[HOWTO] Hacking Bioloid CM-5/Direct AVRISP Programmable

 

What is the point of hacking it?

Bioloid is a very impressive robotic kits for education purposes or just as a hobby. This robotics kit comes as parts instead of assembled in the form of a robot. With the given manual in the box, you can start to construct robotic arm, biped, or humanoid as seen in the picture. I even improvised it by replacing the head with a Logitech webcam with the hope that I can implement embedded vision algorithm. But of course after knowing what actually is inside the CM-5 (the main controller) I need to replace it with something more powerful like Beagleboard. Anyway, that would be another story and another project. Now I am going to show you how to hack the CM-5 box, so that you can directly put C code into the flash memory of the microcontroller. By the way, you might need to have AVRISP programmer since it embeds Atmel ATMega128.

Installing Slitaz2.0 on ACER Travelmate 351TE

I got an old laptop from the lab where I work and this old and poor laptop is dying. The case is broken here and there but the hardisk still spins and almost everything works like normal. It is ACER Travelmate 350 series, Travelmate 351TE with 700MHz Intel processor and 256MB of RAM. I managed to install Slitaz2.0 and played a video to demonstrate that it is still worth it as a video player.

The main problem with installing Windows or Linux on this machine is the lack of built-in optical drive. It doesn't boot from USB flash or any USB peripheral such as CDROM drive. Since I don't have the docking station, the only way to install Slitaz is by removing the hardisk out and place it into a USB external HDD case. Then I used another computer to install Slitaz and GRUB onto it. Voilaaa, you can see the result in the video below.

I keep the original OS intact and I cannott show you the performance comparison between those two since the Windows probably is full of program (and some viruses) which shows slower performance. I don't want to spend more time to install Windows that would make things become complicated since it won't work without built-in optical drive. However, it can be done.

Celebrity Look-alike

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family history

Slitaz Linux 25MB on OQO model 01+ and USB flash disk

You come to my blog so far because you probably have been trying hard to install Slitaz 1.0 with no luck. The same thing happened to me, everytime I run the installer, it gave me an error message and dismount the /media/cdrom automatically. The have it fixed already, but anyway if you want to know how everything works you can try the walk-through below. I write down step by step here what I did on this wonderful Slitaz distro on my OQO model 01+ UMPC. Instead of editing slitaz-installer under /usr/bin, we can edit /usr/bin/slitaz-installer.sh.

First, you have to have OQO (of course), external CD/DVD ROM, and usb stick. Make sure you have a copy of slitaz-1.0.iso in your usb stick. Boot your OQO from your external drive, choose the language as your preference, keyboard in US layout, accept the sound card, and choose the display as 800x480 24 bit. That is the first step of booting. Since I didn't want to be bothered with entering root password again and again while installing, I entered as user root with password root. Be careful when you log in as a root!

Second, insert your usb stick and mount it under /mnt with mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then mount the slitaz iso image under /media/cdrom using mount -o loop /mnt/slitaz-1.0.iso /media/cdrom.

Third, edit /usr/bin/slitaz-installer.sh and comment these lines to avoid the installer to search for CD/DVD ROM:

# Mount target device and cdrom.
# mount_devices()
# {
# echo ""
# mkdir -p $TARGET_ROOT /media/cdrom
# echo "Montage de la partitions et du cdrom..."
# # Mount points can be already used.
# if mount | grep $TARGET_ROOT; then
# umount $TARGET_ROOT
# fi
# if mount | grep /media/cdrom; then
# umount /media/cdrom
# fi
# mount $TARGET_DEV $TARGET_ROOT
# mount -t iso9660 $CDROM /media/cdrom || exit 1
# }

Fourth, go to /usr/bin and run slitaz-installer.sh. Follow the on screen instruction and choose your partition to install. That's all! Cute, small, and faster than the original Windows XP.

Things to do:

1. Get the wireless to work.
2. Get the bluetooth to work.
2. Get the tablet and stylus to work.
3. Put in standby when closing the lid.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any comment and help.

Readings:

http://www.slitaz.org/
http://forum.slitaz.org/viewtopic.php?id=422
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://www.howtogeek.com/tag/linux/

Changing Spark Plug - Yamaha SZR660 Super Single

I have a nice YAMAHA SZR660 Super Single Motorbike. It was built in the year of 1997 and I bought it from a friend two years ago. As you are motorbike lovers know, spark plug is worn out so often in any old motorbike. I have been changing the spark plug, but no one took picture for me. Last month I changed its spark plug for the third time and one of my friend, Gang Yao, was there with me. He took these pictures.

It is not difficult at all to replace the spark plug, what you actually need is the manual, the tools, and confidence that you can make it!

