doing this will be a good bit of work, but then (at least) the disks will be archived.

computerselectronicsmoved from livejournal

The Last Starfighter on Atari 800XL

March 29, 2007

The Last Starfighter on Atari 800XL
(No emulation, booting from a >20 year old floppy.)

So, yes. The Atari 1050 floppy drive that I was attempting to fix is… Well… Fixed. I also played some Necromancer too, before turning it off and ceasing working for the evening. The new caps are considerably smaller than the old ones, but the snap in pins were large enough that they had to be ground down to fit. Once all the new electrolytic caps were in place and I’d jumpered around the trace I lifted earlier and tested everything, it was time to put the RF shied on the board and put it back in the enclosure. I was a bit nervous about reconnecting the floppy drive because of the many different connectors, but it worked out.

I then put it all together, hooked it up to the TV, and tried to boot a game disk, which failed. Next I tried a DOS disk and that worked, then finally The Last Starfighter beta and Necromancer. So, it looks like that first failure was just a problem with a single disk. Hopefully I can still read the rest of it.

With any luck the SIO2PC adapter will come pretty soon and then I can image as many of the old floppies as possible. Now, bed.

electronicsgamesmoved from livejournal