Anton Olsen.com

Semifluid.com – Home / Projects / PIC18F2550 KS0108 GLCD Oscilloscope

Semifluid.com – Home / Projects / PIC18F2550 KS0108 GLCD Oscilloscope

Using the PIC18F2550 GLCD Text Test as a basis for further experimentation, I put together a simple and accurate graphical oscilloscope using a PIC18F2550 microcontroller and a AGM1264F graphical LCD. The oscilloscope measures the average voltage, the maximum voltage, the minimum voltage, the peak-to-peak voltage, and the zero-crossing frequency for a DC signal over 100 samples. The oscilloscope has a built in edge trigger function that can be set to capture on rise or fall (or disabled altogether). The time scale for the display is variable and can be easily redefined using the changeTimeDivision function. Likewise, the voltage range can be change to 0-5V, 0-2.5V, and 0-1.25V. The main limitations of this oscilloscope include relatively slow acquisition time and sampling rate (~60kHz) and the fact that the inputs are limited by the constraints of the internal ADC. However, it is a very nice display and I highly suggest you view the videos to see it in action.

Another project added to my todo list.

YAN9VUSBC

YAN9VUSBC

The circuit design is from http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/ All I did was add an LED so I could see if the battery was good. He’s got nice diagrams of the USB and regulator to help you wire this together.

Very handy.  I’ll add this to the list of things to build when I get time.

Crazy Idea #1

I’m going to start posting my crazy ideas here.  If anyone actually does one or knows of prior art, let me know in the comments.

Idea #1: Ninja See and Say  (thanks Ed)

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories – How to make the simplest electric motor

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories – How to make the simplest electric motor

You have one drywall screw, one 1.5 V alkaline cell, six inches of plain copper wire, one small neodymium disk magnet, and no other tools or supplies. You have 30 seconds to make an electric motor running in excess of ten thousand RPM. Can you do it? Surprisingly enough, you can.

Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.

Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.

Connect your 15Khz arcade cabinet monitor to your PC with NO special configuration or special driver software in either DOS or Windows.
Now you can also connect an ordinary PC monitor and get all the resolutions of the 15Khz monitor plus conventional higher Windows resolutions.

Ubby Dubby Translator

A simple English to Ubby Dubby translator.

echo Can you understand this? |sed -e ’s/\([aeiouAEIOU]\{1,\}\)/ub\1/g’

Stompbox: HowTo Switch to Sprint Merlin S620 Linux

Just a quick notice about switching to Sprint from Verizon.

So far the network is more stable but not a lot faster. I don’t get disconnects at all on Sprint where I’d average 2-3 per day on Verizon. I don’t yet have an external antenna adapter and I’m pretty sure that will help with the speed. It helped a bit with the Verizon speed but not stability.

Getting switched over was very easy and just took a couple minutes. I changed the USB IDs for the modem. Check in dmesg or /var/log/messages for these values after you plug the card in the first time. Modify this line in /etc/modules:

usbserial vendor=0×1410 product=0×1110

There were minimal changes to /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo:

/dev/ttyUSB0
230400
debug
noauth
defaultroute
usepeerdns
crtscts
lock
persist
maxconnect 0
lcp-echo-interval 30
connect ‘/usr/sbin/chat -v -t3 -f /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo_chat’

I don’t think I made any changes to the chat script /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo_chat:

TIMEOUT 120
” ‘ATZ’
‘OK’ ‘AT&F0′
‘OK’ ‘ATE0V1′
” ‘AT+CSQ?’
‘OK’ ‘ATDT#777′
‘CONNECT’

HOWTO – Cancel a Verizon EVDO Contract Without Paying

There is a simple and nearly foolproof way to get out of a Verizon EVDO contract without paying the early termination fee.

Use a lot of bandwidth. Lots and lots of movies, music, and CD images. Don’t do anything illegal or unethical, just hit youtube.com, video.google.com, Flickr and last.fm. Watch movies, listen to streaming audio while you watch the movies, load up hundreds of pictures in browser tabs while you listen to streaming audio and watch movies. Download a few ISOs from ubuntu.com before you go to bed to keep the love going all night long.

Be sure to chew up at least 10GB in a month. That might be difficult if you have crappy service but if you persist I’m sure that you can do it. If you need some help and run Linux, try the following command from a shell: “wget -p –mirror –span-hosts –timeout=30 http://yahoo.com/”. About the same time your disk is full you should be getting a letter in the mail from Verizon like this one.

Of course all this is just hypothetical advice and any encouragement to actually follow these steps is purely in the imagination of the reader. I don’t condone or encourage these actions. If Verizon chooses to stop waiving the early termination fee it’s not my fault and you will probably have to fork over the bucks or hire a good lawyer. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is cheaper.

[UPDATE]
Looks like Verizon is putting the brakes on a mass exit:
http://www.evdoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2366&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=135

Heads up everyone verizon is changeing all customers contracts I just left vzw and signed up with cingular now with vzw if you make any changes to your plan you will have to commit to at least 1 year contract or if you now get terminated for using to much data while under contract you will have to pay the E.T.F. here is the new contact that vzw sent me.

Note about Verizon Wireless’ Broadband Access

Just an FYI for anyone considering using Verizon’s Broadband Access.

I just received a termination notice from Verizon for using too much bandwidth. The letter states that I used more than 10GB in a 30 day period. I called to protest and the representative that answered the phone told me that such high usage was proof that I was violating their terms of service by watching streaming video and music. I checked my past bills and I’ve used 6.3GB per month for the last 3 bills. They count both incoming and outgoing bandwidth.

I’ve read up on evdoforums.com and it appears that 10GB in 30 days or 5GB per month for 3 months is the trigger.

Verizon has no dispute process, once you get the letter they will cut you off and there is nothing they will do about it. No warnings, one strike and you’re out.

As for my network access I’m signing up with Sprint now since they actually advertise great for streaming video and audio right on the features page. I also haven’t heard of anyone getting term notices from Sprint for high usage.

www.soundbombs.info

www.soundbombs.info

Soundbombs are New-Media-Accessories. Each one a lowtech object for interactive transmission. An integrated soundmodul makes it possible to record any given sound and then activate it through a motiondetector.

Interesting looking project.  A couple of us at work have been contemplating how to make sound throwies but this could be fun too.