Google Wave

I finally got a Google Wave account and I decided to do something for the community. More precisely, the hacker/tinkerer/DIY community.

I think it would be rather interesting to have a place where to share, showcase and discuss projects and hacks with local people (from Montreal).

If you want to join the wave you can find it here.

I hope this will result in a stronger more connected Montreal Hacker community.

Cheers, and see you on the wave!

I have a few Wave invites left so if any geeky Montrealer would like one, please leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

Xilinx Spartan

I spent countless hours trying to install the free version of the Xilinx software on may windoze Virtual machine and I have finally succeed.

I must say that although I have never used Xilinx ISE Webpack, I already hate it. It come in a huge installation archive (2.7 GB) and an equally huge update archive (2.4 GB). The option to use the “slim” installer (88 MB) is worthless since there is no ways of saving the required files for an eventual reinstallation (which was needed twice in my case).

Anyway, after installing/uninstalling/installing many times I finally got it to work. And this very lengthy and painful process reminded me why the Open Source world is so much more convenient. Installing a full linux distribution with tons of extra programs takes half the required storage and a third of the time. Too bad FPGA programming tools are ruled by the chip manufacturers.

All this painful process was required in order to get my new NanoBoard 3000 running. Hopefully I wont have to use Xilinx ISE anytime soon. Altium Designer was much easier to install and requires less storage.

The Altium NanoBoard 3000

Now that I got it, I’m dying to have some spear time in order to try out their awesome board with their quite intriguing IDE.

About the Hardware

The NanoBoard 3000 is a beautiful piece of equipment. It boasts lots of cool peripherals and is built and packed as a luxury electronics product. It is a very good looking piece of equipment while remaining perfectly functional, it beats by far all the other development boards I am familiar with (i.e. the Altera DE2 board and the Lattice Mico32 development board) while remaining much cheaper (around 50% of their price).

NanoBoard 3000 Unboxing

Features

Here is a selection of the NanoBoard’s features from Altium’s Wiki I find most prominent:

• A Xilinx Spartan-3AN device (XC3S1400AN-4FGG676C)
  

  Nanoboard 3000 Front

• 4 Serial SPI Flash memory devices
• Programmable clock 6 to 200 MHz, accessible by Altium Designer or by an FPGA design
• SPI Real-Time Clock with 3V battery backup
• Adjustable voltage regulators set to generate 1.2V, 1.8V, 2.5V and 3.3V power
• 256K x 32-bit common-bus SRAM (1MB)
• 16M x 32-bit common-bus SDRAM (64MB)
• 8M x 16-bit common-bus 3.0V Page Mode Flash memory (16MB)
• Dual 256K x 16-bit independent SRAM (512KB each)
• 256K x 16-bit independent SRAM (512KB)
• 8 RGB LEDS
• 5 generic push-button switches
• 4-channel 8-bit ADC, SPI-compatible
• 4-channel 8-bit DAC, SPI-compatible
• 4x isolated IM Relay channels
• 4x PWM power drivers
• Screw terminal headers for ADC/DAC/Relay/PWM interfaces
• SD (Secure Digital) card readers:
  • One for use by the Host Controller FPGA
  • One for use by the User FPGA
• SVGA interface (24-bit, 80MHz)
  

  NanoBoard 3000 Back

• 10/100 Fast Ethernet interface
• USB 2.0 High-Speed interface
• RS-232 Serial Port – DB9M
• RS-485 Serial Port – ‘RJ45′
• 240 x 320 TFT LCD with touch screen
• 8-way DIP-switch
• Stereo 2W audio power amplifier with 3.5mm test input jack and DC volume control
• 24-bit Stereo Audio CODEC with I2S-compatible interface
• Stereo audio jacks (3.5mm):
  • Line In / Line Out
  • Headphones
• Speakers on a separate (attached) board
• MIDI interface
• Diagnostics interface – PCI Express (PCIe) edge connector for connection of automated test equipment (ATE)
• 1.8″ ATA/IDE connector providing access to user LED and generic switch I/O
• Remote Control and IR interface.

