Video: The Four-bit Maze challenge, via Arduino

This is a good one, from Gadget Master Oskar van Deventer. He had a vision for a mechanical or electronic puzzle without a screen and without lights, purely tactile and purely mechanical...

Based on an Arduino UNO microcontroller, it's programmed for ten different levels of difficulty, with an Arduino Motor Shield operating the motorfaders, reports Engadget.

He writes:

The Four Bit Maze is an electronic mechanical puzzle that is 100% tactile. The object of the puzzle is to move all four sliders from the "0" position to the "1" position. 

Each challenge has only 16 binary states, and the operation of each challenge is 100% deterministic without any hidden states. Some challenges are easy and playful, whereas others are fiendishly hard.

How does it work? Check out the video below:

If you wish, you can buy the device for €435 from Oskar directly.

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Most read Gadget Master posts in January

Well, the New Year is here and is already a month underway... Time to ask the question: which posts have proved the most popular on Gadget Master among your peers, in January?

Well, the answer covers IO boards, LED displays, the Raspberry Pi and a whistle-activated light switch...

Let's take it in reverse order:

10. How to build a rotating LED display

9. Build your own wand based barcode scanner

8. A DIY Android Gadget Starter Kit

7. How to build a whistle-activated light switch

6. Android advances to centre stage

5. Keep your property where you can see it

4. Build your own LED cube

3. The IOIO Android breakout board competition

2. Build your own laser harp

1. Raspberry Pi #0001 goes for £3,500 on eBay

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Create your own Terminator Arm!

Are you up to the challenge of creating your own Terminator Arm, complete with LED lighting effect?!

I ordered an Android IOIO board from SparkFun recently - for the current Gadget Master compo - and this tutorial on the same site caught my eye.

It's a tutorial by one "T Zero", taking us through the creation of afore mentioned robotic arm....

They begin:

Being a solder jockey, I'm not the best at programming and making things light up and blink. But, I am a wiz with a soldering iron. I enjoy making sculptures and little objects you can set at the edge of your desk to strike up a conversation. For this tutorial, I was trying to come up with the best sculpture or desk ornament - something every nerd or geek like myself would be proud to put on display. Something that didn't cost much and was a good rainy afternoon project. This project was done with trashed parts I found around the shop, and if your workstation looks anything like mine, you should be able to find these or similar parts.

The full list of parts is as follows:

• Buzzer              
• Standoff
• Pogo Pins x2
• 10k Trimpot x2       
• Machine pin headers
• 16MHz crystal
• Reed switch
• Any PTH LED

And as pictured:

He takes you through the various stages of the project, with pictures. For example:

"Once you have soldered the reed switch into place, slide the stand off over both LED leads. This is probably the most difficult part. In order to solder to the stand off, you need to hold a glob of solder on it, heating it up."

Check out the full tutorial >>

Not-So-Smartphones of 2011

Not sure about about this one, the premises or the conclusion (that all older Android phones should be considered 'orphans' and that Android should be identified as the most vulnerable platform)... 

Anyway, starting at the top, the Mannerisms blog recently featured a Top Ten of "riskiest phones", which immediately caught my eye for Made By Monkeys.

The idea is that certain phones - most notably Android phones - are no longer getting software updates, which means known vulnerabilities or bugs are going unfixed or unpatched.

Bit9 - a company that specialises in application Whitelisting services - has identified the "Dirty Dozen" of such phones, in a snappily entitled blog, Orphan Android - The Not-So-Smartphones of 2011. Android, specifically, is in their sights:

The company writes:

Unlike Apple iOS, RIM Blackberry or Windows Phone, the phone manufacturer - not the software vendor - is responsible for providing Android software updates to their smartphone.  Phone carriers also inject themselves into the process, selling further customized models and sometimes charging data usage for software updates. The result is chaos. As anyone who has ever owned an Android phone can attest, waiting for your phone to receive the latest Android release is like walking through prickly bushes - slow, painful, and sometimes buggy.

They identify 'Orphan Android' devices as "phones running any Android OS 2.3.3 or less."

