19 April 2015
New Theme!
Well, just a change of background and middle layer along with a bit of colour tweaking, nothing else otherwise.
Logitech MX Master & Logitech Product Rant
The article I read is: Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse Unveiled.
I'll give a fair forewarning for this post will be quite long, as I'll be covering a lot.
It has an interesting design and style, and as much as I'd like to have one, I wouldn't need or have much use for it. While it does allow me to control 3 devices with it, the only place it'd see use is my bedroom - it would connect to the Raspberry Pi 2 and Banana Pi via Bluetooth and then to Mei-chan via the Unifiying receiver. The problem is that it's a regular mouse, so I'd need some sort of space to move it around to control the cursor, and with the limited space, that's not exactly entirely possible. The other reason why I wouldn't want it for my bedroom is because I have already bought a Logitech M570 to replace the Cordless Optical TrackMan for Mei-chan. What I'm planning is that the Raspberry Pi 2 is going to use the Cordless Optical TrackMan and the Banana Pi will be using the V470 that's paired with Taiga at the moment (the Banana Pi will be taking over Taiga's duties). I may get it in the future, but that's about all I have left to say about it.
I own and have owned numerous Logitech products over the past 15 years, and I've never had any reason to switch to any other company. I'm not exactly sure when I began my brand loyalty to Logitech, but perhaps it was when the MX1000 was released.
The first Logitech mouse I owned was the Value Optical Mouse, which I eventually gave to a friend, because of my adaptation of the "first" generation of Logitech's Marble Mouse.
The third mouse would (probably) be the MX1000, as it was quite interesting to have something that used a laser instead of an LED light for surface tracking, but the battery eventually degraded to where it didn't hold a charge very well (perhaps it was a bad thing that I had it on the charger if I wasn't using it?). I eventually gave it to my best friend as a mouse for backup/test rig/something else.
Next would be the Mini Optical Mouse Plus for Sae-chan, which I used for quite a while until I didn't have Sae-chan for a couple years, and during that time, I gave the mouse to my best friend so that he can bundle it with a laptop he was selling.
After that came the white V470 for Shizuma, which I used for a while until it was replaced with the Performance Mouse MX (more on this mouse later).
I bought another V470 for the netbook, but in the blue colour, and this one went to my best friend again, until he retired and (possibly) sold it.
While I'm not sure exactly when I got the "third" generation of the Marble Mouse, I bought it to replace the "first" generation because of the button count increase. For those wondering, the "second" generation is the same as the "first", but with different colours, and the "fourth" is like the "third" with different colouring as well. Generation numbers are in quotes, as I can't say for sure if that's how Logitech released them.
I've also bought an M310 for something, but I don't recall what - though I do know that I gave it to my parents to use on the Intel build and the VAIO it replaced.
The Performance Mouse MX was very interesting to me because of it's ability to track on 4mm (and thicker) glass, and I bought it to use with Shizuma along with a N305 for numeric entry (the Unifying receiver is quite nice). I originally had a couple Bluetooth (non-Logitech) numeric pads, but the first one died after I accidentally spilled a bit of water on it, and the second one was just kinda cheap and annoying to use.
When I got Triela, I also got the Anywhere Mouse MX (first generation), since it uses the same Darkfield technology and my best friend had a glass desk at that time (though I only tested it on glass for fun and used it seriously on a mousepad).
When I got Sae-chan back (I think this was when I had the netbook) and "modded" her to have Bluetooth, I bought another white V470, since the other was paired with Shizuma.
For Lie-chan (when she became a Media PC), I bought the M505 because I wanted laser mouse that had Unifying (so I could pair it with the K360).
I also got the Cordless Optical TrackMan at some point, just not sure when (I think when Ziggy was my bedroom compy).
And the latest mouse would be the M570, which is still a bit weird to get used to, since it's a thumb-controlled trackball instead of the index finger-controlled trackball (using the middle finger in concurrency for more precise movement). The first week or two was the hardest, because my brain had been so hardwired to using the Marble Mouse and Cordless Optical TrackMan, so I had to slow down a bit to make my hand control the M570 correctly (instead of making clicks/scrolls when trying to move the cursor).
