ErikN's Content

#36380 So how was Maker Faire NY

Posted by ErikN on 01 October 2012 - 06:43 PM in General Discussion

I didn't get to go for as long as I did last year and even last year I missed a great deal of the exhibits! The trains from Manhattan were all screwed up and that ate into our day there. If you've never been, the event space is very big and split into zones. There's a lot to see but I find a great deal of the value is from listening to people ask questions - it really gives you insight into the way other people are looking at particular bits of technology and what they value. There are a lot of talks and presentations covering a wide variety of topics. It's all very family friendly (though they did add a Beer Garden this year). On top of the Maker events, the entire New York Hall of Science is open and you can browse their exhibits. This was the 3rd annual Maker Faire in NYC and compared to last year it seems to be maturing quite well which is amazing since it's already pretty awesome. Except the food lines. Those are emphatically not awesome. I brought some friends this year who previously had no experience with Maker culture. They both found things they were interested in and seemed to have a good time even if it was a short day for us. My dancer friend was really taken in by the acrobatic show and the arts and jewelry. My engineer friend wanted to check out wearables since he works on Augmented Reality in his day job but was disappointed that it was all just conductive thread and LEDs and Floras. He seemed to enjoy looking at things but we didn't have time to listen to any of the talks specifically. I had a ball. Normally I'm not very comfortable in crowded places but there's something about the crowded place being populated by people who all have similar interests that makes it easier. I struck up a few conversations and helped people navigate the nightmare subway system and was still buzzing with energy when I got home despite being completely exhausted. Long story short - it's a great thing to visit. The event is maturing, there is a wide variety of booths, demonstrations and talks to fill up your entire weekend and the people are just about the friendliest and most inquisitive you can find. It's really amazing the type of people you meet in completely random encounters. When I had people coming up to visit me, I let them know it was Maker Faire weekend and attending was not optional. I compromised though and only went one day. I regret it. I missed so much! Oh well, there's always next year! -Erik

#36348 The GoBus Upgrade

Posted by ErikN on 01 October 2012 - 04:31 AM in Netduino Go

I was at the booth for a short time yesterday and from overhearing just a few people it was clear people were very happy to know they could use just one board and the hub to use all the modules. It would seem there was some frustration with the number of choices out there. The dilema of choice. I'm incredibly excited to see a unifying solution! I really think this will be overall a very good thing for users. Kudos.

#36107 We interrupt this program

Posted by ErikN on 28 September 2012 - 02:53 AM in Netduino Go

This is not a helpful teaser! I've threatened to chain up Stefan unless he tells me but he hasn't cracked yet.

#35185 Netduino Go Socket Pins as GPIO

Posted by ErikN on 14 September 2012 - 04:22 PM in Netduino Go

When I compare this to the GoHub.cs file:<br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252); ">
The same pins are used for SPI.SPI_module.SPI1 in the sockets 1-4.
The same pins are used for SPI.SPI_module.SPI2 in the sockets 5-8.

That's the bus part of GoBus and why, in the early days of Go if you use the Shield Base, you can't use the other ports in that bus. 1-4 share a bus and 5-8 share a bus. (With the new updates, this won't be a problem with the Shield Base but this is to demonstrate the shared nature of the bus. This is still a limitation if you use some Gadgeteer modules on the Go board. There are some discussions in the forums about this.)

The pins that are different are chip select to let the device on a bus know whether or not it is the device being communicated with.

#35019 Flashed firmware, now device have a ! mark in Device manager

Posted by ErikN on 11 September 2012 - 11:37 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

You could try re-installing the .NET Micro Framework SDK 4.2 and the Netduino SDK 4.2.0.1. Links are on the Downloads page under

netduino go (and all 4.2 upgrades)

.

#34989 Flashed firmware, now device have a ! mark in Device manager

Posted by ErikN on 11 September 2012 - 04:12 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Following the Wiki instructions exactly worked for me.

I also had to install the driver mentioned in a small snippet in those instructions.

Now (re)connect the Netduino to the PC. A driver for an emulated COM port will be installed. Start the SAM-BA tool. If a driver for an emulated COM port is not installed on a Windows 7 x64-machine, try this wiki page.