Which were Bit9's "Dirty Dozen" Android phones?

1. Samsung Galaxy Mini

2. HTC Desire

3. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

4. Sanyo Zio

5. HTC Wildfire

6. Samsung Epic 4G

7. LG Optimus S

8. Samsung Galaxy S

9. Motorola Droid X

10. LG Optimus One

11. Motorola Droid 2

12. HTC Evo 4G

Instead of a Dirty Dozen they could have had a Baker's Dozen because there at number 13, they say, was the Apple iPhone (version 4 and older models)...

Bit9 writes:

The majority of smartphones worldwide are running the Android operating system. The open nature of the platform has enabled both innovation and creativity in the mobile space. However, the distribution model adopted by phone manufacturers and their carriers has created a chaotic and insecure environment where it can take several months for important updates to be distributed, if at all. At the heart of the issue, providing software updates for Android phones is currently the responsibility of the individual hardware vendors along with their different carriers.

This would be akin to buying a PC from Dell and relying on Dell to coordinate with your home Internet provider, instead of Microsoft, to update your Windows software. With so many PC makers and Internet providers, the result would be a complete fragmentation of the market, with different computers having different versions of Windows depending on where they purchased the PC and where they live. That is exactly what has occurred within the Android smartphone market. In many cases, the only recourse a consumer has, if they want the latest and most secure software, is to purchase a new phone. 

You can read more on their research on their website - Orphan Android: Not-So-Smartphones of 2011 (PDF)

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Most Read in January - The Made By Monkeys popularity stakes

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Let the latest Made By Monkeys posts come to you, with RSS

The best way to get the very latest Made By Monkeys posts as soon as they are published? RSS!

And it's not just Made By Monkeys. Check out all the RSS feeds that are available for Electronics Weekly content. The feed for Latest News, for example, can be found here.

There are 12 Electronics Weekly feeds you can tap into:
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RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, by the way. And if you are unfamiliar with this technology, just check out the What is RSS section of our RSS page. electronics news

I can't believe someone makes... the Love Box analogue video mixer for iPhone

Now this sounds like it might be a really clever piece of kit, and I suppose in a way it is. But it requires no knowledge of electronics whatsoever to assemble it.

A video mixer sounds as if it should be in a sleek grey case, and feature - oh I don't know - crossfaders for audio and video, maybe a Chroma key or a Luma key, fades, wipes and other clever functionality.

This wooden box is about as low-tech as it gets, certainly since the invention of the  camera obscura.

Featured on wired.com, the makers are quoted as saying:

"THE LOVE BOX Video Mixer" is a unique device conceived to record two sided videos in one single iPhone's shot. It consists of a wooden base and a mirroring system that, when mounted with your mobile phone, simultaneously record "front" and "back" views in one single, split screen image. It is compatible with iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S."

In fact you could improvise the whole thing with a handbag mirror and a pile of books, so it's hard to imagine who would shell out the $100 asking price! And what's the betting it's made of sustainably sourced timber?

Hmmmm....

Sue Proud

Previous I can't believe posts:

* I can't believe someone makes... A defibrillator toaster

* I can't believe someone makes... Night Vision Golf headsets

* I can't believe someone makes... Room shrinking iPod docks [Part 2]

* I can't believe someone makes... Three metre high iPod docks

* I can't believe someone makes... Sling shot cameras

* I can't believe someone makes... Neolithic laser pointers

* I can't believe someone makes... DIP switch watches

* I can't believe someone makes... Luggage scooters

* I can't believe someone makes... Canon SLR lens shots glasses

* I can't believe someone makes... Steak Station Thermometers

* I can't believe someone makes... USB face masks

* I can't believe someone makes... Ball of wool chargers

* I can't believe someone makes... Sliced grandfather clocks

* I can't believe someone makes... Drill-powered pencil sharpeners

* I can't believe someone makes... Grow bag beauty covers

* I can't believe someone makes... Augmented reality business cards

* I can't believe someone makes... MP3 playing plugs

* I can't believe someone makes... LED benches

* I can't believe someone makes... Power cable lamps

* I can't believe someone makes... Unreadable watches [Part 5]

