So, I have left my old host serverpronto since they triple billed me for Christmas and then refused to fix the situation after well over 2 months. I have tried google’s free “google apps” for my mail server but appearently that doesn’t look like it’s going to work out either as I’m having numerous stability, speed and administration issues. So, does anyone have some highly posistive things to say about any hosts? I’m not opposed to paying at this point, but I don’t want to pay for something that will just be a headache later. Advice?

So I finally got it working far enough that I posted about my robot at lynxmotion’s forum. Take a look here:
http://www.lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5929&start=0

Next I need to finish up my new robotics site, ntel.us, and get some custom hardware up and available for others!

I finally did it, I got my DM3T laptop running Windows XP entirely with all drivers working (well, except for the Driveguard bit). The big things to know:

Start with Windows XP SP2 (NOT SP3!!!!). Slipstream the intel ich9m sata drivers into the install media. Once running, install the microsoft uaa patch. then start with the drivers. I can most likely put them up via rapidshare or something if you ask nicely… Just email/pm me.

As Kocoman pointed out before I moved my server and lost the comment: This is mainly a useful downgrade for hackers as the newer versions of windows are simply “not hacker friendly”. While they work, most drivers were for winxp, and will not likely be ported in the near future to new versions of windows as these drivers have no actual commercial value. In addition new versions of windows have driver signature checking which is damn right annoying. Yes it’s possible to get around that, but winxp was truely a great product and works very well.

With all the arduino crap on the net these days and people going crazy about thinking they have a “robot” I wanted to clear the air about what a robot is around here. If you have to control it, or tell it what to do 100% of the time, it IS NOT A ROBOT! Simple. It’s pathetic how remote controlled toys are now being considered a robot. call it remote control if thats what it is. That said, my design is both. I can control it, I see it’s sensor readings and make decisions about what it should do. That’s remote controlled. When I place it in automatic mode and the avr controls it based on my programming and keeps it out of trouble while actually doing things, that is what makes it a robot!

I don’t hate the arduino crowd, but they surely need to step up and realize what it is they are playing with. I designed the weegee with little help and no experience in robotics beyond playing with a handyboard briefly in interactive c. I suppose you could say that’s the equivalent of going from the arduino to a standalone platform. Getting in control of the board without the libraries which take all the learning out of it will bring you a lot further a lot faster. That said, I need to get back to writing some edge detection algorithms tonight for my robot… I like seeing libraries, but in the end I want to code my own solutions otherwise I learn nothing.

So lately I’ve been working on the robot quite a lot again (might have something to do with getting a Pelican 1550 case for Christmas!) and in the process I have gotten:

full picture capability from the c328r module

full control of all sensors (other than the 3-axis for now)

motor encoders are working

and I’ve integrated the bootloader flash tool into my terminal program so I now have full mission control for the robot from a single pc side application! I’m still missing servo control as the openservo boards I planned to use were quite crappy. If you choose to buy them, DONT GET THE SPARKFUN ONES! They are outdated and old. I instead have now ordered a Daventech SD-21 controller (i2c still) and should get it later this week!.

I’ve updated the software used at the site, re-enabled the forum user registration process, and tried to get things a little more up to date in general. It’s been tuff to find time to work on things. If you have something to contribute feel free to contact me or use the submission link in the blog. Otherwise have fun…

As of Sep 6 2009, all PDA’s and Blackberries activated on the AT&T network will be required to have their respective unlimited data plans. These data plans, the PDA Personal Data and Blackberry Personal Data are $30 a month in addition to whatever talk plan and messaging plans are selected by the customer. Prior to this change it was possible for a PDA/Palm/Blackberry user to have the their phones activated without a data plan, using the offline functionality of the device and keeping the convenience of having a phone in the same device, or even having a “stand alone” package where users could use the data only without voice services, but no longer. Furthermore, after Oct 31 2009, AT&T customers with smartphone IMEI’s registered on their accounts will automatically have the appropriate data plan added to their accounts without the customers permission. These policy changes mirror the iPhones mandatory Data plan in both cost and requirements, removing some the flexibility and versatility of these devices.

So I’ve spent the better part of the last 2 days working on coding for the C328R vga serial camera module to get it talking through the weegee over the wireless link. So far it’s not been going well. Suffice to say I made about every mistake you can make when coding a serial device (FIFO, delays, etc) but eventually have now gotten myself to where I can sync up to the camera, init it, set the types etc and snap (sometimes…) a jpeg and get the byte size back. I then implemented my SD card writing code to write the 512byte raw sectors to the on board card. And when I checked afterward, I’ve got a valid jpeg header, but not a valid image. I’ll have to play with it more! I’ll put up my open source code once I complete it. That will be a ATMEGA644p AVR C example project…

Ive finally got the first weegee 1.1 made. Took a few simple iPhone pics of it for now. Will post more later…

So in continuing my new line of robotics hobby work I believe I’ve chosen a power source and charging method etc for the HWBY robot. At first I started looking at http://talkingelectronics.com/projects/SolarCharger/SolarCharger.html
which goes into detail about a pretty decent method of charging a battery with solar cells that don’t output at the same voltage level by using a pulsed high voltage spike at very low current. However this method is horridly ineffective and looses a lot of the power. Dealing with a already low power source we want as much effectiveness as possible.

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