No Chaos No Order

MAME key map for controls 112409

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The key map

Key map

Now that the controls are ready, a lot of the MAME is out of my hands. My friend, Phil, was interested in setting up the computer to run the emulator. He’s decided to run Linux on the computer and has been trying to find something that will allow output to an old tv.  My other friend, Alex, has spent a lot of time finding games. He’d also mentioned to me that he’d map the emulator keyboard commands to match the buttons/joystick wiring.  I sent him this picture today so he’ll know which key is associated with which button.  I also took a few minutes and fixed the hole where the second joystick is going so it didn’t interfere with it anymore.  We’re just waiting for the computer stuff now and then we can test it!  Yay!

 

MICROCONTROLLERS: my introduction 100509

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I have been wanting to build lots of things: an automated cat feeder, a watering system, a computer-turn-er-on-er, and various art stuff.  These things all require some knowledge of microcontrollers.  Which I don’t have. So, I’ve been paying attention to a local group, Open Tech Space, and saw that they were having two workshops: microswitches and the Arduino Cult Induction.   Both being hosted by my darling, Portland TechShop (great deals on memberships right now!!).    ** Disclaimer! All my “nube knowledge” is what I learned, as it filtered through my brain which is heavily influenced by my education in speech language pathology – I can tell you the spectrograph characteristics of most of the phonemes of the english language – which is a little skewed from your normal technogeek nomenclature.  So, what I’m getting at is: I could be wrong!!

I took the microcontroller class on the 5th, taught primarily by Paul Stoffregen, using his “Teensy” microcontroller – a very cute little thing.  The first thing I learned was that there are lots of different microcontrollers out there!  – See how nube I am? –  Each has different strengths and weaknesses, so you pick depending on your project.  For example, someone told me you can get a Teensy with WiFi already on it! Very cool!  So, in this class we plugged our little Teensy into a breadboard (nube knowledge: a breadboard is a place to easily plug your chips and accessories in without soldering, so you can pull them out and rearrange them easily until they work) and attached many microswitches.  We used several microswitches in this class:

RGB-4pin1

The first thing we put in was an RGB LED.  We first wrote code (in C – something I’ve NEVER done before!) to make the light flash red.  Then we started getting trixy by making it flick from red to green to blue, and THEN we started having it slowly transition by increments from red to green!  Finally we worked to make different colors like purple and yellow – all by changing the intensity and frequency of the variables! Very fun!  When we put in the LED we chose three pins with the “PWM” feature (nube knowledge: PWM stands for “Pulse Width Modulation” and refers to that part of the chip being able to control the duration and frequency of the electrical signal to the device. This is how you can carefully control the amount of light being emitted to change its colors).  We began to explore output as well, using “Digital Output” (nube knowledge: “digital” most of the time means on/off, or yes/no, or as in this case high/low – so when when it says “high” a relatively larger amount of current is allowed through the bulb, when it says “low” only a little bit of current is allowed. I think.) and “Analog (PWM) Output” (nube knowledge: “analog” in this case refers to the fact that you can have a variety of values, not just two. So we actually use numbers between 0 and 255 (I’m not sure why) to refer to more variable levels of current through the bulb where 0 = “low” and 255 = “high”, but now we can represent any amount of intensity between them.)

Ok, I have to stop for now, but will pick this up again soon and cover the other microswitches we learned about – this is a really great way for me to remember what I learned.  Overall, this was an awesome class! Paul was a great instructor: clear instructions, good pacing for the nubbies, nice overhead projector support and an EXCELLENT written handout that I was able to follow several times on my own.

MAME: joysticks! 103109

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I finished wiring the joystick bases and other buttons from the control panel to the keyboard board! Yay!  … Although, the hole through the wood is not quite big enough for the second one, so I have to take the box off the back, and grind the hole out a bit more before I can get the handle through.  AND… I haven’t tested them yet, so I don’t know if they work or not.  I’ll have to wait for Phil to come and bring his voltimeter.  I really should just get one for myself.   Phil also needs to finish working on the settings on the computer so it’ll work with the tv.  SO CLOSE!!

And then … the pretty-fying!

G1 apps

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But, let’s talk about the applications now… I’ll talk about what android apps I use and then later talk about what I have on the imate… (it’ll be a while … I still need to fix it!)