A total of thirteen Logitech mice, but that only concludes the list of mice. For keyboards, I own/have owned a total of 5. For speakers, I've own the X-540 and owned the X-530. For miscellany, the HD Pro Webcam C920 and the Harmony 650 Remote.
I'll more than likely continue to buy Logitech products when I need/want them, keeping myself from early adoption to avoid any possible issues that may arise (the G910 would be a good example).
I'll give a fair forewarning for this post will be quite long, as I'll be covering a lot.
It has an interesting design and style, and as much as I'd like to have one, I wouldn't need or have much use for it. While it does allow me to control 3 devices with it, the only place it'd see use is my bedroom - it would connect to the Raspberry Pi 2 and Banana Pi via Bluetooth and then to Mei-chan via the Unifiying receiver. The problem is that it's a regular mouse, so I'd need some sort of space to move it around to control the cursor, and with the limited space, that's not exactly entirely possible. The other reason why I wouldn't want it for my bedroom is because I have already bought a Logitech M570 to replace the Cordless Optical TrackMan for Mei-chan. What I'm planning is that the Raspberry Pi 2 is going to use the Cordless Optical TrackMan and the Banana Pi will be using the V470 that's paired with Taiga at the moment (the Banana Pi will be taking over Taiga's duties). I may get it in the future, but that's about all I have left to say about it.
I own and have owned numerous Logitech products over the past 15 years, and I've never had any reason to switch to any other company. I'm not exactly sure when I began my brand loyalty to Logitech, but perhaps it was when the MX1000 was released.
The first Logitech mouse I owned was the Value Optical Mouse, which I eventually gave to a friend, because of my adaptation of the "first" generation of Logitech's Marble Mouse.
The third mouse would (probably) be the MX1000, as it was quite interesting to have something that used a laser instead of an LED light for surface tracking, but the battery eventually degraded to where it didn't hold a charge very well (perhaps it was a bad thing that I had it on the charger if I wasn't using it?). I eventually gave it to my best friend as a mouse for backup/test rig/something else.
Next would be the Mini Optical Mouse Plus for Sae-chan, which I used for quite a while until I didn't have Sae-chan for a couple years, and during that time, I gave the mouse to my best friend so that he can bundle it with a laptop he was selling.
After that came the white V470 for Shizuma, which I used for a while until it was replaced with the Performance Mouse MX (more on this mouse later).
I bought another V470 for the netbook, but in the blue colour, and this one went to my best friend again, until he retired and (possibly) sold it.
While I'm not sure exactly when I got the "third" generation of the Marble Mouse, I bought it to replace the "first" generation because of the button count increase. For those wondering, the "second" generation is the same as the "first", but with different colours, and the "fourth" is like the "third" with different colouring as well. Generation numbers are in quotes, as I can't say for sure if that's how Logitech released them.
I've also bought an M310 for something, but I don't recall what - though I do know that I gave it to my parents to use on the Intel build and the VAIO it replaced.
The Performance Mouse MX was very interesting to me because of it's ability to track on 4mm (and thicker) glass, and I bought it to use with Shizuma along with a N305 for numeric entry (the Unifying receiver is quite nice). I originally had a couple Bluetooth (non-Logitech) numeric pads, but the first one died after I accidentally spilled a bit of water on it, and the second one was just kinda cheap and annoying to use.
When I got Triela, I also got the Anywhere Mouse MX (first generation), since it uses the same Darkfield technology and my best friend had a glass desk at that time (though I only tested it on glass for fun and used it seriously on a mousepad).
When I got Sae-chan back (I think this was when I had the netbook) and "modded" her to have Bluetooth, I bought another white V470, since the other was paired with Shizuma.
For Lie-chan (when she became a Media PC), I bought the M505 because I wanted laser mouse that had Unifying (so I could pair it with the K360).
I also got the Cordless Optical TrackMan at some point, just not sure when (I think when Ziggy was my bedroom compy).
And the latest mouse would be the M570, which is still a bit weird to get used to, since it's a thumb-controlled trackball instead of the index finger-controlled trackball (using the middle finger in concurrency for more precise movement). The first week or two was the hardest, because my brain had been so hardwired to using the Marble Mouse and Cordless Optical TrackMan, so I had to slow down a bit to make my hand control the M570 correctly (instead of making clicks/scrolls when trying to move the cursor).
