Does It Pew?

Review of Owtsee by Rootzwiki

2012-02-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

http://rootzwiki.com/_/articles/reviews/rootzreviews-owtsee-r350

OWTSee.com Now in New York City (All Burroughs) + Opportunities

2012-01-25T07:26:00.000-08:00

OWTSee.com is a free Web and Mobile (Android and iOS) application that tells you what kind of public resources are around you!

Find Public Parks, Meetups (Meetup.com), Directions, Parking, Vendors, Landmarks, Art, Cultural Institutions, Museums, Jobs, Internships, After-school Programs, Social Integration, AND MUCH MORE!

Web: owtsee.com
Android: market.android.com/details?id=us.one_dollar.Owtsee
Opportunity (jobs, after school programs, legal help, etc.): owtsee.com/opportunity/nyc/
Mobile: owtsee.com/nyc/index-mobile.php

We are ALWAYS adding more to the Site and Innovating new ways to access Data (like Doodling which is our own innovation). Comment with your City and Representative if you would like OWTSee in your City or Town.

2012-01-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

In defiance of SOPA: http://sopablackout.org/

Fix your HP TouchPad ( 8-12% stopped, No SD, Opps reformat, $&^#!@&# crap....)

2012-01-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

I feel the pain going through the internet with regards to our Touchpad and stalling with the latest SW.
Credit where credit is due, you can see a list in the DL suite.

I decided to make a file suite to make this easier.

Download the Suite here: http://www.multiupload.com/9SLRPWIX5J

Download WebOS Doctor here: http://ws.hpwebos.com/webosdoctor

If your file system stops getting recognized by the Computer while in Android or WebOS, you are still messed up either way. You will have to do this eventually.

1st Method (just noticed SD issues):

1. Back-up using Clockwork mod and export using Wifi or Bluetooth to your computer.

2. Moboot back into WebOS Settings -> Device Info -> Reset Options -> Full Wipe

3. After the Wipe, Run WebOS Doctor.

2nd Method (8-12%):

1. Download the suite above

2. Install the Novacom Universal Drivers.

3. Move the Novaterm.exe and the TerminalControl.dll to C:\Program files (x86)\HP WebOS\SDK\bin after installing the novacom drivers.

4. Put the TP in Recovery mode (holding down power and vol+ at power-up)

5. Run WebOS Doctor and wait for it to stall at 12%

6. Open your command window and cd to the folder location of the ACMEInstaller

7. Run this in the command window: novacom boot mem:// < ACMEInstaller

8. When you see the ACMEInstaller stall and say that LVM failed, reboot by holding down power and home (the installer will force re-partition your device so webOS doc knows its not OK)

9. Boot back into recovery mode

10. Boot up WebOS Doctor and wait for the stall.

11. Open the command window again back to where the ACMEInstaller and other files are.

12. Run " novacom boot mem:// < nova-installer-image-topaz.uImage "

13. Once it reboots, put back into recovery mode.

14. For windows users: run command "novacom -t open tty://" *Now you are in the root!* Others just use "novaterm".

15. Run each of these commands individually: "lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure" ,"lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure", and "mkdosfs -f 1 -s 64 /dev/store/media"

*IF YOUR DEVICE DYING AT 8%, You may want to use the fix_dos_fs.sh built in to completely repartition and reformat the disk before using the "mkdosfs" command. *

16. Reboot the device into recovery mode and Start up WebOS doctor and watch it work!

*If your device is still having trouble connecting over USB,but boots...RUN METHOD 1. That should fix it.*

Merry Christmas all you Android Fans!

2011-12-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

OWTSEE - in the Grand Challenge of the A4MC Contest!!!!

2011-12-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

Check out the new HTML5 WEBSITE APPLICATION!!!!!

The web app has MANY new features and we just added Chicago Public Libraries and their hours to our database!

http://www.owtsee.com/

VOTE US UP!!!!!

http://appsformetrochicago.com/apps/owtsee-0

Features:

- Doodling (draw your area directly on the map - dragging for desktop and tapping for mobile devices)

- Can be used on any smart device and computer ( HTML5 )

- Events

- Amenities

- Libraries added!

- Also gives you HOW TO GET THERE via CTA on the app! Parks and libraries!

- REAL TIME DATA SETS!

- Meetup.com local meetups at that Park!

- Social integration with facebook, foursquare, Google+, etc.

- Google Calender integration and Sharing via email, bluetooth, facebook, etc.

For those without an Android, use our handy Web app, new for the Grand Challenge. It leverages the latest HTML5 technology to allow you to filter parks based on amenities on-demand, or to zoom in on any address you specify in order to see the nearby parks. As in the Android app, click on any of the park placemarks to see the amenities, upcoming events, and links related to the selected park, plus share via social media and Google Calendar. The Web app also allows you to see CTA public transit options near the park when you click on a park's placemark.

The coolest feature by far in the Web app is the novel ability to draw shapes on the map using the "Doodle Your Area" feature. Once you submit your doodle, a list of all the upcoming events at these parks will be displayed, based on real-time scraping of the Chicago Parks websites. Such an ability to filter points by shapes has never (to my knowledge) been implemented in HTML5 & JavaScript, thus allowing folks who don't have Flash to partake in this robust search feature. Obviously this technology has substantial promise, since it can be utilized for any use case where people may need to filter any type of place by specific location. We plan to expand this service to include other places of interest to Chicago citizens.

For those of you with iOS devices, follow our website for the release of our iPad version!

Building Drawdios with Kids! Thanksgiving Activity

2011-11-29T17:12:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving I thought it would be good for the kids to be able to learn something in the void of time at Grandma's house on Thanksgiving and Make something!

The Drawdio is something that I wanted to build because I just wanted a cheap 555 timer synth. It works great for teaching kids of various ages about electronics because the kit is easy to put together as it is through hole with pictures on the board for them to follow. They learn about conductance, how electricity works, how sound is made electronically, and for the older ones: a basic circuit with an integrated chip and timing.

In all, 8 kits were made with the ages going from 8 to 14 and it was the first time for all of them to solder! Some worked better than others and one had a bum timer chip (just happens every once in a while - yay for the DSO Nano!) despite the circuit being put together and soldered perfectly. I gave that little one the one I made since I can easily just fix theirs. They loved them and THEY ANNOYED THE CRAP OUT OF PARENTS ON THE 6+ HOUR DRIVES BACK HOME. Epic Win.

BTW: The kids assembled their boards and separated out their parts on paper plates. It made an easy place for them to keep their parts from rolling around and easy cleanup as well as a place to put al of their lead clippings once they were done.

Feature Article about me on RootzWiki!

2011-11-27T21:31:00.000-08:00

If you have not seen this, please take a look!

http://rootzwiki.com/_/articles/filling-the-void-childofthehorn-r150#disqus_thread

AndroBox (Windows and Linux) for Android

2011-10-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

AndroBox

Quick and Easy to use ADB and Debug tools for professionals and beginners

ADB and similar command line tools for Android have been a pain for new users to learn and extra work for the Developer while working. Personally, I got sick of typing and having to remember things so I made this tool. It is also nice because it is mucho faster than I could do it! I will be cleaning things up and making it look nicer (more even...?) as well as releasing the source code soon. Be patient!

DOWNLOAD - WINDOWS:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58849669/AndroBox-Win_0.4.zip

DOWNLOAD - LINUX:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58849669/AndroBox.linux.zip

UPDATES:

11/15/11 UPDATES
- Linux Version Added - runs on ALL Linux standard distros
- Linux version requires device to be hooked up and present or it will not go past the first screen
- Linux version shows real time activity in the Bash terminal!
- Linux version requires you to go through the true google agreement (keeps code distro kosher)

- FIXED Bug-report

- DDMS Runs natively (if you do not care about DDMS, download the old version here: http://www.multiupload.com/OQSF5U7QNH)

- No longer requires a device to be plugged in to start up. check test.txt

EVERYTHING RUNS FROM WITHIN THE APPLICATION FOLDER.

This was done simply because I like to be able to carry my tools on a small flash drive and not install anything.

There is no need to install the whole SDK to get access to a few key tools.

ALL OF THE PROGRAM FUNCTION OUTPUTS ARE TXT FILES THAT SAVE TO THE APP FOLDER

This just keeps things nice and tidy. You have everything right there to look over when you want to.

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!

This will tell you how to use each function.

LEARN ADB

Allows new users to find out just how much fun (and Linux) is in there. Yay shell!

*** DONATIONS ARE NOT GOING TO MY POCKET, THEY WILL BE DISTRIBUTED TO THE EFF AND CYANOGEN WEBSITES FOR THEIR HARD WORK! ***

*I am not resposible if you mess up your device using this tool, please don't be stupid.*

QUESTIONS? Shoot me a PM or Email that is enclosed in the instructions

RE-WROTE the Android Business Card APK into Processing for Android as a DIY Template

2011-09-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

I REWROTE THE PROGRAM USING PROCESSING FOR ANDROID (took NO-TIME whatsoever)

Original post here: http://doesitpew.blogspot.com/2011/06/android-business-card-program-moving-to.html

Now, you can use the basic code to make your own simple business card program by replacing my info with yours.