1. Calendar Widget (intrinsic to Android (iA)): shows date and next appointment. not skin-able
2. Analog clock Widget (iA) not skin-able
3. Alarm Clock: (iA) simple alarms. I use it sort of as a timer (the laundry will be done in an hour so set the alarm for…)
4. Digital Clock: shows a digital clock face, adjusts the brightness and color (so I have very dark red colored numbers set to very low brightness. It’s very easy to look at in the dark), it plays what ever mp3 I want as the alarm and is resets daily. I use it as my morning alarm.
5. MoonPhase Widget: shows the shape of the moon. I like it mainly because it reminds me to LOOK UP once in a while.
6. Calculator (iA) just a basic arithmetic calculator. Black and not skin-able.
7. AutoSync OnOff: In the Android settings you can choose to have the “autosync” on all the time or off all the time.  In order to get your calendar, contacts, and gmail to sync you have to select [menu], [settings], [data syncronization] and then each item you want to sync. With this app, it turns the autosync on or off. So I leave it off most of the time and once in a while hit it to sync everything up. A downside to this is that I have to consiously decide to sync – which happens irregularly.  I’d love it if I could set it to sync at certain intervals.
8. gtasks: an application which syncs to google tasks. Its much easier to use than the gtasx application that opens to the web portal of the same system. not skin-able
9. Battery Graph: shows me the energy amount in the battery over time. Lets me check for times of major battery drain to help me pinpoint better what is going on so I can change that. Sometimes lets me realize I accidentally left GPS, WiFi, or autosync on.
10. Close Everything: Applications don’t always close when you leave them. This makes sure everything that can be closed, is. Helps with battery life.
11. Nice Battery: like the AutoSync OnOff, gives me less buttons to hit to get to WiFi, GPS, Cell location, Bluetooth, and 3G settings. It cuts out the [menu] [setting] [security & location or wireless control] button pushes. I’d like it better if it turned them off or on right there, but ohwell.
12. Note Me: a pretty easy note pad.
13. My Backup: backs up data, non-paid for applications and settings to your sd card. Able to set up automatic backups. Works pretty well.
14. Voice Recorder: I need a voice recorder for my work. This only works so-so.  It takes a while to load and I hate having to push so many buttons to get it going (compared to Klaus, anyway…)  on the other hand, I get to send it as a file to my desktop so there’s no sd card transfering. Sadly, it’s a quicktime file that I have to convert to listen to.
15. System monitor: shows me how much cpu, memory, storage, and battery is being used.
16. Google Voice: this app lets other people see YOUR phone number and not google’s when you call them as well as let you see THEIR phone number when they call you. Ok. Delayed.
17. Music (iA) a music player. Does not strike me as either bad or good. not skin-able
18. Google Maps (iA). enter an address, identify your location, get directions.  From my limited experience with the iPhone, I definitely like this one better – the directions are written down as you move along the main markers. I did not see anything like that on the iPhones I’ve used for navigation, but maybe they just didn’t find that in the options. Also, they didn’t show what the traffic was like on the road…  again, options?
19. SK-LJ: a livejournal updating tool. Perfect for when I’ve just had a nightmare in the middle of the night and want to write it down without having to turn on the puter.
20. facebook: an app to let you easily read other’s updates or post your own. I find this almost as overwhelming as the pc version and mostly just use it to update my status.
21. GDocs: gives me access to my google documents with improving functionality (for a while the spreadsheets werent’ supported, but they are now and working well!).
22. Where: locate yourself, search for whatever. It’s only so-so .. I don’t think we’ve ever actually followed its directions or suggestions…
23. Gmail (iA): write/read emails
24. ADC 2: try out the Android Developer Challenge contestant’s programs! I tried a pretty awesome photo journal one that I hope is released soon. (Although I’d like to be able to post it to my livejournal or facebook, rather than to their own webpage…)
25. Better cut: change the icons on the desktop – fun!
26. Calorie Counter: a cool idea of a program to track calories. Sometimes problematic in how it is used, but one of the coolest things is you can scan the bar codes of many foods and get the nutritional information through your phone.
27. ES File Explorer: I’ve used this a couple of times, but I don’t store much on this phone… Most of my stuff is through google now.
28. Google Sky Map: SWEET!! hold your phone up to the sky and all the stars are labled and constellations are drawn in. VERY COOL. That’s pretty much all it’s good for… unless you’re navigating a space ship!