I'm running Server 2008 on a VM so it wasn't as straight-forward. I had to use IE to go to the Update site, download the file and install it manually. A little bit more of a pain but it worked. The link to the file is in the second Wiki link.

#34880 What extra features would you like in the XBee GoModule?

Posted by ErikN on 09 September 2012 - 05:16 AM in Netduino Go

I haven't worked with them but if the modules do have the ability to be put into a sleep mode, exposing the ability to control that would seem pretty useful. I'd think waking up to do a status burst every so often would be a common scenario.

#34186 IO Output during Reset/Boot

Posted by ErikN on 25 August 2012 - 02:27 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

The pins are pulled high during reset. This is done before your code starts executing so there's no way to prevent this from happening.

Most people will tell you the same thing - don't drive the LEDs directly from your board! You should power the LED directly and control its state with an NPN transistor to ground. This would keep your LEDs off during boot-up, wouldn't power them from your board directly but still give you control to turn them on and off. The downside is the extra hardware required (1 transistor per output port you're controlling.)

Seems I'm rarely correct about the right transistors to use.

#34165 More GoBus news: through-hole GoPort IDC Headers

Posted by ErikN on 24 August 2012 - 05:13 PM in Netduino Go

If you can solder 0.05" pitch through-hole headers, you don't have to be afraid of SMD But it is nice to have THT variant, for projects that already contain THT parts it offers a little bit different options for routing than the SMD version (i.e. more space towards the edges, but less space between the pins).

I don't really have experience with SMD soldering and the small space is difficult for me. It's easier for me to clean up a bad THT solder than I imagine it would be for SMD. For my purposes, I just like through-hole for prototyping (100% of what I seem to do!) with the theory of eventually using SMD components for pick-n-place board manufacturing.

I suppose I should bite the bullet and just figure out what the state of the art is in SMD reflow hot air, reflow, solder paste, further words, and just use that but I have a tiny apartment and currently do very little with hardware which makes justifying the extra tools a bit difficult.

#34154 More GoBus news: through-hole GoPort IDC Headers

Posted by ErikN on 24 August 2012 - 04:18 PM in Netduino Go

Awesome! Can't wait for them to be stocked! Posted Image

#33955 Mars landing tonight -- meetup online and in Times Square

Posted by ErikN on 20 August 2012 - 04:57 PM in General Discussion

A nice lady from PopSci stopped and chatted with us at the event...

She just posted her article, and Erik got a mention.
http://www.popsci.co...-53-foot-screen

Best of all, after two weeks...Curiosity is still making big news. Awesome.

Thanks again to all those who joined us online or in person to celebrate this historical moment.

Chris

I'd just saw this earlier today. I have no idea why it popped into my head to go looking.

#33394 Netduino GO Power Question

Posted by ErikN on 11 August 2012 - 12:47 AM in Netduino Go

I remember talking to Arron about this a little while ago. Looking at the circuit it certainly seemed possible by coincidence but it looked like it was not designed that way. When powered "correctly" there seems to be a lot of effort put toward clean power and keeping selfish components from affecting the stability of the power. When supplying power from a module - this is all bypassed. You'd need to be very careful not to supply dirty, reversed or spiky power. Chris popped in to catch the tail end of it and ended the conversation with an abrupt: "Don't do that.*" I suppose if you have a large supply of Go boards and don't mind some waste - go ahead! But if you only have one precious, treat it kindly and power it as designed. *I think this was the direct quote. It's been awhile though.

#33313 Netduino does not work when powered by Mac Mini USB

Posted by ErikN on 09 August 2012 - 12:34 AM in General Discussion

I have been developing my Netduino application on a Windows desktop machine - but my deployment scenario is going to involve powering the board from a Mac Mini USB port (currently a Mac Mini 2012 model).
What I have discovered, is that if I plug my netduino into a Mac Mini USB port, the on-board LED lights up, but stays on - and my program never loads.
If, I plug it into my PC, or a wall-wart USB power supply, the on-board LED lights up for a few seconds, then goes out as my program loads into memory, and everything works.

Why does my Netduino not run correctly when powered by Mac Mini??

Thanks

I noticed a similar issue. All I had to do was tap the reset button and it'd come up just fine. I noticed as soon as my VM running on the Mac Mini was set up to automatically attach the Netduino to the Windows instance, this stopped happening. Before that it was reliable to just reset the board and it'd come straight up.

