Andrew de Quincey's miscellaneous tech projectshttps://blog.lidskialf.net/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2024/03/12/picotherm-controlling-an-opentherm-boiler-with-a-raspberry-pi-pico/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2024/03/12/picotherm-controlling-an-opentherm-boiler-with-a-raspberry-pi-pico/Introduction In our old flat, we had control over our heating from our phones: I’d reverse engineered the RF control protocol used by our Salus thermostat. I never got round to blogging about that, bu…Tue, 12 Mar 2024 21:59:23 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/30/power-monitoring-with-a-raspberry-pi-pico/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/30/power-monitoring-with-a-raspberry-pi-pico/We had a smart meter installed last year. It’s kinda useful to observe long term power usage. However I really wanted to be able to see more detail; like turn off this device, what happens to the powe…Sat, 30 Dec 2023 00:34:18 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/23/turning-bowls/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/23/turning-bowls/I bought a "luxury selection of exotic wood blanks" from ebay to try turning some bowls. Some of them worked! Bowl 1 + Bowl 2 These were a success, although I think bowl 2 is better from a shape and f…Sat, 23 Dec 2023 10:19:09 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/20/afternoon-experiment-with-veneer/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/20/afternoon-experiment-with-veneer/A friend, Sandy, suggested trying laser cutting wood veneer (he has plans for a complex design). However, I’d not tried that before, and it sounded like an interesting idea. I’ve often watched people…Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:27:13 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/02/hardening-steel/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/12/02/hardening-steel/I was watching some of Uri Tuchman’s excellent videos, and he mentioned making his own tools; sounded fun, and I now have a garden I can safely try that sort of project in. Kinda fancied making some s…Sat, 02 Dec 2023 18:03:54 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/11/29/resin-3d-printing/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/11/29/resin-3d-printing/I recently received an Elegoo Saturn 2 resin 3d printer, so I thought I’d document my initial testing: These printers print using a 2d array of UV leds which cure a liquid resin held in a tank where U…Wed, 29 Nov 2023 19:32:21 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/08/14/lasercutting-lathe-toolbox/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/08/14/lasercutting-lathe-toolbox/One problem with the lathe is I now have a whole set of chisels lying around the place, which is kinda annoying. I spent yesterday designing a quick tool support to attach to the lathe bench in Fusion…Mon, 14 Aug 2023 22:09:08 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/06/05/wood-turning-lathe/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/06/05/wood-turning-lathe/I've always wanted one of these. When I was wee, we went on tour round England visiting various relations, and I remember being very impressed with a lathe. I've no idea which relation it was, unfortu…Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:57:55 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/06/04/making-a-hammer/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/06/04/making-a-hammer/Nicola bought me a present for my birthday: a hammer making course at Athelstaneforge! I really enjoyed it! It was a pretty intense few hours though: hitting chunks of hot metal with a sledge hammer t…Sun, 04 Jun 2023 23:49:19 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/04/24/boring-3d-printing-ceiling-cable-covers/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/04/24/boring-3d-printing-ceiling-cable-covers/Time for some slightly boring, but useful, 3d printing. The Problem When I wired the house, I was planning on adding ceiling mounted wifi access points. However, in the end, I didn't use them. So we w…Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:39:08 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/04/24/two-wee-woodworking-tools/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/04/24/two-wee-woodworking-tools/I used a few offcuts to add some new woodworking tools: Plane Stop I bolted a length of the construction timber to my bench with some "star nuts" and spare M10 carriage bolts. The idea is you put one…Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:23:31 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/26/restoring-a-table/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/26/restoring-a-table/I've been watching a lot of restoration on Youtube recently: AT Restoration, Hand Tool Rescue to name a couple. I thought I'd give it a go: there's an old side table that's been in the family for ages…Sun, 26 Mar 2023 16:07:08 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/20/another-of-my-vices/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/20/another-of-my-vices/If I'm going to do woodwork, it made sense to install a woodworking vice. I did some research, and found you could buy relatively cheap vices of modern manufacture, which, or you could try and buy an…Mon, 20 Mar 2023 23:11:07 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/19/making-a-moxon-vice/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/19/making-a-moxon-vice/I had some spare C24 construction timber left over, so I decided to make a Moxon "dual screw" vice. This clamps to your workbench and overhangs it, and lets you do certain fiddly jobs. When its not in…Sun, 19 Mar 2023 19:39:26 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/14/custom-shelves/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/14/custom-shelves/Now that I had built a workbench, it was time for some shelves! This is the cupboard under the stairs; originally it was a big dingy, but I've painted it to make it a lot brighter and nicer. Why the d…Tue, 14 Mar 2023 23:47:30 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/13/workbench-build/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2023/03/13/workbench-build/Been quiet on here for a while: I've been moving house! I've now got proper space for projects; I even have a studio/cabin/workshop (just don't call it a shed!) now. First things first though, I neede…Mon, 13 Mar 2023 00:27:30 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2022/03/22/enamelling-experiments/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2022/03/22/enamelling-experiments/I've been having a busy time in general recently, but I've finally got back to making things. I've been meaning to play with enamelling for a while. I ordered some WG Ball transparent enamelling powde…Tue, 22 Mar 2022 22:10:49 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2022/02/12/home-made-holograms/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2022/02/12/home-made-holograms/I somehow stumbled onto this website; they sell DIY hologram kits! So I ordered one. I'd always assumed making a hologram would be quite complicated, but it turns out it really isn't. You basically ne…Sat, 12 Feb 2022 01:23:55 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2022/01/04/making-a-pinecil-case/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2022/01/04/making-a-pinecil-case/I got one of these nifty wee Pinecil USB-C soldering irons for Christmas They're really quite cool: temperature controlled by an embedded RISC V processor, USB-C powered (using modern high power suppl…Tue, 04 Jan 2022 23:33:28 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/12/25/building-a-drawing-machine/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/12/25/building-a-drawing-machine/I quite fancied one of these AxiDraw drawing machines, but at the price they go for, I couldn't really justify it. However, I did some looking around and found this home-made version: I can definitely…Sat, 25 Dec 2021 18:30:05 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/10/26/a-map-of-arrakis-dune/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/10/26/a-map-of-arrakis-dune/For my next project I wanted something more complicated. As the new Dune film is out, and I'm a total Dune fan, I thought a map of Arrakis would be pretty cool. The Map Unlike Mars, there's no geo dat…Tue, 26 Oct 2021 01:49:38 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/10/20/die-cutter-project-2-a-map-of-barsoom/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/10/20/die-cutter-project-2-a-map-of-barsoom/The circular cutout of my previous project gave me an idea: what if I drew a planet next? I'd bought some red card from Hobbycraft, so Mars was the obvious choice. I always liked the name for Mars, "B…Wed, 20 Oct 2021 00:04:15 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/10/18/playing-with-a-die-cutter/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/10/18/playing-with-a-die-cutter/Since I last posted, I've been busy going on holidays in Scotland, zooming about on my new bike, and generally going out and doing stuff. But as its getting dark again, and the weather is getting wors…Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:00:23 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/31/useful-kiln-tools-beeper-upgrade/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/31/useful-kiln-tools-beeper-upgrade/Kiln Beeper I installed a mini beeper in my kiln and adjusted the software to beep letters in Morse code depending on the stage of the program. I just used the same transistor+resistor+5v supply desig…Mon, 31 May 2021 18:16:08 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/19/succeeding-with-prometheus-copper-clay/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/19/succeeding-with-prometheus-copper-clay/This is the process I'm now using: its had 100% success so far. This post is stitched together from various pieces; I unfortunately didn't take pictures of the complete process for a single piece. Ste…Wed, 19 May 2021 10:19:16 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/18/prometheus-copper-clay-attempts/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/18/prometheus-copper-clay-attempts/PMC clay, or Precious Metal Clay clay(sic!) is a mixture of tiny metal particles with an organic binder. It allows you to mould metal objects by hand at room temperature, then sinter them into solid o…Tue, 18 May 2021 17:49:39 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/18/upgrading-my-jewellery-kiln/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/05/18/upgrading-my-jewellery-kiln/I have a small "Prometheus Pro-1 PRG" Jewellery kiln for experimentation and artwork. Its a programmable kiln, which allows you to have programmes with multiple cycles of heating and cooling over time…Tue, 18 May 2021 13:35:34 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/04/08/bring-me-the-head-of-emperor-trajan/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/04/08/bring-me-the-head-of-emperor-trajan/A friend asked me to 3d print this 3D scan of Emperor Trajan. Its taken me a while to get round to it though (guiltguiltguilt!). I decided to chop the scan so just his head and shoulders were visible…Thu, 08 Apr 2021 00:19:43 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/04/07/taking-a-google-stadia-controller-apart-and-dumping-its-rom/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/04/07/taking-a-google-stadia-controller-apart-and-dumping-its-rom/I acquired one of these in a deal Google had running. After trying it out, I decided it wasn't really for me, so I had an unused Stadia controller lying around.... The design is interesting; in order…Wed, 07 Apr 2021 23:47:53 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/03/29/identifying-a-thermocouple/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/03/29/identifying-a-thermocouple/Next up in the riveting Thermocouple series is how to identify an unknown thermocouple as a Type K. There are loads of videos on Youtube on this, but I didn't find them completely conclusive. Many of…Mon, 29 Mar 2021 22:50:54 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/03/29/the-perils-of-cheap-ebay-stuff-or-why-doesnt-my-max21855-themocouple-board-work/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/03/29/the-perils-of-cheap-ebay-stuff-or-why-doesnt-my-max21855-themocouple-board-work/I've been playing around with Type K thermocouples for a project. These are cheap, commonly available, and can read a temperature range from –270C to 1260C (though it depends on the exact thermocouple…Mon, 29 Mar 2021 22:29:24 