transitlab » eeepc

EEEpc and the removable media

brian — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:21:38 +0000

I have a reoccurring trouble with the removable media, sometimes it says that I don’t have permission to write to the internal card reader or anything removable. The problem is that the /media/ directory has disappeared, you need to go into the comand line/terminal and recreate the directory sudo mkdir /media/ should work if you are in the top directory. I also had a problem where the shortcut to the internal media was corrupted and was showing an old state. To get rid of this, take out the card, and delete the shortcut, it will get recreated when you put the card back.

RGB light emiting diodes

brian — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:25:25 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Along with coldclimate and his wiimote controlled rgb led , I am looking at ways of playing with RGB leds. Having found some damn cheap ones from rapid electronics, I am playing with the separate control of the mix of red, green and blue colors. It would be easy to get some blinkMs, and they are damn cool. I need to use three output pins for each led, and the PWM at that, blinkM’s use one pin , and that’s any one.

So what’s the point? Learning about what tricks can be used to control multiple LEDs , by using multiplexers etc. It’s a learning thing. Its just the start, obvously. To construct the things I want to make, I need to learn a fair bit about electronics. This is the fun bit.

syntax highlighting of arduino code in jedit

brian — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:52:51 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

My eeepc has a small screen which some programs don’t handle well. The arduino programming environment (the same as processing) doesn’t always handle it very well (like having the scroll bar disappear occasionally). However, it is possible to use an external editor. Personally, I like jedit and its code highlighting. Problem is that it dosen’t recognise the extension *.pde as a c-like style. Before After It’s easy to fix, go into /jedit/modes/catalog file and change the c entry to the following Now I get code highlighting, so it’s off to do some more playing with RGB leds and Arduino.

Processing and Arduino on the eeePC

Brian — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:15:37 +0000

New post for Arduino 0017 here –> http://transitlab.org/2009/arduino-and-the-eeepc-ii

I recently bought an asus eeepc subnotebooks( 4G ssd, 512ram, portable celeron) for a portable blogging computer. I never expected to install processing.org or arduino even though I use them on another computer. However, the people down at the eeepc wiki have posted a method of installing both(here) . I have installed arduino and processing(instructions ) on it. So now I have an ultraportable kit to play with arduino and processing! >> 2kg! Its not a fast system for processing, but adequate for trying out patchs, and fine for communicating with arduino.

Cool.

Now I am working with the kingbright chameleon rgb led modules(available at Maplin and Rapid ), getting arduino to handle the physical interface of controlling the 3 leds(on/off done) and processing.org the mix of colors from an onscreen interface(in the process).

To do this I have used the example code from fading and blink, and merged the different ideas.

I hae also been getting to know led modules, their orientation, the value of the resister needed for each. (ie the Blue operates at a higher voltage than the Red led, needing different resister values).

This is primarily because LEDs do not provide a resistance to current, if the voltage is above the operating voltage of the led, then the led will suck more and more current until it burns out. Thats the reason to put in the resister, it controls the current (usually 20milliamps up to a max of 50milliamps)(some links can be found at http://del.icio.us/sctv search for led.

Will post the code as it gets more mature, for now I am verry happy to have this nice little development package for arduino and processing.

New post for Arduino 0017 here –> http://transitlab.org/2009/arduino-and-the-eeepc-ii