PS3 Black Screen Of Death Fix

I have this DVI-I to DVI-A/DVI-D splitter cable that lets me plugin in my PS3 (with HDMI to DVI-D) and 360 (and Powerbook via switchbox). But I get the PS3 HDMI black screen of death when I turn the 360 _and_ the PS3 on at the same time.

I have to follow a few fixes on the net to make things all good again. 1) hold down the PS3 power button until the second beep and 2) power off my projector (not just standby... complete power off!). I do this with the toslink/spdif cable unplugged. It's annoying. Or is it a M$ tactic to destroy my Playstation fun!?

Bridging a USB GPS on OSX to a smartphone

My new walkman phone is rocking but it doesn't have GPS. And I have a powerbook in my car but OSX navigation software is lacking. USB GPS + Powerbook + Smartphone ==> Google Earth + TomTom! It's as simple as installing gpsdX, gps2geX then compiling gpspipe, setting up a Bluetooth serial port, and then redirecting the USB GPS output: gpspipe -r | grep -v ^GPSD > /dev/tty.SerialPort-1

Easy!

Gumstix Day 1

After several weeks my dad finally received his Gumstix + daughterboards.  Although the Gumstix is the size of chewing gum, it needs a massive daughterboard to do anything eg: power up.  In the photo is the Gumstix (not visible) + Ethernet/CF and Serial/USB daughterboards:

And here's my notes:

### Power
Has a very small power connector... smaller than the standard usb-hub power connector.
Requires a daughterboard eg: Ethernet/CF

### Serial/USB Daughterboard
Physically prevents MMC card.
Serial goes fast... 115200 8N1.
USB is v1 not v2.
Requires db9 to MiniDIN-8 cable (and usb<->serial for any modern computer).
Root password defaults to 'gumstix'.
Requires a gender bender to use usb devices.
Can power a single usb device, but requires a usb hub to be powered.
Stock firmware (non-bluetooth model) has:
- bluetooth driver, hcid but no hcitool.
- usb_storage driver, ext3 driver and fdisk but no mkfs.ext3.

### Ethernet/CF Daughterboard
Ethernet not enabled with stock firmware. Requires serial connection to configure.
Enabling ethernet is simple: modprobe smc91x ; ifconfig eth0 inet 192.168.3.1 up
Permanently enabling the ethernet by adding smc91x to /etc/modules has issues with negotiation on boot. Fix is to disable smc911x in /etc/modules.
Network configuration is /etc/network/interfaces and is similar to Debian. eth0 is auto and dhcp.
Stock firmware has:
- Dropbear the ssh daemon.
- Netcat (nc).
- ide-cs and relevant scsi drivers.

### Toolchain/Buildroot
Documented at http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Buildroot
Trunk doesn't seem to compile on OSX 10.5.
Compiles on Debian 4.0.

Arduino 101

The Arduino arrived this afternoon and I wanted to see it in action.  I used the simple servo control code from BionicArduino.  Here's some video action of it controlling an Evader RC car:

I still need to calibrate, wire in motor controller, etc etc.  But Arduino works as advertised.  Hoo-Yah!

Labjack U3 on OpenWRT

Installed OpenWRT on my Asus WLHDD to get some Kernel 2.6 action.  Cross compiled the Labjack U3 driver, library and examples.  Plugged it all in, and now I'm cooking with gas (mmm steak).