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/03/21/whats-eating-my-cotyledon-orbiculata/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/03/21/whats-eating-my-cotyledon-orbiculata/It's not been looking well for a while, poor thing..... Then I spotted the underside of the leaves were covered in little black things.... to the microscope! - - Aphids! Bastards! Well, getting rid of…Sun, 21 Mar 2021 10:47:33 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/27/mini-tesla-coil-kit-from-ebay-playing-bohemian-rhapsody/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/27/mini-tesla-coil-kit-from-ebay-playing-bohemian-rhapsody/I've been enjoying Electroboom's Youtube channel, and was really interested in the various Tesla coil videos. I had a look at the OneTesla DIY kits: they look great, but way too expensive for an after…Sat, 27 Feb 2021 14:03:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/22/writing-a-speaker-horn-music-visualiser/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/22/writing-a-speaker-horn-music-visualiser/As soon as I decided to add the 5x5 Blinkenlights matrix to the horn, it obviously needed to be turned into a music visualiser. Googling for "mopidy audio visualizer" found this post, where someone di…Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:05:09 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/20/1920s-spotify-speaker-horn/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/20/1920s-spotify-speaker-horn/I inherited an old "Revo" speaker horn from my dad. I have a strong suspicion he acquired it from a "job lot" in an auction somewhere. He gave it the rather fetching red/gold/black paint job. Anyway,…Sat, 20 Feb 2021 01:56:14 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/12/new-tools/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/12/new-tools/I've been struggling with a pair of worn out snips for all my snipping/wire stripping needs for years. For some reason I didn't realise that I could just.. order something better. I've now rectified t…Fri, 12 Feb 2021 20:30:06 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/08/turning-an-old-kindle-into-a-eink-development-platform/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/08/turning-an-old-kindle-into-a-eink-development-platform/I fancied getting an eink screen to use for future projects. I bought a wee one with a raspberry pi "hat" attached. However, I realised later that I could maybe just re-purpose an old Amazon Kindle eb…Mon, 08 Feb 2021 23:14:34 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/07/investigating-rca-ced-videodiscs/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/07/investigating-rca-ced-videodiscs/I've been watching a lot of the Technology Connections Youtube channel recently. I was particularly intrigued by the series on RCA CED VideoDiscs. There's also some information available on Wikipedia.…Sun, 07 Feb 2021 12:26:50 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/19/glass-frit-powder-sifters/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/19/glass-frit-powder-sifters/"Frit" is glass which has been broken up into pieces of varying size. You use different sized chunks for different purposes (eg large chunks could be used for mosaic style work, while glass powder cou…Mon, 19 Oct 2020 00:13:49 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/18/fused-glass-metal-experiments/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/18/fused-glass-metal-experiments/I've been trying combining fused glass with various powdered metals and metal compounds to see what effect it has on the glass colour. I've been intentionally avoiding compounds which - when heated -…Sun, 18 Oct 2020 22:57:07 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/07/fused-glass-attempt-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/07/fused-glass-attempt-1/The first thing I tried with my new kiln was some glass fusing. Tools To cut glass I needed some new tools: - Toyo Glass cutter and cutting oil (appears to be just a very low viscosity mineral oil). -…Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:45:11 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/07/new-tool-jewellery-kiln/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/07/new-tool-jewellery-kiln/I've wanted one of these for ages, so I decided to buy one a couple of weeks ago. I went for a "Prometheus Pro-1 PRG" which is a small, comparatively cheap desktop kiln: Its ideal for a beginner. I pa…Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:07:33 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/06/cyanotype-attempt-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/06/cyanotype-attempt-2/I tried the Cyanotype process again. I used the same method as before, with the following improvements: - I had sponge brushes to paint the fluid on the paper consistently. - I made sure not to leave…Tue, 06 Oct 2020 23:22:21 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/04/peace-lily-spathiphyllum-wallisii-pollen/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/10/04/peace-lily-spathiphyllum-wallisii-pollen/My Peace Lily has flowered and is scattering pollen everywhere. I think might even be giving me mild hayfever. Clearly the only thing to do is investigate! I happen to have this microscope slide equip…Sun, 04 Oct 2020 12:51:10 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/28/cyanotype-attempt-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/28/cyanotype-attempt-1/A Cyanotype is an early photographic method which yields a characteristic Prussian Blue image. It is literally how you make a "blueprint". I've done this before on a small scale, but I'd forgotten the…Mon, 28 Sep 2020 21:08:24 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/26/epoxy-resin-casting-attempt-3/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/26/epoxy-resin-casting-attempt-3/I wasn't going to post another of these attempts as I'd hoped to be actually doing something with it now, but as it turned out, the red owl was a failure. It never cured properly: I figured out I'd si…Sat, 26 Sep 2020 22:52:13 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/20/making-a-uv-exposure-box/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/20/making-a-uv-exposure-box/I've been wanting one of these for a while for some other projects I have planned. Previously I've (ab)used an old EEPROM eraser box, but (a) I wanted something a bit larger and (b) it isn't mine and…Sun, 20 Sep 2020 20:51:53 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/20/moles-avogadros-number-and-atomic-mass-units/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/20/moles-avogadros-number-and-atomic-mass-units/I quite enjoyed Chemistry in Secondary School: I think I even did a CSYS course in it. However, I remember always having problems with the concept of a Mole and the calculations surrounding it. I'm no…Sun, 20 Sep 2020 02:17:52 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/17/making-skeletonised-leaves/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/17/making-skeletonised-leaves/I decided I wanted to try making some skeletonised leaves. So I did some Googling and decided to try this approach. We went out in the evening and gathered some leaves from the local Shrubbery. Totall…Thu, 17 Sep 2020 23:11:08 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/14/knitting-machine-needle-router-working/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/14/knitting-machine-needle-router-working/Check this out! https://youtu.be/zFk4xcyWZeI Needle Router v2.1 Demo I've actually had the main design on the whiteboard for a few weeks, but I wanted to play with other things for a bit: This is v2.1…Mon, 14 Sep 2020 20:06:43 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/12/making-a-copper-leaf-and-perspex-lampshade/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/12/making-a-copper-leaf-and-perspex-lampshade/This is a slightly older project, but since I'm waiting for the new knitting machine design to print, I thought I'd write it up. One of our standard lamps needed a new shade, so I decided to make one!…Sat, 12 Sep 2020 00:28:57 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/10/epoxy-resin-casting-attempt-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/10/epoxy-resin-casting-attempt-2/I tried the resin again, this time using the vacuum chamber. I mixed it up (using a different glow in the dark colour this time), and cycled it in the vacuum chamber a couple of times. The resin mixtu…Thu, 10 Sep 2020 22:57:27 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/07/boiling-water-in-a-vacuum-at-room-temperature/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/07/boiling-water-in-a-vacuum-at-room-temperature/My Vacuum pump and chamber arrived! I went for a Bacoeng 3 CFM Single Stage Oil Filled Rotary Vane Pump (BA-1) and a slightly more expensive tempered-glass-topped 6.8L vacuum chamber. I could have got…Mon, 07 Sep 2020 19:40:08 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/04/epoxy-resin-casting-attempt-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/09/04/epoxy-resin-casting-attempt-1/I wanted to try something different so I thought I'd give Epoxy Resin casting a go. I have this cute Greek holiday trinket I inherited from my dad which I felt would make a good test piece: So, to cas…Fri, 04 Sep 2020 18:33:55 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/30/knitting-machine-first-test-print/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/30/knitting-machine-first-test-print/I decided it was time to try out the prototype design! I printed half of the needle movement model to save on time and materials. As a result you need to move the carriage in both directions to see th…Sun, 30 Aug 2020 11:02:31 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/25/knitting-machine-needle-movement-model/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/25/knitting-machine-needle-movement-model/I spent some time this evening turning the sketch into a proper Fusion360 3D model, as above. Key features: I've inserted holes for all the M3 bolts I need to use to hold the moving parts together. I'…Tue, 25 Aug 2020 23:25:10 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/23/knitting-machine-needle-movement-controller-sketch/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/23/knitting-machine-needle-movement-controller-sketch/I've been busy in Fusion 360 this morning. Previously I had mocked up a design for the needle movement controller on my whiteboard: This morning, I've been translating this into a "Sketch" in Fusion 3…Sun, 23 Aug 2020 11:41:01 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/22/nikon-dslr-to-lomo-biolam-microscope-adapter/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/22/nikon-dslr-to-lomo-biolam-microscope-adapter/The actual project I wanted to do was attach my Nikon D90 SLR to my Lomo Biolam microscope. However, I had to detour into fixing the microscope first, as described here. Once I had that working, the a…Sat, 22 Aug 2020 11:40:28 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/18/restoring-a-1977-ussr-lomo-biolam-microscope/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/18/restoring-a-1977-ussr-lomo-biolam-microscope/"In Soviet Russia, Microscopes".. er wait. I inherited this from my dad. It has quite a few condenser attachments as well as a nice set of sample slides. Some research on its serial number (N773137) i…Tue, 18 Aug 2020 21:00:20 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/17/knitting-machine-needle-movement-analysis/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/17/knitting-machine-needle-movement-analysis/I had a look into how the needle is controlled by the carriage in this video (I've removed a few needles to help with the video). Obviously the yarn wouldn't actually pop up on top (it would be caught…Mon, 17 Aug 2020 23:52:21 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/17/knitting-machine-project/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/17/knitting-machine-project/I've been interested in building a knitting machine for some time, and I've just got round to looking into it again. I found a few other projects in this area: - Knitic - this re-uses Brother electron…Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:59:18 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/15/my-wanhao-duplicator-i3-plus-3d-printer-upgrades/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/15/my-wanhao-duplicator-i3-plus-3d-printer-upgrades/This is inspired by the "Prusa i3" range of 3D Printers. Even though its cheaper, this one still has a solid metal structure. I've heavily upgraded it: It would probably have been cheaper to simply bu…Sat, 15 Aug 2020 11:24:46 