Where does this wire go? http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w Documenting projects and things I find interesting in my life Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:44:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Dr. Who Dalek build going forward http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/14/dalek-project-going-forward/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/14/dalek-project-going-forward/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:42:41 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/14/dalek-project-going-forward/ I’m working on getting a motorized wheelchair so we can start working on the base of the dalek. Hopefully in a few days I should have the first piece of the Dalek.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/14/dalek-project-going-forward/feed/ 0 Getting ready to build a Dalek http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/11/getting-ready-to-build-a-dalek/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/11/getting-ready-to-build-a-dalek/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:44:31 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/11/getting-ready-to-build-a-dalek/ The first question I have is should I buy an electric wheelchair or a rascal or similar type of chair for the locomotion of the Dalek.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/11/getting-ready-to-build-a-dalek/feed/ 0 carputer is still being operated on http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/07/carputer-is-still-being-operated-on/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/07/carputer-is-still-being-operated-on/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:41:53 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/07/carputer-is-still-being-operated-on/ I’m still working at migrating all the data to the SSD I got. I expect it will be a week or so to get it up to par again.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/07/carputer-is-still-being-operated-on/feed/ 0 Love my toro 1800 Power Curve (38025) http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/02/love-my-toro-1800-power-curve-38025/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/02/love-my-toro-1800-power-curve-38025/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:26:39 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/02/love-my-toro-1800-power-curve-38025/ It is pretty well built and really easy to fix.

I’ve had two things fail on me so far. 1) the screws that hold the plate with the rod to control the direction of the snow fell out. I replaced with cotter pins.

Last week my blower blade snapped (my fault. I ran over some asphault rocks that the snow pushed up out of my driveway.) The part to fix the snowblower only cost about $25.00. Plus $12 for an allen wrench type adapter for my socket set. (well, I got 8 sockets for the $12.) I don’t know if I’ll ever use these allen sockets so I’m counting it as the cost of repair. There were 3 philips head screws holding on a plate. Once that was removed I used the allen socket to remove the bar that runs through the blade. pulled out the bar, put in the new blade, tightened the bolt back up put on the plate with 3 screws and I’m now up and running again.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/03/02/love-my-toro-1800-power-curve-38025/feed/ 0 A simple music player for carpc http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/02/20/a-simple-music-player-for-carpc/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/02/20/a-simple-music-player-for-carpc/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:25:27 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/02/20/a-simple-music-player-for-carpc/ I’m currently working on a small music player that I can use in the car. I want it to be fairly straight forward so I don’t have things like play lists and databases. It simply uses a starting directory and reads the subidrectories.

It is still in a very crude state and some variables like starting directory are hard coded. The code is very sloppy. If you want to play with it and submit changes let me know.

Requirements: python, pygame

mymusic

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2010/02/20/a-simple-music-player-for-carpc/feed/ 0 virtual keyboard for linux http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/12/06/virtual-keyboard-for-linux/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/12/06/virtual-keyboard-for-linux/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:11:39 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/12/06/virtual-keyboard-for-linux/ Linux can control the mouse and keyboard from the command line using a tool I found called xvkbd. There are many such tools for linux but this is the only one I found that can move the pointer.

The reason I need such a tool is that I plan to use voice control and use a script to navigate the screen.

Being able to use the mouse and make it click will allow me to kind of script actions and have non voice aware programs be controlled with voice.

xvkbd is in many distributions, however in ubuntu the mouse stuff seems broken. The revision is up to date, but I had to go get the source and compile it in order for the mouse to work.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/12/06/virtual-keyboard-for-linux/feed/ 0 My car voltage read 9.5V today http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/11/my-car-voltage-read-9-5v-today/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/11/my-car-voltage-read-9-5v-today/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:26:21 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/11/my-car-voltage-read-9-5v-today/ I was hoping the M2-ATX would shut off the rail at 11.0V but appparantly it doesn’t. I’ll probably have to change the setting to some value with a hard off instead of using never.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/11/my-car-voltage-read-9-5v-today/feed/ 0 I should have thought of this before. http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/10/i-should-have-thought-of-this-before/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/10/i-should-have-thought-of-this-before/#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:02:28 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/?p=176 In optimizing my bios, the key things I did was disable automatic drive detection. Also, any features that had options that included auto I made sure to select from the list instead of using the auto option.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/10/i-should-have-thought-of-this-before/feed/ 0 Finally got the permanent installation of the wiring done in my car http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/10/finally-got-the-permanent-installation-of-the-wiring-done-in-my-car/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/10/finally-got-the-permanent-installation-of-the-wiring-done-in-my-car/#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:11:22 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/?p=174 It was a bit of a pain, but at least it isn’t snowing yet and the temperature was still above 60f. I would guess it took me about an hour or two. What this means is that now instead of having the 12v going to both the 12v and acc connectors on the m2atx the 12v has 12v and the acc is now connected to a proper 12v switched line for the car.

I have the m2-atx set to 3 hours before it powers off, and to never shut off the +5v. I’ll have to see if this is a good idea. I think now that the power supply will see no voltage on the acc line that it will automatically shut down when the voltage goes below 11v. I’m still trying to understand the logic of the m2-atx. I don’t know why they couldn’t just have an option to keep it powered all the time unless the voltage drops to low. I don’t get this whole time thing I could care less if it is only on for 15 minutes or 30 minutes after I just of the key. I would like it to stay on as long as it can. This way I can go to baseball games etc and if I have a large enough battery the computer would be where I left it when I get back.

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/10/10/finally-got-the-permanent-installation-of-the-wiring-done-in-my-car/feed/ 0 Bought some stuff for carputer2 http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/09/29/bought-some-stuff-for-carputer2/ http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/09/29/bought-some-stuff-for-carputer2/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:54:16 +0000 Tom http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/?p=172 I purchased an atom 330 m/b, a 2.5″ hard drive, a case, and an m2-atx. I should get the parts by monday then I’m going to migrate my stuff over to the new box. I think I ended up spending about $300.00 for the stuff. I’ll update the carputer page eventualy (I hope).

]]> http://www.where-does-this-wire-go.com/w/2009/09/29/bought-some-stuff-for-carputer2/feed/ 0