I made the sections really easy so all you have to do is add your own icon pictures and links. I made this template because of people I know wanting to be able to do it themselves and its an easy intro to programming as well as using the Processing core. When you get more advanced, you can bring the Processing core into Eclipse and have more fun. It simplifies intro Android programming for non-programmers to get in the game!

[CODE]
/*

Written by and for STACY DEVINO
doesitpew.blogspot.com
stacydevino@gmail.com

***Re-written in Processing for Android for ease of re-use by others in September 2011.***
http://wiki.processing.org/w/Android
^ All instructions are above!!!!

This program serves as a unique calling card for those looking for something beyond cardboard.
*/

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//****************************************************************
// PAY ATTENTION HERE - ADD THE LINKS FOR YOUR PAGES!!!!!
//****************************************************************
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
String your_Blog = ; //make sure that this is a LINK
String your_Facebook = ; //make sure that this is a LINK
String your_Name = ; //make sure that this is a LINK
String your_Twitter = ; //make sure that this is a LINK
String your_LinkedIn = ; //make sure that this is a LINK
String your_CoverLetter = ; //make sure that this is a LINK
String your_Resume = ; //make sure that this is a LINK

//LOGIC FOR BUTTONS AND ACTIONS
//*dont touch unless you know how to code
boolean blog = false;
boolean linked = false;
boolean fb = false;
boolean twit = false;
boolean ok = false;
boolean res = false;
boolean qual = false;
boolean cl = false;
boolean rfid = false;
boolean hifi = false;
boolean ch = false;
boolean sensor = false;
boolean splash = false;
boolean ipod = false;
boolean evo = false;
boolean zoe = false;
boolean game = false;
boolean speak = false;
boolean eb = false;
boolean main = false;

// IMAGE NAMES!!!!!!
PImage b;
PFont font;
PImage blogger;
PImage in;
PImage facebook;
PImage twitter;
PImage projects;
PImage resume;
PImage cube;
PImage cover;
PImage q;
PFont ffont;
PImage menu;

/////////////////////////////////////////
// SET UP ALL PICTURES
////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//****************************************************************
// PAY ATTENTION HERE - ADD THE PICS FOR YOUR PAGES!!!!!
//****************************************************************
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
void setup(){

b = loadImage("mio.jpg"); //Picture of yourself or whatever

//Find your own 128x128 pictures (PNG is Better) for your icons and put the names here
blogger = loadImage("128x128.png");
in = loadImage("128x128.png");
//cube = loadImage("Cube.png"); // This would be a background picture
facebook = loadImage("128x128.png");
twitter = loadImage("128x128.png");
projects = loadImage("128x128.png");
resume = loadImage("128x128.png");
menu = loadImage("128x128.png");
cover = loadImage("128x128.png");
q = loadImage("128x128.png");
}

///////////////////////////////////////////
// HOME PAGE RETURN
//////////////////////////////////////////
void home(){

if(ok == true || res == true){

res = false;
cl = false;
qual = false;
rfid = false;
hifi = false;
ch = false;
sensor = false;
splash = false;
ipod = false;
evo = false;
zoe = false;
game = false;
speak = false;
eb = false;
ok = false;
}
}

//////////////////////////////////////////////
// MAIN LOOP
/////////////////////////////////////////////
void draw(){
if(res == false || ok == false){
background(0);
//image(cube, 0, 0);
font = loadFont("OldDreadfulNo7BT-Regular-48.vlw");
textFont(font, 48);
text(your_Name, 45, 75);
image(b, 110, 120);
image(blogger, 30, 470);
image(in, 170, 470);
image(facebook, 320, 470);
image(twitter, 30, 625);
image(projects, 170, 625);
image(resume, 320, 625);

// Left button
if (blog == true) {
link(your_Blog);
blog = false;
}
else if (linked == true) {
link(your_LinkedIn);
linked = false;
}
else if (fb == true) {
link(your_Facebook);
fb = false;
}
else if (twit == true) {
link(your_Twitter);
twit = false;
}
}
if (res == true) {
image(cube, 0, 0);
image(cover, 50, 100);
image(q, 170, 100);
ffont = loadFont("Vrinda-32.vlw");
textFont(ffont, 32);

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//ENTER YOUR COVER LETTER AND PERSONAL INFORMATION HERE!
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//****************************************************************
// PAY ATTENTION HERE
//****************************************************************
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
text("NAME HERE", 50, 275);
text("EMAIL HERE", 50, 325);
text("PHONE HERE", 50, 375);
text("CONTACT LINE", 50, 425);
text("BLOG HERE", 50, 475);
text("WEBPAGE HERE", 50, 525);
text("AKA HERE", 50, 575);
//Resume and Cover Letter links
if (qual == true){
link(your_Resume);
qual = false;
res = false;
}
else if (cl == true){
link(your_CoverLetter);
cl = false;
res = false;
}
image(menu, 170, 680);
}
if (ok == true){
image(cube, 0, 0);
font = loadFont("OldDreadfulNo7BT-Regular-48.vlw");
textFont(font, 48);
//ENTER THE PAGE NAME YOU WANT
text("PAGE_NAME", 20, 75);
ffont = loadFont("Vrinda-32.vlw");
textFont(ffont, 32);

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ENTER THE NAMES AND LINKS THAT YOU WANT YOUR PROJECT TO USE
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//****************************************************************
// PAY ATTENTION HERE - ADD THE LINKS and NAMES FOR YOUR PROJECTS!!!!!
//****************************************************************
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 175);
if( rfid == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
rfid = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 225);
if( hifi == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
hifi = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 275);
if( ch == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
ch = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 325);
if( sensor == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
sensor = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 375);
if( splash == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
splash = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 425);
if( ipod == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
ipod = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 475);
if( evo == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
evo = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 525);
if( zoe == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
zoe = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 575);
if( game == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
game = false;
ok = false;
}
text("PROJECT NAME", 50, 625);
if( speak == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
speak = false;
ok = false;
}
text("I AM 8-BIT", 50, 675);
if( eb == true){
link("PROJECTLINK.html");
eb = false;
ok = false;
}
image(menu, 170, 680);
}
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//*don't touch unless you need to change where it sees the clicks
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
void keyPressed(){
// doing other things here, and then:
if (key == CODED && keyCode == BACK && (res == true ||ok == true)) {
keyCode = 0;
println(res);
println(ok);
if(res == true) {
// you'll need to set keyCode to 0 if you want to prevent quitting (see above)
res = false;
cl = false;
qual = false;
}
else if (ok == true) {
// you'll need to set keyCode to 0 if you want to prevent quitting (see above)
rfid = false;
hifi = false;
ch = false;
sensor = false;
splash = false;
ipod = false;
evo = false;
zoe = false;
game = false;
speak = false;
eb = false;
ok = false;
}
}
}
void mousePressed(){

if (mouseX > 20 && mouseX < 150 && mouseY > 470 && mouseY < 600 && res == false && ok == false) {
blog = true;
}
else if (mouseX > 160 && mouseX < 300 && mouseY > 470 && mouseY < 600 && res == false && ok == false) {
linked = true;
}
else if (mouseX > 310 && mouseX < 450 && mouseY > 470 && mouseY < 600 && res == false && ok == false) {
fb = true;
}
else if (mouseX > 20 && mouseX < 150 && mouseY > 610 && mouseY < 760 && res == false && ok == false) {
twit = true;
}
else if (mouseX > 160 && mouseX < 300 && mouseY > 610 && mouseY < 760 && res == false) {
ok = true;
}
else if (mouseX > 310 && mouseX < 450 && mouseY > 610 && mouseY < 760 && ok == false) {
res = true;
}
else if (res == true && mouseX > 20 && mouseX < 150 && mouseY > 100 && mouseY < 220 ) {
cl = true;
}
else if (res == true && mouseX > 160 && mouseX < 350 && mouseY > 100 && mouseY < 220 ) {
qual = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 135 && mouseY < 174 ) {
rfid = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 175 && mouseY < 220 ) {
hifi = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 225 && mouseY < 274 ) {
ch = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 275 && mouseY < 324 ) {
sensor = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 325 && mouseY < 374 ) {
splash = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 375 && mouseY < 424 ) {
ipod = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 425 && mouseY < 474 ) {
evo = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 475 && mouseY < 524 ) {
zoe = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 525 && mouseY < 574 ) {
game = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 575 && mouseY < 624 ) {
speak = true;
}
else if (ok == true && mouseY > 625 && mouseY < 674 ) {
eb = true;
}
else if ( mouseY > 675 && (ok == true || res == true)) {
home();
}

else {
linked = fb = twit = false;
}
}
[/CODE]

Dollar Store Finds: Make your own Device Skins for Pennies!

