To me, buying a PDA is like casual dating. At first, I can’t wait for my new PDA to arrive. Then when I get it, I am sure that this is the one I’m going to keep using and its going to make my life simpler. Then in 2 or 3 months, I stop using it for most tasks and it becomes an expensive MP3/video player. Until I find a newer model.

I’ve gone through about half a dozen PDAs of varying power culminating with my current unit, a Dell Axim X50v. It sits under my desk charging, and since my GPS now plays videos and MP3, is rarely undocked. There is software at Innobec that allows you to use your device as a second (or third) monitor. That’s right — you can have a tiny little monitor on your desk when you aren’t using the PDA for something else. The software makes Windows use it just like any other monitor.

First of all, the whole idea is cool and the geek factor of having your Windows desktop extend onto your PDA is way high. However, I’d suggest you get the 14 day trail version (the full version costs about US$15.00). Because while the geek/cool factor is high, for me the usability factor was low.

The installation of the PDA software was straightforward — you don’t install anything on the PDA itself. However, I was surprised that the screen the Sidewindow driver emulates is always at 1280×1024. Of course, your PDA doesn’t have that kind of resolution (does it?) so the software emulates the screen size. You can then pick a viewing window from 768×1024 to 240×480. This means you either have a tiny view on giant windows or a reasonable view on tiny windows. You can switch to landscape if you have a way to dock the PDA so that it makes sense (you can also connect to the PDA via WiFi, so maybe dock isn’t the right word here, but have some way to put the PDA in a landscape orientation).

The other problem is that the software tries to use your PDA’s best resolution (480×640 on the Axim). That’s good right? Well, it sounds good, but the performance when using 480×640 was so poor, the software was virtually unusable (for example, it was difficult to even find the mouse the cursor tracked so slowly). There is an option to use low resolution which makes the software fast enough (although, you won’t be running videos or games on it). I already have dual monitors, so I used this one as a 3rd monitor “below” the two main monitors. This worked OK, but caused some taskbar hiccups (I doubt that’s the problem of the Sidewindow software, though).

If I were the program’s authors, I’d include some little widgets that would run on the PDA screen. That would make the program much more useful. A clock (could be fancy with a world map, time zones, sun line, etc.), a system monitor, a mail notifier, stock ticker, etc. Then out of the box you’d have something useful to use your little screen for. As it is, it is mostly a novelty unless you have some small window you really need up on the handheld (for example, XMPlay, a media player worked well on the tiny screen).The Windows “Time/Date adjust dialog” is nice to put there as well, but isn’t really optimized for the little screen.

So should you rush out and get Sidewindow? Certainly the trial is worth it just to impress your geeky friends (if you have any). And if after 14 days you find you are really using it, $15 isn’t that much to pay. But I was glad I got to try before buy on this particular piece of geek gear.

I started out breadboarding the circuit, but they will eventually go into nice cases we bought from Kelvin.

Here it is in logic probe mode, reading a logic 1 (High):

And here it is reading a voltage (just an output from a pot):

I want to make a few modifications — at least a buzzer (shared on the switch lines) and maybe something with the serial port, but I wanted to “base line” it first.

Stay tuned.

I decided to buy a new CPU the other day — I had plans for the old one. Fry’s had their usual good deal, so I bought an AMD X2 5600+ and a fan. I popped it into the motherboard which has worked for some time and turned it on. All seemed well. But there was some disk problem booting XP. Must have wiggled a cable loose. After a few fidgets, it booted. Kind of. Several programs were unhappy. VirtualBox refused to run. Temperature monitoring showed the chip was at about 40C which is ok for a chip like this.

Next thing you know, the computer refused to POST. Ok, must be a defective CPU. I pulled the chip — the Arctic Silver was already getting pretty sticky — and took it back to Fry’s. The clerk insisted that the chip was damaged — bent pins and burn marks. I asked them to show them to me, but they couldn’t. But they refused to exchange the CPU. The manager (a very young woman) wasn’t helpful at all and was argumentative. So I left.

As many insurance companies and retailers will tell you, it isn’t nice to mess with me. I went back to the lab and put the chip under the microscope, taking pictures of all the pins and the surface area. Then I went back to the store with a 10X loupe in my pocket. There was a new crew at the service desk. It was only a few hours later, so I decided to just try again. This time, they looked at it, whipped out a motherboard, verified that it wouldn’t post, and gave me a new chip without the slightest trouble.

So beware. Customer service at Fry’s — as so many people have warned me about in the past — is luck of the draw.

One of my interests is CPU design. I have two processors I work on from time to time. One is kind of a classic 16-bit mini architecture and the other is a very novel 32 bit design that I’ll talk about some day. But I don’t think I could actually wire up a whole CPU from scratch. The fact that I can describe my circuits and push them onto an FPGA fabric makes it possible.

Apparently, that’s not true of everyone. I’ve posted links before to relay computers and discrete computers. Here’s a blog detailing a CPU builder’s journey: http://www.stevechamberlin.com/cpu/

Some people might ask, Why? But I know that if you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand the answer.

Good luck Steve!