	I remove the seat and lift up the fuel tank. Under the fuel tank lies the air filter.
	After removing the fuel tank and air filter tank, you can see carburetor, the engine, etc. I look further up to find a groove on the top of the engine where the spark plug is sticked into. There is only one spark plug needed for a single cylinder engine.
	There it goes the groove. The spark plug is hidden inside. I remove the electrical cable fed to the spark plug and insert a tool to loosen it.
	What covered your spark plug and the color tell you what happened inside the engine. A good engine should give you a dry dark brown colored spark plug. In my case, it is a bit wet since the motorbike is quite old. This is why I need to change it, otherwise I would not be able to race on the road at 200 km/h! ( kidding ;) )
	I re-gap the new spark plug, but since I don't have micrometer to measure the exact gap, I use the old spark plug as reference.
	The gap is perfect! Now it is time to plug it back to the engine.
	I start the engine for 5 minutes to make the new spark plug gets used to with the combustion. Put the air filter back, the fuel tank, and the seat. I am ready to go around and speeding!

[HOWTO] Hacking Power Supply for UMPC OQO model 01+

Original Power Supply Fails Every Two Months

OQO model 01+ is really an amazing UMPC ever built among other competitors in the world. It comes with Windows XP Professional or Tablet PC Edition and under both version of Windows the stylus pen works just fine with the 5 inches LCD touch screen. Inside 30 GB of 1.8 inch hard drive, I could install both Linux and Windows using dual boot mode. While I am writing this article, the latest OQO model e2 is even more amazing than this. It has much nicer keyboard appearance with back light that glows in the dark.

I bought my OQO on November 2007 and it has one year warranty for service and part replacement. THREE TIMES of power supply failure had happened ever since within 6 months. At the beginning, I thought it was my mistake which made the power supply got broken. Anyway, I have the warranty, so I sent the power supply back to the reseller and they replaced it with a brand new one. Up to today, I got it replaced twice from them, and strangely, again, it got broken for the third time last week. I could send it back as many times as I want to the reseller since I am still holding the warranty. But what would happen to my OQO after the warranty is over? I will have no option by that time except to buy the original power supply for over 150 euro EVERY TWO MONTHS just to make my OQO works. Wow, that would be a really pain in the ass!

I wrote an email to the OQO's customer service, asking for solution except repeatably get the same replacement from them or their reseller. However, they said that this OQO model 01+ is now a discontinued product. Moreover, when I asked about the power supply electrical connection of their discontinued product, it seems that it is still a "continued proprietary" of OQO and they are not willing to share it with me even though I wanted to use it for my research project.

Hack it! Hack it, Eka! That sentence has been there in my mind and I think it is time for me to move my ass and get it works with my own hacked power supply because I still want to see my UMPC to work and not yet ready to give it up or upgrade to the latest model e2. TO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE, PLEASE DON'T CALL OQO FOR ANY SUPPORT FROM THEM AFTER YOU HACK YOUR UMPC AND DO REMEMBER THAT YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! I am here to provide you with information on how I got it works for my OQO model 01+. I believe that different model could have different configuration. You could send me comments or email if you have problem with your power supply or if you have a different model of OQO than mine. I don't guarantee that I could help you to solve your problem, but you have nothing to lose to try, right?

OQO without Battery and Power Supply

First unplug the power supply and remove the battery from OQO. If you don't know how to remove the battery, please read the manual. You will see a connector shown by figure on the right. What I did was measuring using Ohm meter to find out about what and where does it go between each of them. It turned out that A and B are connected, it didn't surprise me that both of them are connected to the body as well. So A and B obviously are the reference point (the ground).

Still on the OQO body, there is a male connector goes to the power supply. I measured this connector using ohm meter. It turned out that 2 and 4 are tied together, and also 3 and 5 are tied. Why would they put FIVE pins connector if at the end they tie the two of them into one? Wouldn't it be more convenient to put less pins for the power supply? Hey, OQO, listen up! What were you doing guys out there?

Resistance measurement was continued between connector at the back of OQO with the power supply male inlet. It seemed that A, B, 2, and 4 are connected together. This is very obvious and I could conclude that this is exactly where I would put the ground of my home made power supply. Then, pin number 1 on the inlet male connector is connected to D on the back of OQO.

So how to power up this OQO by my home made power supply? This is the possible configuration of the male connector, (1) is VCC1, (2) is GND, and (3) is VCC2. Pin (4) is connected to GND and pin (5) is connected to VCC2. So far I didn't know how much is VCC1 and VCC2, but I knew that it needs two different voltages to power it up because they are not tied together.

The Original Power Supply

Luckily, when I received my second replacement of power supply, I did measured the outputs from the female connector on the power supply. First I tried to measure it using Ohm meter to see any connected pin while it is turned off. Only point b and e that I found are connected together (this could be the ground). Then I plugged the power supply and proceeded to voltage measuring. Point a is 5 volts, point d is also 5 volts, instead point c is 6 volts. So, by far, we know that VCC1 = 6 volts and VCC2 = 5 volts! Great! Then, I moved on!

Windows' Power Management Behavior

I explored more on OQO behavior by putting a piece of paper to isolate each battery connector at a time and put the battery back to OQO. I plugged the power supply and here what I found when I turned it on.