2011-09-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was in the Dollar Store (best place to buy sponges and various cleaning supplies). Then, I saw these shelf liners and thought they would be nice to spruce up some desks, bookshelves, and kitchen drawers. Suddenly, it occurred to me that these would be perfect for making custom skins for devices, especially those without commercially available options. Plus, you don't have to worry about the skin getting ruined because you could easily re-cover your device 10x's over.

UNLIKE MANY ADHESIVE SKINS YOU BUY, THE EDGES OF THIS STUFF DO NOT LIFT UP AND IT DOES NOT LEAVE RESIDUE WHEN YOU ARE DONE!

I only currently have pictures of my Gtablet, but I also did my Boyfriend's HP Touchpad since there were no good cases when he got his.

Supplies:

1 - Roll of Adhesive Shelf liner (may also be called contact paper, but it isn't paper).
1 - Razor blade or Xacto knife
1 - Set of scissors

Steps:

1. Cut out a piece of the adhesive liner with the center of the design being in the center of the sheet.

2. Remove the adhesive backing and place the center of the design on the center of the object that you want to cover (don't worry about fingerprints, this stuff is easily removed and re-adhered)

3. Press and stretch and work the design out like you would with any normal device skin.

4. Once you get to the edges, press them up and wrap it around.

5. Mark where you want your edges to be on the skin using a marker or pencil.

6. Pull back the edges and cut where you have marked using scissors.

7. On the corners, make slits using the razor blade about 2mm apart so that when you roll up the sides of the object, you can get nice, shapely corners and some corner protection.

8. Do any finishing touches using the razor blade for special cut-outs and whatnot.

DONE!

DIY Geek Chic : Gold Transistor Earrings set in 2 min!

2011-08-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

This is a simple one, you take the leads from the transistor and twist them together, then shape to a standard ear loop. The beauty is that the transistors can be unfurled and used at any time.

I came across these transistors at the Dallas Makerspace (join!). The transistors are actually really high end and still work, but we have a BUNCH of them courtesy of an old engineer dying and one of the members going and picking up a large part of this man's collection of parts (which was immense). These were uber cute and because they are gold plated, totally safe for jewelry use on my sensitive skin.

Enjoy!

On the Bench: Restored Webcor All-Tube Amp

2011-07-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

I just finished restoring a Webcor All Tube amplifier back to working condition.

NOS Output Transformers, replaced Certain Capacitors, and NOS Tubes. (cheapo tester speakers in pic).

Webcor was known for their fairly complicated Tube amps with interesting topologies. This is a stereo version of the Webcor 4905.

This is a Stereo Push-Pull Amp. It uses a 5Y4 rectifier tube, 12AU7/12AX7/noval signal splitters, and 2x 12AB5 per channel that do the Push/Pull. The total output is about 8.2W/Channel. Remember that these are "old watts" so it really performs like amps with 3-4x's the rated RMS wattage. It was full of nice Allen Bradly resistors that haven't drifted almost 45 years later!

I have already started the modifications after getting it back in working order. There is a headphone output, potentiometer, and better power cable being added as we speak. From there, I have some really nice capacitors that will be put in the 4 spots in the signal path to each of the 12AB5's and hidden Nippon Chemicon Negative Black caps for the power section to replace the old electrolytic 3-in-one.

Here is some info on the 12AB5 courtesy of Pete Millett's website: http://www.pmillett.com/tubebooks/tubedata/hb-3/receiving_tubes_part_2/12AB5.PDF

Let me know if you would like to see anything else done to it (other than a re-case - which will happen!).

Street Beats - Now Available on the Android Market

2011-07-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Street Beats is on the Market!

QR Code:

AppBrain: http://www.appbrain.com/app/street-beats/us.one_dollar.StreetBeats

Now you can choose your Lyric Search Engine. We are working on getting the Humming service up and going in the official version, but there is paperwork to do when interacting with an NSF project. Defects seem to be worked out and now it plays well in browser if you select a single song. Instant playlists for your media player of choice whenever you want! It is perfect for driving in the car and at the gym because I know that I do not have the patience to make individual playlists all the time.

Helping a Friend in Need

2011-07-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Someone I know has run into problems with her daughter. Anything that you can add to help would mean a lot and helps give a fine young woman a true future.

http://www.gofundme.com/assistemma

Here is a synapses from my friend about her daughter.

"Well in short haha as if there is a short form - Emma (my daughter - 16 years old) was born with CP Cerebral Palsy spastic diplegia - she has had four ankle surgeries, bone fusions, and pins in her feet. She used to walk on her toes like a ballerina all the way into Middle School but these surgeries fixed that.
However the CP causes intense pain through out her entire body but mostly in her lower back and legs, ankles, feet, knees.
She deals with pain daily and can't take most pain meds due to her Diabetes for one thing (she was diagnosed with that at age 6) also they don't put kids on narcotics long term anyway because narcotics ruin other organs which of course diabetes does as well.

So that is the past in a really small nutshell but right now Emma is dealing with Gastrointestinal problems - its kinda gross so I will spare you the details but she has already had a colonoscopy and endoscopy. Thursday has a Gall Bladder Scan and next week a Bowel Emptying Study. She goes to Physical Therapy three times per week. She has a diabetic specialist as well as many other doctors and appointments - basically Stacy - my life and hers is spent in doctor offices. She can walk but only about 5 minutes before having to stop and sit and then the pain is so intense she can't even go to the mall with friends or have any kind of a normal life. Also the bowel issues MAY or MAY NOT have to do with her diabetes or her CP - they don't know yet.
She takes 15 different medications each day.

Coming up - other than all the bowl issues there is a surgery - Its called Selective Dorsal Rhyzotomy - done in St. Louis - the doctor - Dr. Park is the pioneer of this surgery and the way he does it is ONLY done in St. Louis - good thing - we are in Kansas! Its in our own back yard!! Some people come from all over the world for this surgery! This surgery known as SDR for short will cut a bone plate from her spine and then cut some of the spinal cords releasing the spasticity in her legs and back which cause her not to be able to move properly and also cause the pain.

With that said there are expenses - my work has been cut down more than half due to all the medical stuff going on with Emma so money is not good.

Here is a link to the donation site and also a break down there of the expenses well not dollar for dollar but a number list of some of the expenses I am trying to cover right now.

Stacy you have to know I hated making this site. I am one of those women who does everything for herself so doing this kinda sucks for me. BUT this is for EMMA so I figured I would just swallow my pride and do it - she needs this.
Thank you for any help you can offer in spreading the word I DO appreciate it!!
Here is the link - oh you may have to scroll down a few comments to see the actual post:
www.gofundme.com/assistemma "

Android Business Card Program - Moving to Dallas!

2011-06-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

Decided to make an Android .apk program Business Card that links to all my info for my interview process for Jobs in Tech in the D/FW area. Moving there in a bit less than a week!

All of the project names link back to the project post when tapped.

The Cover Letter and Resume icons link to Open Google Docs for easy updating on my end without having to send out a new APK.

Took 6 hours from concept to finish while watching TV and catering to potential future in-laws.

DOWNLOAD: http://fs09u.sendspace.com/processupload.html

If you think that I might be a good fit for your company or know of someone who might be interested, pass them this apk. All of my contact info is contained inside!

Yummy Summer Drink Invention: Honae Mate Latte

2011-06-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

This drink uses Yerba Mate, a holly plant that makes a beverage known as Mate in South America. It has a very Veg-ital taste that has a touch of bitter to it normally when brewed. The most similar thing is Japanese green tea, but I have found that most Teas make terrible mixed drinks (sans earl grey and english breakfast). Numerous health benefits are to be had from drinking mate and it has a higher caffeine count than normal tea, so it is a good coffee substitute.

Ingredients:

- Yerba Mate (I used Cruz de Malta as it is less bitter than many other varieties)
- Middle Eastern Mint (sweeter and not as strong or herbal tasting as what we get in the states)
- Honey (whatever kind you like - Orange Honey is especially delicious)
- Milk (2%)
- Lemon Juice (optional)
- Ice

Step 1

Warm some water to appx. 190 degrees F

Step 2

Mix 1 part Mint to 4 parts Yerba Mate

Step 3

Put the mix in your Tea Filter and Pour the warm water over it and let steep for 4 minutes to make a concentrate.

Step 4

Put 2-3 Tablespoons of Honey at the bottom of the glass to taste.

Step 5

Put the concentrate in the glass about halfway up and stir to dissolve the honey.

Step 6

Add in about 7-10 ice cubes

Step 7

Add Milk to the top, a cap full of Lemon Juice, Stir and ENJOY!

HTC Swag and WIN Something!

2011-05-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

I just got some Swag from HTC because of my HTC Micro-USB cable posting and sent the one pictured to them yesterday afternoon. This way they will be able to learn from it and improve for the future.

