http://veys.com if I only had a tagline. Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:41:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Having issues creating NSURLConnections using initWithRequest:delegate:startImmediately? NSURLConnection *c = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url] ... http://veys.com/2008/08/17/nsurlconnection-startimmediatelyno-boom/ Been toying with the idea of making an Airsoft Gun controller wirelessly via Wii Remote.  Inspired by a previous DefconBots challenge.  Just managed to get control of 2 servos via a ATMega8, serial link to a PC and a Wii Remote talking to said PC via BlueTooth.  Pretty hacky but ... http://veys.com/2008/02/22/some-airsoft-turret-play/ Fired out a little Python script for exercise... pysubwcrev is a Python version of TortoiseSVN's SubWCRev app. SubWCRev is a windows-only console app, pysubwcrev is a command-line argument compatible replacement that is Python-based, and therefore runs on any platform with an available Python interpreter and pysvn. Currently only Linux is tested. The code is hosted ... http://veys.com/2007/10/26/python-subwcrev/ Yet another digital baybus.  The original Mr. Baybus, then Mr. Baybus 2, and now this one with PC control and a graphical LCD! Currently only a few shots of some basic functionality, nothing concrete to announce or deliver unfortunately. Screen Images [caption id="attachment_216" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Splash screen"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_214" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Fans"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_215" align="aligncenter" ... http://veys.com/2005/07/24/mr-baybus-3-preview/ PIC Microcontrollers have a funky way of handling conditionals. I'd like to present a set of macros I've made to make this easier to use, as well as explain the basics behind the technique in general. Most MCU's I've worked with before PICs had nice simple conditional statements... The mnemonic was ... http://veys.com/2003/02/27/conditional-jumping-in-pic16-asm/ After such a good response to Mr. Baybus, I decided to up the ante. I wanted temperature sensing and light control, as well as a more refined interface. I also wanted a chance to write much, much better code as Mr. Baybus was most definitely a kludge. This led to ... http://veys.com/2002/08/24/mr-baybus-2/ [caption id="attachment_250" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Schematic"][/caption] Previously, in PIC buttons (polling) we saw how to poll for the state of a line connect to a button, that is all fine and good but really that is not the best way to do them. The "real" way to interface with external components like ... http://veys.com/2002/08/23/pic-buttons-interrupt-based/ [caption id="attachment_243" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Schematic"][/caption] Polling for button input, how useful! This is pretty brief and gives a good idea how to let buttons control your programs execution. In this tutorial I've switched from using an oscillator to using a crystal. This changes the design a bit. Using the 2 OSC pins, ... http://veys.com/2002/08/22/pic-buttons-polling/ [caption id="attachment_226" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Schematic"] [/caption] Beyond all doubt, the #1 beginning program in microcontrollers is the LED blinker. It's super simple, and teaches the concept of pin voltages and busy-waits. Here is a busy-wait LED blinker program, and a walkthrough building it in MPLab. First, the delay. This is a busy-wait ... http://veys.com/2002/08/21/pic-led-blinker-busy-wait/ Mr. Baybus is a microcontroller-based fan control system. It is a completely stand-alone unit, with no computer-control whatsoever. Control comes from momentary switches on the front panel. You have 4 switches to toggle your fans on/off, and a brightness/contrast button, which switches you into a screen to alter those settings. Another ... http://veys.com/2002/08/20/mr-baybus/