29. Pandora: plays the pandora radio project. Great sound and no lag that I’ve noticed. Although of course you have to guard your battery.
30. PhoneFlicks: supposed to be your netflix, but I’ve never used it. I’d most want to use it to rate the movies my friends have rated, but I can’t find that in it.
31. Star Contact: a different way to organize and view contacts. Seems ok. Probably should take it out and try regular version…
32. Sticky Memo Widget: puts post its on your screen – I like this for short and insistent notes!
33. Wheel of Yum! put in your 10 favorite restaraunts and spin the wheel – where it lands is where you go! Ends the endless “I don’t know, where do YOU want to go?”
34 White Noise Lite: several sounds to drown out ambient sounds. I like the white noise and crickets in this one (tried Dream but the sounds were too tinny).
35. Power Control Widget (iA – new with Donut!) Ooo!  I just now found this: controls WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, AutoSync AND brightness right on the desktop as a widget! LOVE IT! Deleted the (7) AutoSync OnOff and (11) Nice Battery applications.

Games:
1. Flood it: colored boxes. I have never won once and am starting to not enjoy it…
2. Labyrinth: the wooden box marble labyrinth! Shows the direction sensing/gyroscope off very well!
3. Graffiti: a drawing program. I like that you get to choose the transparency of your “marker” but the finger control is problematic – it’d be better on the imate!
4. Mystique: a mystery game. Spooky, but would be cooler if it used the direction sensing in the phone for roaming the halls and searching for items…
5. Solitare (both FreeCell and regular!) A MUST have for me! Still the game I play most frequently.  Free Cell is a bit cramped in the landscape mode though.
6. Abduction: save your cow friends from aliens by using the directional controler to control how you jump!

Phones…

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g1white

g1white

I’ve been playing with the HTC G1 using the Google Android OS.  The phone has been fun – or I should more accurately say the applications have been fun.  It’s very easy to search and find some great (and horrible) applications right on the phone.  I like the scanner feature, although I find don’t use it so much.  I mostly use it to scan the little squares in Cyrket: http://www.cyrket.com/ (a web based market place) so I can easily download the applications I found.

The specific phone features I like include: its width, the sliding qwerty keyboard, GPS, direction sensing/gyroscope and miniSD card.

imate-pda2

imate-pda2

I’m being pretty stingy about what I like about it because I’m comparing it in my head to the imate PDA2 that I was using before this.  I felt the imate was getting too slow and I’d broken the screen for a second time ($$$$!!!), so I thought I would switch to a cheaper, fully supported phone – no one knows what an imate is! And since I despise Apple and all their proprietary stuff, the G1 was the only alternative (‘imate” is NOT an apple product!). One of the things that I liked about it was that I’d be able to easily access all my Google stuff: calendar, email, and contacts.  I was able to get to them all on the imate with a 3rd party program, so it was neat that I didn’t have to mess with that anymore.

The features of the G1 that are similar to the imate that I like include: wifi, bluetooth, phone length, SD card (the imate’s is not mini), speaker phone, navigation buttons, camera.

galloping rabbits

imate: galloping rabbits

Pinata Penny

G1: Pinata Penny

The things I miss about the imate: graffiti, it’s thinness, precise screen use (albiet with a stylus), camera (it worked better than the G1, although the picture quality is not that great), physical memo button (although I just found a program that will let me repurpose the G1’s camera button to what ever I want), navagation buttons (answer, hang up phone, navigation “wheel”, calendar), longer battery life, infared keyboard, and infared remote control.