Episode 1.01: The Pilot
Jericho Pilot

Episode 1.02: Fallout
Jericho Fallout

Episode 1.03: Four Horsemen
Jericho Three

Episode 1.04: Walls of Jericho
He knows Rob

Episode 1.05: Federal Response
There is a fire

Episode 1.06: “9.02″
The EMP hits

Episode 1.07: Long Live the Mayor
Pray for NYC

Episode 1.08: Rogue River
Rob not FBI

Episode 1.09: Crossroads
AOV Surprise

Episode 1.10: Red Flag
It begins with

Episode 1.11: Vox Populi
6 and ends with

Special Episode: Return To Jericho
back next week. 36 hours before bombs

Episode 1.12: The Day Before
Bloodshed

Episode 1.13: Black Jack
Bleeding KS

Episode 1.14: Heart of Winter
4 Down 4 to Go

Episode 1.15: Semper Fidelis
They will need it

Episode 1.16: Winter’s End
A costly deal

Episode 1.17: One Man’s Terrorist
Rob Exposed

Episode 1.18: A.K.A.
Who Ran Red Bell

Episode 1.19: Casus-Belli
ONE GOT AWAY

Episode 1.20: One If By Land
We Pledge

Episode 1.21: Coalition of the Willing
Allegiance

Episode 1.22: Why We Fight
To the Flag

Episode 2.01: Reconstruction
WE’RE BAAACK

Episode 2.02: Condor
J&R RAN BOXCAR  (man… have you ever heard an & sent using Morse code before? I hadn’t)

Episode 2.03: Jennings & Rall
CALLER KNOWS ALL

 Episode 2.04:  Oversight
A Costly Death

Episode 2.05: Termination for Cause
THO IT IS DARK

Episode 2.06: Sedition
Know our Flag

Episode 2.07: Patriots and Tyrants
Is still there

The code was sloppy at the start of the series. In addition, I always thought “AOV Surprise” was a mistake, although some say it means “Area of Vulnerability.” Right.  It got better, but also got faster and covered up more with music. The sloppy nature and the use of the & symbol makes me think that whoever was responsible for this was not a ham, but just someone who thought it was a cool idea and looked up the Morse code.

Too bad about a great show. They really dumbed it down for the 2nd season, which I guess was necessary. I wonder if they’ll release the alternate ending on the Internet?

73 de WD5GNR

I recently picked up the latest version of FTDI’s chip — the FT232RL. They can hardly make this any simpler. The reference schematic shows a capacitor on the 3.3V output (the chip gets its power from the USB port). It also shows a handful of capacitors and a ferrite bead that are marked “optional” (although if you need to pass FCC acceptance, you probably need them). I left off all the extra parts including the 3.3V output capacitor.

I soldered the chip on a DIP adapter. I also got a Kobiconn USB connector (Mouser 154-UAR80). This is the “wrong” kind of connector. Its the skinny kind, not the fat kind (I always get A and B mixed up). However, it has 4 pins inline on .1″ center. However, the pins are too thin for a breadboard so I put them in a strip of machine pin sockets and soldered the “back” pin to the sockets for stability.

This let me put the USB connector in a breadboard and the chip too. I had to have a USB cable with two “skinny ends” (I happened to have one). A rubber band helped hold the connector down to the board and offered some strain relief.

That’s it: the chip, the connector, and some wire. I put two 5V LEDs on the handshaking outputs so I could turn them on and off with RealTerm (a good program for messing with serial ports; find it on SourceForge). I plugged the cable into the lab PC and it came up looking for drivers. I loaded the FTDI drivers and wound up with COM29 (that machine has a large number of serial ports already — don’t ask). Sure enough, manipulating COM29 with RealTerm caused things to happen down at the breadboard.

What could be easier?

Of course, time marched on and other programs came out that far surpassed PSKGNR. I wound up using WinWarbler for the most part when I take a spell of operating. However, I recently fired the rig back up and decided to try some of the new software. I downloaded Ham Radio Deluxe which is a nice rig control/log/spot program. If you get the beta version, it includes DM780 which is an excellent PSK, RTTY, CW, Olivia, MT63, MFSK, THROB, and SSTV program (and probably some other modes I’ve forgotten).

Works great and the integration with Ham Radio Deluxe is great. I run two screens with one program on each screen (see the picture).

If you try it and you don’t like it at first, give it some time and adjust what you don’t like. For example, I didn’t like that the transmit buffer didn’t erase after you sent text. You can change that. I didn’t like the way sent text showed up. You can change that. I also set the two programs to use the same log database which is not the default.

Just be sure to get the beta “kit”. As of this writing the regular download has a PSK-31 program but not DM780.

Lately, I’d noticed the Multi/Ch knob was “sticking” or behaving erratically. This makes it hard to do things like set filters and menu items. I don’t know if sticking is exactly the right word — the encoder would seem to rotate “the wrong way” and otherwise behave strangely.

I had about resigned myself to opening the case and cleaning out the encoder. A quick web search, however, indicated the encoder was sealed. However, on a Web forum I read of a strange fix. Apparently, if you rotate the knob quickly for a long period of time it will “fix” itself. The poster outlined attaching a cordless screwdriver to the shaft and using it to clear the fault.

Well I went low tech. I just rotated the know manually as fast as I could probably 50 or 100 full rotations. And oddly enough that restored the encoder to like new behavior. I have no idea why.

But meanwhile, look for me on PSK-31!