Happy 35th Commodore 64! Thank you

Thanks to Ars Technica I saw today was the 35th birthday of the Commodore 64. It was a piece of off-beige plastic with a cartridge slot and accessory port that changed the trajectory of my family.

Each week I’d save money and watch as the price in the Sunday ads crept down. Once the cost and savings curves crossed we made the trip to Kmart. Before they got it down for us my parents told me they would buy it for the family instead of me buying it for us. I want to say it was at the counter, but that is probably just nostalgia talking. I was too naive to understand their finances or the weight of that economic decision on them. That never fully registered until I wrote this while watching my daughter playing in the next room on a happy Saturday morning.

The owner’s manual opened-up new worlds. My sister was the first one that had the drive to type out the balloon program that we couldn’t even save yet in Commodore basic. The C64 sprite program. She took words from a page and made the lump of plastic and keys do something. You could change the color and do other things on it. That was the first time I was exposed to programming.

Dad later added the monitor, printer, and floppy drive later so we didn’t have to hook it up to our only TV. The Write Stuff word processor cartridge gave me the ability to truly write and edit thoughts for the first time. You could also adjust line height on the dot matrix printer to make sure you hit 5 pages on the report that your teacher asked for.

I learned the value of backup as a teenager when a spark from my finger to the keyboard wiped out an unsaved 6 page report which was due that morning. I learned compassion from my mom who typed the 4 pages in from an early draft while I took a shower and ate breakfast to recover.

It wasn’t just me. My entire family grew with that brick of plastic. It was the first door that opened other possibilities for all of us. I don’t know where any of us would be without it.

Good Weekend - NFC, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino

It's been a slow haul getting the parts so I had a quite a bit of the code written for the system before getting the NFC cards.  This weekend was wrapping things up and moving from breadboards to prototype boards. Before this I'd done a grand total of 4 electrical solder joints so it's been a fun ride.  Actually pretty relaxing, cutting wires to fit sucks, but soldering was good.

The code was a mix of my ideas and a whole bunch of stuff from a variety of sources:

• Raspberry Pi Relay Demo - Found this to let me know I could do it using the Sainsmart board.  For some reason his actual site went up in smoke.  Fumbled thought the comments and saw a common them about using a transistor to protect the circuit so that led over here....
• Relay discussion
• Well you can't actually use the GPIO pins without some way to access.  Didn't feel like writing and compiling straight C so I went with Python and used the RPi.GPIO library
• I really can't say enough about http://learn.adafruit.com/.  It's a wonderful way to learn both Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

I've got it up and running now so more code and description tomorrow.  I will leave on this note. Hot glue is a great connector, but it sucks to work with and smooth out.  Next time on the coverplate I'll just join using superglue to start or maybe the plastic putty that is thicker.  Not happy enough with the current look.

After a long Hiatus - Arduino, Raspberry Pi, NFC

I'm working on developing a mobile NFC based time and signature application collection system at work.  We are also moving to a new building and I am starting to get a key ring like a high school janitor.  It's big enough so the only thing I'm missing is the zip chain to hang on my belt.

Since you can see from the 2 years between posts I need a hobby project.  I decided I wanted to build an NFC locking system.  Here are the components I settled on:

• Arduino Uno - This will handle the NFC reading and be present at the door.  After I worked on it I determined that an Arduino was needed at the door just to prevent simple shorting hacking issues
• Raspberry Pi - OK, the thought of a $35 PC was just too good to pass up.  This is the logging tool, card adding tool, and unlock relay controller.
• Sainsmart 4 channel relay board - This will handle the temporary lock and unlock process on the Fail Secure electronic strikes
• Adafruit NFC shield - Was going to use a different option, but it got lost in shipping from Hong Kong and this is pretty easy.  Only complaint is that is't a bit too large to fit in a single gang electrical box so I need to hack a box and coverplate together.
• Stack of other stuff - LEDs, transistors, resistors, perma-proto boards

I've got the thing built, but now it's final components and debugging.  Code, pictures, and details coming.

Let's summarize...

After a couple days break from the machine and posting here is where I stand.  The cabinet is completely built now just some detail painting left to do.  I'm still working out some control panel bugs with wiring difficulties or some emulator setup issues.  It's nothing big, but will take a couple hours.  By end of the night on Friday I had all the major pieces done including replacing my light bar after seeing it was 1/4" too long.  I will cover move stuff in greater detail later, but here are the action shots.

