Post date: Sep 03, 2012 6:42:17 PM

Here’s the recipe for the (failed) Open WRT project. Here for posterity.

start

(turn wifi off, set ip address to 192.168.1.2) telnet to 192.168.1.1

uci set network.lan.ipaddr=192.168.128.1
uci commit
reboot

(swap ip address to 192.168.128.2, enable proxy on 8888) telnet to 192.168.128.1

echo 'option http_proxy http://192.168.128.2:8888/' >> /etc/opkg.conf 
opkg update
opkg install kmod-usb-storage block-mount usb-modeswitch-data kmod-scsi-generic kmod-fs-ext4

edit /etc/config/fstab (file contents)

config global automount
        option from_fstab 1
        option anon_mount 1

config global autoswap
        option from_fstab 1
        option anon_swap 0

config swap
         option device   /dev/sda1
         option enabled  1

config mount
         option target   /mnt/sda2
         option device   /dev/sda2
         option fstype   ext4
         option options  rw,sync
         option enabled  1
         option enabled_fsck 0

config mount
         option target   /mnt/sda3
         option device   /dev/sda3
         option fstype   ext4
         option options  rw,sync
         option enabled  1
         option enabled_fsck 0

(end file contents)

Post date: Sep 03, 2012 4:02:35 PM

So why do we want to duplicate the functionality of the E355?

Well, it seems to be limited to five devices, as I mentioned in an earlier post that I have massive problems with that, I don’t want to have to juggle tech to some arbitrary limit. Also, I’d like to support more services at some point (media streaming perhaps)

Like all the 3G dongles I’ve seen recently, they initially show up as CD-Roms. Then the “drivers” switch them over to being the actual device. In this case a Micro SD Card reader and a USB CDC device, in this case a USB ethernet port.

A long time ago, I was asked by a consultant friend of mine to have a think about being able to drop portable wireless internet repeaters. The brief was that first responders could drop a bunch of wireless mesh routers over the area so that computers could be used and contact base.

At the time the emergency department decided that it would be a luxury and unnecessary so I didn’t get to build a prototype.

Post date: Sep 03, 2012 10:34:37 AM

First up, the battery pack.

The A10HZ from Maplin, a 5Ah 12v battery pack. This has 2x6v batteries internally, and a 200 W inverter, two accessory sockets, and two 12v terminal posts. It has a usb power socket and a light too, but the usb socket is tied to the inverter being on and the light is incredibly weedy, so we’re ignoring them for now.

Post date: Jul 10, 2012 9:48:30 AM

Later this week I should be releasing a web-player of an example star map that demonstrates a sector of the universe of planet101.

It’ll not be amazing in the first release, as you’ll be able to wander around a sector map looking at the star systems.

Here’s an example screenshot.

Post date: Apr 30, 2012 1:16:09 PM

Yes, umm … I am still working on planet101.

I’ve also cast aside some code that I’ve been getting annoyed with for now. Namely planet generation, I still have to sort all that out, but frankly, it’s rather a large chunk of code that can be replaced over and over. So back on the TODO pile it goes.

I’ve also noted that a couple of months after a friend tweeted about my p101 facebook page, notch announced that he’d like to do something similar. Thankfully, he appears to have got stuck into writing a virtual cpu so people can code in the game. I’m not sure if this has much to do with a ‘space game like elite done correctly’. Still, it irks me somewhat. If anything, it’s got me throwing more of my time and effort into this.

Post date: Apr 18, 2012 10:04:15 AM

Ordered from DX.com it claims to supply up to 10A at 5V from a 12V source.

I’m looking forward to seeing if that is indeed the case :o)

As I ordered more than one, they’re going to be used for both the Joggler and Portable Hotspot projects.

Post date: Apr 18, 2012 10:04:15 AM

Nohands is a dbus-based hands hands-free profile daemon. It can be found at nohands.sf.net. The svn code requires a fair amount of work to compile properly, so I fetched the source and debianisation patches from here.

To get my iPhone to work (my android phone worked first time) as apparently it attempts to request the hands free profile immediately. I had to create this configuration:

Post date: Apr 18, 2012 10:04:15 AM

Apparently some motherboards appear to have mic pins…

From the joggler wiki.

I thought this might be a different revision of the board, but it is probably a picture taken from the underside:

Post date: Apr 18, 2012 10:04:15 AM

The Joggler has a terrible heat sink. It is plastic; no, I’m not kidding you. There is a metal stand at the back that the thermal transfer pad connects to, but even that is too little, too late. It’s enough for the openpeak main uses running a cut-down linux and flash UI, but hardly enough to run a full ubuntu stack on. Thermal throttling isn’t fun, so steps have to be taken to mitigate that.