note: REDACTED stuff as requested by lawyers
I’ve finished writing the firmware and testing out the hardware for the latest version of the blackcloud device. I called it the red version, as the box it will live inside is going to be red. Yes, I’m quite creative. The LEDs are also all red, a mistake at the manufacturing house. *sigh*
This is the first design I’ve made that runs on Ethernet (10/100mbit). It uses the [REDACTED] module, which worked out fine. Though the Ethernet jack was a bit more difficult to use — I didn’t realize that I had to get a specific plug to support PoE. I’m using the [REDACTED] switching regulator in conjunction with a [REDACTED] to simplify the connector requirements for the device. I followed the recommended design which requires some big honking caps on the board — but it also looks really neat. Greg and I are both fond of the [REDACTED] inductor. It just looks nice.
The firmware had a few hiccups, which took awhile to debug given [REDACTED] is a sucky combination. I used to be such an avid fan of gcc for embedded design, but after using IAR for awhile, I got spoiled. What can I say.
This version features an [REDACTED] temp/humidity sensor and a new light sensor, along with the Ethernet interface and power supply upgrades. Oh, and we’re switching over to a much quieter fan as well. I’ll be delivering one of these guys to someplace in south Africa shortly. Should be entertaining.
Electronics blackcloud red ethernet pcb wiznet wiz100sr
note: redacted stuff as requested by lawyers
Got the boards in for the BlackCloud project
[REDACTED IMAGE]
We had 2 of 25 pre-assembled for testing. Good thing too. Some components were not populated, a connector was put on the wrong side, and all 25 LEDs on the top of one of the PCBs were placed backwards. Used PCBFABEXPRSS for the first time for assembly. They seem desperate for bussiness, so they probably woun’t last. Too bad they can’t focus on the details.
Electronics blackcloud
So I bought some crabbing nets last year and had a try at crabbing off the pacifica pier — we failed. Tried again this year, and failed. So I went out with my cousin one night to a pier off Crissy Field and we got a ton (ok, just 5), but they were like all over the nets. So we tried it again (with Patrick) and this time, we only caught 2 babies.
It was too dark to figure out which ones were male/female/dungenous when I went with my cousin so we threw them all back. The ones I caught with patrick were too small (<4 inches) so we threw them back. But one of these days, I will catch me some crabs and feast. I really want to get involved with hunting, killing, and eating my own food – but to do so where the prey has a fighting chance (at inflicting injury to me). Like hunting wild boar with a knife. Not sure if I’ll ever do that, but it seems like a nice thought. Believe it or not, but a Mauri (dude in blue in the photo) told me how to kill a boar with a knife while I was backpacking through New Zealand in a small town called National Park. The only things in that town were a bar/restaurant (owner was a huge fan of Jagger), a climbing gym, and a gas station with an attached convinience store.
They had just finished filiming TLOTR just before I got there (like a day). And if anyone is curious, the way you kill a boar is to stand still, wait for them to almost get you, jump out of their way (they can’t change direction quickly and will pass by). As they pass by, jump on their back, and stab them in this small spot on the back of their heads just at the base of the skull (which is tick enough to stop a small bullet), and stab them in the spine.
Personal crabbing, hunting, mauri, new zealand, pacifica, san francisco
Any guesses what this is?
Electronics
So a friend of mine just got back from australia with this gift. I wonder if it’s real. Any thoughts?
Personal
I’ve just finished the second week of human trials, and I’ve already learned a lot about device usability and some weaknesses which I want to incorporate into a newer version of the chest strap. The data is quite fun to go through, and it looks better than I expected for an ambulatory device. Here’s an excerpt from one of our subjects..
Electronics, HealthMonitor
I’ve been heavily neglecting my photoalbum code, so I’m starting to do some cleanup as well as to add some Web 2.0 tidbits into the mix. I’m going to be gutting it some more, removing multi-user support, cleaning the interface, and hopefully be able to start adding more content to the site shortly.
I did find greybox, a good “lightbox” script.. I would like a few small teaks, like the ability to click on the photo to go to the next one, and the ability to move the title bar from the top to just below the photograph. I would also love for it to preload the next photo. Otherwise, it avoids the annoying resizing delay when your going from one photo to the next – which most lightbox scripts use – which I hate.
I also want to give a shout out to Richard Hesse who was insisting that a fast HD was key to a fast computer. He was right.. I upgraded to the velociraptor 300G HD and it balzes. Well worth the expensive sticker price.
Personal, Software greybox, lightbox, photoalbum, web2.0
It was a few years in the works, but the time is finally here — time to collect some real data from random test subjects. We’re going to be collecting SpO2, ECG, EMG, BioImpedence (respiration), and 3-axis accelerometry at 256Hz. The firmware seems fairly solid, and the signals all look really good.
Tricorder and related hardware
By friday, we should have 24 hours worth of nice, clean, data. Else, I’m going to have a busy haloween weekend.
Electronics, HealthMonitor human trials, tricorder
After dealing with a few ugly hurdles (mostly having to do with a horrible new serial module in the MSP430F2618), life is starting to look really good. The filesystem is working very nicley with a shared serial bus with the accelerometer (SPI) and the bioImpedence circuit (AD5933 impedence measurement IC; I2C). See how nicely they play together..
And even the SpO2 signal is finally looking really /really/ nice..
Though that data is from a transmissive sensor. We’re still investigating the efficacy of an upper arm reflective sensor, but I’m quite pleased given the complexity of the new device.
Electronics, HealthMonitor i2c, serial, spi, spo2