[I just spend 20 mins creating a rather comprehensive chart of each of the phones’ features… I decided at the last minute that no one else but me would be interested in that… So, if you have a deep desire to see it, I’ll email it to you!]
I often get defensive when people are all: “wow, the iPhone/G1 can do this great thing!” And I say, “yeah, my 2003 imate could do that…”  This G1 has no personality to me.  It is just a phone. All of my other pda’s have had personality – NAMES.  I kind of miss that feeling.  I was so devastated when I broke Klaus’s screen for the SECOND time, but if I drop this thing it’s no big deal…

In other news, I’ve been using Google Voice for a couple months.  Outside of a few settings tweaking and an occasional need for rebooting of the mobile GV app, things have been going pretty well.  I’ve been waiting to cancel my unlimited txts from Tmobile to make sure everything comes through well.  In almost all cases they do. There have been two instances when I have had to reboot the GV app because the program has locked up.  I had also set up one of my Tmobile favorites as the google voice number that most often gets used by my phone. That’s helped cut down on my “anytime” minutes, meaning I can keep the cheapest data/phone package.   On the down side it takes quite a while for txts and calls to arrive/leave to/from my phone and in conversations there is a lag.    But I like being able to send/get txts from the internet and set special voicemails for special people!  I should see if there’s an application for windows mobile 2003…  😀  Oh, and the voicemail transcription thing is sort of a waste – its rarly acurate enough for me to get the full message, although with one screen-button push the real message is immediatly played, so I don’t have to wait for the voicemail to answer and then give me menu options…

ANNNDDDD… I did something kind of stupid. I was trying to get some money out of Tmobile because I didn’t change one of my favorites to the google number fast enough and I got a big charge on my bill last month.  I thought I could talk them into it but… Man, I’m embarassed about this … I named the favorite “Google Voice” and the guy I was chatting with was all “you tried to switch it to Google Voice …?” ummm…. I thought – totally chagrined…  “yeah”.  His response was dissappointing, but a bit heartening at the same time.  I decided to come right out and ask him (I printed our chat out, so I’ve got it all exact!) “so, I have to change it?” and he responded “Google services are not supported with myFaves, and they should not be used.”  I know from past experience that cell phone companies are very careful and sticklers for leagal-ese, so if it was stricktly prohibited, then he would have said “will not be supported…” instead, he said “should not be used” which is clearly not “no, we’ll charge you regular for it” …  So, I interpreted that to mean that basically they can’t do anything about it if I leave it and I’ll still get them for free. So, I’m gonna keep it there for a while and see what happens. (I didn’t get a refund, though.)

But what if I can’t keep it?  The Tmobile coverage is a little bit less than what I got from AT&T, but they acknowledge my educator status and give me a 15% discount… or I could hack the G1 and go to another phone company…  So, I’ve been thinking about switching back to the imate.  I have to remind myself that there were other problems with that, besides breaking it twice!  I had to sync through GooSync to get all my google stuff in the phone (on the plus side, I bought a lifetime membership, so it’s still good!), the A2DP bluetooth headset I had wasn’t *completely* supported by the software (controling the media player AND answering calls – it’d play music and change the volume, but I couldn’t change the songs. The headset works perfectly with the G1, tho!), fewer free applications, harder to develop applications (not that I’ve made any for the android yet…), no GPS (although I believe there were programs I could have bought that would have made it GPS-ish), no sync capability with windows mobile device center (I know, I know, I got vista… O.o) so the documents that I made on Klaus would not sync with the files on my new PC desktop – I had to run the old PC and then email the docs to myself (using google docs through the internet SUCKED then), and all the programs had to run on windows mobile 2003, which was already pretty dated when I got the phone in 2006.

Sometimes I daydream about super-hacking the imate – wiping its hard drive and installing a new camera and a laser beam or something crazy like that. But I do think I will try to fix the screen myself this time (seen some for $30 online!) and just have it handy.

MAME: Final adjustment to the roller … for now?!

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http://lh4.ggpht.com/_7Y5X2BoXw4M/SlJgN6h2FuI/AAAAAAAABHQ/Xk-lPT9Xhx4/s144/Mouse%20solder%20070509.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_7Y5X2BoXw4M/SlJgPPwq7kI/AAAAAAAABHU/DDZsrpxY0XY/s144/Mouse%20back%20070509.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_7Y5X2BoXw4M/SlJgQfpxk4I/AAAAAAAABHY/iU7U6jyOjGs/s144/Mouse%20done%20070509.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_7Y5X2BoXw4M/SlJgSJ-8RBI/AAAAAAAABHg/2UuN1gxdty0/s144/control%20on%20cabinet%20070509.JPG

Ok, so I forgot to keep up on what I’ve done.  Once I bought some solder, I soldered the wires into the board!  It went so well – I’m a natural.  😀  And it’s ready to attache the buttons to the keyboard board. Yay!

