Free Windows software

Video Tools

• Handbrake - HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. http://handbrake.fr/


• VLCPlayer - Open-source cross-platform multimedia player and framework, which can also stream audio and video in a number of formats - https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Linux Tools

• Putty - A Free Telnet/SSH Client. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/


• Putty Manager - Tabbed PuTTY Interface!http://sourceforge.net/projects/puttymanager/


• SSH  - http://sourceforge.net/projects/sshwindows/

Editors

• SCITE - SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html


• Notepad++ - a free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment. http://notepad-plus-plus.org/


• Notepad2 - a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html


• Hex32 - Freeware Hex editor XVI32 for all 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows. Many features including a built-in script language. http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm

Hard disk tool

• Wcontig - THE FREE FILE DEFRAGMENTATION TOOL http://wincontig.mdtzone.it/en/

File managers

• Free commander -  is an easy-to-use alternative to the standard windows file manager. The program helps you with daily work in Windows http://www.freecommander.com


• Total commander - a file manager replacement for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7. http://www.ghisler.com

Compression

• 7zip - is a open source file archiver with a high compression ratio. GUI and command line options. GNU LGPL license. http://www.7-zip.org

WIFI Scanner

• inSSIDer - The Best Wi-Fi Scanner. http://www.inssider.com/


• NetStumbler: The award-winning wireless networking tool http://www.netstumbler.com/

Arduino scare trick or treaters

How to scare trick or treaters with a delayed evil laugh when the door is opened.

Items required
Arduino
Surface door contact
10K Resistor
Speakers

Connect the door contact to pin 2 and 5v with a pull down 10k resistor connected to pin2 And ground
Connect the speakers (mono) to pin 11 and ground

Extra software required:

Sox or Audacity :to convert MP3 to wav 8bit
http://sox.sourceforge.net/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

You will need to convert the file using  sox audiodump.wav -c 1 -r 8000 -u -b evillaugh.wav

Wav2c : used to convert the audio wav file to code as seen at bottom of the code below (https://github.com/olleolleolle/wav2c)

Code

https://github.com/catchcoder/arduino

Arduino Happy Birthday source code

Arduino source code

/*  Happy Birthday Melody with flickering Candle
*  By Chris Hawkins
*  with modified code from the  Melody example
* (cleft) 2005 D. Cuartielles for K3
*
*
* Taken from (cleft) 2005 D. Cuartielles for K3
*
* The calculation of the tones is made following the mathematical
* operation:
*
*       timeHigh = period / 2 = 1 / (2 * toneFrequency)
*
* where the different tones are described as in the table:
*
* note  frequency  period  timeHigh
* c 1         261 Hz          3830  1915
* d 2         294 Hz          3400  1700
* e 3         329 Hz          3038  1519
* f 4         349 Hz          2864  1432
* g 5         392 Hz          2550  1275
* a 6         440 Hz          2272  1136
* b 7         493 Hz          2028 1014
* C 8         523 Hz         1912  956
*
* http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Melody
*
*
*/

int speaker = 6;
int led1pin = 9; // RED LED
int led2pin = 10; // Yellow LED
int button =4; // state swicth to play music
int x = 0;
int buttonState = 0;
int length = 28; // the number of notes
char notes[] = "ccdcfe ccdcgf ccCafed bbafgf"; // a space represents a rest
int beats[] = { 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2};
int tempo = 300;

void playTone(int tone, int duration) {
for (long i = 0; i < duration * 1000L; i += tone * 2) {
digitalWrite(speaker, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(tone);
digitalWrite(speaker, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(tone);
}
}

void playNote(char note, int duration) {
char names[] = {
'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'a', 'b', 'C'   };
int tones[] = {
1915, 1700, 1519, 1432, 1275, 1136, 1014, 956   };

// play the tone corresponding to the note name
for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
if (names[i] == note) {
playTone(tones[i], duration);
}
}
}

void playmusic ()
{
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (notes[i] == ' ') {
delay(beats[i] * tempo); // rest
}
else {
if (i % 2 == 0)
{
analogWrite (led1pin,200);
analogWrite (led2pin,100);
}
else {
analogWrite (led1pin,100);
analogWrite (led2pin,200);
}
playNote(notes[i], beats[i] * tempo);

