Zach had a chance to check out a really interesting new chip from Parallax and has let us repost his first first impressions – “I just spent the past two days at Parallax’s headquarters using the new Propeller chip (they even gave me a couple chips to take home, woot!). These chips are real (non-vapor) […]
If you liked the serial port cable/board Roomba how to, you’ll really like this one – controlling a Roomba via Bluetooth! Roomba’s have a serial port that let you entirely control them. Adding a Bluetooth serial adapter to wirelessly control the Roomba isn’t that hard to do. It looks just like a serial port to […]
Here’s how to make a serial cable to control a Roomba with your Mac/PC. iRobot Roomba manufactured after October 2005 contain an electronic and software interface that allows you to control or modify Roomba’s behavior and remotely monitor its sensors. This interface is called the Roomba Serial Control Interface or Roomba SCI. When you’re done […]
uBrowser is an simple Web Browser that illustrates one way of embedding the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine into a standalone application using LibXUL. In this case, the contents of the page is grabbed as it’s being rendered and displayed as a texture on some geometry using OpenGL. You are able to interact with the page (mostly) normally and visit (almost) any site that works correctly with Firefox 1.5. Translation: Expect to see browser like Firefox in every virtual world really soon. [via] Link. I took a few screenshots, check’em out!
On page 112 of MAKE Volume 05 (“How to Build a Power Tap”), we ran an illustration that could cause some confusion as well as a tripped circuit breaker. The illustration does not match the instructions (which are correct). The illustration shows a dual plug receptacle, which, when wired improperly, can cause a short circuit. If you attach the wires from the extension cord to the screws on the same side of the receptacle, it will create a short circuit. Don’t do that. Instead, follow the instructions and attach a wire to “each side of the electrical outlet.”
Sony isn’t tops in many areas any longer, but they were one of the best in robot dogs and humanoid robot companion development. Now it seems those are going to get the axe (maybe they’d open source ’em? Good will and all?!)… “Continuing the restructuring in its electronics business, the company said it would end its Aibo robot line, stop development of its Qrio robot, stop development and manufacturing of plasma televisions, and stop selling in-car entertainment products in Japan. It will also kill its Qualia line of pricey, high-specification products.” [via] Link. Here are photos of some good times and memories with AIBOs and QRIOs. We will miss you guys.
I met Dan from Berkeley at Macworld and his pal Andrew – they showed me a great POV (Persistence of Vision project) he just send word it’s now wirelessly updatable. Dan writes “Here’s the POV device and told you I was 30 minutes from making it wirelessly updatable. Well it took three hours instead but it works. Andrew and I are working on lower case letters and a general pattern generator interface.”