First off, this shows what kind of company HTC is. Instead of handing down a S&D, they sent me some thank you gifts and a personal card. My experience with Apple was the complete opposite of HTC. Mess with your software? OK. Bring back info that something is wrong with one of our products? Thank You!

Box contained:

- 4GB HTC Thumb Drive

- R. Pirre Paul's Roller Ball HTC Pen (how did they know I love nice pens?)

-Silicone Case for HTC Schubert in Blue

- Thank you note

- Return Posting (labeled and paid)

The Letter

HERE COMES THE CONTEST PORTION!

HTC sent me a Silicone Gel cover for an HTC Schubert (WP7 Device). I cannot use this because I have an HTC Evo as well as the fact that I do not use a case with my Extended battery cover. This is the official HTC case, I just have no use for it.

How to Win:

1. Re-tweet this post
2. Leave a Customer Service story (good or bad) in the Comments

I will pay shipping for CONUS and winner will be contacted through Twitter or Blogger for their personal details. Winner will be chosen based on creativity, enthusiasm, ad whoever seems cool. :)
Contest Ends May 30th, 2011 at 11:59PM CST

Recipe Time: Steelhead Tortas

2011-05-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

This is a Recipe that is easy to follow and HEALTHY.

Time to Completion: 20-25min.

No cheese and pretty much only good fats (minus the egg yolk in the home made mayo) while remaining an "All in One" meal perfect for the summer time. The Steelhead Trout looks, acts, and tastes much like Salmon. However, with Salmon supplies getting low and costly this relatively unknown fish is starting to take a highlight and people are finding out that it tastes better too with less fatty content. People here in Chicago should really pay attention because we can get wild Steelhead fresh from Wisconsin and even Straight out of Lake Michigan during the cooler months instead of flying in Salmon which may have been frozen and beaten by time.

Ingredients:

- Steelhead trout
- 1/2 Avocado
- 1/2 Lime
- Salsa Verde (use this recipe or buy the Trader Joes variety)
- Torta Bun or Assyrian Buns ( I prefer the Assyrian buns as the dough has a slight sourdough taste)
- 3-4 Tortilla Chips
- Onion Powder
- Garlic Salt
- Chipotle Pepper or Chili Powder
- Cajun Salt
- Home Made TA Mayo
- Lemon Juice
- Optional: Fresh Green Peppers and Lettuce (if your sandwich has space)

Cooking the Fish

1. Set the oven to pre-heat at 300 degrees (low heat prevents burns and makes it easy to not screw up)
2. Cut the Fish into 4-6oz pieces (depending on the level of hungry)
3. Rinse off and pat dry the fish with a paper towel
4. Place Fish (skin down) on a tray covered in Aluminum foil
5. Cover with Lemon Juice
6. Add the Onion Power/Cajun Seasoning/Chili Powder/Garlic Salt to taste
7. Throw in the oven and set the timer for 16-20min.

Making the Team Awesome Mayo (3-4min)

Ingredients for 2 servings:
- 1 Egg Yolk
- Olive Oil
- Garlic Salt
- Chipotle Powder
- Dijon Mustard
- Black Pepper
- Bowl and Whisk (required along with a strong arm)

1. Separate out 1 egg yolk and put it in the bowl
2. Start to beat the egg briskly
3. While beating the egg, string-in the olive oil in half teaspoon increments every 30 seconds till you have added appx. 2 teaspoons of oil
4. Keep beating that mayo and add in a pinch of each of the powders, one at a time.
5. Notice how it is really thickening up with the salt added, keep going and whip them for 2 min.
6. Fold in 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
7. Taste it - awesome sauce, now put in the fridge until we use it.

Build the Base

1. Cut the bread if not precut
2. Use 1/4 of a lime and rub both inside pieces of bread (lime soak)
3. Cut the Avocado in Half and remove the pit by chucking your knife into it and popping it out
4. Spread out the half Avocado on the bottom piece of bread
5. Crush up 3-4 tortilla chips and place on top of the Avocado
6. Spread the TA Mayo on the top bun.

Your Oven Should Have Just Dinged!

MAKE THE SANDWICH!

1. Take the Fish out of the Oven, test for firmness and let rest for 1-2 min.
2. Bring over your sandwich base to the tray and cut the fillet into larger pieces for your sandwich (keep it juicy) and the skin will stick to the pan (self skinning an no fancy knife-work needed)
3. Put Fish on Bun
4. Cover with 3-4 tablespoons of the Salsa Verde
5. Serve with a quarter of lime (so that the eater can decide if he wants more lime - answer is always yes)
6. Eat with plenty of napkins. YUM!

Recipe works great with other fish, but it looks just so darn colorful this way!

SCAV Hunt - Science people Being makers

2011-05-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

This year I had the opportunity to participate in one of the least well known, but incredibly popular maker events to go on all year in the Chicago Area - SCAV HUNT (aka. UChicago Scavenger Hunt).

Scav Hunt is really only supposed to be open to students of the University of Chicago. However, there are no rules against polling some outside help (me!). My friends who go there and went there asked me to come in and help them with designing much of their more complicated items. The list of all potential things/agony is HERE:
http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/list2011.pdf

The Maker Mess:

Zoetrope in Progress!

Originally I was only coming in to design the system that they needed for their "LEGO: Order of importance in the Geek World Zoetrope." They had the basic design down, but they could not figure out how to make and control a light source and motor to sync up perfectly. Mind you, these people have 4 days from start to finish for that entire list of items. That and UChicago has a well known saying, "That is all well and fine in Practice, but how does it work in Theory?". Needless to say, circuit design and microcontrollers are a bit out of their area.....No worries! That is why you have engineer friends, people who deal with the 3rd Dimension almost exclusively.

This is a pretty jerry-rigged device using an Arduino (remember that I have to explain how this stuff works for a new person and how to fix it if something goes wrong), some solid core wire, rotary wheel potentiometer, and Dollar Store solar powered lights.

The Solar LED walk lights can be taken apart easily with a screw driver (except the solar panel).

Solar panel (3.3V) + 1.5V Ni-Cad AAA + Bright White LED + Control FET for $1 TOTAL = WIN!

I figured that having them worry about adjusting power and such was a bit awkward, so a logarithmic potentiometer was chosen as it would allow the user to "dial-in" to the very low speed that they wanted to use for the Motor as well as adjust on the fly for perfect performance. Best to think of it as a trim-pot ;) Since I didn't want to loose any of these electronics and only had a bit of time to help them out, it was all done on protoboard aside from the LED driver boards (things with foil around them).

The motors that I had are small R/C 5v motors which were not large enough for their 6 tier Zoetrope but we did have a 24V motor on hand. Considering we still needed to drive this thing. I just rigged up a simple circuit like you would for a digitally controlled relay and seemed to work just fine for the speed wanted here. Vcc is connected to the 24V with + and - connectors for simple motor operation. it did not go fast, but it did move!

Pinouts should be easy to tell from the code and you can always add more LEDs!

CODE:

/* Zoetrope:

for Arduino!
Connects a white LED to flash every tenth of a second.
PWM punction for the Motor drives it to 10 revolutions per second.
A 10k logorithmic potentiometer does regulation for the
speed control of the motor which is read read by the A/D pin.

Created by Stacy D*****
For Scav-Hunt
5/6/11

This example code is in the public domain.
*/

int Potty = A2; // select the input pin for the potentiometer
int ledPin = 7; // select the pin for the LED
int Speed = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
int Motor = 3; // motor pwm pin
int Control = 0; //speed control value

void setup() {
  // declare the ledPin and the Motor pin
  pinMode(Motor, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
  // read the value from the potentiometer
  Speed = analogRead(Potty);
  Control = Speed / 4;
//Write the PWM speed to the MOTOR!
  analogWrite(Motor, Control);
  // turn the ledPin on
  digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
  // LED ON for 95 milliseconds:
  delay(95);
  // turn the ledPin off:
  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  // LED Shutter OFF for X milliseconds
  delay(5);
}

I also helped design a Robotic Juggler and used a TI Launchpad for that. The new GRACE Graphical Programming was extremely easy for them to use and understand for adding the blinking lights. The Robotic Juggler used Two Leaf Blowers ($30 at Ace Hardware) to blow Whiffle Balls into the Air and "juggle them" with Funnels of chicken wire to catch the falling balls and Flexible PVC pipe to launch them put again. Whole thing controlled by a $4.30 board!

For those not familiar with me personally, I LOVE to cook! The team was having trouble with a Veloute and could not understand why it did not come out all that great even though they followed the instructions. FRENCH FOOD HAS NO INSTRUCTIONS!!!!!! They had made a Veloute sauce and it was globby, thick, too salty, grainy, and tasted of flour. I fixed it and I will give you some pointers in another post soon as to how to make lovely creme based sauces and the tricks used by the pros. Almost anything that has not been burnt can be fixed.