}

// pause between notes
delay(tempo / 2);
}
digitalWrite (led1pin,LOW);
digitalWrite (led2pin,LOW);
}

void setup() {
pinMode(speaker, OUTPUT); /* Speaker to play tune */
pinMode(led1pin, OUTPUT); /* Red led from tri colour LED */
pinMode(led2pin, OUTPUT); /* Yellow led from tri colour LED */
pinMode (button, INPUT);  /* Start playing melody button */
}

void loop(){
buttonState = digitalRead (button); /* check if button pressed */
if (buttonState == HIGH){
playmusic();
}
}

Acquisition of temperature data to SD Card

I have managed to hack together from various sites a temperature data logger thats writes to a 2GB SD Card, firstly I had a blown up laptop motherboard and so I desoldered the SD card socket this was not very easy as they are surface mounted and is not designed to be removed. I then soldered 9 header pins to it and used a glue gun and melted glue all around the soldered part to strenghten it, afterwards I found a better way it was to use a MicroSD convertor to a standard SD card adaptor and soldered header pins to it.



or MicroSD adaptor



Library Used:

AF_SDLog library. from http://www.ladyada.net/make/gpsshield/download.html

I also have used the Sparkfun FAT16 library and examples <HERE> for use with there shield <HERE> and changed the '#define CS    8' on line 33 to '#define CS    10' in the examples to work with my build.

Code

/************************************/

/*            SD card temperature Logger         */

/*                             Version 1.e                          */

/*                           Chris Hawkins                      */

/************************************/

#include "AF_SDLog.h"

#include "util.h"

#include <avr/pgmspace.h>

AF_SDLog card;

File f;

#define ledBusyPin 8

#define powerPin 9

#define temperaturePin 0

#define BUFFSIZE 99

#define buttonStartStop 7

int buttonState = 0;         // current state of the button

int runState = false;     // previous state of the button

float lastPressed =0;

char buffer[BUFFSIZE];

uint8_t bufferidx = 0;

uint8_t i;

unsigned int logCount;

// blink out an error code

void error(uint8_t errno) {

while(1) {

for (i=0; i<errno; i++) {

digitalWrite(ledBusyPin, HIGH);

digitalWrite(powerPin, HIGH);

delay(200);

digitalWrite(ledBusyPin, LOW);

digitalWrite(powerPin, LOW);

delay(200);

}

for (; i<10; i++) {

delay(300);

}

}

}

void setup()

{

Serial.begin(9600);

putstring_nl("\r\nData logger");

// configure PINS

pinMode(ledBusyPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(powerPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(buttonStartStop, INPUT);

digitalWrite(powerPin, HIGH);

// check SD card - FAT 2GB

if (!card.init_card()) {

putstring_nl("Card init. failed!");

error(1);

}

if (!card.open_partition()) {

putstring_nl("No partition!");

error(2);

}

if (!card.open_filesys()) {

putstring_nl("Can't open filesys");

error(3);

}

if (!card.open_dir("/")) {

putstring_nl("Can't open /");

error(4);

}

// Check for next file in sequence 00 to 99

strcpy(buffer, "TMPLOG00.TXT");

for (buffer[6] = '0'; buffer[6] <= '9'; buffer[6]++) {

for (buffer[7] = '0'; buffer[7] <= '9'; buffer[7]++) {

putstring("\ntrying to open ");

Serial.println(buffer);

f = card.open_file(buffer);

if (!f)

break;

card.close_file(f);

}

if (!f)

break;

}

if(!card.create_file(buffer)) {

putstring("couldnt create ");

Serial.println(buffer);

error(5);

}

f = card.open_file(buffer);

if (!f) {

putstring("error opening ");

Serial.println(buffer);

card.close_file(f);

error(6);

}

putstring("writing to ");

Serial.println(buffer);

putstring_nl("ready!");

delay(250);

// clear buffer

strcpy(buffer,"");

}

void loop(){

// get button state

buttonState = digitalRead(buttonStartStop);

//  if button pressed and 2 seconds passed

if (buttonState ==HIGH && (millis() - lastPressed)>2000) {

lastPressed = millis();

runState = !runState;

}

// if the state has true then log temperature data

if (runState == true) {

// build string to write to card

sprintf(buffer, "%s,%d,%u,%d\n",getDate(),getTime (),logCount++,getTemperature());

//log data to SD Card

logData();

