Hosts:
Ian Lynn
Grant Bowman
Bethany Doolin

Special Guest:
Elizabeth Krumbach

Check out these sites from our discussion!
Women of Ubuntu
LinuxChix.org
Philly Chix – Philadelphia Area LinuxChix Chapter
The Debian Women Project

Discover more about DVLug and the topics we cover at DVlug.org.

Hosts:
Ian Lynn
Grant Bowman
Bethany Doolin

Check out these sites from our discussion!
Freenode.net
IRC from Wikiepedia
Pidgin – The universal chat client

Discover more about DVLug and the topics we cover at DVlug.org.

Hosts:
Grant Bowman
Bethany Doolin
Ian Lynn

Special Guests:
Jono Bacon (aka not the real Mark Shuttleworth)
Mark Terranova
Robert Wall

Check out Jono’s projects and these sites we talk about in the interview!
Jono’s creative commons band, Severed Fifth.
“The Art of Community”
The excellect podcast recording tool for Linux, Jokosher!
JonoBacon@home where you can go beyond the podcats and discover more about Jono’s creative projects.

Visit the website of Mark Terranova, our very own Fedora ambassador and photographer.

Don’t forget the home of dvlug.org, where you can find all of us the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month @ Cafe LaScala in downtown Walnut Creek, CA.

Hosts:
Ian Lynn
Grant Bowman
Bethany Doolin

Special Guest:
Jeff Strnad

Check out these sites from our discussion!
The Raspberry PI
The MK802 from Rikomagic
Partimus – We Share
Learning the Command Line @ GrantBow.com

Discover more about DVLug and the topics we cover at DVlug.org.

Discover more about DVLug and the topics we cover at DVlug.org.

Part 1

Part 2

Despite owning two android phones, a Nexus One and a Droid Incredible, I felt that my Android life was incomplete without a tablet. To fill this void, I purchased a NOOKcolor from Barnes and Nobles with the intent to root it and release its full potential. There is a large community on the net that makes rooting the NOOKcolor a relatively easy process as long as your willing to scour the internet for information and do the necessary research. In this post, I decided to collate everything I found to make rooting the NOOKcolor even easier. Below are links and detailed walkthroughs of the tools and processes you’ll need to root your NOOK and the steps afterward to create a full functioning Android tablet.

Important Notes Before Starting

Remember: Rooting your NOOKcolor carries the RISK of damaging your device and voiding your warranty. Please proceed only after reading all of the instructions first and then feeling comfortable with the steps.

Share The Bytes, myself, or any affiliated parties may not be held liable for any damage caused to your device or any loss of warranty if you choose to continue.

Proceed at your own risk!

Tools

• NOOKcolor
• Micro SD card 128Mb or greater
• Android Debug Bridge (aka adb)
  • This tool is part of Google’s Android sdk.

The Rooting Process

nookdevs.com gives a very complete walkthrough with how to root your NOOKcolor. Use their instructions to first prepare your NOOK, load the new firmware onto the SD card, and then install the rooted software. Below are my notes that will hopefully make things a little clearer.

1. Complete the Barnes and Nobles registration process to create a NOOK account. You do not need to enter any credit card information. Just create an account with a password. This is to allow you to still use the NOOK as an e-reader with Barnes and Nobles books.
2. Verify your firmware version and choose the correct autonooter program. Instructions on nookdevs show you how to upgrade your device firmware version before rooting.
3. I choose to use the auto nooter 2.12.25 software to root my Nook. Make sure you unzip the file before writing it to the SD card.
4. Be patient when activating the root. It’s okay to run autonooter multiple times if you think you made a mistake. When finished, remove the SD card from your NOOK.
5. After rooting, follow the follow-up instructions.
6. Do not worry to much about setting up Soft-keys according to the instructions. Just make sure that Soft-keys is an option when pressing the physical NOOK home button at the bottom of the device. I will talk in more detail about Soft-keys later on.
7. Pay particular attention to the Enable Market instructions. I became easily confused in this section and had to repeat these steps several times.
8. I detail my experience with re-enabling YouTube if you have any problems following the nookdev instructions.
9. Apps can be accessed from the Extras Menu in the pop-up tool bar.

Launcher Screen

Once the NOOK is rooted, you will probably want to change the default launcher screen so that you can add icons to the screen as well as enable extra functionality. Go to the android market and first install Home Switcher. This app will allow you to choose temporarily or permanently which launcher is loaded when you press the physical NOOK button or the Soft-keys Home button. Next install a launcher window of your choice. Below are a few examples.

