Jonathan Oxer
[Blog]
>> Fitting out the boot properly
Sat, Nov 29th 9:01pm 2008 >> Tech Toys
While I've been playing around with the computer in the boot I've had things just sitting around loosely, but that's no good long term so today I built up a little sub-frame that sits in the well in the bottom of the RX-8 boot and holds everything tightly in place:
The big problem is the batteries of course. I have four 12V, 7AH sealed-lead-acid batteries wired in parallel and they are heavy. Not good to have sliding around in the boot even during normal driving, but it would be a disaster to have them flying around loose in an accident. The sub-frame locks them in place so they can't move. Also in the pic is the charger that keeps them topped up from accessory power; the USB hub that connects the GPS, 3G modem, and engine management system interface; and the net4801 from Yawarra.
While I've been playing around with the computer in the boot I've had things just sitting around loosely, but that's no good long term so today I built up a little sub-frame that sits in the well in the bottom of the RX-8 boot and holds everything tightly in place:
The big problem is the batteries of course. I have four 12V, 7AH sealed-lead-acid batteries wired in parallel and they are heavy. Not good to have sliding around in the boot even during normal driving, but it would be a disaster to have them flying around loose in an accident. The sub-frame locks them in place so they can't move. Also in the pic is the charger that keeps them topped up from accessory power; the USB hub that connects the GPS, 3G modem, and engine management system interface; and the net4801 from Yawarra.
>> Loving my HP 2133
Wed, Nov 26th 5:31pm 2008 >> Tech Toys
Our relationship got off to a rocky start but now my HP 2133 Mininote and I are getting along *much* better.
On paper it's a great compromise between portability and features:
* Via C7 CPU @ 1.6Ghz: not so good (slow)
* 1280x768 resolution: awesome on 9" screen
* Wifi: check
* Bluetooth: check
* Gig-E: check
* Camera: check
* SD card reader: check
* Nearly full-size keyboard: awesome!
* Battery life: terrible
* Dodgy graphics chipset: bring on the heartache
The problem is the slightly-non-mainstream stuff that HP used, like the VIA video chipset. With the VESA drivers it works, but at 1280x720 - which means every few lines the pixels are doubled vertically, making text ugly and hard to read. There were some things I could get working properly (including video) under Ubuntu Hardy, and some that worked properly under Intrepid, but not everything at once on any one release. The big thing that kept me on Hardy was the video drivers.
Until this afternoon, when I discovered that VIA have just released drivers built specifically for the Intrepid kernel. Woot! A dist-upgrade and some jiggery-pokery later, and jbooklet is running Intrepid with full support for all the hardware features.
Nice.
Our relationship got off to a rocky start but now my HP 2133 Mininote and I are getting along *much* better.On paper it's a great compromise between portability and features:
* Via C7 CPU @ 1.6Ghz: not so good (slow)
* 1280x768 resolution: awesome on 9" screen
* Wifi: check
* Bluetooth: check
* Gig-E: check
* Camera: check
* SD card reader: check
* Nearly full-size keyboard: awesome!
* Battery life: terrible
* Dodgy graphics chipset: bring on the heartache
The problem is the slightly-non-mainstream stuff that HP used, like the VIA video chipset. With the VESA drivers it works, but at 1280x720 - which means every few lines the pixels are doubled vertically, making text ugly and hard to read. There were some things I could get working properly (including video) under Ubuntu Hardy, and some that worked properly under Intrepid, but not everything at once on any one release. The big thing that kept me on Hardy was the video drivers.
Until this afternoon, when I discovered that VIA have just released drivers built specifically for the Intrepid kernel. Woot! A dist-upgrade and some jiggery-pokery later, and jbooklet is running Intrepid with full support for all the hardware features.
Nice.