Make a Custom Android Splash Screen for your Android Phone

2011-04-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

*ROOT USERS ONLY*

I have been making these custom Android people for a while and splash screens for my friends a month or two after the HTC Evo came out. I got a bit sick of doing them all the time for people and luckily there are easily available utilities that make this easy now (you do not need wicked photoshop skills or ADB expertise).
The StarWars themed one you see above took less than 10 min to put together in MSpaint on an older XP computer, so you can literally use anything.

What you need:
- One Rooted Android phone with a 480x800 resolution display
- Androidify
- SplashFlasher *Credit to TrueBlue_Drew for the Script*
- Windows computer with the Android USB drivers installed
- Image Editing Software

* I have included HERE a zip file which has a Blank Template for your splash screen, the 5-min splash screen I made above and the SplashFlasher utility by TrueBlue_Drew*

Step One:

Download and Open Androidify!

Step 2

Press the Menu Button on your phone and select *New* on the screen

Step 3

Customize a base character that you want to be your Android, then tap the little cloud with an arrow on it to export your image to "Gallery" which will go on your SDcard.

Step 4

Connect your phone to the computer and export the picture you made. (see how the picture has an all white background now?)

Step 5

Copy and paste your Android into the Template provided. Then start having fun with backgrounds and coloring!

Step 6

Unzip the SplashFlasher Utility to the location of choice. Place the PNG file you just made into the "place-image-here' folder and click the "CLICK-HERE.bat". Notice this useful utility pops up ;)

Step 7

Hit Any keyboard button.

Step 8

Check your ADB connection. Make sure it shows a device connected. Hit any keyboard key to go back to the main menu.

Step 9

Type the number 2 and hit the Enter button while in the Main Menu to convert the image.

Step 10

Type the number 5 and hit the Enter button while in the Main Menu to Fastboot the Splash image! Follow the on-screen instructions.

Step 11
Thank TrueBlue_Drew on XDA by typing the number 8 and hitting Enter.

Cheers!

Daye Enginerded it Worng! HTC Evo MicroUSB Cable

2011-04-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

I would like to introduce a new segment about when Engineers fail and why.

The case today is an HTC Evo MicroUSB Cable.
This is the same cable that came with your HTC Evo and it may be the one that you still use.

STOP USING THIS CABLE ASAP - IT WAS POORLY ENGINEERED AND MIGHT BREAK YOUR PSU OR COMPUTER!!!!

I can say this because this is NOT the first time I have seen this same thing happen. You see, this is my Boyfriend's HTC Evo MicroUSB cable and not mine. Mine had the same issue, except I caught it right when it happened as it burned my hand when I was getting ready to plug in my phone at work 3 weeks ago!

This Cable was not engineered properly because of the MicroUSB Connector Chosen. Instead of using a proper MicroUSB Cable Mount style Connector as seen in the picture below, they went with a panel mount/board mount hybrid connector (cheapest as it uses board mount parts) as seen above.

What happens is that since the connector shield/metal outside part is not secured beyond two small points, any movement of this shield can cause a temporary dislodging and have the GROUNDED shield touch the 5V power line on the USB cable. Most Modern laptops and desktop computers put out between 500-1000ma of current at 4.5-5.5V which means that you could be having as much as 5.5Watts burning through those cable lines and melting the crap out of some rubber as in this case. This would not have happened is HTC had decided to go with the larger isolated and secured connector or if they simply had chosen to use a Hard ABS plastic instead of flexible rubber to secure a metal part.

What this can Harm:
- Burn out the Power IC for your USB on your Laptop/Desktop making that port useless (did not burn out my BF's Thinkpad W510 as it is controlled)
- Burn your fingers/hands as it did to me causing a blister.
- Burn out your USB Receiving Chip on your laptop/desktop
- Burn something ( a lot of us have a bunch of papers right next to your computer).

Why this matters:
No way in H3LL is HTC going to pay to fix your laptop or build you a house or pay medical bills. They will likely redirect you to the company that designed and manufactured the cable which is likely Shisterific and very hard to sue in the US.

Spend some money on a nice BlackBerry or Motorola or basically any proper cable. $5 for piece of mind is worth it.

EDIT: For those deny that my cable burned my finger 3 weeks ago, I still have some discoloration on my finger where it got burnt. Best to understand how it was burnt there is to hold the cable between your thumb and forefinger with your thumb on top like you would before you plug it in. My thumb was fine because he pads are thick there, but the side of my forefinger was not so fortunate. Pic taken 4/21/11.

Fix and Customize your Glasses or Sunglasses for pennies!

2011-04-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here, I will be going through a simple tutorial of how to fix your glasses when you loose a screw or a nut or the nose pads or even if you just want a more comfortable pair of specs that don't tangle in your hair. I will be showing you how to do this for pennies! This will also make your screws more secure too.

I love my designer sunglasses, but they get caught in my hair and are not very comfortable for wearing for multiple hours. Here is what they looked like before:

Supplies:

- PolyMorph Plastic beads (free if you have done the Iso Headphones, otherwise buy HERE)
- Heat Source ( I used a Creme Brulee Butane Torch)

Step 1

Heat up one plastic bead until it becomes clear

Step 2

Apply the bead to the back of the screw, rounding it out. This makes it impossible to get stuck on your hair. Repeat for all of the screws.

Step 3

Heat up two beads and roll them together to make one bead.

Step 4

Remove the stock nose-pieces from the sun glasses. (keep the screw and screw it back in to give the plastic something to hold onto).

Step 5

Heat the large ball and put it in the nose-piece. While still warm, place the eye glasses on your face and smooth out to preference.

Step 6

Let Cool and Be Cool.

Make a better watchband for the Sony LiveView or iPod Nano in 30min and $8

2011-04-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

If you are like me and actually use your Sony LiveView as a watch in your daily life, you are probably frustrated by a few things that were NOT well thought out.

First of all the watchband that the LiveView comes with is very basic. That is fine, what gets me is that the plastic for the Holder is of SUCH LOW QUALITY. I have owned this device since December 25th when my boyfriend gave it to me as a Christmas present. I treasure it and treat it extremely well. However, due to this very low plastic quality the liveview pops out ALL THE TIME without even real provocation. This is because they made the back of it completely open and wrists are not flat surfaces!

I was just getting ready to mold my own LV holder for a watchband....Then I looked at the clip holder for the LV. The clip holder is made of much better materials and is properly molded. Not only that, but you do not have to take the LV out of the watchband to charge. I decided I would just use the clip and make a quick watchband.

Now, this watchband is not meant for people who change out their bands frequently, but it is a quick fix and a cheap one. I am making a pattern for a nicer watchband, but it will require sewing and more tools (including some burn work). This one is cheap, pretty, effective, and infinitely more comfortable. NO CRAFT EXPERIENCE NEEDED!

First, you need to get these materials:

- Package of riveted snaps - $5 at Michaels
- 1 Piece of medium thickness leather - $3 at Michaels or free as scrap
- Side from ream of paper - free and found at office
- Scissors - free if you are a normal person (if you can't be trusted with scissors, why do you have this watch?)

Step One:

Roll the Paper ream edge around your wrist and cut to desired length. Then place the paper down on the backside of the desired leather to make your band out of.

Step Two:

Now, Trace the paper ream out onto the leather and use the dots in the ream edge to make the places where you will be putting the rivet-snaps through (the paper ream makes this much easier as it gives you perfect hole-size, placement, and thickness for the watch band)

Step Three:

Cut it out, place the leather through the clip, and rivet in your snaps with the tool it comes with (hope you have a hammer or a rock or something).

Winning!

Quick Game Buzzer for a Family Game Night

2011-04-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

This project was literally done in less time than it took to put this post together. Program, circuit, reverse engineering and building took about 2 hours while watching comedy shows so it should take less than that!
No Dremel or real electrical knowledge required. LCD is there because I have it pretty much attached to the board.

I made this for a class that my boyfriend was teaching at Northwestern for mostly kids in the Chicago Public School system about GAME SHOWS! We wanted to have the kids play plenty of them so that they can win cash (we had about $500 we were ready to give away) or Fabulous funny Prizes from the Dollar Store for just participating like the item below or books like "Fails to Meet Expectations" all in good fun. If you would like digital copies of the games we played (all programmed by Stev-o of Stev-o.us) which can be made with any questions or prizes listed on the screen just like the originals (Assasin, Survey Says, Lucky Roller, Joker's Crazy Slots, etc. *names changed due to licencing*) please contact Stev-o at Stev-o.us and they must be used for non-profit or family fun!

Back to the controller...

Parts:
- BreadBoard
- Precut Wire package
- 4 long pieces of 2 Channel Wire ( I used old cut up headphone cables)
- 4 resistors of anywhere from 10k-100k value will work
- 4 resistors of 3k-10k depending on brightness desired
- 4 LEDs you have laying around
- One Arduino Board or MSP430 using EasyMSP
- 4 EasyButtons from Staples (can also use push lamps from the dollar store)
- Computer with USB (program also spits back out which player clicked in first).

