board respin required...either position the button so you squeeze the enclosure to press the button (it flexes a bit), or drill a small hole (use a jig to get the drill bit in the right location
enclosure co's will also customize/drill holes for you but its probably easier for you to just diy!
Oh, nice solution. I thought he'd have to order USB device enclosures from China, but these are from Bud Industries in Ohio, the classic maker of electronic enclosures for 80 years, and orderable from Digi-Key. (That means the parts will be good quality and they will show up on time.) Get a custom sticker printed, and you'll have a good MVP.
theres a main processor which is way overpowered (the big TQFP part) which is covered by a plug-in 2G GSM/GPRS modem. You can 'sniff' the modem control pins, its almost certainly the standard plain 'AT' command set used for these modems, at 9600 or 57600 baud, 3.3V logic
The plug in module looks a lot like a SIM300 or Spreadtrum 5100b. It probably had an IMEI sticker that was pulled off. Theres probably a dozen makers of nearly identical modems during that time period. This one looks fairly old since its a plug-in type. I'd guess the GSM module is at least 5 yrs old
On the other side is a standard 32-pin NAND flash, you could desolder and then use a NAND-reader kit (google etc) to suck the data off. its probably just the GPS coordinates stored between modem data uploads.
SIM holder, some crystals, power circuitry, and a (95% sure) uBlox GPS - the uBlox have that funny shape and pinout. uBlox have high sensitivity so a good choice! unclear which generation this us, they're up to Neo-8. You could decap it to find out.
probably the most fun could be had by first figuring out the RX/TX pins from the microcontroller to the GSM/GPRS module, then soldering thin wires to that and listening with a UART TTL cable. Put in a new SIM, wait a few seconds for the GSM module to get onto the cell network, then quickly faraday it up and see what website, IP address or phone number the micro is trying to connect to. ymmv tho, might just be a random drop point.
(theres a bunch of chips with no clear markings, could be motion/accel/gyro or other sensors - @ioerror if you post up the #s on each chip it'll be easier to tell! :)
edit: i thought about the huge coin cell battery backup. its a bit odd, quite large sized! if its well designed, the microcontroller will detect that the battery has been disconnected, and while on backup coin cell power quickly erase the NAND flash and microcontroller memory :(
If the coin battery is used as a RC circuit switch to wipe memory what are the chances that it has already been wiped? It's been 7 days off power.
The large power drain of the CPU could indicate this off-shelf product is meant to be installed, rather than attached with battery? Which could indicate a product as someone else linked to: http://www.miniinthebox.com/es/gps-v103b-sms-gprs-gps-sistem...
I'd be curious if any code were installed on the GSM module since many of these provide jvm's or python interpretors. Then again, what they heck is this 120 pin CPU for.
If the thing still has power it is worth keeping it alive without the SIM.
PS. Azul=Blue Negro=Black Marron=Brown Blanco=White in spanish
eInk is very slow refresh, about a second...not fun for a laptop. Pixel Qi displays work better: have TFT-speed refresh with sun-light readability. Indoors its a color display. Outdoors you can turn off the backlight to conserve power.
If your computer/laptop has VGA/HDMI or composite out you can use our Pixel Qi+Controller kit http://www.adafruit.com/products/1303 for modern laptops with a 40 pin LVDS cable you can just do a swap out as long as the screen's the same dimensions.
Hi Rhizome, adafruit does not distribute the specific USB charger we carry at Frys - sorry to hear you had a bad experience with them but it was certainly not the same one from the adafruit shop the parent poster was referring to!
I assure you that just because two adapters look the same do not have any relation to the insides. (After all, counterfeit Apple adapters look the same as genuine ones, but you wouldn't think they are the same on the inside after reading this article.) The black plug casing is a common molding style used by many factories - but its the electronics inside that count :) The best way to know if they are identical is to look for the UL certificate number, those are unique to each design.
I can assure you that as a run-of-the-mill customer, I will likely never check a UL code. I don't know if you get your casings from the same place, putting your own electronics inside, but I feel that if you want to trade on your identity as a purveyor of quality products you're going to have to look at least a little different from bad products. To borrow and twist a line from Seinfeld, "Adjacent to trash, is trash."
ladyada does not manufacture that charger; the website offers it, along with other general-purpose knickknacks, to compliment the main offerings- DIY electronics kits. This last bit is significant- ladyada's run-of-the-mill customer is not going to be your standard Joe looking for a charger for his cell phone.
I was traveling in China and picked up a charger that looks exactly the same from some street vendor. When it comes to cheap, no-name accessories, no one is going to spend money designing custom casing.
Wow, really? What if they're all made in China using the same enclosures, does that bring us back to the "check the UL code" method? I know I don't memorize UL codes, so that may be a nonstarter in at least a few situations.
Hi Rhizome, I am not sure how much of an electronics hobbyist you are. But if you are into electronics hardware, you may have had a chance to stumble upon ladyada's store 'http://www.adafruit.com and maybe even took a look at her background at 'http://www.adafruit.com/about/. My best guess is she knows what she is talking about. As someone above mentioned, her run-of-the-mill customers are not your average Joe customer.
I believe that she is meticulous about what she sells in here store and tests them out before she makes it available to her customers. She is not rebranding the products as hers. She is just assuring her customers that she is doing due diligence prior to selling it on her site.
I like Fry's just like the next guy and they have great deals, but I don't expect to get high tech stuff there or necessarily high quality stuff. They are just another big box store but also catering to your average hobbyist. I don't know if the purchasing department there puts as much effort into checking out the products they sell.