}

}

int getTemperature(){

//getting the voltage reading from the temperature sensor

float temperature = getVoltage(temperaturePin);

//converting from 10 mv per degree wit 500 mV offset

temperature =  (temperature - .5) * 100;

return temperature;

}

unsigned int getTime(){

//replace with RTC code once added

return  (millis() /1000);

}

char* getDate (){

//replace with RTC code once added

return "24/04/2010";

}

float getVoltage(int pin){

return (analogRead(pin) * .004882814); //converting from a 0 to 1024 digital range

// to 0 to 5 volts (each 1 reading equals ~ 5 millivolts

// using TMP36 temperature sensor

}

void logData( )

{

digitalWrite(ledBusyPin, HIGH);// LED on for witting to card

// get string length

bufferidx = strlen(buffer);

// write data to sd card

if(card.write_file(f, (uint8_t *) buffer, bufferidx) != bufferidx) {

putstring_nl("can't write!");

error(5);

}

digitalWrite(ledBusyPin, LOW);// LED off to show finished writting to card

}

/* End code */

Sample of output to SD card



Schematic

Linux folder backup script

Here is my script I use to backup a linux folder, firstly it mounts the backup drive and checks to see if it has mounted by reading a file named NOT_MOUNTED created by using

touch NOT_MOUNTED

Then using rsync it copies only new and modified files to the backup drive and excludes all .* files, this is to stop the backing up folders like the .Trash folder. It also creates and appends a log file stored in $LOGDIR.

Add as a cron job by:

crontab -e
add @daily /root/{filename} <-- name of script

Remember to change the file to make it executable

chmod +x {filename}

Usage:

$LOGDIR = log file
$SOURCE DIR =Source directory
$DESTDIR = Destination directory

# Backup SH file by Chris Hawkins
# Get date and time
DATETIME=$(date)
LOGDIR=/usr/log
SOURCEDIR=/home
DESTDIR=/backup
mount $DESTDIR

if [ -f $DESTDIR/NOT_MOUNTED ];
then

LOGMESSAGE='Backup NOT Mounted (ERROR) - Backup NOT completed'

echo $DATETIME $LOGMESSAGE >>$LOGDIR/backuplog

else

LOGMESSAGE='Backup Started'

echo $DATETIME $LOGMESSAGE >>$LOGDIR/backuplog

rsync -auqlP --delete --exclude='.*' $SOURCEDIR $DESTDIR
# Get date and time
DATETIME=$(date)
LOGMESSAGE='Backup Completed'
echo $DATETIME $LOGMESSAGE >>$LOGDIR/backuplog

fi

cd $LOGDIR
umount $DESTDIR

Arduino and TMP36 (temperature sensor) Part 2

I have now added conversion from Celsius and Fahrenheit via a push button, so you just need to press and hold the button until the display shows either a C or an F then you can release the button and the conversion is done.

Latest code v1.4 can be found here http://code.google.com/p/arduino-fun/downloads/list

// Arduino - TMP36 and 7 segment LED v1.3
// By Chris Hawkins
// February 2010
// Temperature code from http://oomlout.com/TMP36/TMP36-Guide.pdf
//
// using bitRead help from http://arduinofun.com/blog/2009/12/06/connecting-a-7-segment-led-to-the-arduino-build-it/
//
// Changes from 1.2
// Push button added to pin 12
// Added conversion scales from Celsius and Fahrenheit
// streamlined splitting the two digits

// Code Start
// pins that 7 segment is connect to
int ledSegment[] = {
  2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};

// Analog pin that TMP36 is connect to
int tempMonitor =0;

//pin for Switching from C to F
int pinSwitch =12;

// Button state for temperature scales
boolean displayType = false;
// encode the on/off state of the LED segments for the characters
// '0' to '9' and 'DP' into the bits of the bytes
const byte numDef[11] = {
  63, 6, 91, 79, 102, 109, 124, 7, 127, 103,128 };

void setup()
{
  // Serial.begin (9600);

  // set pinmode for switch
  pinMode (pinSwitch,INPUT);

  // Sets the pinMode for all LEDs
  for (int x = 0; x<=7; x++)
  {
    pinMode (ledSegment[x],OUTPUT);
  }

  // enable on by one each LED to test them.
  for (int x =0;x<=7;x++){
    digitalWrite (ledSegment[x],HIGH);
    delay (50);

