Making MIDI hi-hat controller from unused bass drum pedal

Recently one of my friends bought an electronic drum set made by polish manufacturer "DIG DRUM". The drum set is very good and combined with the Alesis triggerIO works really well.

Unfortunately the pedal for controlling the hi-hat open/close signal was not included in the set. After a quick search, I've discovered that the circuit for the controller is trivial, so I decided to build my own.

The circuit for setting the pedal state consist only off a potentiometer and a cable which connects it to one of the IO ports of the trigger interface. You can find the diagram on this page.

For the pedal I've used a part of a twin bass drum pedal set, which was no longer used.
In order to be able to rotate the potentiometer, it needs to be mounted to the axis off the pedal. To achieve that I've created a stand from a piece of plexiglass and a metal plate.

The stand with the potentiometer and the socket:

The potentiometer is connected with a 1/4 stereo jack socket using a short wire:

The part which connects the axis of the pedal with the potentionemter. A few screws and metal pads mounted together:

...and the whole construction:

It works pretty well for now, but I suppose that the potentiometer will not live for too long in this kind of application :-)

Battery powered hands warmer

If you ever had your hands frozen in the winter, you may be glad to have this simple battery powered hands warmer made from junk.

IMPORTANT: I take no responsibility for any injuries caused by anything you build using this guide. Everything you do is for you own responsibility. Be aware that this device may cause burns and heated batteries can explode !!!

To build this simple, yet useful device you will need:
- old PC power supply
- plastic 3 x 1,5V battery pack
- some resistors
- wires, solder, soldering iron

The most important element for the heater is the radiator with a power transistor that you should find in almost any PC power supply. You will need to unsolder the transistor together with the radiator. Mine was TT2140 which you can see on this image:

The circuit is very simple, it includes only the transistor and a 25 Ohm resistor. The value of the resistor may be different for different transistors. I suggest trying different values between 10 and 150 Ohm and measuring the current from the battery. The current should not be too high because the batteries will start heating instead of the transistor (and check if the temperature isn't too high for your hands). In my case I used two resistors paralleled, because I didn't had a 25 Ohm one.

Some more views of the heater:

Have fun and be safe !

birdsim - bird calls simulator for 3D audio systems

Living in a city has it pros and cons, however the main disadvantages for many people is the lack of access to the nature. Especially in winter, the view of naked trees and dirty snow may be really depressing. This situation led me to the idea of an application which could simulate bird calls (songs) using my 5.1 audio system for a 3D ambient sound-scape experience.
The goal was to create something different than bird calls recordings on CD. First of all, it is hard to find "nature sounds" CDs  with DTS surround sound. In my idea the listener should be in the center of a "virtual scene". Next I have a thought of simulating real-time behaviours, like different bird species singing at specified hours (some birds time-perception accuracy can be measured in minutes!). Finally, in real world the sound scene is very dynamic, some birds are moving, other are flying away or closer to the listener. I wanted to include all those dynamics existing in real environment.

The result of my work is the birdsim application. It is written in Python using OpenAL and pyOpenAL wrapper for 3D sound. Unfortunately the pyOpenAL for python seems no longer to be supported, but it is still downloadable as a deb package. Also I were unable to port birdsim to windows, also because of the OpenAL lib. It could be great if someone could share pyOpenAL working on windows.
Birdsim is based on XML scene and bird descriptors. Each bird have some sound samples and XML description included. It was hard to find really good quality bird calls sound samples (by good quality I mean also that the samples include ONLY sounds of one bird, which is not so common as one could imagine). I encourage you to add new birds to the database and create different scenes. Currenty there is one scene called night.xml which include some night birds and crickets. The second scene called 24hours.xml include all birds which will appear in real time of day (most of them start early in the morning).

Here is the link to sourceforge page with the whole project:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/birdsim/

Have fun !

Arduino + ikea box + flightgear = flykeaduino

Hello there. It's been some time since my last post. I got some new stuff and ideas meantime so it's time to share something.

Recently I have played flightgear a lot, it is a very good open source flightsim and it has some usefull abilities. One of the most usefull things is that flightgear provides access to simulation parameters via telnet ! Using it for making own control system was really easy.

First I've wrote a simple app for arduino to utilize six switches and one potentiometer. Arduino sends the data about switches state using serial. You can download the code here.