#33156 Mars landing tonight -- meetup online and in Times Square

Posted by ErikN on 06 August 2012 - 07:02 AM in General Discussion

Hearing the crowd cheer almost simultaneously was pretty worth it.

#33143 Mars landing tonight -- meetup online and in Times Square

Posted by ErikN on 05 August 2012 - 11:49 PM in General Discussion

I don't know if this'll put a damper on things - but it just opened up some heavy rain over my apartment! I'm 3 blocks away from the event location in Times Square.

#33140 Mars landing tonight -- meetup online and in Times Square

Posted by ErikN on 05 August 2012 - 08:40 PM in General Discussion

I'll be in Times Square! I'm looking forward to it - there's been some talk about people dressing up as Martians. I'm not sure how to go as fossilized remains so I might sit the cosplay out.

#32750 Family Photo

Posted by ErikN on 27 July 2012 - 04:21 AM in Netduino Go

I'm constantly surprised how small and elegant these modules are!

#28721 DIY Go Cables

Posted by ErikN on 09 May 2012 - 03:39 PM in Netduino Go

I found the connectors but even in volume they were over $1 each, and you obviously need 2 of them, making them more pricey than buying assembled cables for the most part.

But the pre-assembled are in specific lengths. The OP isn't suggesting this would be cheaper but rather would lead to more custom lengths and would make use of the currently wasted ribbon cables.

#28359 Bay Area Maker Faire Meetup Planning

Posted by ErikN on 30 April 2012 - 07:43 PM in General Discussion

But big chance I will be at maker faire NY in September!

Sweet! Or as they say in your language, dit is echt het meest opwindende nieuws!

#27946 TRIAC's for switching 24VAC?

Posted by ErikN on 23 April 2012 - 02:31 PM in General Discussion

SparkFun has a couple EL Wire controller boards which use Triacs to switch high frequency AC from an inverter to the wire. One model has a microcontroller on board and the other is meant to be used as a shield.

I've never looked at the schematics to see how this differs from what I know about SSRs so this is presented as informational and entertainment purposes only. If you learn something it's your own fault.

Enjoy!

#27857 Asynchronous Delegates

Posted by ErikN on 21 April 2012 - 10:10 PM in General Discussion

NETMF uses software threading and from code I've written and what I've seen from others, you can do asynchronous programming. I haven't specifically used Begin- and EndInvoke rather using Thread and ThreadStart.

#27775 Google+ Plus Hangout Tonight

Posted by ErikN on 21 April 2012 - 12:36 AM in General Discussion

Short notice but I'm down for it. I won't have anything prepared to show though. I could talk about using NuGet though.

#27761 Netduino Go! RGB Umbrella

Posted by ErikN on 20 April 2012 - 09:58 PM in Project Showcase

+eleventy

#27749 BlueSMiRF Silver (Bluetooth)

Posted by ErikN on 20 April 2012 - 09:03 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I see from the datasheet a couple things. First, it looks like the default software mode speed is indeed 115,200,8,N,1 but there appears to be a dip switch as well that will set the speed to a fixed 9600.

"Baud Rate select - used to configure 9600 or software selected (default=115K ) baudrate. If the switch is
OFF, the stored baudrate setting will be used. When the switch is in the ON position, the baudrate will be set
to 9600 regardless of the software setting."

Can you check this and verify you're using the proper settings? I'd recommend turning this switch on and communicating via 9600 to ensure your code is working and then try again at 115,200 and ensure everything is still working. It might be that 115,200 is just too fast (seems unlikely).

#27734 Netduino Go! RGB Umbrella

Posted by ErikN on 20 April 2012 - 06:14 PM in Project Showcase

I think you could pull off the dark wizard look quite easily! I'm interested to see what you come up with. I've seen the "Blade Runner" style umbrellas before but they've always seemed too weak to use in any sort of ambient light. As further ideas, I think having a button to immediately switch to a red and orange swirling pattern would be useful to you. When you get angry you can hold the button down and switch into this mode to look extra menacing. When you've calmed you can release and let the colors go back to swirling through a fuller range of color.

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