Archive for May, 2009

USB 3.0 is coming

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Register Hardware has just published Inside USB 3.0 article on new coming USB 3.0 technology. USB 3.0 is sometimes called SuperSpeed USB because of its 5Gb/s peak data-transfer rate. NEC announced first host controller chip for USB 3.0 last week.

Achieving that 5Gb/s data rate has required some hardware changes because simply can’t do SuperSpeed over USB 2.0 cabling. Long time it was thought that fiber optics were needed to get 5Gb/s data rate but now it seems that copper is the way to go because it is cheaper.

The new USB cables will be thicker than those we’re used to and they have more shielded twisted pairs in them to carry the data. The connectors need to change to handle the new wires. The basic USB 3.0 ‘Standard A’ connector looks like today’s big USB plugs but is slightly longer to to accommodate five extra contact pins. USB 3.0 is backward compatible with 2.0, connecting your current thin-wired mouse to a USB 3.0 port isn’t going to be a problem.

USB 3.0 is not simply a higher-clocked USB 2.0. The new USB 3.0 bus uses different protocol than USB 2.0. USB 3.0 links can be used to read and write data simultaneously – ‘dual simplex’ signalling, compared to USB 2.0’s ‘half duplex’ operation. USB 3.0 evices explicitly route packets from the source to the targets (USB 2.0 simply broadcasts all packets to all connected devices). USB 3.0 retains USB 2.0’s data transfer types and pipe model.

SuperSpeed USB has a dual-bus architecture to allow hosts and hubs to run USB 3.0 right alongside USB 2.0, while plug-in peripherals are limited to use only USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 signaling.

If things go smoothly maybe we could see first USB 3.0-capable PCs by the end of the year and peripherals that can use the 5Gb/s sometimes next year. Then it probably takes some time (maybe years) before everything on USB 3.0 runs smoothly…

Posted in Computers | 29 Comments »

Cracked LCD Screen Prank

Monday, May 25th, 2009

Cracked LCD Screen Prank is a funny video on one funny practical joke. This guy installs a desktop background of a cracked LCD screen and detaches the mouse and keyboard. When his roommate gets home he thinks his computer monitor is busted and flips out. The video can be found in Internet in several locations including Youtube, Break and Leenks.

If you want to do this yourself, the video includes the needed instructions how to do that.  To do the trick you can find the needed image using Google search or download it directly from fontblog. All you have to do is open the cracked screen image in Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer then hit F11 and the cracked LCD screen image will appear in full screen mode looking like your friend’s LCD screen is cracked.

Cracked LCD screen

Posted in Practical Jokes | 43 Comments »

Easy to use stepper controller IC

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

I had some stepper motors from old disk drives and other electronics devices lying around. Those were typically designed to be driven with 12V voltage and take few hundred mA of current per phase and had five or six wires (four phase).
I thought that it would be a good idea to turn them to some useful applications (for example homemade CNC) by adding a suitable stepper motor controller to control them. I was looking for a controller that accepts traditional step + direction type control interface. And I was looking for a simple to build and inexpensive system that can be easily and cheaply built (so single chip solution would be perfect).

With some web searching I could find some stepper motor driver modules that would fit to my technical needs, but the downside of then was that they seemed to be a little bit expensive for simple experimenting when price starts at around 50 euros. I was looking for something less expensive.

There are many links for stepper motor controller circuits. None of them seemed to be exactly right. I did not want to have many components and I did not want to put in microcontroller. Some web searching gave more circuits, but nothing exactly right.

Then I saw something that looked promising. There was a SAA1027 based stepper circuit. That IC seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. But then came the bad news. It seems that this IC is not made anymore and availability of SAA1027 was really bad.

Back to drawing board. I looked around on the stepper motor controller ICs from the component sources I can easily use. It took some time to go through them and most I were something like 2-3 IC solutions to drive stepper. Too complicated I though. I would like to have single chip and something that costs less than 10 euros.

