Hack the Gibson!
Well, I couldn’t resist. Yesterday I was in the city meeting some special people in my life (parents and girlfriend, not in any particular order!) and ended up buying the cult sci-fi film Hackers. I can’t resist with these things; I admit, one of the first DVDs I bought was another old-school hacking film called WarGames. I have an addiction to cheesy old-school computer films!
The main reason I was in the city however, was to avoid being killed. Well, that’s an odd-way of looking at it, but It’s true. I’m about to start work on an existing commercial product, for The Information Display company. I’ve done a small amount of work for them in the past, but this time it’s a little more interesting, and involves me having to have a copy of the hardware.
A problem with the hardware I had, was that I didn’t have any power supplies to suit the main board, nor the Palm PDA that came with it. The Palm charger was easy; quick trip to eBay for a charger and a US-to-AU power adapter and I was in business. The problem was the main board – I didn’t have a suitable adapter.
The system requires a nice regulated 12V 1A input, which is buffered somewhat by a rather large capacitor on the main line (see pic). This capacitor is a 4.7mF, 16V type, and so the margin for error isn’t very high: 11.5V minimum, and about 13V maximum to avoid blowing the main cap (and possibly killing myself directly from the flying contents, or indirectly when my mother saw the state of my walls and desk). It’s actually rather hard to find a decent electronics shop around here these days, so I had to find one in the city.
Now it’s all plugged in, and I’m in business. Can’t wait to work some more on this project. This is what embedded systems is all about – making flashing LED gizmos are fun, but the real satisfaction comes from making something that impacts the lives of a lot of people. Alas, my friends jokingly hate me now for my efforts in saving more American lives!
I’ve actually had quite a lot of fun with the Palm outside the project (don’t tell my employer!). After a bit of fiddling with a Palm port of the SCUMMVM engine, I’ve put a couple of my old Point-and-Click adventure games on it for some serious mobile gaming. Nothing like playing Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle when you’re sitting on the train to the city!
