Comments for Bret Kuhns

Comment on Hyperterminal Replacement For Linux by dreddor

dreddor — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:34:07 +0000

I jump between minicom and GNU screen often. They are both slightly different takes on the same problem.

I use it to communicate with my Bus Pirate. Handy little tool, that.

Comment on I Love My Summer Tires by dave++

dave++ — Sat, 15 May 2010 13:32:42 +0000

I’m always hearing talk about summer and winter tires. I take it the market isn’t so hot for Spring and Fall tires?

Comment on Flashing OpenLog Firmware in Ubuntu Linux by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:36:34 +0000

If by serial connection, you mean via an RS232 port on a computer, I can't really say for sure. I do know the FTDI breakout board mentioned in my post creates a virtual serial device on your computer, so the software end should be no different than if you were to use a USB line. RS232 is not the same as UART, however, which is how OpenLog talks (different signal voltage levels) so I'm not sure if a direct RS232OpenLog connection would work. I would either ask on the SparkFun forums, message Nate (the creator) on GitHub, or post in the comments section on SparkFun's OpenLog product page.

Comment on Flashing OpenLog Firmware in Ubuntu Linux by Camp0s

Camp0s — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:02:05 +0000

Hi, saw your post, may I ask if you know if it’s possible to reflash the unit via serial connection only? tnx.

Comment on Google Apps aren’t ready for Chrome OS by Marc Henessy

Marc Henessy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:13:01 +0000

i installed Chrome OS on two of my netbooks. the Chrome OS works great and its loading time is very fast too.

Comment on 8-bits of Processing Goodness by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:10:30 +0000

Yep, they’re fairly similar platforms, PIC being the older “tried and true” option, but there’s a lot of community and buzz around AVR including (and possibly thanks to) the Arduino. The full bells and whistle Arduino boards usually over $30, but that’s for quick and dirty prototyping. Less convenient options are available that drastically reduce the price if that’s a concern for you.

I never explicitly disabled it… I just unchecked the option to require logins to post comments. If you know how to enable both, let me know how (I’m pretty new to Wordpress) and I’ll set it up.

Custom PCB’s aren’t that expensive if you look in the right places. http://www.batchpcb.com will do it for $2.50 per square inch but have a lengthy wait time. http://www.expresspcb.com is $51 for three boards, and have a much faster turnaround. For a single prototype, that’s not horrible.

Comment on 8-bits of Processing Goodness by Ben

Ben — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:32:47 +0000

Yeah, I am sure it is 6 to one, half dozen to another. Probably should look at using an arduino board though. That way I could bounce stuff off you. Sometimes it is just easier to talk to somebody else doing it.

I don’t know how many do, but I like it. Also, you do have it disabled :)

Getting PCBs printed ain’t going to be cheap bud. Not unless you order like 1000 of them. How big of a board are you looking at? I’d consider making the template up and etching them yourself. That will be many times cheaper in the short term.

Comment on 8-bits of Processing Goodness by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:22:06 +0000

Well, at a comparable chip level, you can get an ATMega328p with the Arduino bootloader for $3-4. The full Arduino board just makes it simple to program and prototype with. Within minutes of receiving the board, I was already running code to blink LEDs. Once I get a stable prototype running, I intend to ditch the standard Arduino package and get my own PCB printed and use an SMD ATMega328 which should cut both cost and size of the hardware significantly.

I threw the Meta widget up for you, I didn’t realize people actually like to register for blogs :-P

Comment on 8-bits of Processing Goodness by Ben

Ben — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:28:55 +0000

Funny story, definitely looking at a PIC uC. http://81.134.141.187/epages/Store.storefront/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.TechSupplies/Products/AXE007M

I mean right now all I care about is one in and one out. Code is really stupid simple from what I have seen. Chips are pretty cheap too. I can get one for about 1/4 of the cheapest Arduino. Not that there is anything wrong with those. The UAV project looks stupid cool actually.

The no preview might be the theme. As far as the registration all you have to do is throw the meta block on the sidebar. I could probably just browse to the log-in/register url, but I am lazy.