A total of thirteen Logitech mice, but that only concludes the list of mice. For keyboards, I own/have owned a total of 5. For speakers, I've own the X-540 and owned the X-530. For miscellany, the HD Pro Webcam C920 and the Harmony 650 Remote.
I'll more than likely continue to buy Logitech products when I need/want them, keeping myself from early adoption to avoid any possible issues that may arise (the G910 would be a good example).
Linux 4.0
The article I read is: Linux 4.0 brings Skynet closer to existence, offers reboot-free kernel patching.
While it probably won't be mainstream all that soon, I do look forward to reboot-free kernel upgrades, since it will make things a bit more convenient than it already is (considering that a Linux user can reboot/relog at their own convenience without a nag message).
The other thing that will be nice about 4.0 is the audio over HDMI with the open-source AMD Radeon driver; this will be quite nice for a media PC or HTPC, since it doesn't require the workaround. To make it work with 3.x, you would have to tweak a setting or two, but it can cause issues (I tried it once for the heck of it, but it was a long while ago, so I don't remember all that much of what happened).
As for the numerical numbering, it doesn't matter to me if it's 4.0 or 3.2 because it's just a numerical sequence after all.
While it probably won't be mainstream all that soon, I do look forward to reboot-free kernel upgrades, since it will make things a bit more convenient than it already is (considering that a Linux user can reboot/relog at their own convenience without a nag message).
The other thing that will be nice about 4.0 is the audio over HDMI with the open-source AMD Radeon driver; this will be quite nice for a media PC or HTPC, since it doesn't require the workaround. To make it work with 3.x, you would have to tweak a setting or two, but it can cause issues (I tried it once for the heck of it, but it was a long while ago, so I don't remember all that much of what happened).
As for the numerical numbering, it doesn't matter to me if it's 4.0 or 3.2 because it's just a numerical sequence after all.
10 April 2015
Micro SD Card Adapter
I recently bought GeauxRobot Raspberry Pi Premium Low-profile MicroSD (TF) to SD Card Adapter and received it yesterday.
After writing Raspian to the 4GB micro SD card, I stuck it in the adaptor, stuck the adaptor into the Testpi, then plugged it in. Pi didn't boot and I cycled the power before using the stock adaptor, which worked.
I did a continuity test on the parts of the board that I was able to and found nothing conclusive. After the initial Raspbian setup, I decided to try again, with no new results. I then decide to pop the hood up enough, and eventually one of the solder joints for the hood broke, and enabled me to access the micro SD contact pins. At that point as well, I lost a piece for the click-lock retention/ejection, but I wasn't paying too much attention, since my focus was trying to diagnose the adaptor.
I'm not sure what I did, but I took it to my soldering iron to remove the hood by melting the solder of the other joint for the hood, and then ran another continuity test with the pins itself, which is when I found that one of the pins wasn't properly soldered - probably a bad reflow. I checked the rest of the pins (which turned out fine) before double checking the bad pin again. I took the adaptor back to my solder station and heated the joint a couple times to make sure the solder reflowed well enough.
I went back to my room to stick the micro SD card into it to find that the hood didn't want to stay on, and so I had to keep pressure on the hood as I did a quick boot test. Once confirmed, I took the micro SD card out of the adaptor and soldered the hood back on. Unfortunately, the initial tinkering of the hood (where it popped the solder joint) also shaved off the retention clips on that side of the micro SD card holder (thin metal, thin plastic, and some force does not mix well), and at that point I was at a loss of how to fix it.
After a minute or two of looking at the adaptor, I saw the weird solder joint that the hood makes contact with when a card isn't present (the joints aren't connected to anything), which could just be a stabilization or positioning thing, I don't know for sure. Anyway, I had saw the thing before and found it slightly weird when it didn't connect to it via continuity test, but I found that to be the only way to hold that corner of the hood down; I went back out to the soldering iron to solder the hood to the solder joint. I accidentally soldered the contact arm along with it, but the micro SD card fits and reads just fine, so I left it.
