Posts by jfurcean:
- 1 – 4′x8′x5/8″ MDF sheet
- Box of screws
- LCD Monitor (I used a 19″ LCD that I had lying around)
- Two Player Complete Do It Yourself Arcade Kit from X-Arcade
- A computer (I choose to use my existing Windows 7 tower)
- Table saw
- Drill with a 1 1/2″ drill bit.
- Debian “squeeze”
- Arch Linux
- QtonPi
- The price! The $25 to $35 price point cannot be beat.
- It is extremely small about the size of a deck of cards.
- It has very low power consumption. It running off a 5v usb micro phone charger.
- Operating systems run on easily swappable, low cost SD cards. This allows for easily changing the purpose of the device without having to spend a lot of time re-imaging and reinstalling software.
- It runs off a 700 MHz processor. This causes the device to slow down when doing any CPU intensive process like opening an application or installing software. Also, this prevents it from doing almost any kind of multitasking.
- The Ethernet is only a 10/100. This along with the slow processor makes it time consuming to download and install software. It took at least 20 minutes to install gedit. This also makes it quite difficult to browse the Internet.
- The build in browser does not support HTML5 and it does not have a flash player installed. This prevents you from using many websites, such as YouTube.
- Arduino
- 10KΩ Resistor
- x10 PSC04
- x10 Lamp Module
- x10 Universal Relay Module
- RJ11 Cable
- RJ11 Jack
- A LAMP server with an open USB port
- john@furcean.com
- @jfurcean
- +John Furcean
The whistled: controlling electronics by whistling
May 9th, 2013Limpkin created small platform that recognizes whistles in order to switch on/off appliances.
Check out the full blog post or go buy it on tindle.
MAME Bar Top Aracade Cabinet
December 18th, 2012Introduction
In an old episode on Hak5, Wess Tobler (@Dankiswess) did segment on making a MAME bar top arcade cabinet. This segment inspired me to make my own MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) arcade cabinet, so I began doing research on different MAME cabinet designs. Bartop Arcade had many different designs and templates for bar top arcades. Below is the design and template that I based my MAME cabinet off of.
Build Phase
Items need for the build phase:
For the build phase I used the template that I found from Bartop Arcade and cut out each piece. I decided against having a slide out drawer, so I had to make some slight modifications. Below is a picture of the cabinet about 90% into the build phase.
After cutting and assembling the exterior of the cabinet, I had to wire all the buttons. Once that was done it was onto the software configuration.
Software Configuration
A lot of research went into deciding exactly how the software side of this project would be configured. I initially set on using MALA as my front-end, but then I found Hyperspin.
Not only was Hyperspin a superior looking front-end, it would allow me to run many different emulators including a NES and SNES emulator. Hyperspin does most of its configuration through GUIs and XML files. Below is a image of the cabinet 90% complete running PAC-MAN.
Hyperspin also allowed for configuring other applications to open from within it. I configured it to run Aussie Juke as one of the emulators. Also, after reading a comment by Moonlit on episode five of TheNewTech.tv, I decided to modify the registry entry for explorer.exe to boot to Hyperspin.
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
Final Thoughts
There are several things I have to do to complete this project. First, I need to finish the marquee. The marquee will end up being a cylon eye covered by a tinted plexiglass. Second, I need to mount the pc hardware inside the cabinet. I currently have it connected to PC tower.
Raspberry Pi Review
June 18th, 2012I just received my Raspberry Pi* and I have decided to do a quick article on my first impressions. The Raspberry Pi (FAQ) is a $25 (Model A) to $35 (Model B) computer developed to be a cheap, accessible, programmable computer. The Raspberry Pi’s main purpose is to give the new generation an affordable tool that can inspire them to be the programmers, engineers, makers, hackers, and inventors of the future.
Specifications
Both Models of the Raspberry Pi come with ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, 256 Megabytes of RAM, an RCA video out, an 3.5mm audio out, and HDMI out. The Model A also has one usb 2.0 port and no Ethernet controller, while the Model B has 2 usb 2.0 ports and a 10/100 Ethernet controller. I purchased the Model B Raspberry Pi.