Next I've used a box from ikea some wires and soldering iron to make a simple control panel. The switches are connected in the most basic way. Every switch has +5V, ground and one digital input pin connected. The potentiometer is connected in the same way except that it uses  the analog input pin.

The data from arduino is parsed by python script which connects to flightgear by telnet and sets proper values for various controls. You can find the script here.

Usage:
- connect arduino, compile and flash the app
- run flightgear with  "--telnet=5401" argument
- run the python script
- done ! use switches and buttons to control flightgear

Have fun :)

555 earrings

I've made a pair of very special geek-earrings for someone very special to me :). They are based on a 555 timer, LED, couple of resistors and a capacitor. All soldered to take as little space as possible.
They will be probably knitted out or transformed in some other way to be more girl-friendly.

Here you got the circuit and photo:
(555 chip on the circuit is upside down)

555 timer earrings

BusPirate oscilloscope python script

Some time ago I wrote a simple oscilloscope script for Bus Pirate.
Pygame and pyBusPirateLite libraries are needed to run it. Unfortunately the BusPirate firmware sends data collected by ADC very slowly so it's working rather as a live-plot than a real oscilloscope but even though it may be useful.

v 1.0

v 1.2

Usage:
edit this line in oscope.py so it points to BusPirate
BUS_PIRATE_DEV = "/dev/ttyUSB0"
Connect ADC and GND lines.
Run and have fun :)

Download here:
oscope.py

>>EDIT<<
New version: oscope_v1.2.py
Working only with modified firmware (ADC modification 20.09.2010):
BPv3-Firmware-v5.8-adc.hex.zip
New features:
- trigger on rising/falling slope
- time scaling

D-link DIR-100 UART

Few days ago I've bought quite old D-Link DIR-100 cable router especially for experimenting purposes.
First thing that I've wanted to do was to add a serial port connector to see what's running inside it. After opening the case it was easy to find the UART pins on the PCB, as they looked similar as in other D-Link devices.
Here you have them described on a photo:

D-Link DIR-100 UART pins

The UART settings are: 38400 8n1

You must use a voltage shifter (like max232) to connect it with a PC (I use BusPirate ). Connecting UART pins directly to a PC serial port may damage your stuff.

As you can see the PCB is described as "1DI604+EU.B1G" so probably DI-604 and DIR-100 may have exactly the same hardware (perhaps only in specific revisions, as I didn't found any matching DI-604 PCB photo)

BOOT UP dump:

00.01.16(uClinux) (Aug 29 2006 12:52:10)
System Clock Rate: 180MHz, Memory Clock Rate: 130MHz
Detected flash size: total 2MB.
SDRAM MCR: E2A00000
SDRAM size: 16MB
Press 'w' for alpha's web upgrade.
Press 'r' to update run image, or 'a' to change config,
or 'l' to update loader, or 'g' to load run image without updating Flash,
or '2' to enter L2 switch mode(50A), or '3' to enter L2 switch mode(50B) ...
ForceRunLoader=0 ...


Loading runtime image ...
Imag Start Address =0xbe030000
Find a 7zip self-decompressed kernel image, Just GO!
************************************
Powered by Realtek RTL8650B SoC, rev 1
************************************
CPU revision is: 0000ff00
Init MMU (16 entries)
Primary instruction cache 0kB, linesize 0 bytes.
Primary data cache 0kB, linesize 0 bytes.
Linux version 2.4.26-uc0 (root@redhat9) (gcc version 3.3.3) #2 Thu Aug 24 20:15:20 CST 2006
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
NOFS reserved @ 0x8030f730
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock3 rootfstype=squashfs
IRR(0)=c0000000
Calibrating delay loop... 178.99 BogoMIPS
Memory: 13064k/16384k available (2121k kernel code, 3320k reserved, 100k data, 96k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
NEW PCI Driver...isLinuxCompliantEndianMode=False(Big Endian)
No PCI device exist!!
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SERIAL_PCI enabled
Probing RTL8651 home gateway controller...
Initialize RTL865x ASIC and driver
chip name: 8650B, chip revid: 1
Initialize mbuf...
creating default 2 interfaces...eth0 IRR(6)=c0040000
eth1 ...OK