It was nice that I was able to fix a "dead" unit, since it's a very simple design - with nothing more than contact points and some PCB traces - and I didn't want to try a different brand (along with the fact that I was unable to return it once I opened the hood). It also saved me the disappointment of a DOA product looming around until I forgot about it.
It was definitely one of the more interesting turnouts for a potentially bad product.
After writing Raspian to the 4GB micro SD card, I stuck it in the adaptor, stuck the adaptor into the Testpi, then plugged it in. Pi didn't boot and I cycled the power before using the stock adaptor, which worked.
I did a continuity test on the parts of the board that I was able to and found nothing conclusive. After the initial Raspbian setup, I decided to try again, with no new results. I then decide to pop the hood up enough, and eventually one of the solder joints for the hood broke, and enabled me to access the micro SD contact pins. At that point as well, I lost a piece for the click-lock retention/ejection, but I wasn't paying too much attention, since my focus was trying to diagnose the adaptor.
I'm not sure what I did, but I took it to my soldering iron to remove the hood by melting the solder of the other joint for the hood, and then ran another continuity test with the pins itself, which is when I found that one of the pins wasn't properly soldered - probably a bad reflow. I checked the rest of the pins (which turned out fine) before double checking the bad pin again. I took the adaptor back to my solder station and heated the joint a couple times to make sure the solder reflowed well enough.
I went back to my room to stick the micro SD card into it to find that the hood didn't want to stay on, and so I had to keep pressure on the hood as I did a quick boot test. Once confirmed, I took the micro SD card out of the adaptor and soldered the hood back on. Unfortunately, the initial tinkering of the hood (where it popped the solder joint) also shaved off the retention clips on that side of the micro SD card holder (thin metal, thin plastic, and some force does not mix well), and at that point I was at a loss of how to fix it.
After a minute or two of looking at the adaptor, I saw the weird solder joint that the hood makes contact with when a card isn't present (the joints aren't connected to anything), which could just be a stabilization or positioning thing, I don't know for sure. Anyway, I had saw the thing before and found it slightly weird when it didn't connect to it via continuity test, but I found that to be the only way to hold that corner of the hood down; I went back out to the soldering iron to solder the hood to the solder joint. I accidentally soldered the contact arm along with it, but the micro SD card fits and reads just fine, so I left it.
It was nice that I was able to fix a "dead" unit, since it's a very simple design - with nothing more than contact points and some PCB traces - and I didn't want to try a different brand (along with the fact that I was unable to return it once I opened the hood). It also saved me the disappointment of a DOA product looming around until I forgot about it.
It was definitely one of the more interesting turnouts for a potentially bad product.
31 March 2015
Sound Card Switchbox Version 2
After finding a nice, new box and the type of audio jacks that I was originally wanting, I decided to remake the sound card switchbox for Melty. The project took about 140 minutes (about 7 days and about 20 minutes per day) since I needed access to the heatshrink and heat gun at work (I'd rather not have to use the soldering iron or a lighter on the heatshrink) - I obviously worked on it a bit at a time during my lunch break, but I did drill out the holes and trim away part of the inside plastic at home; the 140 minutes does not include the amount of time that I spent planning it out.
I reused the cables (and switches) from version 1 along with using 27cm lengths of extra stereo cable to increase the length a bit, which turned out to be slightly excessive. The heatshrink I used around the cable splice didn't turn out too well, but I didn't want to waste time cutting all the heatshrink off to try the smaller-sized heatshrink. When I drilled the holes for the cables, the plastic chipped a bit, so I was forced to countersink the imperfections away, which ended up making it look kinda nice (it's very hard to see the hole past the countersink).
I used some scrap pieces of ribbon cable to connect the switches to the jacks, which makes it look much cleaner than the previous version. The ground/sleeve wires (whatever you want to call it) from the cables are not covered with heatshrink (except for the ribbon), since it wasn't entirely necessary and none of them are touching one another.
While I wanted to take a picture of the switch loose like I did with version 1, I didn't want to waste any time, so it wasn't possible at work, and disassembly wasn't an option because of the thread-locking compound on the switches (and jacks).
Sometimes it's surprising how nice something can look with some new parts.
