Buying Hardware

Building the PiArcade table is turning out to be quite fun. It is also giving me an excuse to go out and buy some more tools. Yesterday we went down to ToolStation for some bits and bobs as James had mentioned that their prices are very good.

They are. Their stuff is a lot cheaper than places like B and Q (does anyone actually know what the B and the Q stand for?). The only real problem is that you can’t just wander down their aisles looking at stuff to buy, instead you have to dig out all the part numbers and then write them down. But if you are after some no frills hardware they are worth a look.

PiArcade Table Progress and Compromise

Did some more work on the PiArcade table today. I’ve got the right hand joystick all fitted and working, along with the buttons. I’ve also made the holes that will allow the monitor cable to be fitted in the back and I’ve made my first major compromise. You can see it in the form of the four shiny screws that hold the joystick in place above.

I was going to implement a strict “no screws on the top” policy because I reckoned it would look a lot cleaner. But it would have meant a fair bit of extra fiddling, and might have resulted in a joystick that was not as firmly anchored as the one above. So I compromised. I can always paint the screws black, or put a bezel over the top, or just decide not to worry about it.

The only snag that I’ve hit today is that the wires to the second joystick aren’t quite long enough to reach across the table, but a few minutes with a terminal block or two should sort this out.

Campus Open Day (again)

 

We had our second autumn open day today. The weather started a bit grey, but it soon brightened up a bit and by the time I left the campus the place was looking very shiny. Two great audiences, thanks to everyone for coming to see us. I mentioned some links in my talk. Here they are if you didn’t get to note them down at the time.

Hull CompSci blog: http://hullcompsciblogs.com/

C# Yellow Book download: http://www.csharpcourse.com/

Departmental Website: http://www2.hull.ac.uk/science/computer_science.aspx

Where Would You Think: http://www.wherewouldyouthink.com/

My blog: http://www.robmiles.com/

New Embedded Stuff

There are quite a few new embedded toys that I’ve discovered just recently. Here are three.

First up is the DAGU racer. This is a neat little Bluetooth controlled racing car. They’ve got it on discount at RoboSavvy at the moment. It comes with an Android app that you can use to control it, but they also expose the Bluetooth command set so that you can control it from anything, including Gadgeteer I reckon. It is powered by a tiny lithium ion battery and even comes with a set of stickers you can use to customise the racer. And for under twenty quid it was very tempting. So I got one.

I got all excited when I first found out about the Electric Imp. This is a wireless embedded device that fits into an SD card socket. You can’t actually use it as a memory card but you can use it to control a connected net appliance. And you can get it for around twenty quid. My excitement dissipated quite a lot though when I discovered that every device is bound to the imp cloud service which is where it registers its data and where messages come from.

I’ve bought these kinds of devices before, my Chumby and Nabaztag rabbit worked in a similar way. The idea of the company behind them is usually that they don’t make much money on the devices themselves, but build a subscription model which lets them pay for the infrastructure by getting cash somehow from the users of each device. Snag is, if that doesn’t work and the company goes bust you are left with a paperweight.The folks behind the imp seem quite confident that they can make it work, and the service is free at the moment. But they are talking about $50 subscriptions for business users and stuff like that, so I think I’ll pass on this, amazing as it is.

Now this I really do like. It brings you the best of the .NET Micro Framework, Arduino and Gadgeteer in a single board that costs less than thirty quid. You can feed it five volts and it just works. You’ve got an Arduino shield, three Gadgeteer ports, SD card, USB client and host and a space to put an Xbee or WiFi receiver. I’ve been looking at very simple devices that I’d like to make using the Gadgeteer and wanting a cheap, simple board that just gets things done. The FEZ Cerbuino Bee seems to fit that bill perfectly. For less than the price of a video game you get a device you can program with .NET, connect lots of Gadgeteer devices to and put onto WiFi at a bearable cost.

If you are learning C# and want to dip your toes into embedded development I can’t think of a better start. Lovely.

No Gas

At least we have electricity

Came home tonight to no gas. Which in my case (gas central heating) means cold house. A water leak had somehow got into the gas supply and as a result it had shut down.  They are having to dig up the road to find out where the problem is and we’ve turned on the PS3 and are watching Fringe to try and warm up.

Fringe is absolutely top notch telly. Where else do you get lines of dialogue like “So why do you think shape shifting soldiers from a parallel universe are stealing frozen heads?”. Why indeed?

Update on Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 09:13AM by Rob

We got our gas back at 8:00 on Friday.