zedstar dot org » nanonote http://zedstar.org/blog Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:28:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Clashing Rocks http://zedstar.org/blog/2011/08/19/the-clashing-rocks/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2011/08/19/the-clashing-rocks/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:12:18 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=232 This project is about using embedded Linux devices to detect, record and react to seismic events. The idea is to use accelerometers to detect shaking and then communicate this event to all other devices connected to the same broadcast group. We are developing the technology using OpenWrt which allows us to use a range of hardware including routers and pocket computing devices. We really like the idea of exploring emerging low-powered, low-bandwidth mesh networks in developing countries. In this video you can see some early work using a network of Ben NanoNote computers fitted with WPAN hardware. Three devices are connected to a Spread daemon running on a co-ordinating device. Because our current hardware lacks accelerometers we run a program on one device to send fake accelerometer data onto the network. Each device should then pick up this data across our wireless network. We are currently able to get some basic support for IP networking using a hack by Werner Almesberger who also developed the WPAN hardware.  In the video you can see the devices display a bar graph indicating it received data. Only one bar is registered as only one device is transmitting. This bar graph could act as a finger print for deciding the scale of seismic activity in a larger network. We intend to add some more intelligence to this part by building a some kind of knowledge system. Currently the project is at a very early stage with some basic infrastructure developed in C. The aim is to extend this infrastructure by embedding GNU Guile. This will allow us to dynamically control how we communicate, store and process the structured data shared amongst devices. Part of this system will involve trying to minimise the quantity of structured data exchanged on the network by serialising to bit-level using Packedobjects.

Further details of the project can be found at The Clashing Rocks wiki.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2011/08/19/the-clashing-rocks/feed/ 0 Searchable USB flash drives http://zedstar.org/blog/2011/01/06/searchable-usb-flash-drives/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2011/01/06/searchable-usb-flash-drives/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:35:44 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=224 Recently I was revisiting a powerful open source search engine technology on a Ben NanoNote to see how well it performed. Bearing in mind the NanoNote is only equipped with 32MB of RAM and a 336MHz MIPS processor it performed admirably. As a proof of concept I took the PDF lecture slides from three MIT OpenCoureWare undergraduate modules and indexed them on the device. This part of the process is time consuming but only needs to take place once. As you can see from the following video (OGG format), searching the PDFs is rapid and there should be no problem scaling to thousands of documents.

One nice feature of connecting the NanoNote to your PC is that you are able to access the search engine through your PC’s web browser. This becomes close to something I have thought about for a while – a copyleft designed USB flash drive with embedded web server and search engine. This would allow you to take your documents with you and view them using a familiar g**gle style search on any PC you get access to (in theory) without relying on the host OS to do the work.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2011/01/06/searchable-usb-flash-drives/feed/ 0 GNU Guile on a Ben NanoNote with command line history (readline support) http://zedstar.org/blog/2010/05/02/gnu-guile-on-a-ben-nanonote-with-command-line-history-readline-support/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2010/05/02/gnu-guile-on-a-ben-nanonote-with-command-line-history-readline-support/#comments Sun, 02 May 2010 21:20:40 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=191 I have been hacking at the OpenWrt Makefile and now have command line history working within the REPL.

opkg install http://zedstar.org/guile/libgmp_4.3.1-2_xburst.ipk
opkg install http://zedstar.org/guile/libltdl_1.5.26-1_xburst.ipk
opkg install http://zedstar.org/guile/guile_1.8.7_xburst.ipk

Once installed setup a .guile file:

root@BenNanoNote:~# cat /root/.guile
(use-modules (ice-9 readline))
(activate-readline)

When you run guile now you should be able to use the up and down cursor keys to go through your command history etc.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2010/05/02/gnu-guile-on-a-ben-nanonote-with-command-line-history-readline-support/feed/ 0 Guile on a Ben NanoNote http://zedstar.org/blog/2010/02/25/guile-on-a-ben-nanonote/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2010/02/25/guile-on-a-ben-nanonote/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:58:36 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=183 Received a Ben NanoNote today. It is a really natty little device with a lot of potential.

My standard test on how hackable a device is involves getting Guile running. Anyway, it was pretty easy to accomplish this despite not using openWrt before.


root@BenNanoNote:~#
root@BenNanoNote:~# guile
guile> (map (lambda (x) (+ x 1)) '(1 2 3 4 5))
(2 3 4 5 6)
guile>

To install get the 3 xburst packages from here.

Happy Scheming!

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