Comment on 8-bits of Processing Goodness by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:45:55 +0000

Hey Ben, yeah, your wife showed me a Nerd Kits project for pulling OBD data off a car. I’ll probably be working off that project quite a bit when it comes time for it (I’m concerned with GPS and acceleration first, anything further is just icing). What uC/platform are you working with? I started looking into PIC stuff, but the learning curve was more than I felt like bothering with. Arduino/AVR was so much easier to dive into.

No idea why you can’t preview, maybe it’s the theme I’m using. I never specifically disabled registration, I just don’t require it since I hate having to register on blogs just to post comments.

Comment on 8-bits of Processing Goodness by Ben

Ben — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:27:52 +0000

Have you looked at Nerd Kits? They have some good info and stuff on there, and some decent videos. I have a couple projects I want to look into, on involves a uC and some RFID stuff. I just need to find some time to play with it! Btw, how come nobody can register and there is no preview for the comments?

Comment on PHP Recursive Strings by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:39:42 +0000

Hey Noah! I came to the same conclusion and you’re exactly right. That’s how I solved the problem. I guess I should’ve mentioned that here, huh? I must have gotten too used to compiled languages for a while and PHP’s line-by-line interpreting threw me a curve ball here.

Comment on PHP Recursive Strings by Noah

Noah — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:32:38 +0000

This is what I would guess is happening:
1. PHP creates $a.
2. The initializer creates $a[0]. When it does this, $a[1] has no value since it has not yet been assigned, so “test {$a[1]}” evalulates to just “test “.
3. Same with $a[1].

If I’m right, then you can actually use this as you intend, but by doing this:
$a = array(
2 => “argh”,
1 => “blah {$a[2]}”,
0 => “test {$a[1]}”
);

Comment on Free Day For All! by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:42:01 +0000

Dave, I agree it was a waste of time for a lot of people, though I was one of the crazy people who just enjoyed watching everything unfold, free stuff or not. I think they should really consider doing things differently next year though. I know Amazon has used a ticket-based system before (similar to how real Black Friday lines work at stores) that might help prevent their site from coming to a halt. They could also do something like 50 tickets per hour so the load is spread out through the whole day instead of everyone swarming at once. I’m sure there are plenty other options they could try out.

Personally, I think they knew about these options and opted for this instead. The general chaos of the event likely fueled the online buzz they got and overall brought more attention to their site than if they had a more organized and sensible giveaway. I can see the tactic, but it does suck that the customers get screwed this way. I can almost guarantee they’ll do this again next year, but I hope it’ll be done differently.

Comment on Free Day For All! by Dave the Freezing Mexican

Dave the Freezing Mexican — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:30:14 +0000

I’m still a bit saddened by this:
If you factor in non-monetary cost, the price for participating in Spark Fun’s “Free Day” was far greater for most. Think of the time spent by most and factor in some degree of frustration. In your case you still ended up making a purchase but now paid the additional costs of these as well. Granted, there may have been some “fun” factor (for some sick and twisted individuals) but personally, subtracting this from cost still leaves me paying more. Maybe if there was some level of competition or a game involved: then perhaps “fun” would compensate for the additional non-monetary costs….
Oh well… glad you enjoyed it :) Don’t get me wrong either- good on them for the attempt… maybe it will be a bit more “fun” for me next year (if they do it again that is)

Comment on Google Apps aren’t ready for Chrome OS by Bret Kuhns

Bret Kuhns — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:21:53 +0000

In general, that’s all Chrome OS really is. It’s a new paradigm on operating systems. To think more cynically, it’s Google’s attempt make us like “crippled” OS’ so we’re more apt to jump onto their web apps to replace similar desktop applications.

To be fair, I think it’s a clever idea, and suits the purpose of low powered netbooks who’s primary purpose is to surf the web. That’s certainly not Google’s only motive, however.

Comment on Google Apps aren’t ready for Chrome OS by Techno Girl 22

Techno Girl 22 — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:22:11 +0000

I have installed Chrome OS on one of my netbooks and the performance of Chrome OS is just okay. there is nothing fancy or very special about it. It was just a sort of GUI version of linux or something.
.