Tech Stuff from the Past

Notable technical stuff from another of my Blog 

• The Old Blog is here Aj's Old Blog 
• Custom Android ROM generation and new hardware interface for a Micromax Funbook for an interactive table for a Coffee Franchise
• Needed a new touch screen with deeper depth sensing to be interfaced to an android tablet.
• A hackable Android tablet was found and its hardware enabled to make changes.
• Cyanogenmod was a popular alternative Android variant. The CM10 Android ROM was compiled for 24 hours and its ROM updated to a stock Micromax Funbook (P300?)
• Google apps were also run separately.
• A different touch screen needed for this was interfaced to Android and was found to be working satisfactorily.
• The link to a related blog is Cyanogenmod 10 (Android ROM) on Micromax Funbook
• Howto build a tiny Home projector
• Needed to build a DIY projector 
• By taking apart the reflector backing from a phones display one can get transparency like film.
• Using a strong light and some proper lenses, a projector can be built.
• A type candy bar phones display was used as it was the cheapest to afford making mistakes on. And also it was borrowed from somebody else too 😀
• The projector build and relevant info is here DIY Tiny Mobile Phone Projector
• Simplified Medical Prescription System 
• Learning to use a computer and be familiar with the keys etc was a cumbersome process then.
• So to simply process a Kitchen order terminal like interface was developed. One could add/delete medicines,  the duration of the course and also add/delete notes for home care. 
• This was before the Raspberry PI time, so an HP thin client was bought from the refurbished market and Linux was customised to provide the UI. Interestingly maybe the inspiration was a similar ncurses based UI used even in the McDonalds kitchen.
• A dot matrix printer was also interfaced via parallel port and it could print out Prescriptions.
• It was actively used for a few years.
• The blog link is here Medical Prescription System
• Howto build Digital Photoframe using an SBC
• Need to mimic the cheap photoframes that were in vogue then.
• Used a discarded SBC and found a tiny linux distrib tinycore and  built one.
• Link here   DIY Digital Photoframe
• Accelerometer demo on the Nokia Xpressmusic 5800 phone
• Python on a nokia to read accelerometer and a program on a PC demos the interaction.
• Link here  Nokia Xpressmusic 5800 accelerometer
• Ubuntu image generation using ubiquity
• How to customise ubuntu and generate the OS and associated problems
• This was used to create an Ubuntu image for a school
• Link here Ubuntu Image Generate
• Autorickshaw Media Player
• Amplifier assembled for an auto (tuk-tuk), including face plate design etc.
• Link Autorickshaw Media Player
• Java app on a Motorola Ming Phone
• Wrote an app to display GPS data using an external Holux GPS device
• Link here Java app on Motorola Ming Phone
• Nokia phone LCDs as alternate display on a PC
• One can add cheap extra displays by hacking Nokia phone parts
• Color Display using Nokia 6610 here Nokia color phone display to PC
• Monochrome 3310 display here Nokia BW display to PC
• Display change enables different UI On Nokia phone
• By changing to color display a stock nokia phone could change its UI
• Blog here Colorize Nokia 1110/2 display
• External USB adapter support on Linux
• Link here: Linksys USB support on Linux
• And many more. Head over to the other blog.

PineTime (Pine64 Watch) Trials

• Long time wish to build a smart watch. Experimented with various platforms, not built anything usable yet.
• Many opensource variants: watchy, openwatch, pinetime, etc.
• Pinetime is by the Pine64 Organisation Pine64 Org. They make many open source products like laptops, phones, watches, SBCs, etc.
• The Pine64 forum has a watch called the Pinetime. It looks nicely packaged and so wanted to see if its suitable for everyday use. More info here PineTime
• It is an NRF52 based chipset with an IPS display and chinese sensors for heart rate and step counting.
• They have an FreeRTOS based OS called the Infinitime . It was WIP then (Mar2021), so many features were under development and also the UI was rudimentary.
• At about the same time there was another micropython based OS called WaspOS which was under active development. 
• Downloaded this and generated the OS.
• The advantage is that one can just write micropython apps and download to this board. No classical embedded development necessary.
• Using the standard Nordic Semiconductor tools both the OSes were flashed and various features explored.
• Observations:
• The apps were basic, back then in 2021.
• Most importantly the values of the step counter and heart rate sensor were compared against a FitBit and a MAX30102 based homebrew device. The default values had many variations from the other reference devices. Maybe time could have been invested to make it rugged but then there were more accurate options so this was discontinued.
• Interestingly it has Notifications support with an Android Mobile phone using Gadgetbridge. So this could be used for writing cool watch based control things.
• Below are some images/videos of the watch in operation.