swan tron dot com

Bonus Bacon Lattice

Joseph Swanson — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:38:44 +0000

The only thing better than bacon is bonus bacon: the bacon left over from a bacon feast.

The only thing better than bonus bacon is the ellusive bonus bacon lattice…

bonus!

Stack while hot, refrigerate, and enjoy.

Webcam Control Via Android

Joseph Swanson — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:32:21 +0000

Webcams: 2 Foscam FI8918W
Android App: IP Cam Viewer

Carlos

Baby: Emma

Android IP Webcam Demo

Joseph Swanson — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:24:25 +0000

Poking around on the Android Market for an app to control my Foscam IP Webcams, I stumbled across a cool app concept. Long story short, someone wrote some code to serve the live camera feed…effectively turning an android device into an IP cam.

web cam-y

The app is free on the Market…just search for IP Webcam and it will pop up. Here it is in operation, serving from my Droid 2 for viewing on my Linux machine…

This would pair nicely with my IOIO project, provided I can bring it back from the grave. I could mount the phone itself on the payload, giving this sucker on-board video. A second device (Galaxy…) could provide the board control, and I could implement a web view into my app. Might be on to something here…stay tuned.

Invoking the Triforce

Joseph Swanson — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:30:33 +0000

The three constituents of the Triforce are Power, Wisdom, and Courage…

the baum

…

3 shards

…I’ve got wisdom and courage on lock, but am hoping the Baum Bat customization lends itself to more power.

Baseball and Zelda, for the wins.

Spark Fun

Joseph Swanson — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:22:00 +0000

Fire and brimstone…

IOIO #1 is fucking toast..

Close call with the new 3-cell LiPo. It took some time to get the singed plastic smell out of the *lab…all three cells appear to be intact.

Making progress on the IOIO project, before the setback.

IOIO on LiIon Battery Power

Joseph Swanson — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:55:00 +0000

I finally bucked up and picked up a few Li-Ion batteries for my dust-collecting Clocky mod project. A two cell, a three cell, and a suitable charger for the two arrived in the mail yesterday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…lithium ion battery tech is crazy. I can’t believe how deprived we were, or more accurately, how pumped I am to utilize this stuff at a decent price point.

Anyhow, I managed to spec out a high quality, thrifty Li-Ion that will fit on my payload…

whrrrrrrr

…and, the little sucker screams…

I have a hard connection from my phone to the IOIO in the vid. I need to configure the new ROM with bluetooth, and wanted to test the power function stand-alone. That will be the next step. The next next step will include piecing the payload together as a drivable unit. The next next next step will be tweaking the UI for some more realistic control units. After that is next next next next, and will involve a video of the unit in action.

DIY Baseball Trainer

Joseph Swanson — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:56:59 +0000

With men’s league baseball around the corner and a new Baum Bat in my garage, I got antsy to hit some baseballs. Since the sidekick keeps me close to the house on weekends, I had to improvise. Enter, DIY Baseball Trainer…

Step one: Drill hole in baseball

drilling a baseball

*Fun fact…I still haven’t had to charge this lithium ion battery pack, after a whole bunch of baby furniture assembly and random tasks in the *lab. Battery technology is great.

Step two: Attach ball tether

...

*Fun fact… I have been looking for uses for old salvaged power cords. They are everywhere.

Step three: Attach unit to fixed point

play ball

*Fun fact…I had to go nuts with my tree trimmer in order to clear a suitable space to accommodate a baseball swing. I still have a sizable pile of tree that I am working into our garbage cans pre-pickup.

Step four: Get real

booooo

*Fun fact…I thought this would hold up for a while. It turns out ‘a while’ was two swings.

Android Curtain Call

Joseph Swanson — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:06:43 +0000

I spidered my D2 a handful of weeks ago. The replacement phone I received shipped with Gingerbread…which with my previous version of CyanogenMod was built on top of. I rooted the new device immediately, and dumped all of the garbage apps. My thought was to keep the stock ROM on the device, in order to have a stock testing device once I moved on to a new device.

Well, even stock Gingerbread is borderline useless by comparison. The most annoying tic that developed was with the camera…the flash stopped syncing with the camera shutter, rendering the flash useless.

Change of plans…dev device will run CyanogenMod 7.1.

landscaping?

I falsely assumed that flashing a ROM would work the same on Gingerbread as it did on Froyo for the Droid 2. Way wrong…I honestly thought I had bricked the phone. I ended up having to get creative with ADB and flashing an older firmware version, and standing Froyo back up on my device. From that point, it was the same old song and dance…testing ROMs, pulling batteries, hanging out on the recovery screen.

I wound up settling on an old nightly build of CG7.1. I am due for a phone upgrade right now…my wait for ICS is way more tolerable with a usable phone.

11 Days to Go

Joseph Swanson — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:14:57 +0000

My sidekick doesn’t seem to care that the Cubs are going to be lousy again this year.

pink? that'll do

Season starts in eleven days…we are tied for first place until then.