Canon X-07 is great little handheld retro computer. But being Canon, nothin is standard. Canon has always insisted using weird proprietary connector for devices, and usually it is impossible to find connectors that would fit them. This is also a case with X-07. It uses weird connectors for serial- and parallel ports. They look bit like a normal D-sub connector, and D-sub connector almost fits into them, but it is not a good fit. I wanted to make new connector that matches X-07’s serial port perfectly, so I took my callipers and 3D cad and started to work. Read More …
Category: Computers
3D modeling with Blender (Part One)
I found new hobby in form of 3D models. I have previously tested blender, but have not done anything productive with it. Now I finally got time and determination to learn more of using it to make something wort of sharing. I have now been playing and experimenting with Blender about couple of weeks and I already have bigger project in my mind. Read More …
New toys
I “found” some old DELL PowerEdge 2850 rack servers. 2x 3.2Ghz intel xeon (P4 generation), 8GB memory, and bunch of 146GB and 74GB SCSI HDDs.
I don’t have use for these yet, but maybe something comes up.
How to fix moody Arduino nano
Apparently I’m not the only one that have had problems with a Arduino (clone) nano’s USB connection. Usually it works ok but sometimes, particularly when an external power input is used, a FTDI chip inside the Arduino does not want to be detected by computer. This is bug made by the original Arduino developers to their schematics, and can be easily fixed afterwards if there is odd troubles with it. Read More …
C64 XA1541 Cable
The XA1541 cable is adapter often used to connect C64s 1541 floppy drive to more modern PC equipment. It connects to PC parallel port, and special software bitbangs IEC commands and data to 1541 drive. Old 386 laptop is used due lack of parallel port in modern computers.
Saleae Logic analyzer knock-off
Postman (or woman) brought envelope containing Chinese Saleae Logic analyzer today. Lets see if fierce 20€ price is justified for this plastic brick. I also tried to reverse engineer one Sony VAIO wireless keyboard which may be more difficult that it first seemed. Read More …
Working serial connection!
I got the Hello World! Finally serial communication part is working, next part is to get display refreshing and sift register writing to work efficiently as it must be constantly multiplexed. Read More …
Programming xmega with usbasp & avrdude
Few days ago I got package from Helsinki Hacklab. Some generic component stuff and a couple Atmel xmegas and breakout boards for them.
Nice bit more powerful MCU’s than normal atmegas & attinys, but they eat only up to 3.3v, so better not to kill them with 5V logic. Luckily most 5v logics detect 3.3v as high, and their higher output can be lowered with resistor divider. Programing these xmegas also differ from their li’l brothers. Xmegas use PDI, which is kind of two wire system, constant clock signal and data I/O. I did not have expensive atmel programmer, so I improvised cheap ~2€ programmer using usbasp and avrdude using these patches. Read More …
Debian and stuff
I have had little problem with operating systems. I haven’t found any I could like or use. After Ubuntu 9.10 lost it’s support, and next versions of *buntu distros were all bloated and ugly. Back then I did not have needed knowhow to use other linux or unix systems, so I stuck back to Windows. Anyway I have been experimenting with different OS’s for while now, NetBSD(I can’t get X working), FreeBSD(I can’t get gpu drivers working), Mint(bloated), Xubuntu(still bloated and xfce is terrible) and Haiku(which seems nice but is still heavily incomplete). Only operating system I could get working and bear was Debian Squeeze, because it still have lovely gnome 2, only desktop environment I ever have liked. Read More …
iPod 5.5G
It’s been long time since I last wrote something. I got couple weeks ago or so an iPod 5.5G a.k.a iPod Video a.k.a iPod 5th Gen Late 2006 from someone I know from Helsinki Hacklab. It is 80GB model, and came with Rockbox already installed. I updated the rockbox and made theme for it.
And beauty itself
Flashing monitor EDID
Yesterday I got a HD4850 card from post and happily installed it to my desktop computer. I noticed that my 15″ secondary monitor was not detected, but I ignored it until today. Working with two monitor is so much easier and faster, so I started to investigate problem. Read More …
Updating Acer TravelMate 7520G BIOS
I were somewhat surprised that Acer I found from trash didn’t support a 4GBb DDR2 memory, because computers with the same chipset and processor did support over 2GB RAM. I thought the bios version was really old so maybe updating it could fix this.