>> IT predictions for 2009
Fri, Nov 14th 3:09pm 2008 >> Tech Toys
I took part in a panel session on Tuesday about the future of IT and what the hot topics would be for 2009, and I've just written up a brief summary of the discussion. I was thinking about posting here but it ended up being nearly 3000 words so I'll save you from fetching it in your feed reader and just point to it online instead:
IT predictions for 2009
I took part in a panel session on Tuesday about the future of IT and what the hot topics would be for 2009, and I've just written up a brief summary of the discussion. I was thinking about posting here but it ended up being nearly 3000 words so I'll save you from fetching it in your feed reader and just point to it online instead:
IT predictions for 2009
>> Phrase from nearest book
Fri, Nov 14th 8:49am 2008 >> Linux
Another blog meme, caught this time from Stewart Smith and Josh Stewart with rather amusing consequences:
Result (and this will make me the laughingstock of the office, I'm sure):
"We understand the technology, which at the end of the day is really what drives the industry."
From, wait for it ... "Microsoft Secrets", by Michael Cusumano and Richard Selby.
Now what was *that* doing on my desk? ;-)
Another blog meme, caught this time from Stewart Smith and Josh Stewart with rather amusing consequences:
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open it to page 56.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
- Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
Result (and this will make me the laughingstock of the office, I'm sure):
"We understand the technology, which at the end of the day is really what drives the industry."
From, wait for it ... "Microsoft Secrets", by Michael Cusumano and Richard Selby.
Now what was *that* doing on my desk? ;-)
>> Talking to an engine management system with ... PHP!
Mon, Nov 3rd 1:51pm 2008 >> Tech Toys
I feel a disturbance in the Force, a disturbance created by a million hackers reading the title of this post and crying out "Noooooo! For the love of God, NO!" at once.
But I've done it, and once done it cannot be undone ;-)
Last week I finally received a little ELM327-based dongle that connects to the OBD port in my RX-8 and exposes the vehicle bus as a serial connection via USB. And anyone who has been to one of my conference talks about hardware hacking can guess what comes next!
"ser2net" to expose the serial port as a network socket: check.
PHP script to open a socket connection to that port: check.
Several hours spent figuring out how to talk via CANbus: check.
More hours writing handlers for the hex response values: check.
A loop to poll the EMU once per second: check.
A MySQL database to store response values: check.
A little PHP thing to call Fusion Charts with the result: check.
So now you can see, in 1 second increments, my trip around the block yesterday afternoon. You can see the throttle blip while in neutral, then another blip in reverse to get the car up to 3 - 4 km/h out of the driveway, then the intake air temperature falls rapidly as I drive up the street, etc. What's really interesting is that about 2/3rds of the way along I'm stationery for about 8 seconds waiting at an intersection, and you can see the intake air temp rise almost linearly by about 7 degrees in that time.
See the graph here.
I feel a disturbance in the Force, a disturbance created by a million hackers reading the title of this post and crying out "Noooooo! For the love of God, NO!" at once.
But I've done it, and once done it cannot be undone ;-)
Last week I finally received a little ELM327-based dongle that connects to the OBD port in my RX-8 and exposes the vehicle bus as a serial connection via USB. And anyone who has been to one of my conference talks about hardware hacking can guess what comes next!
"ser2net" to expose the serial port as a network socket: check.
PHP script to open a socket connection to that port: check.
Several hours spent figuring out how to talk via CANbus: check.
More hours writing handlers for the hex response values: check.
A loop to poll the EMU once per second: check.
A MySQL database to store response values: check.
A little PHP thing to call Fusion Charts with the result: check.
So now you can see, in 1 second increments, my trip around the block yesterday afternoon. You can see the throttle blip while in neutral, then another blip in reverse to get the car up to 3 - 4 km/h out of the driveway, then the intake air temperature falls rapidly as I drive up the street, etc. What's really interesting is that about 2/3rds of the way along I'm stationery for about 8 seconds waiting at an intersection, and you can see the intake air temp rise almost linearly by about 7 degrees in that time.
See the graph here.
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