  }
  // disable one by one to finish test of each LED
  for (int x =0;x<=7;x++){

    digitalWrite (ledSegment[x],LOW);
    delay (50);
  }
}

void loop(){

  // Check if button is pressed
  if (digitalRead(pinSwitch)) {
    displayType = !displayType;
    if (displayType) {
      setSegments(113); // send byte for C to display
      delay(1500);
    }
    else{
      setSegments(57); // send byte to F to display
      delay(1500);
    }
  }

  float temperature = getVoltage(tempMonitor);  //getting the voltage reading from the temperature sensor
  temperature = (temperature - .5) * 100;          //converting from 10 mv per degree wit 500 mV offset

  if (displayType){
    temperature = ((temperature *1.8) +32);
  }

  // Print temperature to serial for use in processing
  //Serial.println (temperature);

  // Split two digit number to send to display
  int digit1 = temperature / 10;
  int digit2 = int(temperature) % 10;
  // send ten's number to display
  setSegments( numDef[digit1] );

  // Delay to display the 10's digit of the temperature
  delay (1000);

  // send unit number to display and DP
  setSegments( numDef[digit2] +  numDef[10] );

  // Delay to display the unit digit of the temperature
  delay (2000);
}

void setSegments(byte segments)
{
  // for each of the segments of the LED
  for (int s = 0; s < 8; s++)
  {
    int bitVal = bitRead( segments, s ); // grab the bit
    digitalWrite(s+2, bitVal); // set the segment
  }
}

float getVoltage(int pin){
  return (analogRead(pin) * .004882814); //converting from a 0 to 1024 digital range
  // to 0 to 5 volts (each 1 reading equals ~ 5 millivolts
}

Breadboard view of how I configured the Arduino:

[caption id="attachment_82" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Designed using the Fritzing program"][/caption]

Arduino and TMP36 (temperature sensor)

Here is my first build of a temperature sensor and 7 segment LED connected to an Arduino Duemilanove, the display displays the first digit (10's) and pauses and then displays the second digit (units) pauses and then the decimal point to show end/start of temperature display.     

     

And here is the video:     

     

  

The full source code below

// Arduino - TMP36 and 7 segment LED
// By Chris Hawkins
// February 2010
// Temperature code from http://oomlout.com/TMP36/TMP36-Guide.pdf
//
// using bitRead help from connecting-a-7-segment-led-to-the-arduino-build-it/

// pins that 7 segment is connect to
int ledSegment[] = {
2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};     

// Analog pin that TMP36 is connect to
int tempMonitor =0;     

// encode the on/off state of the LED segments for the characters
// '0' to '9' and 'DP' into the bits of the bytes
const byte numDef[11] = {
63, 6, 91, 79, 102, 109, 124, 7, 127, 103,128 };     

void setup()
{
Serial.begin (9600);     

// Sets the pinMode for all LEDs
for (int x = 0; x<=7; x++)
{
pinMode (ledSegment[x],OUTPUT);
}     

// enable on by one each LED to test them.
for (int x =0;x<=7;x++){
digitalWrite (ledSegment[x],HIGH);
delay (50);     

}
// disable one by one to finish test of each LED
for (int x =0;x30 ){
setSegments( numDef[3] );
}
// check Temperature is over 20 and below 30
else if (temperature >=20 && temperature =10 && temperature =10){
temperature=temperature -10;
}     

// Print temperature to serial for use in processing
Serial.println(temperature);     

// Delay to display the 10's digit of the temperature
delay (1000);     

// now display unit of the temperature
for (int x = 0;x<=9;x++){
if (int(temperature) == x){
setSegments( numDef[x] );
}
}
// Delay to display the unit digit of the temperature
delay (1000);     

// Now display the decimal point (DP)
setSegments( numDef[10] );     

// delay to show DP
delay (2000);     

}     

void setSegments(byte segments)
{
// for each of the segments of the LED
for (int s = 0; s < 8; s++)
{
int bitVal = bitRead( segments, s ); // grab the bit
digitalWrite(s+2, bitVal); // set the segment
}
}     

float getVoltage(int pin){
return (analogRead(pin) * .004882814); //converting from a 0 to 1024 digital range
// to 0 to 5 volts (each 1 reading equals ~ 5 millivolts
}     

todos's : make code work easily with temperature greater than 30

Next project add two 7 segment LEDs and add shift registers