Cost ranges from $20 - 50 depending on what you have on hand. I had all of this at home and most other parts can be bought at RadioShack or even Ace Hardware or all pieces from Adafruit or Sparkfun.

Circuits

Inside of the EasyButton

Wire Hookups

*Now just screw it back together and be careful about the capacitor discharge, so be sure to plug it in with the capacitor line not being connected to the + voltage.*

Pictures of the Working Item!

Download the software:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4mpr2y

You can Add a buzzer using the tone command and one of the free PWM pins, but I didn't just because of the noise level in the room would have made it not loud enough. Use an old headphone speaker or good one out of a broken pair. Reseting the system is just using the RESET pin on the Arduino Board.
This is yet another reason for keeping a couple cheap development boards on hand!

DIY Home RFID Base station with independent control and memory

2011-03-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

This was a collaborative effort done about 2 years ago when I was a student at NU. My partners in crime were: Jason Sanghi, Steven Kravik, and Steven Anderson.All are cool guys and during my college years I ended up being in a lot of groups with Steven Kravik (smart guy and easy to get along with).

It is an independent base station for RFID controlled access to your home. Control is monitored by permissions of the users and an RTC which does have a coin cell that is not listed. The keypad allows for name input and changing privileges and even has password control which may be turned on and off. Repair is easy enough using the manual for a user-end reset. An external EEPROM is added because the PIC 18F series only has so much memory. The door is opened and closed by an electronic door strike which is set off and powered by a Mosfet using a nice 5/12V DC-DC flyback (happen to have one that I go for $2 - score!). The base station was designed to be the controller of several peripherals and could always be expanded using the Dallas 1-wire port that was left open and unpopulated. There are header files you can add for the PIC which will allow for them to be used with Dallas 1-wire for expansion. A very cool potential use for this was to actually create a small antenna for data to be transferred through the electrical wiring of the house, making each piece truly easy to set up and requiring nothing more than a walwart power supply and some industrial-strength Velcro to hold it up (amazing stuff there).

The BOM comes to around $280, but in this case the Display and the RFID Antenna (as we wanted a powerful one so that you could simply open your door when you got to it) made up for $220 of that total cost! Realistically, you could buy an RFID Antenna and Cards from Sparkfun or similar for appx $40-50, a Display for $25 (35 with I2C converter), and keypad debouncer chip for $10 with very little change in the code. The price would have been much cheaper if places like MakerShed, Sparkfun, Adafruit, LittleBird, etc. were well known 2.5 years ago, enough that a school would feel comfortable buying a bunch of stuff from them. As such, you will see that the parts are primarily from Digikey. Plus, our school already had several PIC programmers and Arduino boards were not the beast that they are now.

What is not listed in the BOM is the enclosure that we got from Hammond or the fact that what we turned in was wired on a small breadboard. We did plan on PCB's, but we did not have a 3-week "setup time" available to us. PCB's would have been around $50 each for two with 100% test and double layer 2oz traces with ground and voltage planes for anyone who is wondering.

Downloads:
User Manual: http://www.sendspace.com/file/dkjk6r
Repair Manual: http://www.sendspace.com/file/wq4tw8
Design Doc: http://www.sendspace.com/file/t0tso5
Code: http://www.sendspace.com/file/m91gwd
BOM: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ftplt9

This code uses a lot of the built-in PIC library functions so it is easy enough to understand for anyone who has worked with an Arduino before and is a nice step up in complexity when you are ready to try some harder stuff. Personally, I love Arduinos and the code libraries make every little project run that much easier!

**Will edit this post with some pictures of the thing, once I can find them!***

Step aside Sound-Hound, Street Beats for Android is coming!

2011-03-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

STREET BEATS!!!!

Thought I would post some progress on the collaborative project between my Boyfriend (Stev-o) and myself on our Android Music Program!!!!!

This program need some more rework and a UI....however most of the functions are working decently well.

You can use Voice to text for searching or type it in (personally I like using my Swype keyboard). This will generate the individual songs and playlists instantly playable by your media player of choice!

Search for a song on your phone by any information:

This program allows you to find any song on your phone by any metadata about the song. Want to find every song made in 1974? Type in "1974" and you will see a list of all the songs sang in 1974 from your library! Can you only remember pat of a song name or artist name? Type it in and see the results when you hit search! It really is that easy and you won't spend all that time scrolling through menus to find that perfect song for that perfect moment.

Search by Humming or Singing:

This feature is enabled through the use of the NSF funded TuneBot project by Bryan Pardo at Northwestern University. TuneBot is a crowdsourced Sound-Hound alternative that is Free, Open, and Ever-Expanding. You can contribute to the Database by playing KaraokeCallout on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch and play a game too. It is free and highly reccomended. Plus the more you play, the better this program becomes and the bigger the database of songs is! You will see a VU meter pop-up when you try to hum, just make sure it does not go all red when singing as that means that you have had some clipping. This will show you the best matches from your phone music as well as best overall online results if you do not happen to have the song on your device (so that you can get it online - ie Youtube).

Search by Lyrics:

Can't remember the name of that song, but you can remember the refrain? Man, who knew that "Teenage Wasteland" was really "Baba O'Riley" ? The lyric search is provided by ChartLyrics and is Super Fast! Just like the searching for Metadata feature, you can type or speak your query. This will return the best matches from your Music on your device as well as the best matches online like the Humming feature.

Here is the Program: http://www.sendspace.com/file/yqg8n5

Sideload it

Background and Future Work:

Basically this project stemmed out of my boyfriend not having bluetooth in his car like I do in mine. He wanted to have voice control instead of fudging with buttons and scrolling through lists every time he wanted to listen to something. Plus, he is pretty mood-music kind of guy and never bothers to put together a playlist. In the future we hope to have voice commands added so that you can be in your car and say "Mix Country and Rap" and to will start playing all of your Country and Rap music for example. Eventally, would be very cool to have voice command dialing of phone numbers too.

DIY HiFi Orthodynamic Portable Headphones (aka Ribbon Driver Headphones)

2011-03-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of cheapo portable headphones?
Are you sick of paying $200+ for a decent set of portable cans?
Do you like Unique Technology?
Are you DIY?

These headphones use drivers that are Orthodynamic. To sum it up, they are very similar to electrostatic and ribbon drivers in that they are planar. However, one major difference between electrostatic and orthdynamic is that Orthodynamic can be driven from simple headphone sockets whereas 'Stats need several hundred volts for bias. This makes them the best possible candidates for HiFi drivers in most headphones with some costing more than $550 a set. Unlike most headphone or normal drivers/woofers, this type actually has the voice coil printed onto the thin mylar diaphragm instead of attached to the back. This mylar piece is actually then suspended between two strong magnets with holes in them. When a signal is applied, the diaphragm will be charged to go back and forth with the sine wave. Since the diaphragm is flat, there is not peakiness and almost no delay due to "return". Please see th diagram below for a better understanding.

What you will need:

- 1 Set of FAKE Audio Technica ESW9/ES7 or other 40mm driver portable headphones. (ebay, dealextreme, etc. will have many of these).

- 1 pair of SFI 32ohm ribbon tweeters (this place give you two sets) ~$30

- Shapelock Plastic Beads ~$5

- Small Rubber Case feet ~$2 (can also use foam tape circles your gf or mom might have for scrap-booking)

- Extra Rubberized foam ~ $0.50 (you can ind similar at craft stores, just had some extra of this lying around)

- 1 Sheet of Dense Wool Felt ~$0.75 at the local craft store in the kid's section

- 1 Sheet of looser, Soft Wool felt ~$1.25 usually found in the fabric section with the other felts on the spool

- 2 Kleenex Tissues ~ Free

- Some scotch tape for the driver fronts

- Borrowed Dremel for drilling holes in the cups

- Krylon Fusion Plastic paint in your favorite color (Rustoleam works just fine too) or whatever way you want to paint these.

- 50ft. of 28AWG black teflon coated silver plated copper stranded cable (SPC, can find on ebay as military surplus). I did my cable in an 8 conductor configuration with 2 strands for each channel going to a driver in a tight litz braid. The wire I used is 11 strand, cryo treated, 1000V Teflon, 99.99% pure silver covering 99.999% pure copper. Literally some of the best wire on earth and when done in this way, minimal skinning, thin, and very durable. Bought it as military surplus meant for fighter jets made by Alpha Wire (no on their site).

STEPS:

Unscrew the Headphones and Remove the stock Drivers. Replace them with the SFI (the front of the driver has smoother cloth). Remove the cups and drill the holes, then sand and paint.