The default toolbar at the bottom of the screen will be present regardless of which launcher you choose. The good news is that the Back and Menu button will now be persistent. Along with the physical Home button, you will no longer need to run the Soft-keys app at all times.

ADB Access

Since the NOOKcolor is such a new device, the Android Debug Bridge(adb) may not recognize the device when it is plugged into your computer. ADB is useful if you wish to install/uninstall apps without using the market or if you need to make adjustments to the device directly, such as improving battery life. You will need the latest version of the Android sdk. If you have previously downloaded and installed the Android sdk, you will need to update it to the latest version.

<sdk Directory>/tools/android update sdk
<sdk Directory>/tools/android update adb

In the latest sdk, adb has been moved to the <sdk Directory>/platform-tools/ directory.

The next step is to add the NOOKcolor usb device ID to your machine and/or install the proper drivers to your computer depending which operating system you are using. The nookdevs website contains a posting on how to do this for each type of OS.

In Linux, with your device plugged into your computer, execute the following command to see a list of currently connected usb devices.

lsusb

Your NOOKcolor device ID will be 0×2080. Once this device ID is added to your home directory, the NOOKcolor will be visible to adb. To add the device ID, execute the following command.

sudo sh -c "mkdir -p ~/.android; echo 0x2080 > ~/.android/adb_usb.ini; <sdk Directory>/platform-tools/adb kill-server; <sdk Directory>/platform-tools/adb devices"

Troubleshooting

To verify that the usb driver was successfully installed, execute the following.

<sdk Directory>/platform-tools/adb devices

With luck you should see your device now when you run adb devices. If you see a series of question marks, then the adb server was not properly started. To restart the adb server, execute the following. Make sure that when you start the server, you are executing it with sudo and/or root access.

sudo <sdk Directory>/platform-tools/adb kill-server
sudo <sdk Directory>/platform-tools/adb start-server

Battery Life

One of the big selling points of the NOOKcolor is it’s long battery life. Oddly, the Cell Phone Standby service is still active in the stock NOOK firmware and is one of the biggest battery drainers. Just take a look at the battery usage list and you will see Cell Phone Standby at or near the top of the list. Fortunately this service can be easily disabled using adb. Follow the instructions written by xboxexpert in his post on the xdadevlopers forums.

Soft-keys also sits at the top of the battery usage list. If you have a new launcher installed, you will usually have a persistent toolbar with the Back and Menu buttons available all the time and thus no longer need the Soft-keys app. All you need is a task killer app to shut down any programs that hide the toolbar and prevent using the Back button. These programs are few and far between, so it’s safe to uninstall the Soft-keys app.

YouTube

As noted by the nookdevs team, YouTube will no longer work after rooting. This is caused by some issue with being logged into your YouTube account. It is necessary to remove the login information from YouTube. nookdevs suggest using Titanium Backup to remove all YouTube user data. Other people have said that clearing out YouTube data through Android’s Settings->Applications tools work as well. Neither solution worked for me, so I was forced to uninstall YouTube and then reinstall it. To uninstall and reinstall YouTube, use the following instructions.

Android Market

When browsing apps on the android market, you will need to rotate the NOOKcolor to landscape in order to see all the available apps in the scroll list. This is a bug in Android Market since it was designed for smaller screens. The scroll list only shows the first ten apps and won’t expand unless it detects the screen edge. Portrait mode is too big for ten items to reach the bottom, thus requiring you to rotate the NOOK to landscape.

Live Wallpapers

I’m happy to say that live wallpapers work very well on the NOOKcolor. The stock live wallpapers are not included with the stock NOOK firmware despite showing up as choices in the Live Wallpaper menu list. If you want to use the stock live wallpapers, you will have to search for their apk’s and install them manually. Otherwise all live wallpapers available on the Android Market are good to use. You will need to use an alternative launcher screen other than the default NOOKcolor launcher in order to access and use live wallpapers.

Useful Apps

Below are apps that I have downloaded and used to improve the functionality of the NOOKcolor.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 2

I want to introduce a project I’ve been working on for controlling a 1/10th scale remote control truck with an Android mobile phone. This is just a quick introduction to the project. I will have detailed steps and code once I get everything up and running, so please hang in there and check back soon.

I first got the idea for this project when I stumbled upon JBProjects.net. This is a great website, created by Jonathan Bennett, an electrical engineering student with a passion for robotics and other cool stuff. I highly recommend checking out his web site. Jonathan built a wifi RC truck using a Linksys WRT54GL router and a few other off the shelf components. The Linksys router is such a cool piece of hardware, that I decided to get one in order to build a similar truck to Jonathan’s. The big difference between our two trucks is the control scheme. I am using an Android phone to drive and steer the truck, while Jonathan used a VB6 app he wrote running on a laptop.