Image from raspberrypi.org/faqs
Operating System
Currently there are three Linux OS distribution (distros) images that are supported for the Raspberry Pi. (download page)
I used the Debian “squeeze” distro for my first install and use of the Raspberry Pi. This image is highly recommended for those just starting out. If you have used Ubuntu before, this Linux distribution (distro) will be slightly familiar since Ubuntu is also a Debian based Linux distro.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
The Raspberry Pi has several downsides, but I think its overall capabilities and its low price point make it a great tool. Many great things will be developed and built with this device and I cannot wait to see what those are.
*Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation
Raspberrry Pi shipping news
May 2nd, 2012Just received confirmation that my Raspberry Pi will be delivered sometime in June.
We’re excited to inform you that your Raspberry Pi will be delivered in an upcoming shipment beginning the week of June 18th. – element14
Pretty excited to start messing around with it.
Home Automation over Wi-Fi…Next Steps
April 4th, 2012My next step/goal for this project is to try to reduce the cost, size, and complexity.
I am currently running the web server on an old laptop running ubuntu. This requires more power than is necessary and takes up more room than necessary.I want to try to make this project smaller so I am looking into using a router running OpenWrt. I have already ordered the Atheros AR9331 SoC, which is the same router used to create theWiFi Pineapple Mark IV.
In the first stage of this project. I used a full size arduino board. To try and shrink the overall size of this project I am going to try to use a Teensy board.
Any thoughts? Contact Me
Home Automation Article Featured on TheNewTech.tv
April 4th, 2012Home Automation over Wi-Fi
April 4th, 2012Introduction
On an episode of Hak5 they discussed setting up a garage door to be opened with a mobile device. Unfortunately, the audio was missing on the section where they discussed building/configuring the actual hardware to operate the garage door. This episode inspired me to start working on some home automation that could be accessed with any internet capable device without the need to install any software on the device. I wanted to be able to control several lights throughout my house and my garage.
I decided to use x10 to give me a starting point.
X10 is an international and open industry standard for communication among electronic devices used for home automation, also known as domotics. It primarily uses power line wiring for signaling and control, where the signals involve brief radio frequency bursts representing digital information. A wireless radio based protocol transport is also defined – wikipedia
Hardware
Step 1: Building and Configuring the Arduino
Follow the wiring schematics below for wiring your Arduino to an RJ11 Jack.
Data Pin = Pin 8
Zero Crossing Pin = Pin 9
First, wire the 5v connection on the arduino to the 10KΩ resistor. This will be wired to the data pin 8. Second wire data pin 8 to the black wire on the RJ 11 surface jack. Wire the green and red wires on the RJ11 surface jack together and wire them to the ground pin on the arduino. Finally wire the data pin 9 to the yellow wire on the surface jack (sometimes you may have to swap the data pin and the zero crossing pin depending on if the RJ11 cord is a cross over or not)
Grab the x10 Library from arduino.
Clone my github repository https://github.com/jfurcean/House-Control.git.
Push the arduino/x10House.pde to the arduino. This code reads data in the form of ascii characters over the USB. It converts the characters into x10 byte codes that are used with the x10 Library. It then uses the x10 Library to push x10 commands out to the PSC04 moudle over RJ11.
Step 2: Configuring the Webserver
A webserver running PHP with an open USB port is required. I used a LAMP server running Ubuntu 11.04. Drop the contents of www from my github repository into your active web directory. Inside index.php you must set $serialPath to the path that your arduino is connected to. For example
$serialPath = “/dev/ttyUSB0″;
If your using Apache as your webserver you must allow Apache to write to that path name.
sudo chgrp www-data /dev/ttyUSB0
sudo chmod 775 /dev/ttyUSB0
The web application reads config files to display certain x10 actions. When viewing the web application you need to make sure userName set. For example:
http://192.168.1.101?userName=john.
This will then use john.xml as the config file. The config file determines what stuff you can control.
<modules>
<module name=’Living Room’ house=’a’ unit=’1′ type=’light’/>
<module name=’Bed Room’ house=’a’ unit=’3′ type=’light’/>
<module name=’Garage’ house=’a’ unit=’2′ type=’button’/>
</modules>
Web Interface
Step 3: Add/Wire x10 Modules
All that is left is to plug any lamp into a lamp module, an appliance into an appliance module or wire a garage door, sprinkler, etc to the universal relay module.
Step 4: Enjoy
Enjoy being able to control your house from any internet capable device connected to your network
Light Control via iPod Touch
Garage Door Control via iPod Touch
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
Please feel free to contact me