Dead tired and sleepy but just a quick update post on project status.
mChumby
mChumby is temporary halt as I tried to figure out why I’m not getting battery voltage over the DLC-2 connector, probably a fuse blown. Time to dig up the Mazda manual.
MFC2
MFC has been decommissioned and the stationary trays are serving quite well holding components, nothing is wasted and everything is recycled.
The WL-520GU will be used again in MFC2 along with the batteries and camera. The relay board is being sold and replaced with a dual motor controller from Dimension Engineering called the Sabretooth 2×5. Very easy to interface to via Serial (with Pot, R/C control as options) and very fair ($2.50) shipping to Ausralia! The bilge pumps will be used again, but this time not as the crappy pumps they are. The motors taken out of their casing and impellers ripped off. Waiting for a pair of custom 3D modelled propeller prints to come from Shapeways or some tests.
S100
Boat should come along nicely… similarly waiting for some custom 3D propellers to come from Shapeways as its almost darn impossible to buy such small props anywhere. Also printed a couple of shalf couplers, wonder how they’ll turn out.
After getting my EasySync USB-Can Adapter it was time to resurrect the mChumby project. The interface GUI design hasn’t changed much, namely because its been lying idle but I figured it is good enough to try putting it onto the car for a test run.
I didn’t want to fiddle around with getting power to the Chumby, so the test is simply using my trusty old laptop and the EasySync adapter. Only the speedometer, the tachometer and the accelerator pedal position is attached because again I’m too lazy to fiddle with my cable layout and as such its connected to the Mazda HS-Can bus only rather than the MS-Can where the goodie trip computer information is contained.
Almost every concoction of technology is used ranging from CAN, USB, PHP, HTTP, Shared Memory, XML, Flash, to an obscure programming language called HaXe. Here is the result :-
The teeny tiny fibre-glass hull’s have arrived! The beam is narrower than I expected but that’s probably due to being stuffed in the packaging, I’ll double check the scale beam width later.
Photo time! Standard SD Card for size comparison
Those are gapping big windows for people to shoot through
Just heard that the fibre-glass hulls are almost complete and I’ve still done really nothing about the little boat. A couple of areas of concern are :-
The weight of the equipment
The ability to turn by differential thrust (vector-push?)
To answer the first one is quite easy by weighing the equipment I’ve already purchased in Part 1.
To answer the second one will unfortunately prove to the world I’m inherently lazy and still a kid on the inside.
The toys just keep coming in! Another one of those wallet killing impulsive orders whilst I was sick in bed last week just arrived today, a USB-CAN bus converter module by EasySync that promises a great interface and should work in Linux! This will give a little bump start to my Mazda CAN Bus / mChumby projects.
Note : EasySync UK’s online form doesn’t allow international shipping but a short E-mail or two managed that. There is a US subsidiary with US and international shipping, but the international shipping rates on the US site is plain ridiculous [$68USD to ship a $88 device to Australia].
Note 2 : I hear the interface is mimicking the Lawicel CAN-USB interface…only hearsay…
Plugged it in – didn’t work. Doh! Took a peek at the manual and website, nothing on Linux other than “Linux drivers provided”… So much for the marketing material, guess I have to try make it work myself. (Yes I got it working, read on for the quick run-down post aimed at helping others)
I had this planning post drafted up to help me in ordering the parts for a 1/144 Schnellboot remote control model, but a couple of sick days last week meant I went on impulse shopping online and all my parts have arrived before this is even posted! Sick days are bad for my wallet. Very bad for my wallet.
Contents of the Parcel (Bamboo logo didn't really come with it...)
Ordered from BecexTech on monday evening, package arrived thursday – not a bad turn around time at all and price was reasonable. The package was shipped from Hong Kong, but the original phone appears to be from Taiwan with some carrier logo on bootup and some pre-installed widgets/apps that can be quickly hidden away. Very considerate of them to include a little Australian plug adaptor, its like $1AUD in HK, but costs like $10AUD ($50HKD) to buy one here…Wouldn’t recommend getting that case for anyone else. Screen protector was a perfect fit and a must have.
Glorious model warships pounding at each another with cannons, and in the midst of all that is my ‘floating camera’ contraption that didn’t work too well but worked…it floated, it took photos…it lived up to its name…madox Floating Camera…
That's no battleship...
Nice sunny day, perfectly still water, a lunch box floats with one thruster on to skew it to the 'right'...
The results weren’t too bad from the onboard video recording, just a few issues with camera alignment and disconnections when using my friend’s laptop (mine ran out of juice). Here’s a sample clip of the captured footage :-
And one more super nice video courtesy of Andy (aka not me) :-
Read on for more photos and videos
EDIT : PHOTO GALLERY UPDATED, NEW VIDEOS ADDED! CAPS LOCK IS EVIL!
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