Isolate C with a piece of paper Windows doesn't know the status of the battery, but OQO works with/without power supply attached.

Isolate D with a piece of paper Battery doesn't recharge anymore, but OQO works with/without power supply attached.

Isolate E with a piece of paper Battery is charging, battery status can be read, but OQO doesn't work without power suppy attached.

From this behavioral test, I could guess that C is the charging/full indicator from the battery to Windows, D is the charging port directly from 6 volts of power supply, and E is the main positive pole of the battery.

Hypotheses

1. Lithium Polymer battery nominal voltage is 3.7 volts. Thus the battery may recharge using 5 volts source instead of 6 volts.

2. We may simplify the power supply design by using single and uniform power source.

Experimental Test

The given specification of the power supply is 4.8 volts and 2.5 Amperes. I know it is not easy to find a switching power supply as needed so I did some experiments by powering up my OQO with a stable desktop power supply. As I described above, I powered OQO with VCC not to all of 5 pins but only 3 of them. I took 3 single sockets from jumper cables and soldered them as seen in the picture. The configuration is VCC - GND - VCC. To isolate each of them properly, I put a thermoplastic wire insulation a.k.a. heat-shrink tubing. The experiment went very well when I applied VCC between 4.5 volts to 5 volts. The drawback of using low voltage is a slow charging, but it saves more energy since the current withdrawn by OQO is less. I don't suggest you to apply 6 volts (I didn't try it too) since it works just fine with 5 volts. Make sure you measure your desktop power supply before you attach it to your OQO!

Conclusion

It is possible to replace OQO power supply with a single 5 volts switching power supply from the market (in my case, I use 4.5 volts instead). I use variable switching power supply Accord PDS115, but you may use any power supply as long as it could provide continuous electric current at least 2.5 Amperes. The output's characteristic of PDS115 power supply are 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9, and 12 volts within a different range of current withdrawn. Complete specification of Accord PDS115 can be found here. The advantages of using a switching power supply are small in size and of course light weight. It is even smaller and lighter than the original OQO power supply.

Future Work

Since I still have my warranty until November 2008, I won't cut and take the connector out of the original power supply. If OQO doesn't even bother to fix the problem for OQO model 01+ power supply by the end of November 2008, then I will cut the connector and put it to Accord PDS115. For those of you who are not patient enough to wait ;), the picture shows you how to connect your power supply to the connector taken from OQO power supply. This way you will have a very secure connection compared to the home made one. I will update my blog as soon as I cut my connector guys!

I hope this article helps you out who experiences the same problem as I do and I open to any suggestion and comment.

A Woman is Lost and Two Guys in A Laboratory

Hello everyone... long time since last time I updated my blog. I was so busy with the daily activities but I have a quite strong reason why I have been absent for so long :)

Recently I surfed on AsiaFriendFinder and met a very fascinating blog written by victorylee0516 (her ID) and I am afraid that you would not be able to see her blog if you are not a registered user. Anyway, she posted a joke there which is A Woman is Lost. This joke is quite political, funny, and it turned out that a light bulb was flashing on my brain all of that sudden to write a slightly similar one. I posted my joke as a comment and hilariously everyone loved it.

This is absolutely my first funniest joke I've ever made in my life that would probably travel around the world and arrives someday to my email. By the time I receive it then I know that it has become popular.

I won't forget the moment I posted this joke and would like to remember this day when I feel happy to see everyone posted comments on my joke. So here I post both of the joke for you to send to everyone (if you like it) and for me to remember it for all my life.

A WOMAN IS LOST (posted by victorylee0516)

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect ME to solve your problem. You're in EXACTLY the same position you were in before we met, but somehow now, it's MY fault!

TWO GUYS IN A LABORATORY (posted by ekawahyu)

A young man entered an electronic laboratory and met a guy sitting on the workbench with a lot of instruments around him. Wondering of what he was doing he asked this guy, "excuse me, what are these instruments measuring?"

The guy replied, "Well, I can tell you that 1.2 A of electric current passes through this light bulb on 220 working voltage. It produces heat upto 45 degree of Celcius and my data acquisition card tells me that the frequency of the electric generator is exactly 50Hz. But I don't know for how long this light bulb will last. It has been 5 hours and 23 minutes since I turned this light bulb on".

The man said, "Ah, you must be a PhD Student then".

"I am", the guy replied, "how do you know?"

The man replied, "Because you collect data and all information of this light bulb, calculate everything, compare them, but you still don't know how to conclude and predict the lifetime of this light but, do you? You are wasting your time there".

The guy said, "Well you must be a Professor then"

"I am", the man replied, "how do you know?"

The guy said, "Because you are just interested to the conclusion and somehow when the conclusion DOESN'T PLEASE you, I have to READJUST these instruments a little bit so that it shows the value that you WANTED. And now, you blame me for wasting my time here in front of these instruments. How can I CONCLUDE something from instruments that show me INCORRECT values?"

(No offense to Professors, ok? I just write down what is in my mind right now )