Raspbeery Pi: EZasPi (B) prototyping / development proto board

Have not tried these, but this eBay seller has some interesting Raspberry Pi prototyping boards (at least at the time of this posting).

"EZasPi (B) prototyping / development proto board kit stacks UNDER Raspberry Pi"

http://www.ebay.ca/usr/mikronauts


Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Raspberry Pi: Teddy bear beats Felix Baumgartner’s skydiving record

Cool news item.

"Acuddly bear named Babbage has beaten Felix Baumgartner's skydiving world record, using a weatherballoon and a Raspberry Pi computer to climb to an estimated height of 39,000 metres before tumbling back to Earth."

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-28/news/41538647_1_babbage-raspberry-pi-felix-Baumgartner


Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Raspberry Pi: Microwave Oven Hack

Have not tried this, but looks interesting:

"... developer Nathan Broadbent has hacked away at his microwave to add stuff that any self-respecting microwave manufacturer of the year 2013 should have probably added themselves. Voice commands! Barcodes that pre-set cooking times! A SELF SETTING CLOCK."

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/11/raspberry-pi-microwave-hack/



Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Raspberry Pi: History

Here is an interesting article on the history of the Raspberry Pi that I stumbled across:

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/09/raspberry-pi-insider-exclusive-sellout-to-sell-out/


Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Raspberry Pi: PC emulator

Have not tried this, but the "rpix86 is a PC emulator for the Raspberry Pi computer.

It's purpose is to allow you to run old DOS games on your RPi"

     http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/


Cool!


Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

WebApp: Off The Air TV Listings - www.titantv.com

Although this is not specifically ham radio related, it does have something to do with my combined OTA and Ham antenna tower installation.

With the big TV antenna I have, I get 43 OTA stations, all the major Canadian and US networks out of Belleville, Kingston, Watertown, Syracuse and Rochester. All of the US ones are Digital and some of the Canadian ones too. Most offer at least some (if not all) HDTV content.

I found a great online tv show listing site that allows you to totally customize the listings to only show the stations that you actually get.

Although I have seen comments online that you need to specify a US address to get US stations, I found that just creating an account and logging in allowed me to add all the stations that I get by callsign. I keep the site up on my Android tablet and can bring the listings up as needed.

The site is http://www.titantv.com


Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  

Hardware: Cell / Mobile Smart Phone - how to get one really cheap

I wanted to get a smart phone, but did NOT want to a the large monthly cost (i.e. I am cheap, and wanted something inexpensive).

So this is what I did:

1) I purchased an UNLOCKED GSM phone that works in the ROGERS network, from a vendor like this one:

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/dpr30018/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686


2) I had (or you can purchase) SIM Card (voice and text plan only) from Petro Canada (cheapest plan I could find when I got it):

http://mobility.petro-canada.ca/en/phones/537.aspx?linkid=133detailsSIM


3) Then get a $100/1 year "Anytime Plan" card, activate the SIM card and put it in the phone. The nice thing about this plan is that unused minutes carry over if you get a new card before the old one expires.


This works great for me as I only make a few calls a week, and have you access to WiFi almost everywhere you go now, so not having a data plan is no undue hardship.


Eric Pierce VA3EP - See the Disclaimer in the Introduction

© Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", 1952-2099. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eric Pierce and "VA3EP Amateur Radio And Other Geek Pursuits", with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.