DFP - DVI Adapter

Found it for a better price, and they even ship internationally!

Adapter@monoprice

Let's see what a DVI cable costs me there

DVIcable@monoprice

Ordering is on the todo list.

Update:

Just looked at the pictures a little closer, this is the wrong one! I need a male DFP side and the one at monoprice is female, so the hunt continues.

//Z

Asterisk I

Another one of those pet projects of mine is an asterisk box. It would be cool to be able to have my own phone router and be able to interface my phone calls with a pc. I have found a couple of nice implementations of this principle and need to do some more research in the material.

http://www.rowetel.com/blog/ seems very interesting and also his free telephony project seems very interesting http://rowetel.com/ucasterisk/.

off course the obvious links come into play here too:

http://www.asterisk.org/
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_PBX
http://www.trixbox.org/

Update:

More links:


//Z

Reprap

Reprap is a rapid prototyping CAD machine. Totally open source! Here is their blog, witha fantastic timelapse video of building one of these open tools!

http://blog.reprap.org/

I so want one! Again as with many of my projects, I don't see immediatly how this can be usefull for me but that doesnt deter me one bit. Let's keep an eye out for parts for the reprap.

//Z

Webcam Based DIY Laser Rangefinder

Webcam Based DIY Laser Rangefinder

Saw this today, I think via hack-a-day:

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~twd25/webcam_laser_ranger.html

Looks like an interesting project too! I cannot think of the use for one of these immediately but it looks interesting.

Another one of those projects I thought of lately is a monitoring system for my car. A couple of USB cams provide a 360 degrees view from the car outward. Record every movement around the car when it is parked and continually tapes to hard disk when driving. It would be cool to have the rangefinder record distances from objects.

As I drive around I see people who shouldn't be driving all the time. It would be cool to be able to record all their practices. And be able to show a best-off as a youtube video might also be interesting.

More ideas involve a licence plate resolver to a public database with names and other information about the licensee. This would of course warrant a search whether that kind of information is just publicly available and if it can be published without problems. We will see…

//Z

Math Homework

I help my girl out with her statistics math work for her studies. Sometimes I do get the feeling I don't have a deep enough understanding of statistics to be able to answer any question which bothers her when she is reading a part of the book I haven't yet read.

I have an easy enough understanding of the underlying principle in a glance but then to explain something which comes rather naturally to me is very hard. Most of the times someone else sees this material in a totally different way then I see it. I skim it first to get a general overview of the subject. Then I see if I can fit it in the framework of math already in my head. If it 'fits' I will read on in the book, if not I will dive in a little deeper and read some synopsis part. If this does not clear things up more reading is required.

Then I read Steve Yegge's post about learning math for programmers and saw a kindred spirit. I also do this in a lot of other fields, not just math. Physics, programming, electronics and a lot of other interests will not give you enough time to do more then glance at the newest 'principle of design' and try to get the most out of the experience in the least amount of time.

This does make me wonder about methods of learning. But that is for a future post I think.

//Z

Blogger hacking I

Off course the first thing I want to do here is get some content up. But you know how it goes, new platform, new code, we have to pick it apart and see how it works...

A Google query later I have more information on where to keep up with in regards to blogger templates and hacks:
http://blogfresh.blogspot.com/
http://hackosphere.blogspot.com

Interesting looking code:
http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/re-mark/
http://phy3blog.googlepages.com/Beta-Blogger-Label-Cloud.html

I am specifically looking for a way to display my to-do in a sidebar, best would be if you could nest it and open it to show the category's contents.

Let's see what else I can find!

//Z

Bubble Chair!

http://www.sixdifferentways.com/gallery/

I want this chair, I am in love with it! I sat in it lately in a shop in Amsterdam and again it hit my fancy!

I am at the moment looking for a way to make a chair like this myself. I don't really
want to pay 5k euros for an original or something in the neighborhood of 2.5k to buy a remake of the original. This will also be a project to learn how to handle big molds, in the past the molds I have used have been a lot smaller, a challenge!

I see a couple of strategies to make this myself. It all involves fiberglass matting and epoxy so it will all be done outside. The first strategy is to make a positive mold of Styrofoam and cover the outside with fiberglass and resin.