* I can't believe someone makes... USB skullhubs

* I can't believe someone makes... Starship Enterprise pizza cutters

* I can't believe someone makes... Gunship watches

* I can't believe someone makes... Extra dimension light switches

* I can't believe someone makes... Bacon and egg iPhone cases

* I can't believe someone makes... Tuna can alarm clocks

* I can't believe someone makes... Kitchen scales with iPod dock

* I Can't Believe Someone Makes... Steering Wheel Laptop Holders

* I Can't Believe Someone Makes... Voice Recognition Grocery List Organisers

* I can't believe someone makes... Yet More USB nonsense

* I can't believe someone makes... Coca Cola powered cell phones

* I can't believe someone makes... Cassette Tape Ties

* I can't believe someone makes... Augmented reality t-shirts

* I can't believe someone makes... Recursive remote controls

* I can't believe someone makes... An electric guitar T-shirt

* I can't believe someone makes... LED cake cutting guides

* I can't believe someone makes... More (food-based) USB nonsense

* I can't believe someone makes... YouTube microwaves

*  I can't believe someone makes... R2-D2 Christmas lights

* I can't believe someone makes... 12V Heated Pizza Bags

* I can't believe someone makes... 24 carat gold plated fuses

* I can't believe someone makes... Wi-Fi Dowsing Rods

* I can't believe someone makes... In-car pizza ovens

* I can't believe someone makes... More USB nonsense

* I can't believe someone makes... Helmet-shaped USB humidifiers

* I can't believe someone makes... Faceless watches [Part 3]

* I can't believe someone makes... Wi-Fi detector baseball caps
* I can't believe someone makes... Mobile phone cigarette lighters

* I can't believe someone makes... Tweed Karl Lagerfeld iPod Helmets

* I can't believe someone makes... Faceless watches [Part 2]

* I can't believe someone makes... Faceless watches [Part 1]

* I can't believe someone makes.... USB construction sites

* I can't believe someone makes... LED disco shower lights

* I can't believe someone makes... Snail Art Cars

* I can't believe someone makes... Electric paper plane launchers

* I can't believe someone makes... A wooden MacBook

* I can't believe someone makes... Rubik's Cube Calendars

* I can't believe someone makes... A mobile phone shaver

* I can't believe someone makes... An LED messaging mouse

* I can't believe someone makes... Swarovski Crystal LCD TVs

* I can't believe someone makes... Glowing writstballs

* I can't believe someone makes... Klingon keyboards

* I can't believe someone makes... Armadillo Breadbins

Recall Corner: Ford motors crowd Recall forecourt

Recently we featured a hybrid car in Recall Corner and now here comes a whole fleet of contenders vying for the same parking slot! Start your engines, Ford Fusions, Milans, and Freestar SUVs (!), and also BMW Minis!

It's hard, in fact, to keep track of all the Ford recalls, across various models.

For Escape SUVs - with year range 2001 to 2002 being under the recall - the "brake fluid can leak from the master cylinder cap and lead to corrosion that could cause a fire," reports SlashGear.

Meanwhile, it says, the Freestar and Monterey vans are being recalled due to issues with the torque converter. "The output shaft of the torque converter could fail and cause a loss of power". Not what you want when overtaking, of course.

In total, the recalls affect more than 400,000 Freestar, Monterey, and Escape vehicles. Shane McGlaun writes:

The recall covers 205,896 Ford Freestar and Mercury clone Monterey vans. The recall also covers 244,530 Ford Escape SUVs along with an additional 40,000 Escape SUVs sold outside the US. The recalls are being handled in coordination with the NHTSA and were confirmed by a Ford spokesman.

Read the original article >>

"Two minor accidents are have alleged to have resulted over eight years, with minor injuries in one and no injuries in the other", according to a Ford spokesperson, reports Freep.com.

