Muahahaha 
Best photo from my Europe visit… Great use of the large screen on the Desire HD I’ll say!
Author Archive
Feb
03
2011
 
Best Buy Insignia Infocast 3.5″ on special again… $49.99Posted by Madox in Perverse Applications of Science...Annoying when you bought replacements at 69.99…but a good deal for everyone else…
Jan
24
2011
Mecanum Wheel Rover 2Posted by Madox in 3D Printing, Microcontrollers, tags: 3D Printing, Mecanum, Perverted Engineering, Up! Mecanum Wheel Rover 2 (or 1.1)... mmm floating switching regulator looks funny Rather than calling it a reprint of the original, I would like to think of this as a ‘MkII’ improvement. Slight modifications to the 3D models to make it easier to print as well as use more common parts. A servo frame has been added to the Thingiverse ‘Thing’ collection as well as frames for the batteries and Chumby/Insignia Infocast.
This is not really a refined product but an idea to be shared and improved upon by others. e.g. the Chumby/Infocast frame might be useful to others.
Jan
19
2011
Mecanum Wheel Rover – Reprint with slight improvementsPosted by Madox in 3D Printing, tags: 3D Printing, Mecanum, Perverted Engineering, Up!Reprinting the Mecanum wheels again for someone else but decided to improve the design somewhat. One of the most common questions by new users of the Up! 3D Printer is how to remove the raft. The raft is one of the love/hate things of the Up! printer, some people want to get rid of it without understand the importance of it. Some thoughts and tips on this ahead…
Jan
12
2011
Chumby Infocast GPIO Python LibraryPosted by Madox in Perverse Applications of Science...Just a quick and nasty python library for configuring/reading/writing to the GPIO header on the Chumby Infocast. Probably can be adapted to be used on the Chumby Hackerboard quite easily. Source code here :- http://code.google.com/p/madox/source/browse/trunk/chumby/chumby.py?r=5 Example usage : chumby:/mnt/storage# python -i chumby.py >>> import chumby >>> gpio = chumby.GPIO() >>> gpio.set_direction(0xFF) >>> gpio.write_output(0xFF) >>> gpio.clear_output(0xFF) >>> gpio.set_output(0xFF) >>> gpio.toggle_output(0x01) >>> gpio.toggle_output(0x01) >>> gpio.set_drive(0x55,0xAA) Works quite well. Need to tidy it up and maybe add i2c support… Did you know… A Baby Orangutan B-328 can be be purchased from RobotSimple for $19.45 USD with free worldwide shipping? Add to that a nRF24L01+ module that can be purchased from their eBay store for $6.93 USD with free worldwide shipping? That’s $26.38 USD for two modules that can form the basis of most little robot projects, remote control toys or remote sensor applications. Not affiliated with either store, just a happy customer Note : Baby Orangutan may need to be modified to use the two modules together e.g. I’m removing the LDO voltage regulator and driving both the nRF24L01+ module and the Baby-O using a 3.3V LiFePO4 battery, connecting to the ‘Vout’ pin of the BabyO. Connecting 2 LiFePO4 batteries (6.6V) to the Vin gives me some ooomph to drive motors using the onboard TB6612PNG H-bridges. Oh and those dual shock USB controllers on eBay that go for $6 delivered (‘free worldwide shipping’) have two nice joysticks and 2 motors inside
Jan
09
2011
TI eZ430 Chronos Watch + Python Library + Remote ControlPosted by Madox in Microcontrollers, Perverse Applications of Science..., Software, WTF, tags: Chronos, Chumby, eZ430, PythonAround one year ago I ordered some of those supposedly wonderful TI eZ430 “Hackable” Watches but only received them last October since I had to wait for the 433Mhz version. Three months later I finally decided to have a go at trying it out and wrote a Python library for in the process. Silly video first… Small frame to put the Infocast PCB + WiFi Riser PCB on, if you saw the 3rd Mecanum wheel test video you might have seen the WiFi Riser PCB shaking like hell Speaker and Bend sensor connector is blocked off. If anyone is interested in the STL’s, drop me a note and I’ll email it to you. Quick and nasty rub’n'buff is quite nice, beats plain white but the photos don’t really show it well.  Wifi Riser Support is secured by 2 M2x8 self tapping screws  Some connectors blocked but SD card deliberately accessible Just got my 3 Insignia Infocasts (3.5″) today, so I immediately tore one apart for a quick tear down. Photos ahead along with side-by-side comparisons to the Chumby One (PCB), and I found a naked Chumby Classic lying next door too…  Non-naked vs Naked Infocast 3.5" I had pretty low expectations of the Best Buy Insignia Infocast, considering the price (It was on sale for $39.95 over Xmas!) and the photos from Billy’s Tear Down (Link here). Bunnie’s (the hardware guru/designer) blog had fantastically detailed photos which showed the main PCB with dodgy connectors… My actual first impression is that the Infocast actually bests the Chumby One at least in industrial design of the case, if not the build quality. The shiny plastic does make it lose a few points as it won’t age as well as the Chumby One, but overall it is very well built. Read on to view the gallery of pics!
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