Then I found NJR3517D2 that is available through Elfa easily at reasonable price (less than 8 euros). I ordered one IC and started experimenting. Very quickly I built a working stepper motor controller to a breadboard. This IC looks very promising. If you are looking for a simple solution for stepper motor controlling, check this IC.

a-small-stepper-motor

Posted in Products, diy | 44 Comments »

Having Fun at The Office

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Time magazine on-line pages are running a series of photographs on funny office practical jokes inspired by The Office TV series. NBC has invited its viewers to submit photos of their own workplaces to the show’s website.
Viewers Having Fun at The Office on-line article contains 18 best pictures.

cubicle_fun

Posted in Practical Jokes | 15 Comments »

History of 3D graphics cards

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Try to imagine where 3D gaming would be today if not for the graphics processing unit, or GPU.  It’s pretty amazing when you think about how far graphics technology has come. Maximum PC has publishes an interesting article From Voodoo to GeForce: The Awesome History of 3D Graphics that takes a look back at every major GPU release since the infancy of 3D graphics. This is almost 15 years of PC 3D graphics card history. The 3D graphics cards have been here for a long time, but where are the real 3D displays that can display real 3D views to users instead of this traditional process graphics using 3D technology and the display it in 2D monitor?

gpu_thumbnail

Posted in Computers | 26 Comments »

Evolution of The Laptop

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Laptop evolution video shows the evolution of the laptop computer since 1976 to today in three minutes. The video goes even beyond today.  The video consists of pictures of different laptop models and background music.

Laptop evolution from YouTube

eeepc_small

Posted in Computers | 51 Comments »

Dealextreme

Monday, May 18th, 2009

DealExtreme says they have cool gadgets at the Right Price. And they are right on this. DealExtreme (DX) is a Hong Kong-based online shopping site which specialises in a wide range of inexpensive electronic goods and other related items. Products range from useful and potentially useful to completely useless. Some of the most popular gadgets available on DX include LED flashlights, green laser pointers, gaming console and computer accessories, rechargeable batteries and chargers, and other novelty items.

The prices are cheap and on top of that, they have free shipping.
You have to wait normally around 10 days to get your items using normal delivery (here is option for faster delivery but it costs). DX accepts the payments through Paypal. The ordering process is hassle-free and all of my orders have been successfully fulfilled without issue.

For electronics experimenters there is a very good selection of electronics tools, power LEDs and LED accessories. For RC hobbies and robotics experimenters there is a good selection of RC servos available at good price. There are also some RF connectors and fiber optics accessories available at very good price.

DealExtreme.com is an online retailer where you can buy all that cheap Chinese crap “gadgets” you were never sure you needed. You probably don’t need them, but you might feel like you need to get them when you see how cheaply and easily they are available. Very good shop for buying gadgets and small gifts. There’s even a “Random Stuff” button on the side allowing you to spin the Wheel O’ Gadget. There are also on-line community system where the users submit their reviews and comments on the products, so you get to know if the cheap products sold are good or not so good. Dealextreme.com is an excellent place to buy cheap electronic stuff.

Dealextreme logo

Posted in Products, Uncategorized | 40 Comments »

Practical jokes around workplace – part IV

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Today everybody has a network connection in the office. And the majority of people are quite heavily dependent on their connections during the day. In other words if their connection is down they get quite frustrated quite fast.

My colleague was one of these people and he got very upset very fast. I always dreamt of situation were my network connection was working and his was not. So… One day when he had already left the office I took the cable from his docking station and gently cut the cable vertically with a razor and chopped the green wire. Be sure to cut the cable from a spot that is under the table or otherwise out of sight. Then I put just two drops of instant clue to the inside of the covering and gently closed the covering.

The next day he spent half a day cursing his connection and calling to the help-desk. One might automatically thought that the rational thing is to check the cable, but who would assume that the cable just breaks down by itself one day… Well I had quite an amusing morning listening his cursing and swearing the it-department… After a couple hours he finally checked the cable in enough detail to discover the cut =)

Posted in Practical Jokes | 7 Comments »

Google Efficient Data Centers

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Google has published recently more and more details on their data center and their own servers they use. Some of the most interesting details can be found at the Google Efficient Data Centers Summit presentations. Google Efficient Data Centers Summit – 2 of 3 video is worth to watch if you are interested in how to run data centers in efficient way or any technologies related to data centers. The first talk (first hour) is very good, very informative, very well explained and argued. It will tell you many details on data center power distribution, cooling and overall data center design.

Google server

Posted in Computers | 176 Comments »