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August 30, 2005
More new toys?
Well when I think I'm done buying new toys, I always come up with something else that might be nice to have. Last night I decided my digital camera is getting really old. It's only 1.3MP and it takes 4 AA batteries which run out very quickly. Since I'm going on vacation next week I decided it was time for a new one. I went to Best Buy and checked out what they had in stock. The Sony Cybershot 7.2MP looked nice, but for $400 I thought I could find a better deal online. Going to my favorite online site Newegg.com I found the same camera listed for $340.99. Yeah I could handle that, but what about next-day shipping (I'm leaving for vacation in 3 days, so I need to have it in 2 days at the most). $30 for shipping I could handle since I was still saving $30. Then I found out I also get a free HP multifunction printer for buying the camera. Hey why not save $70 instantly. So I think I got a good deal today. Hopefully it shows up Thursday so I can pack it up for Friday's travel to North Carolina.
Posted by Plocmstart at 9:53 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2005
I2C Analyzer
So I had this idea the other day to design a I2C analyzer, since I spend a lot of time using either a scope or logic analyzer and reading the bits by "hand". I could probably build something simple that outputs to a small LCD or to a serial port with a PIC and some other discrete parts. I looked around online to see if anyone else had this idea and apparently quite a few people have designed their own analyzers from something as simple as some shift registers and LEDs to some $750 device that looks like it connects to a serial port and has some nice software to display all the data. So my idea wasn't something new, but that's OK because I can still build one cheaper than what they're asking for them online. Plus it'll come in handy later when the robot controller board and modules are all interfaced so we can easily debug what's going on there.
Two more days of work at Lexmark. I guess I'll get off work a little early Friday and pack up my car and head out of here. Then I'll have a couple days to unpack and relax back in Columbus. Oh yay! I can go swimming at my pool too! That'll be fun.
Poor Copus's kitty had to have its leg amputated cause of cancer. He showed me a pic and it looked pretty gross. I don't think I'll post a link because that'd just be wrong. He has it posted on his blog so you can go there: http://www.copus.org/blog/
Posted by Plocmstart at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
GMini400 Insides
Being bored I was looking around to see if anyone had managed to take apart the Archos GMini400 and see what's inside of it (and get an idea how hard it might be to reprogram it). I finally found this site with the large ICs labelled: http://gmini400.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=52&page=view&catid=6&PageNo=1&key=0&hit=1
Quite honestly I was expecting a ST Micro CPU of sorts, but a TI DSP also works. If I can find a datasheet for this CPU I can quickly determine how this whole device is put together. A quick product sheet can be seen here:
http://www.tij.co.jp/jsc/docs/apps/digital/pdf/tms320dm270.pdf
Reading this I notice there is a kernel of sorts available from TI, which very well might be what Archos has used to build their firmware on (most businesses tend not to try to reinvent the wheel when one is given to them for time's sake).
The Cypress CY7C68300A is the USB/ATAPI bridge which does all the magic when connected to the PC. Datasheet here: http://www.cypress.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&control=SetCommunity&CommunityID=209&PageID=259&fid=14&rpn=CY7C68300A
The 48LCM16A2TG-75C is 16MB SDRAM. Datasheet here: http://www.micron.com/products/dram/sdram/part.aspx?part=MT48LC8M16A2TG-75
The 39VF800A is a ST part. I haven't found the datasheet on ST's site yet, but an overview is here: http://www.semiconductorstore.com/Pages/Items/SST/39VF800A704CB3K.htm
The AIC23BG must be some voltage monitoring/battery charging device to keep the battery happy.
The LC4032C is a programmable logic device from Lattice, which may be hard to determine how it does its job exactly without a better idea of what's connected to it. It may do something with the hard drive or simply some LCD control. It's hard to tell from where it's located on the board.
The LCX245's are just buffers. There are some other small ICs of interest on the board, but they aren't labelled so I don't know what they all are. I can guess the one near the Cypress part is a I2C EEPROM device that stores some config data for that IC.
Posted by Plocmstart at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
I think Copus stalks my blog
Less than 2 more weeks of work at Lexmark. For some reason I can't get some code to work and it's starting to drive me crazy. Too bad I can't tell you what it's for. Top secret stuff yeah blah.
Anyways tonite we had a intern dinner at this Mexican food place. It was yummy. Yay for food!
One of the girls there is a high school english teacher. I guess she's a friend of one of the other girls that works at Lexmark, otherwise I don't know why she would be there. Anyways that just reminds me of these silly english classes that everyone has to take growing up. Yeah they are useful up to a point, so that you are forced to read and write and communicate in written language, but then there's the extreme side where anything outside the established "rules" is considered WRONG and must be severely punished by any english teacher that catches you not conforming.
But then there's those authors or "artists" or whatever you want to call them that break the rules in their novels in order to be artsy or different or something, and just because they've been published that means it's OK for them to do that stuff I guess, or at least that's what english teachers seem to think anyways.
Oh and we can't forget those rappers with their newly-invented words which catch on, then sort of fade away and become commonplace as random references on nightly sitcoms.
So in my opinion, language is constantly evolving, and will continue to do so despite desperate attempts by english teachers to keep things nice and neat and always the same. Just a couple decades ago the language was different than it was today, and teachers' pens aren't going to stop the evolution of language. Such a futile attempt, and for what? I'm not really sure... maybe to preserve things to a certain point so 100 years from now everyone will still understand completely what was written today? Seems like a vain attempt to perserve their own thoughts and ideas throughout history.
Don't get me wrong though. Some structure and form is necessary to convey understanding and knowledge so the general public will understand, but evolution is inevitable. Keep trying though. Everyone needs to have a job doing something.
I bet Copus will comment about this on IM to me in the not-so-distant future. Stalker.
Posted by Plocmstart at 9:33 PM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2005
Information in the "trash"
Last Friday when I was picking Aaron up for work I noticed his neighbors had a computer sitting out front of their place and asked him about it. He said they had found it next door and were going to do something with it, but never managed to get it inside. So Sunday when we got back I decided that I would take the computer, because it was still left outside and was now surrounded by boxes of trash.
Tonight I managed to boot the machine up and check out the various files on it. Quickly I found pictures and files and determined it belonged to someone named Monica who is a Remax agent.
Perhaps Monica should have formatted the hard drive before just setting it out on the sidewalk for anyone to pick up, but she probably didn't know any better. Luckily I won't be using any information I find to do any harm though. You're lucky I'm so nice Monica!
Posted by Plocmstart at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)
Chicken Teryaki Sandwich Day
Today is Chicken Teryaki Sandwich Day, because for lunch I went to Penn Station and had a chicken teryaki sub, then for dinner I went to BW3s and had a chicken sandwich with teryaki sauce. NAUM!
So I have about 2 1/2 more weeks of work left. Today I got some code working to enumerate the entire PCI bus. I never expected to learn so much about low-level drivers and stuff, but it has been pretty neat.
Posted by Plocmstart at 8:52 PM | Comments (0)