some first impressions

Sun Nov 18 00:22:25 EST 2007

Arjun,

I composed an email that got longer with ideas, and sj must be rubbing off
on me because i stopped just short of clicking Send, and actually made a
wiki page. What I have no idea of how to do is actually to link back from a
wiki page to an email discussion for context.

Regardless, you might find it amusing to sometime look at this wiki page for
some silly ideas that were inspired by your query for ideas, some of which
have analog components:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Wildlife

Highlights:

*Mimic, Parrot Activity, Tag Team Wildlife Research*
*Open Source Mindstorm*
*Brain Machine Interface*
*Batchat*
*Whalechat/Dolphin Dongle*
*Xo scuba*
*Xo snorkel*
*Earth, Wind, Fire, Water*
*XOEWS - XO Early Warning System*
*Generation XO*
*Lunchbox generator*
*g1g1 solar*

On Aug 15, 2007 5:00 AM, Arjun Sarwal <arjun at laptop.org> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Thank you for your emails.
>
> 1) eToys:
> It would be very nice to have support for Analog Input in eToys.
>
> You could use my code -
>
> See
>
> http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=projects/measure;a=blob_plain;f=audioGrab.py;hb=HEAD
> (getting samples)
>
> and
> http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=projects/measure;a=blob_plain;f=buttons.py;hb=HEAD
>
> (toggling between AC/DC modes and controlling bias voltage etc.)
>
> Or I could easily provide you with a class that you could use. I could
> make functions in that class that could simply return to you the required
> values. For example there could be a function that you could call to return
> avg voltage or rms voltage, select between ac/dc modes, set bias_on, set
> bias_off.....
>
> Let me know if I can help in any way.
>
> I have opened the following ticket . See here -
> http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/2800
> I have not assigned the ticket to any one nor set a time line for it as of
> now. Please feel free to set those.
>
>
> 2) Output Analog/Digital:
> The USB is an interesting idea as I had discussed with Mitch. I could
> simply make a board using a USB to parallel kind of a chip. I will be
> getting down to doing something similar shortly.
> Anybody would suggest to explore audio out for a similar purpose ?
>
>
> 3) Other ideas for sensor input :
> Mitch and Wad had suggested regarding exploring some basic medical
> applications using the Analog Input port. For example maybe be able to
> measure pulse rate ...
> I am quite excited about these ideas and plan to think about things to do
> on these lines too. Any initial suggestions ?
>
>
>
> regards,
> Arjun
>
>
>
> On 8/11/07, Mitch Bradley <wmb at laptop.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hal Murray wrote:
> > >>  - some parallel port (or similar) should be made available, for
> > >> children to play with in physics. I remember playing with a PC
> > >> parallel port with some simple software to turn leds on and off. When
> >
> > >> you are a kid, being able to send commands to projects you create is
> > >> great (think about modern legos, but using simpler stuff like leds,
> > >> motors, etc) : it translate the "virtual part" ie the software you
> > >> create on the computer to the "real world" where you make leds blinks
> > >> in sequence, or a motor move.
> > >>
> > > ...
> > > There are USB connectors.
> > >
> > > ...
> > > USB to printer port adapters are also available.  I've never played
> > with one.
> > >  Prices are under $40.
> > >
> > >
> > > There are also things like this with 24 GPIO lines.
> > >   USBIO24R
> > >   http://www.elexol.com/
> > >   US distributor: http://www.orteches.com/  $75
> > > ...
> > >
> > > There is also the microphone input and audio output for A/D and
> > D/A.  I think
> > > the XO hardware supports a DC coupled mode.
> > >
> > > We should work on a collection of hacks to demonstrate how they work
> > and a
> > > list of which ones are known to work.
> > >
> >
> > OLCP just had a summer intern, Arjun Sarwal, who developed some low-cost
> >
> > gadgets to plug into the mic port - temperature sensor, intrusion
> > detector, etc.  He plans to document them and set up a framework for
> > documenting other similar hacks.
> >
> > We also talked about an OLPC digital gadget prototyping dongle with a
> > USB-equipped microcontroller like those available from, for example,
> > Atmel.  Those chips cost a dollar or two and Arjun can get all the other
> > parts really inexpensively in India where he lives.
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Arjun Sarwal
> One Laptop Per Child
> arjun at laptop.org
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>
>

-- 
Todd Kelsey

Good Green Fun: http://www.cftw.com/xoroids/

Willy Wonka Wonderful! - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:StartOfMP.jpg

Love Poem for people of Middle East: http://welcome.cftw.com

Tour of laptop | http://wiki.laptop.org/go/608-demo-notes

About Me/CFTW |
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhbxftbn_35f5b46b&hl=en">http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhbxftbn_35f5b46b&hl=en

Loving the World | http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhbxftbn_36cx4kj7

"Fascinating for me to sit here and realize the interplay and influence that
music can have -- it is a part of my life, yet I haven't continued as I
could, partly out of thinking "there are more important things". but it has
it's place. i am sitting at olpc offices, and someone is playing pink floyd,
and I think music is a gift of creativity that can inspire an atmosphere of
creativity, and the range of such echoes is infinite." - Me

Free tunes by me: http://www.cftw.com/music
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