The Equipment

1. (1) Traxxas Stampede XL-5
2. (1) Linksys WRT54GL wireless Router
3. (1) Basic Stamp 2 Microcontroller
4. (2) 5000mAh batteries
5. (1) Nexus One Android phone
6. (1) 12VDC Fixed-Voltage regulator 7812
7. Misc hardware to hold everything together

Construction

The truck is almost complete. I still need to mount the second battery and the Linksys router. The Basic Stamp has been secured to the truck platform. Since it’s a bare PCB board, I placed risers below the board in order for it to sit flush with the platform. The platform is an 8×12″ 3mm sintra sheet from Solarbotics.com. It’s rigid, but very easy to machine.

Since both the hardware I had chosen and my execution design wasn’t going to be circuit for circuit or code for code to the original wifi truck, I had to ensure that all of the hardware would work together. Specifically, I had to figure out if the Basic Stamp could send compatible signals to the RC truck’s electronic speed controller(ESC) and steering servo. To do this, I removed the housing around the truck’s RC receiver, where the ESC and steering servo connected to, and recorded the signals received from the RC transmitter. I used a digital multimeter connected to a computer to measure and record both the pulse width and duty cycle of the signal. With this information and a little trial and error, I was able to control the speed of the motor and the direction of the steering servo.

Below is some test code I wrote for the Basic Stamp to verify that I could control the speed and direction of the motor.

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' {$STAMP BS2}
' {$PBASIC 2.5}
' {$PORT COM1}

counter VAR Word
TX CON 0
interval CON 1000
 
'Motor Brake
FOR counter = 1 TO interval
PULSOUT TX, 680
PAUSE 17
NEXT
 
'Motor Full Speed Forward
FOR counter = 1 TO interval
PULSOUT TX, 930
PAUSE 17
NEXT
 
'Motor Brake
FOR counter = 1 TO interval
PULSOUT TX, 680
PAUSE 17
NEXT
 
'Motor Full Speed Reverse
FOR counter = 1 TO interval
PULSOUT TX, 425
PAUSE 17
NEXT
 
'Motor Brake
FOR counter = 1 TO interval
PULSOUT TX, 680
PAUSE 17
NEXT

Programming

This is definitely the most difficult part of the whole project. There are three major hardware components, each requiring their own specific program, all using different code languages. The Android phone uses Java, the Linksys router runs C, and the Basic Stamp uses PBasic.

Linksys Router

I have to again give a big thanks to Jonathan. I used his carserver.c code that runs on the Linksys router. This piece of code receives the telemetry from the control device, Android phone, and then relays it to the Basic Stamp. I’ve made a few modifications to Jonathan’s code to fit my needs. I’m also running the openWRT Kamikaze 7.09 firmware on my router instead of WhiteRussian. This required me to compile a new binary for the router, different to the one Jonathan uses. I followed a howto document, written by Eric Bishop, to compile the carserver code for my router.

Android Phone

The Android code is very simple right now. I’ve created a deadman button, so that data will only be sent to the router when the button is depressed. As soon as the user lets go of the button, data will no longer be transmitted to the router. When pressed, the program reads the orientation sensor and sends the pitch and roll data to the Linksys router.

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package com.sharethebytes.STBTilt;
 
import android.app.Activity;
 
import android.content.Context;
 
import android.os.Bundle;
 
import android.view.View;
import android.view.Window;
import android.view.WindowManager;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
 
import android.graphics.PixelFormat;
 
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Button;
 
import android.hardware.Sensor;
import android.hardware.SensorManager;
import android.hardware.SensorEvent;
import android.hardware.SensorEventListener;
import android.hardware.GeomagneticField;
 
 
import android.util.Log;
 
import java.lang.String;
import java.io.* ;
import java.net.* ;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.NetworkInterface;
import java.lang.Thread;
import java.lang.Exception;
import java.lang.Character.UnicodeBlock;
 
public class STBTilt extends Activity
{
 
static final double PI = 3.14159265358979323;
static TextView Azimuth;
static TextView Pitch;
static TextView Roll;
static Button Run;
 
static double orientArray[] = new double[3];
static final double kFilter = 1;
 
private static Sensor sensor;
private static SensorManager sm;
 
static OutputStream out;
static Socket s = null;
static String myName;
 