Meanwhile SlashGear also reports rather alarming problems with Mercury Milan vehicles, following the discovery that the wheels on certain 2010-2011 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan cars "could fall off".

Chris Davies writes:

The issue, Ford told the Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was spotted when lug-nut tightening was found to cause fracturing; if the drivers ignored the subsequent vibration warning signs, the wheels themselves could potentially detach from car.

This involves cars with 17-inch steel wheels, not those with alloy wheels, according to Ford...

Close behind the Fords came some bad news for the ever-popular Mini - see, for example, SlashGear's report - BMW Mini recall hits 235,000 vehicles

The problem, it seems, lies with an "electric water pump malfunction"...

Chris Burns writes:

What happens with this water pumps is that when it's supposed to be cooling the turbo charger, it can malfunction and cause the connected electronic circuit board to overheat. This malfunction can then cause the circuit board to smolder or outright catch fire. Mini drivers that this recall might affect should expect communication starting next month.

How many Minis are affected by the recall? It seems a sizeable 235,000, but a BMW spokesperson has said there haven't been any accidents resulting from the problem.

Read the full article >>

Google opens source code for Android 4.0.1

How open is Google's Android? That's a subject of long and sometimes bitter debates, but it is "open enough" for the Mountain View search giant to release the source code for v4.0 - the 'Ice Cream Sandwich' release, which aims to unify smartphone and tablet code bases. 

Well, after a lot of speculation around the exact due date, the code is now out.

To be precise it is releasing 4.0.1, which is the version that will ship on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone (pictured right).

Jean-Baptiste Queru announced the release on the 'Android Building' Google Group.

We just released a bit of code we thought this group might be interested in. Over at our Android Open-Source Project git servers, the source code for Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is now available. Here's how to get it: Follow the instructions at
http://source.android.com/source/downloading.html Check out the 'ics-release' branch:repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.0.1_r1 That's it!

He goes on:

This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases. However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich. So, we haven't created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the changes are present in the history.)

View the post >>

See also: Amazon releases source code for Kindle Fire's version of Android

MulticoreWare works with AMD on OpenCL multicore tools

MulticoreWare has announced the beta availability of key OpenCL tools and libraries for download from its website, writes Richard Wilson.

The company has worked with microprocessor firm AMD to provide support for OpenCL in multicore design incorporating graphics procesors (GPUs) and CPUs.

"We have worked closely with AMD to produce the fastest and most developer-efficient way to delivering optimised code for heterogeneous multicore environments, with full support for OpenCL standards and portability across platforms," said Curtis Davis, co-founder, v-p of engineering and chief operating officier at MulticoreWare.

"AMD firmly believes industry standards such as OpenCL allow the development community to fully leverage the benefits of heterogeneous computing platforms," said Raghu Rao, senior director, developer solutions at AMD.

The intention is to allow developers to use these tools to take advantage of integrating a GPU with a CPU multicore systems for video and image analytics and gesture processing.

Global Memory for Accelerators (GMAC) enables development of code for CPUs and GPUs in a single pointer space, without requiring the developer to be aware of, or manage, the different memory domains and allocations.

There is a task manager for sequencing operations across both CPUs and GPUs, with resulting optimisation of memory accesses.

"By working with MCW to make key development tools freely available to developers worldwide, AMD is further advancing the role of heterogeneous computing and industry standards among the developer community," said Rao.

The tools are available on Microsoft Windows platform initially, with support for Linux and MacOS coming in the subsequent weeks. AMD and MCW are both committed to global, open standards, with on-going participation and leadership through actions with Khronos.

ARM releases Development Studio 5 Community Edition for Andorid

For small firms, ARM has released Development Studio 5 Community Edition, a free version of its reference software development toolkit, writes our technology editor Steve Bush.

Known as DS-5 CE. "the new edition is dedicated to the Android application developer community and helps them create native software for compute intensive tasks that can run up to 4 times faster than Java code," claimed the firm. "DS-5 CE includes limited, but essential functionality from the premium DS-5 toolkit to help solve common Android application developer pain points."