I should post some further details and perhaps even a simple test project soon (as soon as I get Altium Designer and Xilinx ISE installed and running)

I opted for a Dell Vostro 1320 and must say it is a beautiful machine. It is small, powerful, light, and most importantly shiny.

Vostro 1320

Some Specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
• nVidia Corporation GeForce 9300M GS
• 4GB RAM
• 320 GB HDD
• 13.3″ screen matte (I can’t stand glossy displays)
• Intel wireless adaptor draft n
• 12 cell battery
• Mono integrated speaker (this is its only weakness)

I am running Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE 4.3.1 and it is absolutely marvelous. Everything works perfectly (except for the microphone). As a matter of fact, KDE is so absolutely mind blowing I’ll make a post exclusively about it soon (hopefully).

I know I am running late with my posts and answering messages but I’ll post some new projects very soon.

RobotShop.com

The robotics parts retailer RobotShop will be sponsoring robotics projects at Carlitos’ Contraptions. As a result I’ll be rolling out robotics projects for the next weeks/months.

I’ll try to make simple projects at the beginning and build up the difficulty level as I go. The idea is that, if you completed the the first projects, you will be able to reuse the skills/parts/code to build the future projects.

Of course, all articles are going to be published under the usual Creative Commons license and the code is going to be published under the GPL license.

I am planning to use Python for any program running on a computer and Arduino as a micro-controller platform. These choices aim at making the projects as open and as accessible as possible. Also, they ensure that they are perfectly cross-platform.

As always, I am open to any suggestions or wishes regarding the projects.

Note: the RobotShop logo above is not published under the CC license.

I have been experimenting with web servers, web design, web applications and many other things that begin with “web”. The result? The blog is moving to a new address.

Its new home is http://carlitoscontraptions.com/. I’ll try to make the transition as seamless as I can and I hope not to loose too many readers in the process.

I came to this decision since I started playing with WordPress and I really enjoyed it. Not that I don’t like Blogger, it is just that I feel I need more control over the site. I also got a  pretty good deal in web hosting so getting a domain and infinite server space and bandwidth was really cheap.

Let’s hope everything goes for the best.

My new soldering space

I also got some new tools a while ago. Note the precision screw driver holder made out of a plastic jar cap and the screw driver stand made out of a piece of wood I found in the garbage.

I also got some new measuring tools that are extremely useful (and make me extremely happy).

Some of my electronics parts:

My computer finally died. After close to ten years of faithful service, my computer catastrophically failed one last time (this doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t try to fix it). Anyways, this pushed me to finally buy another computer after many years of searching around.

I chose to buy an Asus Eee PC 1000; I could not be happier with my buy.

The obligatory Eee PC specs:

• 1.6 GH Intel Atom CPU
• 1 GB RAM
• 40 GB SDD (8 + 32)
• 10 in LCD
• SDD card reader
• Multi-touch touchpad
• Shiny black body
• WiFi draft n

The solid storage is great. It gives the peace of mind that I require to be able to take the laptop everywhere on my bike or in my backpack (I jump around a lot). I have currently formatted both disks with ext3 partitions mounted with the realtime option. I know about the life expectancy concerns but I have not found any reference that says that my SDD drives will die prematurely if I use the ext3 filesystem instead of ext2. Also, the ext3 filesystem is more robust and it doesn’t corrupt files if it is not checked often or if the computer is turned off abruptly.

I installed Kubuntu by creating a live USB stick using UNetbootin and then setting the USB stick as the primary device in the BIOS. The Eee PC then boots with the USB key and Kubuntu can be installed normally. For more info about installing Ubuntu please refer to this page.

In order to have the WiFi adapter and the wired Network card working, I used the kernel packages from Array.org.

The battery life is awesome. It is much longer than in conventional laptops, even with the processor working at full speed, the LCD at full brightness and the WiFi adapter enabled. Also, the keyboard is very nice and not too small. It is really easy to get used to it. For more info about the Eee PC performance, please watch the following video:

The touchpad is very good and the multitouch feature works very well. It is hard to go back to normal touchpads. Nevertheless, a mouse is much faster and precise, so I decided to buy a mouse: the Logitech VX Nano.

Needless to say, the VX Nano is wonderful and a perfect match for the Eee PC. They have both been carefully designed with particular attention to detail and quality. They come with carrying cases and are very sturdy and good looking.