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/14/new-project-items-arrived/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/14/new-project-items-arrived/A whole load of new project stuff arrived earlier today: - Steering Boot Set Bellow 38921. I don't actually have a car: I'm going to (ab)use this for a project. - Dixons Autocrat F3.5 75mm medium form…Fri, 14 Aug 2020 19:10:31 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/14/turn-it-off-and-on-again/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2020/08/14/turn-it-off-and-on-again/I've been doing a lot of interesting projects recently, so I decided to restart my blog. I wanted to keep the old articles, mainly for my own interest: However, I think things like the etched brass do…Fri, 14 Aug 2020 18:27:49 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/27/interactive-fiction/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/27/interactive-fiction/Great! Finally found a decent IF interpreter for android: text fiction Now playing Anchorhead on my tablet. Really liking the SMS style interface, and it works really well with the android slidy keybo…Thu, 27 Mar 2014 20:12:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/26/mobile-development-on-android-and-ios/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/26/mobile-development-on-android-and-ios/I've been doing a spot of iOS and android development for some sample apps today, which I've not done for a while. TL/DR: Yuck, ObjectiveC is a horrible blast from the past. Yuck, Java is a horrible b…Wed, 26 Mar 2014 18:03:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/24/mongodb-optimisation-for-scale/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/24/mongodb-optimisation-for-scale/I redesigned the schema for one of our MongoDb clusters today. In doing so, I managed to reduce request times by 1.5 orders of magnitude! We're now sustaining request times of roughly 30ms. The first…Mon, 24 Mar 2014 21:24:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/22/php-mongodb-replicaset-gotcha/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2014/03/22/php-mongodb-replicaset-gotcha/Ran into a gotcha with PHP+MongoDb the other day. Now, PHP ain't my favourite language, but its what Piwik is written in so I'm stuck with it for that. I've partially ported Piwik to use mongodb (vs m…Sat, 22 Mar 2014 23:55:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2012/02/29/return-to-the-joggler/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2012/02/29/return-to-the-joggler/Now that Intel have a slightly less crap driver for the Poulsbo/GMA500 chipset, with the more recent EMGD driver, I've converted one of my O2 Jogglers to be a touchscreen media player in the kitchen.…Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:35:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2012/01/03/a-walk-in-the-wind/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2012/01/03/a-walk-in-the-wind/A 15 minute walk in the winds currently battering Edinburgh. NOTE: This is a binaural recording; you MUST use headphones to get the proper effect!Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/10/28/check-fus/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/10/28/check-fus/While I'm at it, Check\fus Downloader is a windows app, which can download and decrypt official Samsung firmware updates directly from Samsung's servers. Avoids having to hunt about on forums!Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:36:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/10/28/gan-uma-wifi-calling-signal-booster-on-the-galaxy-s-ii/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/10/28/gan-uma-wifi-calling-signal-booster-on-the-galaxy-s-ii/I've been happily using my Galaxy S II for the last few months, and of course I've replaced the original firmware with a custom one. However, recently a colleague acquired one as well. His had the sto…Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:03:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/10/27/duplicity/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/10/27/duplicity/Meet my favourite new backup tool: Duplicity. It can do incremental encrypted backups to a variety of destinations, for example ssh, webdav, Amazon S3. It also seems fast compared to other solutions I…Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:46:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/06/16/hd-dvb-t2-terrestrial-tv-using-the-pctv-nanostick-290e/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/06/16/hd-dvb-t2-terrestrial-tv-using-the-pctv-nanostick-290e/I've been following this project for a while; I've even contributed some reverse engineering work to it. (I bought one of the devices from dabs a while back). Note that the majority of the work has be…Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:38:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/05/09/the-garden-of-cosmic-speculation/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/05/09/the-garden-of-cosmic-speculation/Garden of Cosmic Speculation, a set on Flickr.Mon, 09 May 2011 16:22:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/05/09/beltane-pillars-panorama/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/05/09/beltane-pillars-panorama/Beltane Pillars Panorama, a photo by adq\uk on Flickr. Interesting; didn't think this would have worked at all!Mon, 09 May 2011 00:02:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/30/beltane-2011/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/30/beltane-2011/Beltane 2011, a set on Flickr. Some mostly infrared pics from Beltane 2011Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:37:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/22/london-trip/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/22/london-trip/London Trip, a set on Flickr.Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:57:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/21/ullapool-trip/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/21/ullapool-trip/Loch") Ullapool Trip, a set on Flickr.Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:43:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/21/cargo-the-edinburgh-mela-2010/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/21/cargo-the-edinburgh-mela-2010/CARGO @ The Edinburgh Mela 2010, a set on Flickr.Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:44:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/21/gormleys/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/04/21/gormleys/Gormleys, a set on Flickr.Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/03/21/kindle-devkey-problems/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/03/21/kindle-devkey-problems/Hi, a number of people have reported problems with my kindle devkeys 0.2 and the 3.1 firmware. I can't seem to replicate the problem here on two kindles (both K3GB - UK wifi+3G). I've just reinstalled…Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:32:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/24/kindle-3-1-jailbreak/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/24/kindle-3-1-jailbreak/Cool, looks like there's now a Kindle 3.1 jailbreak! See here. Update: The latest jailbreak is available from the normal mobileread thread, here. I've confirmed it works with installing my devkeys.Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:19:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/23/kindle-auto-updates/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/23/kindle-auto-updates/Just got an email from Amazon saying if I turn my Kindle on and leave it connected to WIFI for a few minutes it'll automatically download and install the latest firmware update. Be careful with your j…Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:46:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/16/kindle-firmware-3-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/16/kindle-firmware-3-1/I've been doing some playing about with the recent kindle 3.1 firmware release. The salient points are: 1. The jailbreak can no longer be installed because Amazon have patched the busybox tar exploit…Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:08:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/04/pickit2-logic-analyser-in-pypickit/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/04/pickit2-logic-analyser-in-pypickit/I've finally got round to implementing this in pypickit. The Microchip Pickit2 device has a built in logic analyser mode available in its Windows application. I've implemented support for it in my pyp…Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:34:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/04/merging-developer-keystores-on-the-kindle/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/04/merging-developer-keystores-on-the-kindle/It is obvious that more than one person will want to write homebrew for the Kindle. However, with my (now defunct) adqdevkeys-0.1 package, it just copies the file over whatever is already there, so we…Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:18:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/04/switching-to-virtualbox-and-getting-snow-leopard-to-work-in-a-vm/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/04/switching-to-virtualbox-and-getting-snow-leopard-to-work-in-a-vm/Originally I had been trying to get Snow Leopard to work in qemu-kvm, and it kind of does; I had even thought of contributing to that project to make it work even better (e.g. the e1000 emulation does…Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:40:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/03/htc-desire-hd/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/03/htc-desire-hd/My wife bought a new phone the other day, an HTC Desire HD, which means she now has a better phone than I do, grrr! Anyway, within a few hours of receiving it, I had rooted it, removed the security ch…Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:37:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/03/ipsec-tools-racoon-support-for-checkpoint-vpn-1-proprietary-xauth-authentication/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/02/03/ipsec-tools-racoon-support-for-checkpoint-vpn-1-proprietary-xauth-authentication/I posted about this a while back, and submitted a patch to the racoon developers list. However, I never heard anything back about it (despite other people asking about it now and then). Is that projec…Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:13:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/20/liveview-pcb-front/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/20/liveview-pcb-front/Hi, just posted an updated high res pic of the liveview PCB front: The illegible chip at the bottom middle has "E3030 Z312E" on itThu, 20 Jan 2011 22:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/20/redbus-update/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/20/redbus-update/Did a spot of redbus development this evening, one politeness fix, one bugfix and one really annoying thing. - Politeness: silence the stop data update alarm. It'll still warn you when updates are ava…Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:20:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/14/huffington-post-article-on-kindle-hacking/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/14/huffington-post-article-on-kindle-hacking/See here.Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:20:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/10/liveview-case-clips/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/10/liveview-case-clips/To help people out, I've drawn the approximate size and location of the plastic retainer clips holding the liveview together in red on this image. I used a swiss army knife to lever it open blindly :)…Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/06/liveview-teardown/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/06/liveview-teardown/OK, ok, I couldn't resist any longer, I had to open the liveview up. Here are the pics (click for larger ones): Front view: Rear view: Front PCB closeup: Rear PCB closeup: It seems to be rather annoyi…Thu, 06 Jan 2011 06:20:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/04/sony-ericsson-liveview-hacking-complete/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2011/01/04/sony-ericsson-liveview-hacking-complete/I've just checked in the final piece of the LiveView protocol. If you look here, you'll find a complete re-implementation of the LiveView protocol in Python, allowing it to be completely controlled fr…Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:06:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/12/29/sony-ericsson-liveview-hacking/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/12/29/sony-ericsson-liveview-hacking/I bought one of those wee Sony LiveView devices during the holidays. They sound quite cool in theory, but the connection to them seems to be rather flakey for some reason. Supposedly there is a firmwa…Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:26:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/12/28/jrename-0-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/12/28/jrename-0-2/Hi, just created a new release (0.2) of jrename, available here. This has a couple of user submitted patches, one to fix a NullPointerException when processing interfaces, and one to fix method/field…Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:27:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/11/29/redbus-annoyance-with-small-screen-devices/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/11/29/redbus-annoyance-with-small-screen-devices/I just found out earlier today that redbus wasn't showing up on certain devices, specifically "small screen" phones. Since I had originally targetted android SDK 1.5, and support for small screen devi…Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:17:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/11/01/kif-0-5/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/11/01/kif-0-5/Finally got some time to update this a bit: - Get timed events working - freefall and z-life should now work properly. - Add about page. - Sort out licensing. It is available from here. If you've alre…Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:06:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/21/mangle-0-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/21/mangle-0-2/Hi, just updated Mangle to 0.2. I've fixed several bugs: - Page back now moves one page only. - You can use shift+page navigation buttons to change chapters. - Workaround for another framework bug whi…Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:50:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/20/mangle-a-better-manga-reader-for-the-kindle/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/20/mangle-a-better-manga-reader-for-the-kindle/As a slight break from KIF, I decided to fix another annoyance with my kindle: the built in manga reader. Note: Mangle 0.2 is now available. I was really quite impressed that it natively supported CBZ…Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:42:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/19/kif-0-4/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/19/kif-0-4/This relase has a lot of bugfixes. There are a couple of new major features though: - Thanks to testing from charliefx on the mobiread forums, it now works properly on the Kindle DX (needed workaround…Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:15:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/16/kif-0-3/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/16/kif-0-3/A few more fixes and tweaks completed... New shiny things: - Lots of display model fixes - curses is working even better. - Added command history (use UP and DOWN on 5-button control) - decided it was…Sat, 16 Oct 2010 01:35:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/14/kif-0-2-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/14/kif-0-2-1/Update: Whoops, now on 0.2.1 - just fixed a hang if you press HOME with a file selector dialogue open! RIght, several days of hacking (hampered by catching a cold) later, here is v0.2.1 of KIF. It has…Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:12:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/10/kif-next-steps/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/10/kif-next-steps/I've just realised that the zmpp GUI "zmpp-android" that I was basing my interaction with the VM on is obviously a very early prototype; many things are missing from it. This explains some of the curs…Sun, 10 Oct 2010 23:19:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/10/redbus-workaround-core-map-crash-on-1-6-2-1-devices/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/10/redbus-workaround-core-map-crash-on-1-6-2-1-devices/I've been working with a redbus user today to fix a mysterious crash in the view maps GUI. I'd originally thought it was the out of memory issue I had already fixed. However, it turned out to be an OS…Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:35:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/10/edinburgh-bus-tracker-update/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/10/edinburgh-bus-tracker-update/Just released a new version which I'm hoping will fix the crashes I (and others) have been seeing in the nearby stops map. The problem was I had switched to a double-buffered redrawing system in order…Sun, 10 Oct 2010 03:46:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/09/kif-an-infocom-text-adventure-interpreter-for-the-kindle/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/09/kif-an-infocom-text-adventure-interpreter-for-the-kindle/Wow, this sort of thing seems to be in the news these days! Note: I've updated these instructions for KIF 0.5; please see here for the release notes.. My app is different however: it isn't web hosted,…Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:44:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/02/jrename-a-java-deobfuscator/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/10/02/jrename-a-java-deobfuscator/Investigating decompiled obfuscated Java code is interesting. It isn't as difficult as looking at raw assembly code since you're generally looking at Java source. Also, you know what is grouped into w…Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/30/kindle-3-my-developer-kindlet-is-working/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/30/kindle-3-my-developer-kindlet-is-working/Rather surprisingly, it just started working! All you need to have is a valid keystore at /var/local/java/keystore/developer.keystore with at least three keys in it. The aliases of the three keys must…Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:12:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/30/kindle-progress/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/30/kindle-progress/I've now created a valid java keystore in /var/local/java/developer.keystore. Clicking on my ktest app in the menu now says "The title is not signed by a registered developer". All righty, so getting…Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/30/kindle-3-hacking/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/30/kindle-3-hacking/My latest gadget is a kindle 3, and of course I want to hack it. It has already been jailbroken using an exploit in busybox's tar command symlink handling. See here for details and updates. I installe…Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:42:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/22/streetview/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/09/22/streetview/Hmm, not posted anything on here for ages! Anyway, to get going again, here is a tiny python library for interfacing to Google's Streetview. It can download the tiles, but can also decode the panorama…Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:24:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/07/02/android-market-developer-console-improving/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/07/02/android-market-developer-console-improving/I've just noticed the android market developer console has finally gained a "Comments" link where you can see the comments people have submitted on your app. Frankly, it was a surprise to me that they…Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:48:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/26/redbus-released-and-dodgy-data/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/26/redbus-released-and-dodgy-data/I released the latest redbus sometime this morning; its looking good, not had any negative reports (and some very positive ones), so I hope I managed to zap all the bugs caused by the optimisations. Y…Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/22/redbus-mostly-complete/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/22/redbus-mostly-complete/Well, I've just been putting the finishing touches on redbus' last major feature: bus stop location data updates. This isn't released yet; as its the sort of thing I really don't want to go wrong on o…Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:23:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/19/dunbar-trip/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/19/dunbar-trip/Sea Anemonie Originally uploaded by adq\ukSat, 19 Jun 2010 04:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/19/aberlady-beach/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/19/aberlady-beach/Shining Coast Originally uploaded by adq\ukSat, 19 Jun 2010 02:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/15/quickie-geek-update/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/15/quickie-geek-update/Can't sleep again due to too many geeky things flying about in my head, gah! The next major feature to add to redbus will be bus stop data updates; I already have code to pull the stop information fro…Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:54:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/12/redbus-1-0-17/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/12/redbus-1-0-17/In celebration of passing 1000 downloads, I've just released a new version with a lot of work on the map GUI. :)Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:46:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/11/edinburgh-bus-millenium-edition/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/11/edinburgh-bus-millenium-edition/Woohoo! We've just hit 1000 downloads! I wonder if this caused the market unavailability problem? Theoretically, at 1000 downloads, Google might switch you to a different set of servers, and it takes…Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:36:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/11/edinburgh-bus-tracker-app-has-vanished/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/06/11/edinburgh-bus-tracker-app-has-vanished/I've just noticed the Edinburgh Bus Tracker has vanished from the Android market ; I've had independent confirmations from multiple people. I've not had any contact from Google or anyone, so I can onl…Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:01:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/24/time-to-start-on-usb-host-again-hopefully/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/24/time-to-start-on-usb-host-again-hopefully/I see there's been a 2.1 ROM for the Hero relased over at villainrom. What is even more interesting is that they're using a 2.6.29 kernel source released by someone called "Ben22". Git tree here. So..…Mon, 24 May 2010 13:36:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/22/redbus-1-0-9/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/22/redbus-1-0-9/Another hour's development this morning, and I now have a bus stop proximity alarm! (i.e. when you're physically within a radius of a stop). I'm not sure how well this is going to work using the Locat…Sat, 22 May 2010 12:56:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/21/bus-competition/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/21/bus-competition/Cool, I see we now have a competitor on the edinburgh bus tracking scene :)Fri, 21 May 2010 13:29:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/14/redbus-my-first-android-application-edinburgh-bus-tracker/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/14/redbus-my-first-android-application-edinburgh-bus-tracker/Aww, isn't it cute. I got fed up waiting for someone else to write an Edinburgh Bus Tracker application for Android that I've done it myself. Took about three evenings worth of development (including…Fri, 14 May 2010 02:45:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/11/new-joggler-sound-patch-with-external-audio-crackle-fix/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/11/new-joggler-sound-patch-with-external-audio-crackle-fix/disca from the joggler.info forums kindly sent me an update to my sound patch which fixes any crackling on the external audio jack. I've incorporated it into v3 of my 2.6.33 kernel patches, available…Tue, 11 May 2010 19:47:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/09/android-userspace-development-and-usb-summary/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/05/09/android-userspace-development-and-usb-summary/I was asked for a summary of my USB patches: basically they work on the HTC Hero under 2.6.27/Android1.5 with a few small issues, and should be portable to other 1.5 kernels without too much hassle. A…Sun, 09 May 2010 