I expect that even if you were that dedicated to ferreting out the best chargers, there's plenty of variation in quality when dealing with chargers that are manufactured in the hundreds of thousands and move through the supply chain very quickly. I've been very happy with my HP Touchpad chargers but that's not the universal experience.
Good question! I test all the products in the adafruit shop for quality and functionality :)
I tried out half a dozen 5v/1a adapters and this one was the winner - best performance and a very good price for UL listed. The most important points: It has the 'iDevice' resistors and has very good voltage regulation - extremely clean, no big voltage spikes. When loaded down 1A it stays around 5.2V, I actually pulled 1.5A and it was still above 5V. I opened a few up to look at the construction and found it well designed with good soldering, strain relief etc. In the product description I explain why its a 5.25V not 5V adapter - its perfect for high-current devices like the Raspberry Pi and we have thousands of customers who have happily used it for the Pi.
for what my word is worth, please let me put in a vote for LiFe - i know they're not as energy dense but you may not need as much armoring on the pack. you can say its good for 2ce as many charges and uses a safer battery - which can increase perceived value.
let the ultra-modders swap in LiCo's on their own - they'll do it anyways.
there's a techcrunch-story-future that i'd really like to see you avoid! :(
""I have friends who happen to be both notoriously successful
in the tech field and female. They are all extremely touchy
about this subject. They are touchy because crazy shit like
this happens to them all the time.""
This is very true. unbelievable crazy batshit stuff happens to me -all the time-. Like "Police report filed" crazy. Like "I no longer open up any letters or packages unless I am positive I know who sent it" crazy. Like "I have to make sure that wherever I live, there is a camera at the doorbell and multiple doors before they can get in" crazy.
Its not a majority of guys, and some even 'mean well' but you only need to have it happen to you once to decide that the stress of knowing something crappy will happen to you if you attend X event, is not worth the benefit of attending X.
ah, you are conflating two things. the hacker scene is full of assholes, but they are not the batshit crazy people. so all the fucked up people you're thinking of? no, i'm saying there are other people, and they are /much much/ worse because they dont even have a 'scene' with basic social pressures and 'outing' them has no effect
I ask this not to argue, but because you seem both pleasant and informed/opinionated and will likely have something useful to say: what as a male hacker am I supposed to be doing about the issue in this thread?
Let's assume what I know's not true for many men - that I am not even slightly coming on to or harassing or creeping on anyone and am very polite to women personally, or abusing position over them, etc. (I used to be treated like some kind of rapist by many women for prosaic things like opening doors or walking down the street, I guess from inherent suspicion of single men - now that I am usually with my wife when I'm outside of work/home, nobody looks at me twice or gives me dirty looks, which is vastly less awkward).
I don't often see situations where women are being harassed these days, so I don't even have scope to act like some kind of gender-police hero. Nor is it always called for, that I can see; I like to reassure or express solidarity with people who are getting treated in a normally dickish way, but usually not in the form of a giant "you are a huge asshole" confrontation, which can be bad for one's career and such, especially when 'the hacker scene is full of assholes.' But if I noticed sexual harassment or implicit threats or something I would already try to make sure something was said.
So what else is there? Should I just admit some kind of privilege and say it's really bad and then I don't have to do anything else, or is there some specific thing I should be doing? Because I can't get a specific reading on what I ought to be doing and sometimes suspect in these conversations that I am just supposed to feel bad and say something submissive, which really isn't satisfying when I have honestly spent my whole adult life consciously trying to be nice and even-handed to women.
Keep learning, keep reading, keep building empathy and understanding, keep piecing together an understanding of what people mean when they say privilege and why they think it's important, learn more about the history of feminism and of the different approaches to feminism, skim some articles about intersectionality; over time you'll notice more subtle forms of sexism, develop a better vocabulary for identifying it, and develop a better instinct for what you should do.
Examples off the top of my head: sometimes it may be as simple as noticing that people keep unconsciously interrupting a female coworker for no real reason, so you casually and non-condescendingly form a pause so she can finish talking - or maybe you're helping pick speakers for an event and you've thought of a person who happens to be a woman who would be great to round out the day, but she hasn't submitted a proposal yet or whatever, so you email her to ask if she's interested. And of course you also keep a friendly non-condescending eye out for men who similarly may be getting unfairly ignored or underestimating their own skills, but that kind of subtle social support often already comes naturally for people dealing with their own gender, and it's also somewhat less common for men to be randomly assumed to not know what they're talking about, etc.
In other words, being an active feminist is just generally being a decent human being, to women and to men, but also including a well-informed eye toward the biases left by generations of discrimination.
Crazy stuff happens to women, I'm don't think that is anything specific to the tech field. My girlfriend and most of my ex-girlfriends (non-hackers) have been harassed in one way or another at some time in their lives, yes even in the batshit crazy ways that you mention.
I wouldn't know what to do about it though, society is kind of messed up that way. If you attract any attention as woman, IMO doesn't matter in what kind of group, there will be assholes.
2) the open kinect libraries do not in any way modify the kinect hardware, firmware or otherwise. there is no 'jailbreaking' involved here. its a -usb driver-!
Given that the device potentially draws power based in part on the driver, I think its reasonable. It's unlikely to cause any problem, but warranties are about expected use -- not to cover any use including those of hackers. They're NOT prohibiting hackers from using it, but if you brick it, then its yours to unbrick. That seems very fair.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/bud-industries/USB-...
it looks rather cute! see: https://blog.adafruit.com/2011/03/04/part-finder-friday-clea...
board respin required...either position the button so you squeeze the enclosure to press the button (it flexes a bit), or drill a small hole (use a jig to get the drill bit in the right location
enclosure co's will also customize/drill holes for you but its probably easier for you to just diy!