Carve the mold away from the inside and you have a chair. Another way i see of how to make this is a big balloon (maybe a beach ball?), pump it up and cover with fiberglass. This seems to be an easier way to go then the Styrofoam mold. I just see a couple of problems on the way...

Looks like this will be another one of those multiple year projects, but i have plenty of those just waiting for a piece of the puzzle.

//Z

Touchscreen adventures II

I got a mail from a guy from www.aurora-kontakt.nl, they are in stock! There is only one problem:

This one costs 32.95 euro's

And this one is even pricier: 89,95 euro!

For both of them goes that i also will have to buy a DVI-DVI cable, let's check the pricewatch to see. So about 9 to 10 euros, hmm, next month maybe..:)

So the status of this project is changed to 'waiting for funds to free up' and 'let's see if we can arrange this an other way' for now.

ToDoList for the project:

- Source DVI <-> DFP-20
- Serial connector (got it)
- Figure out how configfile for X is made
- Make a configfile for X for touchscreen and LCD
-etc.

Resource list for the project:

Linux Drivers for elo touchscreen:
http://www.elotouch.com/Support/TechnicalSupport/Drivers/Linux/default.asp

source for kerneldriver:
http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/lxr/source/drivers/input/touchscreen/elo.c

Elo touchscreen configuration for Xfree:

http://www.icewalkers.com/Linux/Howto/XFree86-Touch-Screen-HOWTO-4.html
http://www.linuxjunkies.org/html/XFree86-Touch-Screen-HOWTO.html

I am already looking forward to the third installment of Touchscreen adventures. But don't expect it soon..

//Z

Touchscreen adventures I

Trading in a couple of old Pentium III computers I noticed in the second hand computershop an interesting project item, a touchscreen. Since the owner of the shop was reluctant to offer me any monetary compensation for me dumping 5 old computers on his doorstep, it seemed like a good idea to accept in trade the old industrial touchscreen. If only for the amount of space occupied.

For some time now I have been interested to take up a project which involves a webinterface to my todolist. Wouldn't it be great to be able to update my todolist from the couch without having to boot up my computer to add something to the list. Or even to do this without having to use a keyboard or mouse, just drag and drop from a predefined list of items..

While researching the information to determine exactely what I found myself with I drew a blank. Industrial items made to order for some sort of machine is not available through most databases since the only identifiers on the back are a customernumber and internal codes.

Well the only option left over, the makers answer: opening it up! Not a hard task, 8 philips head screws and the cover is off. 

On the left the convertor for the backlight. The board in the middle comes off with a couple screws and reveales...not much, a little CHIP to connect the DVI-connector to the screen and the serial connector. Does not look like a lot to me. Well 8 screws later and im holding the screen. A Mitsubishi AA12SB6C-ADFD LCD screen with a ELO Touchsystems 362740 attached.



I have tried to find a datasheet for either of the two but have been unsuccesfull up till now. Although I did find some more information about which points need to be addressed to be able to use the screen and the touchscreen.

For first it has to be attached to a computer. The touchscreen is no problem here as it uses a serial interface, just use a serial cable and hook it up to your serial port.

The screen is a laptopscreen according to my information, it can be used as a replacement part for a couple of different laptops:

It uses a DFP-20 connector which is hard to source. Some research has shown that suppliers selling to europeans do not stock the cable and whoever stocks it does not sell outside of the USA...you bastards!

Tonight I have found it on a Dutch site though so I fired off an email to find out if they are really in stock: http://www.aurora-kontakt.nl/snoer_computer.html.. Let's wait and see.

Then when it is attached, I will need a driver for linux for it, I have to find out how to configure X to accept the touchscreen as input, how to get the screen to work, some sort of driver for it, etc. Plenty to do still, projects with me tend to take some time...

Till next time,
//Z

First Post

PinstripedZebra is live, this will be a place where I will document my projects, rant about all kind of subjects and assorted musings.

This blog is targeted first towards myself, it will be used to keep a project journal and as a place to keep snippets of information for myself.

If you want to read it too, be my guest, you are allowed to comment and I will try to answer questions arising from comments. If you happen to want to mail me about anything on this site don't hesitate but do so at dezebra AT gmail DOTCOM.

//Z