The Case of the Bus Pirate

I returned back from the USA, and amongst other things , I got myself the Bus Pirate.

Here is what it looks like



What is it? Its a bus sniffer.It can sniff and execute arbitrary commands over buses like I2C and SPI, making prototyping very easy.

In itself it is very fragile, and needs some protective covering so that it does not fling all over the place. I saw a few laser cut acrylic cases on the web, and decided to build my own.This is how it looks





Here is a quick guide to building one, and I will post an instructable soon

1) Cut three rectangular pieces of acrylic of size 7.5 cms by 4.5 cms.The bus pirate is 5 cms by 3 cms. Match all edges, file them smooth, and while sandwiching them tight with a bench vise, drill four 3/16" holes at the corners.Make sure you keep enough space, at the edges, so that the acrylic remains intact at the edges.


2) Take the piece in the middle, and cut out a rectangular piece of the size of the bus pirate.

3) Take the topmost piece, and make rectangular slots at the places where the headers come out from the bus pirate.



4) Create slots where the USB mini connector attaches with the bus pirate.

At the end, you should have the three pieces looking like these.




5) You are almost done.Insert the screws in the holes you drilled at the corners, and then file the corners round.Then keep the bus pirate in the second piece and layer the third top piece over it, and tighten the screws.Make sure you do no crush any circuity while tightening the screws.

Here is the final result



Total cost of materials-Under 100 Rupees/$2.This took me about 4 hours to build, and it probably needs a lot more finishing, but it does the job very well.

New Idea

The Klann Linkage.Will make one.Will make the second, the third, the fourth.Will join these four in mechanical harmony together, and create a walking beast...

Flight Simulators

I have always been interested in flying actual airplanes remotely, and after being to the US, I ordered a foam plane called a Super Cub.After flying it, I realized that it is incredibly difficult to start flying an airplane right away.You need to be under the aegis of an experienced pilot to really learn how to fly.I could not find any good flying clubs around town, and it being winter, the winds were not on my side.After a lot of reading, I found that there are simulators which help you learn how to fly.They are priced at about $200 a piece, and as ever there are free options available.
How do they work? Here is what the blog post is about :)

1)You need to have either a 4 channel transmitter or above.I chose the Spektrum DX6i.This has port on which you connect a cable, and the transmitter emulates as a 4-Button, 4-Position Joystick.This cable costs around $14.
For the software, I used FMS.
The argument here is, this is still larger in cost than the pricey simulator, but in the simulator, I get a stupid dummy joystick(No transmitter), which simply is a box with 4 potentiometers, and an expensive software( the FMS is just about same in performance and appeal as the other).
Currently, I have not purchased the DX6i, but the Super Cub did come with its own 3 channel Tx, in reality, it has four channels...Hmm..Well I have hacked around an old joystick earlier, so it should not be a difficult task to do so now with the Super Cub's transmitter.Here are some snaps which confirm my idea.









Here is an image with the back cover removed.The 4 Yellow Boxes show the contacts of the potentiometers which I will use and emulate a 4 channel joystick on my computer.





I would need to solder some wires and make a nice hole in the transmitter, stick a port there, and attach a cable to my computer.Trouble is, my computer only has USB ports(I so hate the new laptops, they are not really hacker friendly).So would need some kind of a dongle there.

More in later posts!

eZ430 Chronos Development Tool from TI

I just recieved a package from TI, which had the eZ430 Chronos Development Tool I ordered for Sree.Here are some previews and a quick video showing the accelerometer function.Enjoy!!!


In the image below, you can see from left to right, the bundled CD(which has the drivers as well as the control software for the access points), the eZ430 emulator (programmer as well, to add your own code to the watch), the watch itself, the RF access point(shown in photos further) and a nifty screwdriver to remove the back panel of the watch, In addition to these, there are a few screws(not shown in images) if you end up losing some.










Here is the video, that shows the accelerometer function.I was pretty excited, as this happens to be the first video, I would have uploaded for sharing.

The Internet of Things

At work,I have being toying around with a way to have in-browser notifications in real time about the application the user is currently using.
I came across the XMPP protocol while designing my proof of concept, and further reading and research on the protocol made me realise what people have used to protocol to achieve.

The "Internet of Things" is something of a self-aware global or a private network of devices or objects that talk to each other over central nodes,these nodes being XMPP servers(loosely speaking).

The beauty of the protocol is its extensibility, and presence management that comes with it out of the box.

OpenSpime is an example of such a library that has extended the XMPP protocol, and currently has a Python library to get started.

This information came to me when I was browsing through hackaday,and has come as a pleasant surprise.

Here is also another informative link, what can you do with xmpp.

Sounds fun!

I am looking at publishing my implementation of the proof of concept,and it will require me to get approvals, given it has become intellectual property of the company I work for.
Looking forward to it...

I need of a new project!

I am so damn in a desperate need to start my own project..build a robot,do something without any reason of doing it..
Life is so drab and dull with nothing more than managing deploy schedules,listening to endless meetings,and its not the same here as it was in India.I could just hop off to lamington on a saturday morning and get my robot ready by Sunday end of day,probably dismantle it the next morning without keeping notes or pictures of my creation..

US would most probably be the place where I can get the latest micro boards and nice motors and stuff for my bot, but probably I would need to shell out a fortune to procure those as compared to India.There is no machining shop around,my house has a carpet so cant have heavy tools like a drill to make a robot chassis..the list is on and on and on..I hate buying readymade kits, and people who know this facet of me know how a "get my hands dirty" guy I am ..

I have loads of time at hand..to spend doing what I do best..build robots...

updates!

Life has become the superbly boring 9-5 thing..with almost all the fun jam packed on the weekends when Poonam is around..

The fun thing that happened was that I went in for a skydive from 10000 feet from the shoreline of Cape Cod.It was the most exhilarating activity I would have ever done..with a 40 seconds freefall and 3.5 minutes with a parachute thereafter.

I am currently working on a pet project that I think probably has the potential to make it big..or atleast provide me a good standing as a web developer outside of my line of work..which probably would shoot the page rank of this blog many times it is now..(only If I can publish it here..)

I can now cook as good as my mom does..which in fact was something I have learnt by myself..A pat on the back there...

I am dying to take another trip down memory lane,meet some old friends in the US,remember good old days..