Once dry, place a layer of the damping foam around the edges of the cups and sides of the back of the driver baffle as seen above. This will keep the plastic in check. Heat up some shapelock with a torch or coffee warmer, then surround the driver edges so that the driver is molded into the plate. Then place a rubber foot over the center hole of the Othrodynamic driver, this is to tame the driver and prevent bulging when in use.

Place a disc of the Dense wool against the back of the cup (black matched best for me).

Now, place the disc of the Softer Wool Felt into the back of the cup.

Here, you fold the Kleenex so that there are 4 layers of "tissue".

Cut out the tissue to the shape of the back of the driver and cut a center hole the size of the rubber feet.

Fit all 4 layers over the back of the driver.

Screw the assembly back together and put some tape over a couple of baffle front paper covered areas to prevent air leakage.

Put the Ear Pads back on and Enjoy the Fun!

They will be unique, and VERY inexpensive considering how well they compare to much more expensive headphones and can still be driven with an iPod or such, but still does do best when attached to an amplifier.

You can make these as custom as you want and continue tweaking them! I have been tweaking these for nearly two years now and they are my at work cans since I can hear people when I need to, but they can't hear my music.

Cheers!

EDIT - POSSIBLE NEW DRIVER SOURCES!!!!!!

http://www.zentrada.eu/web/main_login_logout.cfm/:var:menue:H01M1:FAID:188091:fkt:Artikel:SOID:2476420

http://www.restposten.de/article-9024465.html

http://cgi.ebay.at/Sawafuji-SZ-2T-Bandchen-Hochtoner-Tweeter-32-Ohm-/200568948929?pt=Lautsprecher_Selbstbau&hash=item2eb2d748c1

http://shop.ebay.de/i.html?_from=R40&_npmv=3&_trksid=m570&_nkw=sawafuji

HTC Evo 4G Mods: Beyond the stock and one of a kind

2011-03-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

I am willing to bet that most techno nerds who bought an HTC Evo (got mine on launch day!) Rooted and Nand 'd there phones almost immediately to get full software control.

However, I am wondering how many people have done most every mod physically and added their own?

This is my Evo with the inductive charger installed and a custom modified IcyCell (part of the original project for this one - community driven at XDA forums - thanks Joey for getting them made!) clear cover that was milled and polished to have better performance with the inductive charger. This inductive chager is a bit different as it is the circuit from a Palm Touchstone for Palm Pixi. The Pixi cover used a flexible PCB that was thinner and better fit the phone profile for curvature as opposed to the thicker PCB used for the Pre designs. Inductive charging back was wired into the test points for the USB power as opposed to attaching directly to the resistors as it is safer and easier to remove if there is an issue with the phone otherwise and needs servicing.

Pixi cover - $6 at Radioshack
Palm Touchstone Charger - $10 including car charging cable from Verizon's online store
Clear Battery Cover - $10, now available commercially from IcyCell

NEXT IS WHAT MY PHONE LOOKS LIKE CURRENTLY

You can see that now my phone has a Back-lit Speaker port! This is made using a PCB using a simple Resistor/LED serial connection. For those without aa thicker cover, this is still possible because the LED circuit is the same size as the speaker port (though it will muffle with a normal back) or you can put it in the back area of the headphone port.

My reason for this is I am a girl, so I put my phone in my purse when moving about. DO YOU KNOW HOW IMPOSSIBLE IT IS TO FIND YOUR PHONE IN A DARK PURSE? This solves that without being too bright. Also, do not worry as it uses almost no battery and will continue to shine, even if the phone does not have enough voltage to run as this needs only 2.0v to have full illumination! Also, does not violate the warranty as you do not have to crack open the phone to install, just wrap the wire around the spring loaded battery connections! To connect, just use the FAR RIGHT AND FAR LEFT of the 4 pins, otherwise your phone will get very angry with you and will not charge. Tape is used to diffuse the light.

The red is the base plastic of the phone (used to be covered with black rubberized paint). This has been initially removed by using the back of a razor blade and then finished with plastic polish using a dremel.

Finally finished off with a $7 shipped eBay extended battery with cover.

So for less than a nice dinner, you can have one of the most useful and cool Evo's around and never get your's mixed up with someone else...like my boyfriend's phone!

Cheapskate: Coffee Sleeve Phone Video Stand

2011-03-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been stuck in the Airport and really want to watch a movie or do you quickly realize once you have boarded the plane that you don't want to be holding the tablet or phone for the whole flight?

Why not enjoy this double recycling (as it is made of recycled cardboard to begin with) of a disposable phone stand?

Its pretty simple,

1. Take the sleeve off of your luke warm or gone coffee cup
2. Fold in the sides till they hit the edges of the Dunkin Donuts printing
3. Fold in (airports have no scissors) or cut just above the printing
4. Done.

You might be interested to know that if you wish to keep your phone standing in portrait that you can fit your iPhone or Android charing cable in the small crevice.

*To those who are uber cheapskate, you can always just grab a coffee sleeve by the condiments of most every coffee serving establishment.*

El Cheapo Mid-Fi Speakers

2011-03-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

First off, you should know that these were made for getting the best SQ for the smallest amount of money possible. I was a college student at the time and had limited funds, was constantly having people over and did not have the space for my surround sound system in my small bedroom. Came up with these and did the design out of ease and desire to keep the 3D soundstage, only using stereo speakers and small ones at that. In the end, these far exceeded my expectations which is why I made it public, do whatever you want with the idea/design. In fact, I currently use them in my Hi-fi home theater setup as supplemental woofers (their own crossover) on top of my other speakers as they do a lot to increase the soundstage and are especially nice for vocal performance.

These single woofer full range speakers could be made with a Dremel, Glue, and $50. Speaker Amp not included, but it was designed to work well with a Tripath "T" class amplifier which can be had in kit form for $20 (15wpc)

Parts List:

- 2-part 20min Epoxy in Clear ($5)
- 4x Bamboo Shelf Boxes from Walmart kitchen section ($4 each) ~$16
- 2x MCM 4" Shielded Aluminum Woofer in 4ohm version to be powered more easily (notice how it is listed as a woofer, but does well across 60-17k in response? - much better than many single speaker full ranges) and shielded because it would be in close proximity to electronics. ~$27
- 2x sets of Gold Binding posts (for speaker wire) ~$5
- 20AWG Silver plated copper, teflon coated wire (to wire from speakers to binding posts). ~$1
- Silver Bearing solder with no lead (already had quite a bit) ~$0.10

Comes to ~$54.10

Managed to get the speaker parts for free shipping from MCM Electronics as they do run sales frequently and offer free shipping on occasion, sign up for their newsletter of that interests you.

Here was my initial design, but I realized once I had felt the speakers that they would not be all that stable once set at an angle or on stands. It also would have issues with the wave reflections and the Bamboo because it was not super thick.

With some changes, I went with this design as the final.

It works with the Bamboo like a soundboard to create a directed sound wave that creates additional height in the soundstage (something typically lacking in many speakers)

This actually uses the cut out piece from the top of the second box to create the needed backplane for the binding posts and wave direction. This also ensures that there is no wave gap to cause "wonkiness".

As far as building them goes,

- Cut a circular hole out that is 4" in diameter in the front of the first box (for the speaker).

- Now in the second box, cut out 4.5"x 5.7" square in the center of the second box. (keep the square)

- Glue the second box face down onto the first box.

- Place in your speaker in the speaker hole and screw into position (use more epoxy as sealant)

- Attach binding posts to the square made earlier

- Wire up the binding posts to speakers (use twisted pair for your wiring)

- Epoxy the Square to the back of the box.

It should only take two to three hours to make both using a normal dremel tool and the bits that come with it.

They are quite beautiful too and sound comparable to those which are $300+ a set at your local shops.

Art, I has some.

2011-03-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

Did this in about 10 hours from concept to finish. 19x12"

North Shore Chicago "Painting"

Now for some photography

Advanced Sensor shield for Arduino

2011-03-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is a super short independent project that I did for my advisor in college over about 2 months (concept to paper and finished project).

Mainly, it was meant to prove the viability of using DIY, Open Source devices for using in wireless sensor networks. We needed to prove to the group of advisors that you really could build small and cheap devices that were just as effective, easy to program, and more robust as they did exactly what you wanted.

I know that I made a few mistakes on the board design (I used FreePCB instead of Eagle because it more clearly outlined how this could be made on protoboard for testing). For instance, I totally forgot pull up resistors on the Dallas 1-wire (you can fit these on the boards though, so no big deal). Also included in the DL is CODE for basically all of the components.

This is a "shield" that is designed to fit directly on top of an Arduino board (standard). Features of the board are:

- Atmega 8-bit core - 3.3v or 5V compatible or any other pinout compatible processor

- MCP23008 - I/O port expander (allows you to hookup many more I/O with a buffer)
- You may choose from two different RTC's based on what your needs are (DS1302 or DS2417) each with independent crystals in case you need to clock both your ATMega and some sort of sensor or depending on what your needs are (DS2417 is less accurate, but less power).