It is obvious that I’m happy with my two new toys.

Finally, KDE 4.1 is simply perfect. It is beautiful, fast, and very well thought. In short: the perfect software for the perfect hardware.

Granted, it is a small article but it is still impressive to see how far blog posts can go.

I’m looking for a job where I could gain experience and become a professional engineer. Ideally, I would like to work with robots or toys, but working with any kind of control system (my specialization) would be definitely awesome. It would also be nice if I was asked to actually build prototypes, for instance, and perform some manual job besides programing and designing.

I won’t bother you anymore with my wishes. Thank you very much for reading. Soon, I’ll post a new project.

As a follow-up to the successful project Orange’s “Elephants Dream”, the Blender Foundation initiated another open movie project. Again a small team (7) of the best 3D artists and developers in the Blender community have been invited to come together to work in Amsterdam from October 2007 until April 2008 on completing a short 3D animation movie. [...]
The Blender Foundation and Blender community have been the main financiers for Peach. As for the previous open movie, a pre-sale campaign to purchase the DVD set in advance will be organized.
- The Peach Open Movie

Now, I’m keeping an eye open for the Apricot Open Game project.

Needless to say, I’m happy. Also, since this means that now that I’m an engineer (only morally, not legally), I should post some nice complex projects instead of the simple things I normally blog about.

Below you can enjoy a few pictures of my homies (David and Cynthia) and I.

Note the (rather clever) use of gangster slang to denote how “fresh” we have become now that we have the ring

I’m particularly proud of the Popsicle sticks tensegrity structure since it is much stronger and cool looking than the straws one.

(note the upgraded upcoming POV display on the background)

Also, I got a new camera for Christmas, a nice Samsung s850, so now I can make some great pictures and video without needing to borrow a camera or whatnot (I’m really happy about it).
Here is a random picture from this great camera:

BTW, the Samsung s850 works very well under Linux!

What’s an Arduino?

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

- The Arduino Website -

Note that these clones are cheaper because they require a USB-to-TTL serial cable (20 $). The advantage of this approach is that the cable includes the required USB controller chip and can be used to program many boards. In short, you only need to pay for the USB connectivity once and get to use it on as may boards as you want.

Also, I was very (really very) pleased to see that the Arduino software works perfectly under Linux and that there are instructions for installation on all major distros (including Ubuntu) in the Arduino website.
Update: Here are a few extra shots done with my new camera. This is the new Rev. D board.

Thanks to a very very (extremely) kind professor (I think he prefers to remain anonymous), I got a Spartan D2E FPGA board complete with a DIO1 board. I am thankful for my professor’s generosity and I will never be able to thank him enough.

Have a look at some pictures of the board.

The D2E board

The DIO1 board

I shall be back soon with something implemented on it.

I have got a 10F, a 22F and a 50F capacitors.

Here are some pictures:

By the way, please only order free samples if you need them.

It is a Samsung 0202A (see more details here). It is a very nice piece of equipment and I hoe I’ll be able to put it to good use

I’ll learn how to use it and I’ll come up with some project for it soon enough (hopefully). Meanwhile, I’m open to any project ideas.

By the way, if you don’t want to get spammed, use trashmail or write your email so spammers cannot gather it (i.e. if your email is example@somehost.com, you can write it as “example AT somehost DOT com”).

I know Gmail invites are getting old but I have some invites left and I would like to share them.

• Chocolate Printer: a printer that uses chocolate instead of ink and is capable of printing 3D objects (I’ve seen some guy stolen my idead, but thats OK, I don’t mind).
• Vibrating Pen: a pen that vibrates producing funny writing (for children).
• Electric Bike: a bike that uses an electric motor for propulsion.
• Frictionless Electricity Generation on a Bike
• Skype Phone Ringer
• Faraday’s Torch: the ones you shake.
• Big Van de Graaf Generator
• OWI 007 Computer interface
• Weather Cube: a transparent cube that emulates current or future weather on its inside (uses internet weather information).
• Wooden IPod Case (nano)
• Foldable Bike Trailer
• Lock Picks
• Binary Clock