EV insurance

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Finally heard back from my insurance rep.  He said that all of the neighborhood vehicles with three wheels are insured as motorcycles, the factory manufactured hybrids and electrics are insured like any other car, and the ones that are converted can get liability insurance, but cannot get comprehnsive or collision coverage.  So, if I get in an accident, I can fix the other people’s car, but not my own.  He said it was because there’s no way for them to know what was put in my car to know what to replace.  Although, I think that’s silly, because they could just request complete pictures and part information and then verify it from the wreckage, but whatever

Sadly, I’ve decided to put the car off for a couple years yet…  It would be far too expensive for me to build one that could reliably get me to and from work at highway speeds.  But, I am thinking of moving or changing jobs, maybe it’ll work better for that.  Although, the fun of the puzzle of it is still compelling…

EV: the Oregon DMV

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Me: “Hello, I am wondering about registering alternative fuel vehicles in Oregon. What do I have to do if I want to convert a car to electric?”

Linda: “Just check the correct box on the application. We have gas, diesel, electric, propane, and other.”

Me: “That’s it?! I could rip out an engine and throw in a bunch of bateries and you’ll let me drive it around?”

Linda: “Yes. Unless you are in the Portland-Metro area, then you’d have to pass the Department of Environmental Quality emissions test, too.”

That is way too easy!!

EV: preliminary research

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So, I’ve decided to convert a gas powered car to electric.  I like the idea that I won’t have to be dependent on gas companies, and especially dependent on foreign countries to get around.  Eventually I’ll build a mud hut and make all my own power (sun, wind, or water) and will use it for my car, so I won’t be dependent on anybody for my necessaries.  I know, a little extreme in my need for independence.

Today I started looking at EV forums… OMG.  I am blown away with all the information out there!  There is so much to consider: which donor car to use, AC vs DV, what volt, what watt, what batteries, what motor, …  and they’re all very closely interconnected.  I feel like I either want to ignore all the info and find somebody that I can consider an “expert” and just do what they say, or research all the technology on every component excessively.

I also realized I don’t know what I’d need to do to get Oregon registration for it nor what my insurance will think about it.  I’m plan on calling them both tomorrow during business hours.

I’m a bit worried about all the batteries.  They’re very expensive and heavy.  But I’m mostly concerned because they have very caustic chemicals in them.  I can’t believe that they’re clean and easy to make or dispose of… Are toxic chemicals better than combustion by-products?

My MAME: fifth

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And, so, back to the last thing about the roller ball that I couldn’t deal with for several weeks…

Once everything was done, I took the control panel into the livingroom to put it on my cabinet and pretend to play a game.  I discovered, instead, that the cable port at the back of the mouse casing stuck out too far and would not sit in the cabinet right!  ARRRGGG!  I was very upset!!  I stomped around a bit, cringed, and declaired “AAUUUGGGG!”  But, now that I’ve regained my composure, I’m at it again.  First, I removed the female port from the mouse board (small metal square in the upper right corner of the case).  I got to do the de-soldering for this.  It went really well!  I think I’m a natural…   Last night, Phil and I discussed how we were going to hook the port back to the board, but at a 90 degree angle.  I couldn’t come up with how that would work.  Eventually, we decided to skip the port all together.  We cut the male port from the cable and exposed the wires.  Then we plugged it into the female port I took off the board already.  Phil used his circuit tester to identify which colored wire went with which pin at the back of the port.  While he did that, I drilled a hole in the bottom of the mouse casing and, using plumbing rubber washers, managed to wedge the rest of the cable (the end that goes into the computer) into the hole so it won’t move around.  We forgot the solder/flux at Phil’s house, but we’re ready to solder the wires from the cable directly into the board. That’s a much easier solution than what I thought we would have to come up with.  Yay!

And now, you are caught up with where we are at in real life in our process.  My goal right now is to get it so we can play games on it.  Maybe next winter we’ll start playing with the case making it super cool.  I want lightning effects behind the marquee and leds in the buttons.  I saw this really slick metal edging that would be killer.

And, of course, the sides need decorating.  Warren suggested exchangeable side art, and Alex suggested everyone contribute in some way.  Both are good ideas that I’ll have to consider.  Of course, blue lightning is always awesome…

blue lightning