I reused the cables (and switches) from version 1 along with using 27cm lengths of extra stereo cable to increase the length a bit, which turned out to be slightly excessive. The heatshrink I used around the cable splice didn't turn out too well, but I didn't want to waste time cutting all the heatshrink off to try the smaller-sized heatshrink. When I drilled the holes for the cables, the plastic chipped a bit, so I was forced to countersink the imperfections away, which ended up making it look kinda nice (it's very hard to see the hole past the countersink).
I used some scrap pieces of ribbon cable to connect the switches to the jacks, which makes it look much cleaner than the previous version. The ground/sleeve wires (whatever you want to call it) from the cables are not covered with heatshrink (except for the ribbon), since it wasn't entirely necessary and none of them are touching one another.
While I wanted to take a picture of the switch loose like I did with version 1, I didn't want to waste any time, so it wasn't possible at work, and disassembly wasn't an option because of the thread-locking compound on the switches (and jacks).
Sometimes it's surprising how nice something can look with some new parts.
Finalized schematic (which was originally done in pencil, but had to be inked due to smudging). "Scuffed" refers to the side I scuffed a bit while filing excess plastic away on the box and lid.
Insides and close-up view.
Front and rear 3/4 view (apologies for the massive glare on the rear 3/4 view).
Rear view (apologies for the lens flare). I decided against making/placing a "P" label since I'm one of those that can extrapolate from incomplete data.
View of the splices and a close-up view of the gap between the heatshrink and cable.
Front and rear 3/4 view after "installation" (The side with the "Lin/M$W" label will be visible to me when I move Melty into the closet of the other room).
29 March 2015
Internet Doorbell
The "article" I read is: Raspberry Pi Internet Doorbell
I stumbled across the blog entry (hence why I typed "article" instead of article) while looking for the blog of the Raspi 2 on sale (I was needing the photo for something).
While I didn't watch the video, it's quite a nice idea, since sometimes the sound of the doorbell isn't heard sometimes.
What I'd like to do is something similar where a motion detector (or possibly a security cam) detects motion and reports it visually and/or audibly since the parcel delivery services here usually just leave the package without knocking or ringing the doorbell, which quite annoying.
I may get another Raspberry Pi to do that with, but we'll see what happens.
I stumbled across the blog entry (hence why I typed "article" instead of article) while looking for the blog of the Raspi 2 on sale (I was needing the photo for something).
While I didn't watch the video, it's quite a nice idea, since sometimes the sound of the doorbell isn't heard sometimes.
What I'd like to do is something similar where a motion detector (or possibly a security cam) detects motion and reports it visually and/or audibly since the parcel delivery services here usually just leave the package without knocking or ringing the doorbell, which quite annoying.
I may get another Raspberry Pi to do that with, but we'll see what happens.
22 March 2015
Melty 6
I bought standoffs screws a week before last Friday (13th) to mount the PCIe x1 to PCI x16 riser in Melty and I received them yesterday. I pulled Melty out and cleaned her up some before laying her down to drill though the motherboard tray.
The steel used made it hard to get a good dent to use as a centre punch, but what I was able to do was enough to drill accurately enough. I found that one of the holes (probably the bottom left) was actually slightly off, but it didn't seem to affect anything, as I was able to get all three screws in all the way (I was able to make a hole for the bottom right, since it's where the mounting slot was for the PSU cable cover).
I found that it rose the PCIe x16 board approximately 2mm higher than the motherboard, but it didn't to seem to affect the sound card's mounting by that much - if anything I can always replace it with 6mm standoffs instead of the 8mm that I ordered.
I was thinking about taking a picture or two, but decided it wasn't really too worth it.
The steel used made it hard to get a good dent to use as a centre punch, but what I was able to do was enough to drill accurately enough. I found that one of the holes (probably the bottom left) was actually slightly off, but it didn't seem to affect anything, as I was able to get all three screws in all the way (I was able to make a hole for the bottom right, since it's where the mounting slot was for the PSU cable cover).
I found that it rose the PCIe x16 board approximately 2mm higher than the motherboard, but it didn't to seem to affect the sound card's mounting by that much - if anything I can always replace it with 6mm standoffs instead of the 8mm that I ordered.
I was thinking about taking a picture or two, but decided it wasn't really too worth it.
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