The completed cabinet minus some blue accent paint

The completed back.  Keyboard is wireless and velcro-ed to the case.  Power button turns on entire cabinet.

The control panel from underneath.  Attached to cabinet via piano hinge.  Ipac controller on top right and old Kensington Expert trackball held into routed socket with plexiglass insert and to wooden spacers.  On the bottom of the control panel box are Coin1, Coin2 as well as one that you can't see to flip player one control from left to center joystick.

With the back panel removed.  Aver 233H monitor is mounted on laminated 1/2" plywood with holes drilled for 100x100 VESA pattern.  It's attached to two angled brackets on the sides to give the appropriate angle.  Above the monitor mount on both sides you can see the Cambridge Soundworks speakers I mounted to the cabinet behind my fabric covered speaker cutouts.  The powerstrip is a Belkin Smart AV that senses load from the computer and turns on the monitor, speaker and marquee light so I can control it with the one buton I hard wired into the computer.

More later I'm sure.....

Time to stop before I do something stupid

It's at this point in the project it's hard not to keep working because you see the finish line.  Thanks to Justin's idea and a Belkin Smart AV surge suppressor the whole cabinet can be turned on with the press of one button and it shuts itself off 10 seconds after the computer shuts down.  Justin told me how to hack the power button to one of the switches and it works like a charm.

Here's where I stand right now

In terms of hitting my plan for the night I did pretty well.  The trackball mount is done, but I didn't get the panel wired, but the marquee and bezel are all set and the speakers are mounted.  Morning is wiring time.

It's a mad, mad, mad world

We are in the mad rush stage for the Saturday afternoon cookout now.  Last night:

• Routed the T-molding channel on cabinet and control panel.
• Two coats of paint on the cabinet and what I had done
• Primed everything else: bezel, door, floor
• Cut door
• Routed relief cuts for joysticks(went 1/8th too deep on one, but I'll put in a layer of 1/8 plexi just to level it.
• Worked on trackball cutout.
• This morning put second coat on everything with one coat and first coat on primed items.

Tonight:

• Second coat on control panel, door, and bezel
• While that dries
• Cut button hole for power on back of cabinet
• Install light up top and weather strip around to prevent light leakage
• Install T-molding on cabinet
• Install top
• Install marquee with holder
• Hack power button on computer to button in cabinet.
• After dry
• Install T-molding on control panel
• Route out Trackball insert
• 2 1/8" hole from top
• 1/4" roundover from top
• 1/2" depth relief area on bottom for unit base
• 1/2" chamfer route from bottom to allow free movement of ball
• Prime trackball hole to seal MDF
• Install door with Tot-lock magnetic lock
• Wire panel
• Run around world at light speed + like Superman to reverse time and allow for more time to complete:)

Pictures tomorrow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

Closer still...  Bezel insert cut and mounted.  Final mounting brackets for the monitor adjusted to bezel height.  Primer coat on the machine.

Tomorrow T-molding channel, door, and first coat of paint.  Can't decide what I want to do with the control panel so I'm going to paint it then clear coat it I think, at least for this weekend.

Let's pause now for station identification

Running a bit behind on the daily posts.  Monday was date night with dinner and a movie so I took it off from cabinet construction.  Got a late start last night so the update comes this morning.  No pictures either since my blackberry is going a bit mental right now.

Redesigned the bezel setup for the 13th time.  Since I'm positioning the monitor vertically I decided to open up speaker holes on either side of the monitor that are 3/4 size compared to the monitor.  I'll cover the back with cloth and then mount the speakers behind that.  A bit cleaner look and overall a heck of a lot either than the compound miter work I was thinking about.  I should be able to get that going and ready to prime tonight.  Behind on the painting as well, but that's how life goes.  If I prime tonight it won't be that much of a race, but I need to prime the cabinet and route for the T-molding tonight while working on the bezel insert.  The marquee holder is attached so that should be all set.  It's really taking shape.  More tonight.

So far, a bit behind, but not bad

Yesterday I:

• Did the final mount on the control panel box
• Cut the holes in the box for wires and coin one and two
• Drilled the holes for all but the trackball in the panel
• Built and tested the monitor mount
• Did the layout on the marquee
• Got the paint
• Figured out I didn't have a big enough piece of 1/4" plywood to skin the back
• Struggled with how to mount the bezel for the monitor.  The acer has a 5/8" extension on the bottom.  I guess they thought the monitor needed a chin.