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
 
 
getWindow().setFormat(PixelFormat.TRANSLUCENT);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
 
setContentView(R.layout.main);
Azimuth = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.azimuth);
Pitch = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.pitch);
Roll = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.roll);
Azimuth.setText("0");
Pitch.setText("0");
Roll.setText("0");
 
orientArray[0] = 0;
orientArray[1] = 0;
orientArray[2] = 0;
 
Run = (Button) findViewById(R.id.run);
Run.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener(){
public boolean onTouch( View yourButton , MotionEvent theMotion ) {
switch ( theMotion.getAction() ) {
case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
Sensor accelerometer = sm.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER);
Sensor magnetometer = sm.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD);
 
// Register your SensorListener
sm.registerListener(sensorEventListener, accelerometer, SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_GAME);
sm.registerListener(sensorEventListener, magnetometer, SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_GAME);
 
 
//myName = NetworkInterface.getName();
Log.d("Net","***Network Interface: " + myName);
 
 
break;
case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
sm.unregisterListener(sensorEventListener);
if(s != null){
try {
s.close();
s=null;
}
catch (IOException ex) {
Log.e("Socket","***Socket Close Error " + ex.toString());
}
}
break;
}
return true;
}
});
 
sm = (SensorManager) getSystemService(SENSOR_SERVICE);
}
 
/**
* The listener that listen to events from the orientation listener
*/
private static SensorEventListener sensorEventListener = new SensorEventListener() {
 
private float[] mGravity;
private float[] mGeomagnetic;
 
public void onAccuracyChanged(Sensor sensor, int accuracy) {
}
 
public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) {
if(event.sensor.getType() == Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER){
mGravity = event.values.clone();
Log.d("Accel","***X: " + String.valueOf(mGravity[0]));
Log.d("Accel","***Y: " + String.valueOf(mGravity[1]));
Log.d("Accel","***Z: " + String.valueOf(mGravity[2]));
 
}
if(event.sensor.getType() == Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD){
mGeomagnetic = event.values.clone();
Log.d("Magnetic","***Compass 1: " + mGeomagnetic[0]);
Log.d("Magnetic","***Compass 2: " + mGeomagnetic[1]);
Log.d("Magnetic","***Compass 3: " + mGeomagnetic[2]);
}
 
 
if(mGravity != null && mGeomagnetic != null){
float[] R = new float[9];
float[] I = new float[9];
 
boolean success = SensorManager.getRotationMatrix(R,I, mGravity, mGeomagnetic);
if(success){
float orientation[] = new float[3];
 
SensorManager.getOrientation(R,orientation);
 
//Use a basic low-pass filter to only keep the gravity in the accelerometer values
orientArray[0] = orientation[0]*180/PI * kFilter + orientArray[0] * (1.0 - kFilter);
orientArray[1] = orientation[1]*180/PI * kFilter + orientArray[1] * (1.0 - kFilter);
orientArray[2] = orientation[2]*180/PI * kFilter + orientArray[2] * (1.0 - kFilter);
 
Azimuth.setText("Azimuth: " + Math.round(orientArray[0])+"");
Pitch.setText("Pitch: " + Math.round(orientArray[1])+"");
Roll.setText("Roll: " + Math.round(orientArray[2])+"");
 
if(s!=null){
String message = Math.round(orientArray[0])+":"+Math.round(orientArray[1])+":"+Math.round(orientArray[2])+"";
sendMessage(message);
}
}
}
}
 
 
};
 
 
 
public static void sendMessage(String message){
byte[] b = null;
 
try {
b=message.getBytes("UnicodeLittleUnMarked");
out.write(b,0,b.length);
//Integer size= b.length;
 
//Log.d("Socket","***" + size.toString());
}
catch (IOException ex) {
Log.e("Socket","***Socket Send Error " + ex.toString());
}
 
}
 
 
 
 
@Override
public void onDestroy(){
super.onDestroy();
Log.d("Destroy","***Destroying***");
sm.unregisterListener(sensorEventListener);
finish();
}
 
@Override
public void onPause(){
super.onPause();
Log.d("Pause","***Pausing***");
sm.unregisterListener(sensorEventListener);
if(s != null){
try {
s.close();
s=null;
}
catch (IOException ex) {
Log.e("Socket","***Socket Close Error " + ex.toString());
}
}
finish();
}
 
@Override
public void onResume(){
super.onResume();
Log.d("Resume","***Resuming***");
 
}
 
 
}

That’s it for now. Come back soon and I will have all the steps and all the code that will get this truck moving.