In love with PowerPC...

It's a very good week. I am so glad I was given a chance to be able to develop firmware using PowerPC. I was able to get things work and make some firmware application (SIUL - Port Manipulation and Multiplexing, Timer, Hardware SPI, and LINFlex - LIN communication protocol) using Codewarrior from scratch. I think this is the most powerful processor I had used in my entire career as a firmware developer.

The PowerPC Adventure is still on the way... :)

Repairing a persistent "Bad BIOS Checksum" Message

Recently, I revived a system which was submerged in flood due to the typhoon Ondoy. I cleaned the system using a dishwashing liquid and I was able to revive the system.



But upon checking the boot-up message at the BIOS start-up page, it always report that the BIOS checksum is bad. I even changed the CMOS battery and still no luck. I checked the voltage on the CMOS reset jumper (set at normal mode), and it reads 0V. On one of my normal mobo, there is a voltage of around 2.59V. With this, I decided to experiment a little bit.



The setup is :
+ Terminal of Battery ------ Diode (1N4148) ------ two terminals of the CMOS reset normal mode



And the problem was solved! :)

Playing with the Renesas M16C Starter Kit

Recently, while checking some stuffs from my drawer, I saw this Evaluation Kit I had won from an Electronics Forum.



It comes with a CD, MCU Programmer and the kit itself. The compiler uses C language.

In the following weeks, if I will not be busy, I will try to fully utilize this starter kit and see what useful things can I do with it.

Replacement Battery Problem for Kingston K-Pex 100 Media Player

I really love my Kingston K-Pex 100 Media Player. It really suits my needs for playing MP3s and watching movies. However, I recently noticed that the battery is no longer holding charge.

I looked over the net and Kingston is not selling a replacement battery since they had discontinued the product. I also searched on forums and those who have battery problems just throw this Media player away.

Instead of throwing this away, I just created an outside connection for an external battery connection via a female header.

Temporarily, I used 4 x AA 2000mAh Sanyo Eneloop Batteries and they worked fine with it. The original battery is 3.7V 850mAh. Having 4 Eneloop batteries will yield 4.8V (4x1.2V). I added a 1N4001 diode (can be seen on the glued connector at the back) to be able to provide one-way direction (so when USB is connected, there will be no charging) + to have a drop of 0.7V (which gives us 4.8V-0.7V=4.1V; near 3.7V).

It is now working and I am able to watch many movies and listen to MP3s for a longer time due to the Eneloops Superb Performance!

In conclusion, although the device has lost its great portability due to the battery, this is just a temporary solution. I just want to be able to use this and save it from being thrown in the garbage hehe.

My future plan is
1. to use a Nokia Battery (inside the KPex to be able to regain the portability). :)
OR
2. find a way to be able to put this in the car to be able to watch movies and hook it up on my car stereo. :)

National Semiconductor's LMX9838 Bluetooth IC

Here is one of my old projects:

I was able to acquire free 5 pcs sample of LMX9838 IC. I was able to use and evaluate it quickly. Here is my exact schematic (I created this in Eagle).

I was able to use this to control my microcontroller projects (LMX9838 in transparent mode) via
1. my Nokia E63 with a PythonS60 script.
2. USB Bluetooth using C# SerialPort Class

New Knowledge: Microsoft's XNA Game Development

It's Christmas Day. I had decided to learn something new today: Microsoft's XNA Game Development using C#. I always love being challenged, so I am giving myself a chance and do some self-study and see if I can (hopefully) develop some simple games using XNA.

While doing some useless XNA stuffs (just for learning purpose), here is my very very first attempt in creating collision-detection routine for two different objects:
http://img693.imageshack.us/i/bounce.mp4/

I am so excited with the learning adventure that I will be able to get and acquire with Microsoft XNA. :) :) :)

SMS Bomber for S60 using Python

Just for fun, I tried creating an SMS Bomber for S60 using Python just for learning purpose. I had tried it with my Nokia E63 and it works! ^_^

Here is the full source code:

SMS Bomber 00.08.03