FilipiVianna

I'am using the ftdi chip with bitbang mode to control some hardware with linux. Every time I copy my software to a new desktop, it always take me hours to figure out why it has no permission to run the bitbang mode as a regular user. Every website or forum I look around tells me about the udev, but I check back on the working desktops and there is no udev rule for the ftdi hardware. And after trying to force permissions with chgrp and chmod directly on /dev/bus/usb/* I figured out that I had to master at least a little about udev rules. Checking with a little more care at a working machine I´ve found a Virtualbox instalation which created a udev rule for the virtualbox usb driver. Changing that rule to be used with the FTI chip I do the following steps, with had worked perfeclty: Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/10-ftdi.rules Write on it: SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GROUP="dialout", MODE="0664" SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="u...

From ( http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html ) The Acer Aspire One has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, which can boot into a minimal BIOS environment via a special boot block to re-flash the BIOS, even if the system does not pass POST and does otherwise not boot anymore. This procedure is also known as Crisis Disk. First format an USB flash drive with FAT. It does not need to be bootable. Download the latest BIOS, and extract all files. Put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file with FD suffix in the root directory of the flash drive. The files must not be in a folder. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD before proceeding. It only works with this exact filename. Turn the AA1 off, and verify both battery and AC adapter are plugged in. Press Fn and Esc simultaneously, keep them pressed and press the power button. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds. The power button starts blinking at this point. Press it once. The AA1 will now access the files on the flas...

I had a terrible issue at work today. We certainly have to give up from a windows controlled device, depending on time critical software to use a cheap and easy to find microcontroller. Making a couple of phone calls to local electronics shops, draws me to one single option. Microchip's PIC 16F family. So, let's go to PIC world: http://www.grennan.com/picprog/ (Programming the PIC16F84 with LINUX) The PIC16F84 is easily found at any electronics shops in my town. It costs around R$ 15,00 (fifteen reais), local brazilian currency, which is around US$ 8.45. Programming PIC’s in Linux using C with SDCC Intro to Programming PIC Microcontrollers in Linux http://www.lancos.com/prog.html (PonyProg - GLP Serial devices programmer) http://www.freenet.org.nz/sdcc/ (sdcc for PIC HowTo) There is a good Spanish site about PIC projects at http://www.micropic.es/

[Open source PCB routing] MUCS-PCB - The University of Manchester School Of Computer Science PCB design software http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/apt/projects/tools/mucs-pcb/ Ladder Logic for PIC and AVR http://www.cq.cx/ladder.pl SketchFlat: 2d CAD, with Constraints http://www.cq.cx/sketchflat.pl SOLVESPACE -- parametric 3d CAD http://solvespace.com/index.pl And for autorouting on kicad , there is the closed source freerouting

IFTools has an free/libre open source (wxWindows license) communication terminal which uses a multi platform communications library. Worth to take a look at: https://iftools.com/opensource/download.en.php

Here at IDEIA we share a common spare time project. We want to build a robot which brings the coffee from the kitchen to our offices. This project was a little inspired by the S.T.A.I.R. project from Stanford. Looking around we've found the Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit (MRPT) . And perhaps worth to look at: Arduino Ethernet Shield and Arduino Ethernet Library

Slashdot came with this Retro Arcade-Style Clock , designed by A manda 'w0z' Wozniak . MONOCHRON - open source retro clock from adafruit industries on Vimeo . This tokes me the Lady Ada website with some projects on open source hardware. http://www.ladyada.net/

Hack a Day has exactly the tutorial I am needing: Introduction to FTDI bitbang mode . It is also a Windows Serial thought USB programming tutorial for dummies.

Engaged came with article describing a new netbook from Lenovo, with leather cover. The Pocket Yoga is been keeped in screet by Lenovo. Perhaps, with one of this, I could drop my Moleskine.