>>>now is rome 3.4 running ........
DQoS module initialization success!
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PPP BSD Compression module registered
Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table v1.3 at 0x0040
number of CFI chips: 1
cfi_cmdset_0002: Disabling fast programming due to code brokenness.
Looking for mtd device mtd1:
Found a mtd1 image (0x20000), with size (0x10000).
Looking for mtd device mtd2:
Found a mtd2 image (0x30000), with size (0x9370c).
Looking for mtd device mtd3:
Found a mtd3 image (0xc370c), with size (0xd2000).
Creating 4 MTD partitions on "Physically mapped flash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "ldr"
0x00020000-0x00030000 : "alphafs"
0x00030000-0x000c370c : "kernel"
0x000c370c-0x0019570c : "squashfs"
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
GRE over IPv4 tunneling driver
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 96k freed
IRR(3)=c3040000
initial console created on /dev/ttyS1
Shell invoked to run file: /etc/rc
Command: mount -t proc proc /proc
Command: mount -t ramfs ramfs /var
Command: mkdir /var/tmp
Command: mkdir /var/ppp/
Command: mkdir /var/log
Command: mkdir /var/run
Command: mkdir /var/lock
Command: mkdir /var/flash
Command: #iwcontrol is required for RTL8185 Wireless driver
Command: #iwcontrol auth &
Command:
Command: #busybox insmod /lib/modules/2.4.26-uc0/kernel/drivers/usb/quickcam.o
Command:
Command: /bin/webs -u root -d /www -i /var/run/thttpd.pid &
[9]
Command:
Command: #ifconfig wlan0 up promisc
Command:
Command:
Command:
Execution Finished, Exiting

Sash command shell (version 1.1.1)
/> System initializing...Check the crc=0x29eccedf,file_des->chksum=0x29eccedf!
Config info:
table total size[53784|0xd218] === max[196608|0x30000]!
rtl8651_user_pid set to 9

WAN/LAN, Rx shift=10002
================runDNSProxy==================
session 0 do not have dns server ip...
[16]
cfg wan to dhcp client ...

Set IGMP Default Upstream interface (eth0) ... SUCCESS!!
info, client (v0.9.9-pre) started
[22]
[24]
url filter default set to accept
PPPoE Passthru disabled.
Drop Unknown PPPoE PADT disabled.
IPv6 Passthru disabled.
IPX Passthru disabled.
NETBIOS Passthru disabled.
WebReset drule=0
moteAccessConfig
ReadPPPoESessionInfo: idx=0 id = 0
ReadPPPoESessionInfo: idx=1 id = 0
/www/Status/st_blocked.htm: No such file or directory
[27]
get lan ip c0a80001
enable my host is =routers.dlink.com=buffer from user space=QoSEnable=0 upLinkBand=128000!
Find a pair, argumenit=QoSEnable, value=0!pBuf=upLinkBand=128000!
Find a pair, argumenit=upLinkBand, value=128000!pBuf=!
tmpUpBW=128000, tmpRsBW=0!
get parameter: DQoS_enable= 0!
get parameter: upLinkBandWidth=128000 kbits!
get parameter: VoIP reserved bandwidth=0 kbits!
interface: eth1
config : /var/neap.conf
get vendor = ALPHA
get model = DIR-100
get version = v0.5.0
get secret =
eth1: ip:192.168.0.1, mask:255.255.255.0, mac 00:17:9a:db:36:ea
eth1 (ip) = 192.168.0.1, (netmask) = 255.255.255.0, adapter index 3
adapter hardware address 00:17:9a:db:36:ea
Into Server listen!!
nothing to monitor
info, server (v0.9.9-pre) started
error, max_leases value (254) not sane, setting to 100 instead
error, Unable to open /var/udhcpd.leases for reading
[31]
auto ,en ,dir = /www
dhcpc client deconfig
ifCfgParam[0].ipAddr: 0.0.0.0
ifCfgParam[0].ipMask: 0.0.0.0
ifCfgParam[0].gwAddr: 0.0.0.0
ifCfgParam[0].dnsPrimaryAddr: 0.0.0.0
rtl8651_delNaptMapping: ret -6
rtl8651_delRoute(default): ret -3
rtl8651_delIpIntf: ret -2710
target 239.0.0.0
SIOCDELRT: No such process

As the flash memory size is only 2Mb it may be hard to fit an open-wrt or dd-wrt distro, however it's not impossible as I've seen open-wrt running on Edimax BR-6104.
Alternatively I will try to compile and run original D-link source codes available here:
ftp://ftp.dlink.co.uk/GPL/DIR-100_GPL.rar