00:19:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/17/todays-pic-view-from-grassmere/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/17/todays-pic-view-from-grassmere/view from grassmere Originally uploaded by adq\uk Apologies if this one is screwed up; its hard seeing if the colours are ok in the sun beside this swimming pool ;-PSat, 17 Apr 2010 17:13:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/16/todays-pic-speedtree/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/16/todays-pic-speedtree/speedtree Originally uploaded by adq\uk Bandwidth constrained here in the darkest lake district, so one photo per day max.... This one was inspired by looking at www.flickr.com/photos/27467013@N08/set…Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:13:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/16/usb-patch-v23-very-close-to-working/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/16/usb-patch-v23-very-close-to-working/Hi, I've deicded to release the current version (v23) of the patch for people to play with. You can find it in my adqmisc repository here. My kernel config file is also there. If you build it, you'll…Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:50:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/15/dr-moebius-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/15/dr-moebius-2/Corridor Originally uploaded by adq\uk Some photos from Dr. Moebius 2Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:06:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/14/more-progress/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/14/more-progress/The main problem with the unloadable function/host driver modules was that the "vold" android userspace daemon really didn't like the USB mass storage /sys entries not being present. If you watched on…Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:12:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/13/android-otg-support/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/13/android-otg-support/This evening, I've decided to go back to my older codebase with the load/unload modules to switch between device and host mode approach. There are several reasons: 1. I'd like to get this kernel devel…Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/12/android-usb-progress/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/12/android-usb-progress/I finally made some progress on the Android USB code last night; I've got the codeaurora USB host/function code pretty much integrated into the Hero source tree: it builds cleanly. Right now it only s…Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:45:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/10/joggler-openpeak-backlight-and-light-sensor-code/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/10/joggler-openpeak-backlight-and-light-sensor-code/OKdoke, some more joggler code ready. If you look here, you'll find: - A patch to add the joggler's backlight control to the proper kernel backlight framework - A userspace program to read the light s…Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:51:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/09/efi-firmware-image-analyser-dumper-ripper/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/09/efi-firmware-image-analyser-dumper-ripper/As part of the joggler work, I've developed a set of tools for pulling EFI firmware images apart. I did have a look for others, but I initially couldn't find anything. Later I did find some, but they…Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:41:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/09/distracted-by-the-joggler/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/04/09/distracted-by-the-joggler/Hi, apologies to anyone wanting the Hero USB stuff, I've been distracted by messing with the O2 Joggler this week. This is a 512Mb 1GHz Intel Atom based capacitative touchscreen web tablet with 1Gb of…Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:08:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/18/hero-usb-update/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/18/hero-usb-update/Hi, quick update on the status of this. Last week I switched to using the codeaurora.com driver source as it supports proper USB OTG switching, and also has board specific tweaks. However, shortly aft…Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:17:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/09/lets-get-this-show-on-the-road/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/09/lets-get-this-show-on-the-road/USB patch for host+function mode here. it \is\ still unstable as unloading/loading the drivers hangs the phone after a few times. However, its working well enough for an alpha release. Update: I think…Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:55:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/08/finally-some-android-usb-progress/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/08/finally-some-android-usb-progress/This evening, I've finally been testing out my new function driver code. Its getting close: I'm now able to load and unload the drivers repeatedly cleanly. Unfortunately it locks the phone solid short…Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:22:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/05/checkpoint-securremote-vpn-psk-patch-for-racoon/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/05/checkpoint-securremote-vpn-psk-patch-for-racoon/Phew, the last few days have involved hacking in support for the Checkpoint SecuRemote proprietary VPN support to the standard "racoon" IPSEC IKE daemon. Luckily as it turns out, it uses a standard pr…Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:00:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/01/dr-moebius-at-the-catacombs-of-curiosity/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/03/01/dr-moebius-at-the-catacombs-of-curiosity/A Ghost Walks Past Originally uploaded by adq\uk I decided to take the DSLR I'd converted to a pure infrared camera along to see how well it worked in a club situation. I think I'll try it again, as s…Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:48:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/22/switching-to-usb-function/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/22/switching-to-usb-function/No progress on this over the weekend, as I was busy helping assemble a friend's CNC cupcake 3d printer. This evening though, I've decided to switch to the USB function drivers for this project; the ga…Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:20:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/20/some-progress-of-a-sort/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/20/some-progress-of-a-sort/I've been busy rewriting the usb\notifier stuff so that the msm72k\udc gagdet driver can be unloaded cleanly at runtime, yet still do the necessary power notification stuff. I've just finished this, a…Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:01:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/15/g1-usb-host-working/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/15/g1-usb-host-working/I've just had word that (apart from a slight bug), the G1's USB host mode is now working too; the first completely independant confimation!Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:29:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/10/motorla-droid-usb-host/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/10/motorla-droid-usb-host/Cool, I see someone else has got USB host mode going on the (OMAP based) Motorola Droid.. Details here.Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:26:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/10/usb-storage-working/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/10/usb-storage-working/Just compiled a Hero kernel with usb storage and hooked up my ipod to the phone; works perfectly. I now have a phone with an 80gb external hard disk :)Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:38:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/09/htc-hero-msm7201-usb-host-mode/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/02/09/htc-hero-msm7201-usb-host-mode/For the last few days I've been busy figuring out how to support USB host mode on the HTC hero. This may also apply to many other android devices (e.g. the G1, and possibly the Nexus One as I think it…Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:51:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/27/fimo-slugs/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/27/fimo-slugs/The next part of my TV control project was to cover the TV's IR sensor. I have an IR transmitter stuck to it, but the TV gets confused by signals from other remotes. I needed some sort of nodule to co…Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:39:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/26/mains-power-fun/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/26/mains-power-fun/I'd been looking for a way for my media PC to control the power of the other devices in that system (sub, amp, tv). I'd thought about X.10, but I felt that was expensive overkill. After some investiga…Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:52:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/23/working-32wlt68-tv-control-solution/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/23/working-32wlt68-tv-control-solution/Here we go! First of all, my lirc configuration for the toshiba TV power button, manually adjusted to the proper NEC timings: begin remote name Toshiba bits 16 flags SPACE\ENC eps 25 aeps 100 header 9…Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/23/the-tv-saga-continues/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/23/the-tv-saga-continues/I've been experimenting with the IR blasting TV control option. With IR blasting you don't (normally) get any status back from the TV, so you need what is called a "discrete code" - an IR signal that…Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:15:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/22/hdcp-and-the-toshiba-32wlt68-lcd-tv/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/22/hdcp-and-the-toshiba-32wlt68-lcd-tv/In which I investigate tv control and accidentally stumble over the HDCP protocol. I've been investigating controlling my tv from my media box recently. There are three four main possibilites: 1. IR b…Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:17:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/22/ofcom-consultation-about-bbc-drm/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2010/01/22/ofcom-consultation-about-bbc-drm/Interesting, see this link on the reg Ofcom are asking people if the BBC should be allowed to apply their proposed programme listing DRM. Whether responding will do any good, I don't know, but it can'…Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:20:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/12/17/todays-good-deed/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/12/17/todays-good-deed/Wheee, at about 12am last night I decided that I really just had to port tigervnc to the latest 1.7.x xserver. It hadn't been done previously because there were some fairly massive cleanups in the key…Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:32:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/29/lake-district/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/29/lake-district/On the way to Wrynose Pass Originally uploaded by adq\uk Photos from our trip to the Lake District . I can see why people fall in love with the place: the colours, man, the colours!Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/28/lamplight-in-the-evening/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/28/lamplight-in-the-evening/Lamplight in the Evening Originally uploaded by adq\ukSat, 28 Nov 2009 01:01:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/28/some-ir-photos-from-kendal/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/28/some-ir-photos-from-kendal/Lions Head IR Originally uploaded by adq\ukSat, 28 Nov 2009 00:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/24/android-auto-phone-backup-part-3/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/24/android-auto-phone-backup-part-3/This evening I finished off my rsync script. It now uses the "--link-dir" feature to support proper incremental backups using hard links. The system works pretty well; wander into the flat, wifi auto-…Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:26:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/18/android-auto-phone-backup-part-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/18/android-auto-phone-backup-part-2/So, at the end of my previous post, I had rsync compiled and runnable on the phones via ssh. Some playing about and chatting later, my friend Colin suggested adding the backup into one of the dhcpcd h…Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:16:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/16/arm-rsync-binary-for-android/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/16/arm-rsync-binary-for-android/I've been looking for a way to automatically backup my HTC Hero android phone. All the solutions on the market seem a bit lacking - either unable to backup everything, or only backing up to the SD car…Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:30:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/01/edinburgh-by-night/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/11/01/edinburgh-by-night/View across the Forth Originally uploaded by adq\ukSun, 01 Nov 2009 23:00:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/10/23/last-nights-etching-project/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/10/23/last-nights-etching-project/Nautilus Pendant Originally uploaded by adq\ukFri, 23 Oct 2009 20:50:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/10/14/etched-brass-domino-mask/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/10/14/etched-brass-domino-mask/Presentation Case Originally uploaded by adq\uk Some shots of my brass domino mask. It consists of half-etched brass sheet on leather. Cotton tape secures the mask to the head. I'll try and do a simil…Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:54:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/16/tantallon-castle/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/16/tantallon-castle/Cliffs Originally uploaded by adq\uk Behold! Pictures from my trip to Tantallon castle a while back.Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:20:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/14/coffee-table-upgrade/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/14/coffee-table-upgrade/Hey look, its an ordinary, common-or-garden coffee table: well mostly ordinary, this one seems to have rather an excessive amount of laptops/serial port hacking cables on it... Hmm, whats that though?…Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:08:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/13/power-plant/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/13/power-plant/THEY ARE COMING Originally uploaded by adq\uk Photos from "Power Plant"; the Botanics Glasshouses by night.Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:18:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/13/etch-tank-v3-0/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/09/13/etch-tank-v3-0/Woo, finally, here is v3.0 of my etch tank: The main features/improvements of this version are: - Sensible 1.5L capacity (v1.0 was something stupid like 5L). - Tank now has a cover during operation. -…Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:28:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/22/dreams-of-steam/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/22/dreams-of-steam/A Gentleman Down Whitechapel Way Originally uploaded by adq\ukSat, 22 Aug 2009 20:53:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/16/some-pictures-from-glasgow-by-gaslight/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/16/some-pictures-from-glasgow-by-gaslight/first act.png Originally uploaded by adq\uk At the Glasgow Britannica Panopticon Music Hall! Featuring an exclusive shot of Ace Pilot Strychnine himself!Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:29:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/16/some-pictures-from-edinburgh-in-the-haar/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/16/some-pictures-from-edinburgh-in-the-haar/McEwan Hall Originally uploaded by adq\ukSun, 16 Aug 2009 21:46:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/12/success-3/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/12/success-3/Well, mostly. See for yourself: The paper must have been slightly squint further down as the triangular top pieces haven't worked at all. I did wonder about trying to do so much in one go, so in futur…Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:09:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/09/and-now-for-something-a-little-more-sophisticated/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/09/and-now-for-something-a-little-more-sophisticated/Or: what I did this afternoon. Here is my engineering prototype for the finished item. It'll consist of etched copper plates held together with leather. My design for the plates, hot off the presses.…Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:11:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/01/android-apk-resource-extractor/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/08/01/android-apk-resource-extractor/Over the last week, I've been learning the android platform, from a software development point of view down to the platform development kit and below as usual. I have so many ideas for things to hack,…Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:32:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/20/vinyl-dye/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/20/vinyl-dye/Just spotted this on MAKE magazine: the use of vinyl dye to dye plastics.Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:02:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/06/leeds/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/06/leeds/We just got back from Leeds an hour or so ago; loads of fun, must definitely do it again! I quite liked Leeds as a city, its an slightly crazy mismash of styles; we especially liked wandering through…Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:22:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/02/a-trip-round-the-botanics-with-a-d50ir/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/02/a-trip-round-the-botanics-with-a-d50ir/blue rose.png Originally uploaded by adq\ukThu, 02 Jul 2009 16:30:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/02/camera-upgrade-complete/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/07/02/camera-upgrade-complete/A week or so ago, I finally broke and ordered a new SLR body. After a lot of deliberation, I chose the Nikon D90. I had considered the D300, but (a) its waaay more expensive, and (b) it is quite a lot…Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:42:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/28/etching-success-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/28/etching-success-1/A few days ago, I tried the thermal transfer onto brass again, this time with almost perfect success: There were a couple of small bits that failed, but I fixed them by hand with a permanent marker, b…Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/17/thermal-transfer-attempt-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/17/thermal-transfer-attempt-2/... was worse than 1. This time I tried a different type of paper: Epson Premium Glossy @255gsm. This was too thick and also quite plasticky (same kind of feel as a non-digital photo print). The water…Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:50:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/17/thermal-transfer-attempt-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/17/thermal-transfer-attempt-1/My first attempt was to transfer the following laser printout on Epson photopaper onto the piece of brass below. I folded the paper and stapled round the edges to keep the brass in place. I wasn't qui…Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:13:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/16/the-edinburgh-etch-calculations/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/16/the-edinburgh-etch-calculations/So, the calculations for the solution i've just created. I am the first to admit that the following may be absolute bollocks; although I was quite good at chemistry, its been a while since school... A…Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/16/all-hail-the-edinburgh-etch/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/16/all-hail-the-edinburgh-etch/Behold! A bottle of the lemony/irony tasting nasty yellow/brown chemical known as the Edinburgh Etch! Here is my "lab", cunningly disguised as a bucket. I wore goggles and rubber gloves and everything…Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:02:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/16/a-trip-to-castle-gloom/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/06/16/a-trip-to-castle-gloom/cellar Originally uploaded by adq\uk A picture of one of the denizens...Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:16:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/31/hardware-resurrection-of-the-n770/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/31/hardware-resurrection-of-the-n770/Over the last couple of weeks, I've been resurrecting the linux support for the nokia 770 internet tablet. I want to use it with my python PTP camera software as a highly portable control system for t…Sun, 31 May 2009 01:48:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/17/wait-a-moment/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/17/wait-a-moment/I remember seeing some film industry bod on the TV recently saying that the new RealD 3d stuff was great because it couldn't be recorded in the cinema by the audience. However, the thought just struct…Sun, 17 May 2009 14:10:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/10/heres-lookin-at-you-kid/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/10/heres-lookin-at-you-kid/here's lookin' at you, kid Originally uploaded by adq\uk I spent some time chasing this beastie round the room this lunchtime..Sun, 10 May 2009 20:39:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/09/easy-custom-shirt-design-manufacturing-website/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/05/09/easy-custom-shirt-design-manufacturing-website/I've just found this website. Its fantastic! It has a web based shirt designer where you can customise pretty much anything - material, buttons, contrasting button stiching, monograms, pockets.......…Sat, 09 May 2009 13:24:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/29/amazing-colour-pictures-from-1930s-40s-america-scopedog/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/29/amazing-colour-pictures-from-1930s-40s-america-scopedog/I find this wonderful flickr set from the US Library of Congress give a completely different perspective being in colour... Also, Nik, I don't think much of the painting on these, being spoilt by the…Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:49:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/27/ptp-digital-camera-control/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/27/ptp-digital-camera-control/Woohoo - just uploaded some more of my archived code to a new project at http://code.google.com/p/pyptp/. This time it is my python PTP support library. Whats so good about this? Well, many digital ca…Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/26/eframe-mass-storage/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/26/eframe-mass-storage/I've just realised I'd never actually tried plugging the eframe into my PC. Well, it shows up as a mass storage device with all the photos etc visible on the internal storage. The "PF110.RSS" RSS bina…Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/26/eframe-firmware-dump/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/26/eframe-firmware-dump/... is ongoing as I type: using 6 wirewrap wires soldered to the handy breakout area on the board, and readspiflash.py from pypickit. Also, added bonus: nothing has been fried yet!Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:02:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/eframe-ftp-server/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/eframe-ftp-server/I've just switched the eframe project over to using the extremely nifty pyftpdlib; so much nicer now! The eframe protocol still seems a little flakey in that the eframe seems to just "give up" quite f…Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:40:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/binaural-test-2-beltane-drummers/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/binaural-test-2-beltane-drummers/Another short test of the binaural setup, mainly for practice at putting it on quickly and to test my new earclips. This time its the beltane drummers on the mound; I'm static, but they're walking pas…Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/pre-beltane-2009-1/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/pre-beltane-2009-1/pre beltane 2009 1 Originally uploaded by adq\uk Pictures from the beltane drumming on the mound this afternoon. Warning: may include traces of redLex.Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:05:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/goblin-ha/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/goblin-ha/goblin ha' Originally uploaded by adq\uk some pictures from our trip to Gifford last SundaySat, 25 Apr 2009 17:27:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/robotic-aquatic-flying-penguins/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/25/robotic-aquatic-flying-penguins/Have a look at this! They show an XBee mesh network device at some point later; not sure if its actually used as a wireless device to control the penguins or something else though...Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:24:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/22/eframe-rss-working/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/22/eframe-rss-working/Got the eframe's RSS upload working now - there are two utils: - encoderss.py - This converts a textual RSS feedlist (see samplerssfeeds.txt) into the binary PF110.RSS file which is uploaded to the ef…Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:34:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/22/bt-eframe-progress/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/22/bt-eframe-progress/I've just uploaded the latest code to code.google.com. It is still incomplete, and I've discovered several annoyances with the thing: 1. You must send a broadcast message to locate the eframes; you ca…Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:01:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/21/binaural-rig/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/21/binaural-rig/Here's what I recorded the previous post with: So that consists of: - Middle: 80Gb Ipod - Left: Belkin TuneTalk stereo ipod recording addon thing - Bottom: Mic preamp - Top left: binaural headset I bo…Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:35:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/21/the-way-home/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/21/the-way-home/Ladies and gentlemen, experience the thrills of three minutes of the way home (4Mb mp3) in full binaural surround sound. Warning: may not actually be very interesting, as I'm only just getting going a…Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:19:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/17/bt-eframe-1000-progress/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/17/bt-eframe-1000-progress/I held off on the firmware dumping for a day or so and concentrated on the network protocol. I've implemented the protocol basics in python and can now search for frames, and read the storage and syst…Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:55:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/15/mysterious-pads-identified/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/15/mysterious-pads-identified/I hate seeing things like this on boards: Its obviously got pads for DIP switches of some sort, but its mysteriously unpopulated! Luckily, searching for "Innolux" and "CPT" reveals they're competing L…Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:15:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/15/bt-eframe-1000/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/15/bt-eframe-1000/Just received my BT eframe 1000 this afternoon; set it up in the office to play with a bit :) Anyway, first order of work when I got home was to open the thing and have a look. This guy has already do…Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:43:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/13/style-update/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/13/style-update/Finally got round to updating the style on my journal; I think it looks much cleaner now. I also enabled non-LJ-user comments etc. More documentation added to pypickit, including some nice diagrams: I…Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:38:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/11/pypickit/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/04/11/pypickit/I've just created a project on google code so my python pickit code is in a public place for others to use. Currently it supports the Microchip PicKit2 ICD device, and has libraries for talking to Cam…Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:24:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/31/bzzzz-xbees-arrived/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/31/bzzzz-xbees-arrived/First order of work is to interface onto the BT module for reprogramming purposes. Its an SPI device, and you're meant to use an expensive development kit to program it. However, I don't see why that…Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:33:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/29/xbee-wireless-point-to-point-link-project-ideas/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/29/xbee-wireless-point-to-point-link-project-ideas/After recovering earlier today, I've been reading up on these XBee RF Modules. Effectively you can hook two of them up and get a point to point wireless serial link between them at a fairly reasonable…Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/25/gilbert-u238-atomic-energy-lab-kit-1950s/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/25/gilbert-u238-atomic-energy-lab-kit-1950s/Now, this sounds both cool and scary: it comes with four types of Uranium ore, a Geiger counter, and a booklet on "prospecting for Uranium". There's Uranium in them thar hills! Just noticed the text o…Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:58:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/21/geektalk/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/21/geektalk/My friend Colin was round last night for a tech session... among other things, we looked at my Python PicKit source, and between us, we finally figured out how the hell JTAG works from the hardware in…Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:25:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/21/motherboard-spi-bios-recovery/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/21/motherboard-spi-bios-recovery/I've recently upgraded my media box PC to a new funky shiny one. During the course of this, I upgraded the BIOS on the new motherboard, and it decided to fail halfway through. Result: Brick!! However,…Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/08/granton-harbour/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/08/granton-harbour/Near the end of the pier Originally uploaded by adq\uk I decided to go for a walk to Granton Harbour today, as it seemed to be quite sunny. However, as I got further along this pier, the wind got stro…Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:59:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/08/crab/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/08/crab/Look at the size of this crab; it can crack coconuts in its claws!Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:50:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/07/upgrade-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/07/upgrade-2/I have finally ordered upgrades to my media/windowsgamey machine. Soon it shall be a quad core 4gb monster! Not ordered a new GFX card yet, but I will once more research has occurred. I'm going to reo…Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:44:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/05/magnet-shop/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/03/05/magnet-shop/Just run across this Magnet shop on the web - not looked in detail yet, but sounds like a useful place!Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:02:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/02/09/snow/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/02/09/snow/wheee.jpg Originally uploaded by adq\uk Pictures from the Snow on Sunday nightMon, 09 Feb 2009 21:30:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/02/07/docks-etc/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/02/07/docks-etc/cabler.png Originally uploaded by adq\uk Some photos from the docks etc Note: remember to clean lenses once in a while, or loads of image editing to remove crap needed!!Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:33:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/01/30/tum-te-tum/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/01/30/tum-te-tum/Nicola's out tonight so I'm at home amusing myself with films and things. I upgraded my flat asterisk VOIP server to 1.6.x (from 1.2.x): now the VOIP client on my Nokia E51 mobile works perfectly with…Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:15:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/01/17/this-mornings-hacking-kde-4-2-hdmi-hdtv-overscan-fix/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2009/01/17/this-mornings-hacking-kde-4-2-hdmi-hdtv-overscan-fix/Ever since I switched to using HDMI/DVI to connect my HDTV to my media box, there has been a slight problem: overscan. The HDTV chops a bit off the edges of the picture, in order to hide any possible…Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:34:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/11/04/success-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/11/04/success-2/Woo! I've been fiddling with my Nokia N770 all evening. I've managed to build a custom kernel (2.6.25) for it using openembedded, and get it to boot it. Of course, it being a keyboardless and ethernet…Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:03:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/10/22/quote-of-the-evening/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/10/22/quote-of-the-evening/"Does your battery always make that whining noise? ... whats that burning smell?" My mate Colin was round again this evening :)Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:15:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/10/13/autumn-leaves-hdr/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/10/13/autumn-leaves-hdr/autumn leaves HDR Originally uploaded by adq\uk I've Been attempting some more HDR photos based on the ones I took on Sunday.Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/10/06/hmm-2/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/10/06/hmm-2/You know, you begin to wonder if you've taken things too far when you have to upgrade the firmware and server software for your alarm clock. Mmm, technology.Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:33:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/09/23/a-wee-bit-of-detective-work/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/09/23/a-wee-bit-of-detective-work/A friend, Colin (he of the burning batteries), sent me this photo of the first PDP-7 being delivered to Edinburgh DCS: I didn't recognise the location, but he managed to make out "Hope Park something"…Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:46:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/09/16/bus-crash-york-place/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/09/16/bus-crash-york-place/Dreadful!Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:04:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/09/04/tv-recorder-redesign/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/09/04/tv-recorder-redesign/On Wednesday, I sat down, redesigned, then implemented my TV recording system's channel guide. As you may or may not be aware, over the last two years, I've hacked my own automated TV recording system…Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:23:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/08/06/pre-festival-wander/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/08/06/pre-festival-wander/roof detail of the bank hotel.png Originally uploaded by adq\ukWed, 06 Aug 2008 22:51:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/08/06/dean-gallery/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/08/06/dean-gallery/dean gallery, in reflection.png Originally uploaded by adq\ukWed, 06 Aug 2008 22:31:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/08/06/gig/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/08/06/gig/from the dark.png Originally uploaded by adq\uk Some photos from Friday nightWed, 06 Aug 2008 22:18:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/29/messing-about-with-hdr/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/29/messing-about-with-hdr/We went to the modern art gallery today; heading to the Dean Gallery tomorrow for the photography exhibition. I took some pics of the earthwork/pond sculpture in front of it and messed about with them…Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:22:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/29/etching-dear/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/29/etching-dear/Right, time for an etching update. The Senior Etching Technician at Edinburgh Printmakers has sent me an extremely informative email on his techniques and recipes; interestingly they are using the Bor…Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:01:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/28/wickerman-pics/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/28/wickerman-pics/Phew we're feeling more recovered, so here are some pics, blog later: All taken with a 30 quid 2-focus-setting on-sale-discontinued 5MP digital camera from Tescos, now known as "the wee blue beastie".Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:02:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/21/etching-chemicals/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/21/etching-chemicals/I've been having a happy afternoon researching chemical suppliers. The two solutions I've decided to target are the Edinburgh Etch and the etching solutions using Copper Sulphate. There is lots of inf…Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:04:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/20/party-pics/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/20/party-pics/Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:34:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/15/the-evenings-etching-update/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/15/the-evenings-etching-update/Cooool, while I was browsing the web looking for metal plate suppliers last night, I found these guys, Edinburgh Printmakers Studio. They say they would be happy to sell small quantities of supplies t…Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:48:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/14/etching-research/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/14/etching-research/So, an evening's research on the portable difference engine later :) It seems Copper Sulphate is the best option, as it is reasonably non-toxic, easily obtainable, and doesn't generate toxic vapour du…Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:28:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/14/thin-brass-plate/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/07/14/thin-brass-plate/Hmmm, anyone know where I can get thin brass plate in edinburgh (or copper)? I've just been reading about electrolytic etching and I want to play! I remember trying electroplating things with my chemi…Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:16:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/06/07/geocaching/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/06/07/geocaching/We tried the Garden Sculptures geocache today. Dead fun, will definitely do it again. I especially liked being able to have a wee treasure hunt in the middle of the city as a small break from shopping…Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:13:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/06/01/success/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/06/01/success/After an afternoon of learning APIs and library porting, I have just taken my first camera picture controlled over USB/PTP by clicking a GUI button on the Nokia N770! Apart from porting the python usb…Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:22:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/31/cramond/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/31/cramond/We went to Cramond today; got the 41 bus there and walked down. Had a look at what was left of the the Roman fort, which seemed infested with Dowsers. After that, we walked up the River Almond until w…Sat, 31 May 2008 21:52:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/27/photos-from-last-weekend/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/27/photos-from-last-weekend/Just uploaded some new photos from last weekend to my flickr. Some infrared shots from round calton hill, and my first attempt at a panorama shot. I stitched the panorama together using the opensource…Tue, 27 May 2008 17:21:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/24/beautiful-python/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/24/beautiful-python/I wrote this line of code last night: reduce(lambda acc,v: (acc << 8) | (v & 0xff), bytes\[::-1\]) That takes an array of bytes, reverses it (for CPU endianness), and then builds it into a single inte…Sat, 24 May 2008 11:12:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/21/photos-from-the-botanics-and-inverleith-park/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/21/photos-from-the-botanics-and-inverleith-park/I had a whole piece written about the weekend, but managed to accidentally zap it, and I can't be arsed rewriting it just now. Anyway, I've just posted some more photos from the Botanics and Inverleit…Wed, 21 May 2008 00:38:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/10/wee-camera/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/05/10/wee-camera/Hmm, I think I need to get a wee camera for taking to parties/ windy-hilltops-when-I've-had-far-too-much-to-drink-\cough\. Looking about, I think its gonna have to be a Canon. Why Canon specifically?…Sat, 10 May 2008 22:26:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/27/shadowtrees/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/27/shadowtrees/I went for a wander in the Botanics this morning with the two D's (David+Diego). Glad to get out of the house on such a nice day, as I spent all yesterday in bed with a headache. I took some photos of…Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:44:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/23/symbian-phone-hacked/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/23/symbian-phone-hacked/Booo, someone beat me to it! Anyway, I followed the instructions here, and they worked perfectly; I can see all the private interesting folders and do pretty much anything I want to my phone now. I ca…Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:39:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/22/ipodsync-python-script/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/22/ipodsync-python-script/I am fed up with using GUIs to sync my ipod with my music database, so I hacked the attached script together this evening. It uses the python bindings of libgpod. Originally, I thought of using rsync…Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:43:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/21/st-bernards-well-photos/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/04/21/st-bernards-well-photos/I finally got round to processing these.. They're from a few weeks ago, when St. Bernard's well was open, so we headed there with friends. Afterwards we went to the Botanics glasshouses. Hmm, my first…Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:23:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/26/terrarium/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/26/terrarium/These tiny terrariums seem kinda cool. Unfortunately, given our prior history of plant keeping, they'd die from dehydration. Or get knocked over and die. Or get hit by a tiny meteor, but survive, only…Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:44:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/13/chinese-lantern-photos/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/13/chinese-lantern-photos/I finally got round to processing my photos from the Chinese lantern festival; they're here! My first real attempt at taking photos in the dark; some are better than others! :)Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:03:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/12/phorm-isp-monitoring-and-privacy/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/12/phorm-isp-monitoring-and-privacy/In case someone hasn't seen this already (several people I know haven't), I thought I should pass this on. It doesn't affect me as I am not a customer of any of these ISPs. It has recently been reveal…Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:42:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/12/crochet/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/03/12/crochet/I found this interesting use of crochet (scroll down for the pictures). I like the sea slugs best myself :) Oh, and this is pretty cool too: long exposure photography using flashlights. Next time we'r…Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:19:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/02/22/online-supermarket-wow/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/02/22/online-supermarket-wow/Wow, Nicola's just told me she's trying mysupermarket.co.uk.. It seems to pull the data off four supermarkets (tesco, asda, sainsburys, and occado), and provides a completely alternative interface ont…Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:03:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/02/11/new-photos-3/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/02/11/new-photos-3/Some new photos uploaded: \ From Chinese new Year on portobello beach last Thursday. Much Poi drunken fire excitement! \ A couple from wandering round Edinburgh now it is warm enough to venture out ta…Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:01:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/01/03/new-year/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2008/01/03/new-year/Well, New Year seemed to go pretty well: we went round to Dave/Helen+Diego's as usual, and caught up with them, as well as Iain,Naiad,Alex and Marianne. Both David, Diego and Helene seemed to enjoy ou…Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:34:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/28/wii-console-finally-hacked/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/28/wii-console-finally-hacked/Cooooool!! Some guys have a video of it here. In summary: - Boot Wii in Gamecube mode (which only allows access to certain areas of memory/ GC compatable hardware). However, you can still run custom G…Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:11:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/19/linux-ricoh-xd-support/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/19/linux-ricoh-xd-support/... is coming along nicely! I've disassembled about 75% of the driver now, and can talk to XD cards and receive the expected responses. The hardware interface is slightly more complex than the simple…Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:57:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/17/abrasive-waterjet-machining/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/17/abrasive-waterjet-machining/As I currently can't sleep AGAIN due to reading too many interesting things AGAIN and then thinking too much, here is ANOTHER interesting thing. Soon no one will sleep! :) A friend sent me this page a…Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:32:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/04/ricoh-media-reader-under-linux/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/12/04/ricoh-media-reader-under-linux/Oh dear, oh dear, looks like I'm finally back to reverse engineering things again. The media reader in my new laptop supports MMC/SD/MemoryStick/XD cards. However under linux, only SD cards are suppor…Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:43:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/10/30/column-oriented-dbms/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/10/30/column-oriented-dbms/I've been investigating Column Oriented DBMS systems today. These are designed for data warehousing applications (as opposed to transactional processing). They use a data storage mechanism which is or…Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:12:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/10/10/gadgetgadgetgadgetgadget/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/10/10/gadgetgadgetgadgetgadget/Behold my latest gadget: . It is a Squeezebox, a thin client music playback system; music is streamed from my flat server running the squeezebox daemon (which is opensource and available on many platf…Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:44:00 GMThttps://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/10/07/bluetooth-sniffing/https://blog.lidskialf.net/2007/10/07/bluetooth-sniffing/I'm finally starting to feel like low level hardware things again at long last. Following the vague instructions here I now have a functional bluetooth sniffer for free! I'm not sure quite what to do…Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:41:00 GMT