- Designed to be able to be built by inexperienced builders (all through-hole parts)

- 2x DS2450 Quad A/D Converters with up to 16 bit-depth configurable (1-16 bit). Basically allows you up to 8 channels of 16-bit A/D which is a common need in order to measure pressure, temp, and flex sensors.

- On-board configurable PSU - allows you immense power flexibility. You can take power from the mainboard and regulate out down for an external sensor, power from the mainboard to power the sensor board, take power in from an external source (up to 18v) and bring to 5v for the sensor and mainboard, etc. Made possible by an LM317 using a trimpot and lots of highly configurable jumpers.

Download and improve it HERE - I know its very rough.

BTW guys, had no time to get the boards done for the amp this weekend as I was reading and writing papers for someone. Ah'-hem.

PARTS !&^&@#$!({ - wooooohhoooooo

2011-02-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

Yay!

Amp chips came in for the microamp (µI) and some other work stuff, So I just need to finish up the board files and order the boards! I <3 Part orders. Next amp will be mostly TI stuff and fairly large for "portable" and will be comparable to some of the very best home amps.

I AM 8-BIT

2011-02-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

Here is an old Cube that I had while I was an intern. Did the post-it decoration during my lunch hour.

In fact, the company workers were reluctant at first (saying it was too flashy). However, they kept it up for two years after I left and gave no one my old cube until they ran out of space. People found it cheery! yay for smiles!

First Summer was very early pre-nintendo video games, next summer it was nintendo!

Summer #1

Summer #2

*Shield was made non-Christian as to not offend - company policy*

Maybe one of the secretaries should have talked to my boss and my boss' boss.

I had full permission to do what I had done.

Best part is just what an EPIC FAIL that this is.

When trying to tell someone not to use/waste post-its, probably not best to write it on a POST-IT!

Fail Blog eat your heart out!

Are you interested in a microamp with digital control?

2011-02-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hello guys!

Well, I have a couple of projects and I would like to make this next one open source!

As you may know, in my day job I do a lot of programming and stuff with micro-controllers. Well, I have designed an ultra small portable amplifier with digital volume control. This one is designed to be powered by a single 3.7v Li-Ion and charged from a USB port using a MicroUSB or MiniUSB connection. It will be offered in two small programmable packages using a DS1803 for volume and an MSP430 micro-controller for analog to digital control conversion. The used potentiometer is going to be a cheapo linear slider for maximum thin-ness and cheap! There will be a 3.7v to 5V step-up converter, just to give better voltage swing. I will also include a piece of code and a version eventually for those of you who may want to use an Arduino because coding is easier to understand and you can make a DIY version in DIP.

Just know, you can buy an MSP430 for a lot cheaper, lower power, does not require an external crystal, built in pull up/down, and a full programmer will only be $4 shipped. It is however, much harder to program and not as widely available.

The board I am talking about will use all SMD parts for thinness and size considerations. Right now, I am trying to make it so that there will be absolutely no capacitors/inductors in the signal path and it works in theory.

Will get my PCB's made by FusionPCB ($20 + shipping for 10 PCB's - yay!). When it is ready, let me know if you want a PCB and I will gladly sell it to you at cost.

Cheers!

Sometimes, you need to fix the Bad engineering it came with.

2011-02-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

So this was basically a Portable FLAC playing mP3 player that had a built in Headphone amplifier.

It wasn't bad sounding at all when used as car audio input or with medium impedance headphones (32ohm-150ohm), but for portable earphones and high end portable headphones it was a nightmare. All kinds of impedance mis-matching, sensitivity issues, chip oscillations, etc. Good news is that most of this could be fixed!

Problem:

1. They used horrible SMD electrolytic capacitors that were noisy, placed with small through hole since my SMD capacitors that were the right capacity were too wide. Plus, these were individually selected as to what they were near to, cap that were good for power were placed in power and signal grade were placed near the signal.The capacitors were routed and when appropriate, wima film capacitors added to near-signal electrolytics).

2. DECOUPLE! None of the chips were decoupled which is a big reason for oscillations and noise added to the signal. Decoupled the DAC and Headphone amplifier sections (BTW - the headphone amp was just a simple OP-AMP taking differential output from the DAC...so not really much different from a normal MP3, just a nicer chip).

3. Battery was fine, but did not put out enough current to drive the unit appropriately. Replaced with a Sony Li-Po police radio battery. It can output almost double the current when drawn upon as the previous batter and was much more durable.

4. Adjust the gain of the amplifier, Gain was much too high on the amplifier and toned down on the DAC, Basically, you just make the DAC not loose so much gain and get rid of the R/C filter (no reason for two stages of capacitors for the output when you have an I-out DAC) datasheets and op-amp gain calculations help a lot here, but there are numerous examples online.

The overall simple fixes, not major engineering overhaul, made it into a much nicer and genuinely hi-fi piece of equipment. Battery life was an insane 30hours too! Sold it on eBay as I ended up having no good use for it.

Sorry, these pictures are about 2-years old and yes, the manufacturer did take some of my advice and integrated it to the next two versions of this product!

Modified and Refined SS Tube-Hybrid headphone amplifier

2011-02-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I though that I might post some of my refined and modified Pete Millett "starting student" headphone amplifier designs. Originally, this was a headphone amp that was supposed to cost about $50-75 before buying an enclosure and have very hi-fi sound for easy build and low cost. I have built about 4 of these and one of which is completely unique, even a rarity among hi-fi tube amplifiers as this headphone amp had an active ground stage that still used the tube in the ground position. However in this design, the gain of the ground tube is basically nullified and is used to give proper voltage and maintain perfect impedance and isolation from ground signals. This tube amp has no ground noise and can be used with low impedance/high sensitivity devices. The power supply in the 3-channel was a custom design with LOTS of smoothing capacitance and noise isolation, it even hung up-side down so that transformer hum could be dampened.

Original Millet I made and original schematic:

The 3-Channel Design of Mine:

- parts on this with added labor was closer to $300

-everything was top end and perfectly matched

- over 150 hours of labor to get this design perfect

- currently owned by Steve LaFayette, a professional sound engineer

Here are some distortion and performance graphs for you that I dug up from the original. (PCI-E soundcard used).

Distortion

Performance (almost as linear as the source which is red)

Other Modified 2-Channel SS Amps

*These amps incorporate many of the modifications made to the 3-channel design*

-This car one was made for a young boy with autism who found music calming-

- all jacks and knobs are in the center of the wheels-

This is an UBER tiny SS amp I made just to see if I could!

*Entire casing is isolated and grounded - don't worry*

Happy Listening!

Back when I liked the iPod Touch and the iPhone

2011-02-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

This is just some stuff that I had made when I was stuck in the iPod/iPhone universe. Switched to Android in June and have not looked back, except for the pictures that is.

* Likely the smallest iMod/DIYMod iPod ever made with Film capacitor dock. It uses an iPod Touch 1G which was taken apart and the DAC outputs relayed out to the dock connector. From there a standard iPod dock connector connects to an external output stage made of high quality components. Then it goes to a headphone amplifier and finally a set of Custom in-ear Monitors. Likely the best sound you can get that still fits in a pocket. The cover on the iPod Touch is an engraved steel which was electroplated and had sticker added to the back for application.

Some of my other uber small dock connectors and mods. These are likely the VERY smallest iPod dock connectors ever made, many containing 6-8 strands of UPOCC coper or silver wire. Thank you Shape-lock!

This is a DIY iPod Dock using wood, plastic, and audiophile grade connectors. The dock portion had a standard iPod/Apple dock adapter so that it could fit any iPod with the adapter that came with it. Even made a few of these with iMod output stages in them for people, yes I was able to fit giant film capacitors in there. It has a nice charging circuit too!

Hope that you guys liked that blast from my past!

You like Open Source Hardware? - sign NOAW

2011-02-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Just wanted to send my endorsement for the OSHW principles and definition.
OSHW Read and Endorse
This is a VERY valuable sent of guidelines that not only encourage new projects being shared, but also to help those who use open source hardware, much like software, to know what is appropriate and how to treat the original piece of which you are using or distributing.

Considering that most of the progress made in recent years regarding sensor networks or just small electronics innovation has come from the DIY and Hobbiest market, it is a good idea to sign up.

What 'Cha Gonna do?

2010-08-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

So as a little blurb for what this blog is going to be about:

1. Stuff I am up to (building, designing, hacking)
2. Stuff that people I know are up to
3. Stuff I think is cool
4. Occasional Girly-geeky-ness

A few words about myself:

I am a Technology Enthusiast who is female and also into music/art/etc. I build things that are technology or non-techno related (music). I design circuits and software, play around with high end mobile devices, media junkie (music and video), and on occasion I play RPG's and FPS. I have a daytime engineering job and went to an excellent school. No an English major, sorry.... So why don't you come with me on a journey to see what the latest and great around the net is, from the funny to the outlandish!