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“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do…” – Steve Jobs
timnolan.com writes:
This is a project I did a couple of years back for a business friend of mine to automatically log all his phone calls into his computer. The hardware (pictured above) uses an microprocessor to monitor the phone calls (incoming and outgoing) and send the data out the serial port to be read by the computer.
The hardware is controlled by an Atmel AVR ATmega32 microprocessor. The processor uses optoisolators to see if the phone is off-hook and to check if the incoming line is ringing. If the phone is off-hook a DTMF decoding chip CM8870CP is used to decode the number that is dialed. If it is an incoming call an FSK decoding chip XR2211 is used to decode the Caller ID data.
Phone Call Logging Project - [Link]
Block Diagram (SBD) – Tablet – TI.com. [via]
Texas Instruments (TI) offers a variety of semiconductor solutions for tablets and eBooks. The OMAPTM processor shown in the system diagram perfectly balances power and performance to give designers and end users an optimal multimedia solution. Also represented is an extensive array of solutions for tablets and eBooks that support wireless connectivity, video, audio and power management. The selection guide on the following page is a sampling of TI devices available to streamline your design process.
Tablet and eBook System Diagram from TI - [Link]
Dave from the EEVBlog rounds up what open source hardware is with a handy video and links.
What is open source hardware - [Link]
A word about open source hardware @ The Custom Geek… [via]
So, what is open source hardware and why should I be interested in it? Open source hardware is simply hardware that is released in the wild along with CAD files (PCB layout data), documentation, and hopefully a tutorial on how it is set up and works…
Now, I was skeptical about this when I first heard about it because I thought,”If I want to sell my stuff, why give away the information I worked on?” I mean after all, aren’t we supposed to design something, then patent, copyright, trademark, and lock it in a safe? Thats the way to keep it ours right? After all, I worked on it, and I should get all the credit and all the profit right? I’m not giving my stuff away! But then I started thinking…
Read more, great post!
A word about open source hardware - [Link]
DNA is now DIY: OpenPCR ships worldwide … Tito writes – [via]
The eagerly awaited OpenPCR kit is now shipping! UPS picked up the first batch of kits and OpenPCRs are on their way to users in 5 continents and 13 countries around the world. For $512, every OpenPCR kit includes all the parts, tools, and beautiful printed instructions – you ONLY need a set of screwdrivers.
A PCR machine is basically a copy machine for DNA. It is essential for most work with DNA, things like exposing fraud at a sushi restaurant, diagnosing diseases including HIV and H1N1, or exploring your own genome. The guy who discovered the PCR process earned a Nobel Prize in 1993, and OpenPCR is now the first open source PCR machine.
Josh and I prototyped OpenPCR over about 4 months — it was a lot of fun. Last May we unveiled the first OpenPCR prototype to all you crazy people on Kickstarter, 158 people gave us a total of $12,121. With that we designed and manufactured a repeatable, works-all-the-time device — it took a lot of hard work. Now we’re done and ready to share!
DNA is now DIY: OpenPCR ships worldwide - [Link]
wow — this piece by artist Gaelen Sayres is quite chilling and effective: [via]
I have created a system that reads real time earthquake updates from around the world and depending on the magnitude it receives, disrupts and shakes a set of Japanese tableware by use of solenoid. While artists such as Susy Bielak, in her work “Quake/Temblor”, have previously explored the relationship between humans and geographic disaster, my motivation ultimately comes from my own first hand experience of Japan’s recent large March 11th earthquake.
While I got off relatively easy (knowing I had a home and family outside of Japan that I could “return” to) my Japanese friends and family did not. A week of aftershocks and lack of news coverage was more than enough to leave me wondering how much control I had over my life and to realize that even the common act of sharing a family meal without fear of disruption should not be taken for granted. That said, the choice of Japanese dinnerware will hopefully work as a metaphor for the stability of shelter and family ties (namely in Japan) being broken in some way with each new earthquake being recorded. Ultimately, it is not the tangible rattling of plates that I am hoping to capture on the plinth, but the knowledge of disruption and unease that is happening somewhere in the world outside of the viewer’s “stable” gallery.
(un)stable – An Art Installation That Reacts to Earthquakes - [Link]