Included is an integrated graphical debugger for NDK-generated code and visibility of processor information including NEON single instruction multiple data (SIMD) registers.

It permits development of Java and C/C++ code in the Eclipse development environment, and there is a tailored version of the Streamline performance analyser for compatible Android development platforms.

"Streamline captures detailed, system-wide performance statistics from a variety of sources which helps developers to locate hotspots in their code and isolate potential causes," said ARM. "Platform builders can add support for Streamline by integrating an open source driver available from the Linaro website."

"We have worked with ARM to ensure that DS-5 support is available as an easy to install add-on for Linaro Ubuntu images in the past and are working together to deliver a similar developer experience for DS-5 CE as part of our Android images", said Alexander Sack, platform technical director, Linaro.

DS-5 CE is available free-of-charge for use by individuals and organisations with annual revenue of $100,000 or less, and up to 10 employees.

Steve Bush

Raspberry Pi number 1 goes for £3,500 on eBay

The Raspberry Pi  project is almost a perfect example of open source engineering story. Well, it has started in popular fashion - a £20 Raspberry Pi computer sold for £3,500 on eBay last week, writes Steve Bush.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation, which intends to sell its educational computers directly, auctioned 10 of its beta production board on eBay.

As executive director Eben Upton pointed out in a video on the Foundation's website, this limited auction was aimed at: computer collectors, benefactors intending to donate to the foundation - which is a charity, and software development firm's wanting hardware before full-production boards are released later this month.

In a move that may cause priority arguments amongst collectors in the future, Raspberry Pi number 1 was actually the tenth auctioned, with number 10 going first for the relative bargain price of £1,900.

Number 7 was bought by an anonymous benefactor for £989 and donated to the Computer Museum at the Centre for Computing History in Suffolk.

Set up by a group of high-flying techies, the Foundation aims to inspire a generation of programmers by putting competent low-cost hardware into the hands of children and teenagers, much in the way that Sinclair computers did in the 1980s.

"We have parts in stock for our first 10,000 units, and expect to be in volume production by the end of January," said Raspberry Pi Foundation executive director Eben Upton.

The computer, Raspberry Pi, is intended to cost under £20, is based around a 32bit ARM11 system chip which plugs into a TV through HDMI or analogue video, and will run some Linux distributions, Python, Iceweasel and KOffice amongst other open-source applications - a slight setback is that Ubuntu is not yet supporting the hardware.

Most importantly for the Foundation, unlike PCs and smart phones, Raspberry Pi can be programmed by the user as soon as it is switched on, tempting them to explore computer science.

Read the original news story >>

FTDI adds touch capability to its open source platform

Future Technology Devices International (FTDI) has added a touch control input/output application boards for its Vinco development module, writes Richard Wilson.

The Vinco Touch Key applications board, which the supplier calls a shield mates with the Vinco motherboard, and incorporates a STMicroelectronics STMPE821 8-channel general purpose input/output (GPIO) capacitive touch key controller IC.

The shield has 8 touch keys which employ a capacitive sensing technology, responding to physical input stimulus from the user. It also has a set of 4 push buttons and 5 GPIO-controlled LED indicators.

The touch keys are capable of passing input data to the Vinculum-II (VNC2) dual port USB host/device controller IC on the Vinco module via an I2C bus, where it can be processed by the IC's integrated 16-bit microcontroller core.

Access to the Vinco pulse width modulation (PWM) interface is also available on the header pins. The shield requires a 5V supply, which can be drawn from an external supply or through the Vinco motherboard connections.
 
"The new Touch Key shield demonstrates the Vinco platform's ability to utilise the Android Open Accessory initiative, so that devices using the Android operating system, such as tablet PCs, can control items of external hardware through a human machine interface (HMI), over USB," said Dave Sroka, global product director at FTDI.

The shield is supplied in a 55.4 mm x 68.6 mm  form-factor, the established format of the Arduino Duemilanove and Uno boards.

There are free software libraries, drivers and source code. An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) includes a code editor, 'C' compiler, assembler and debugger.

The FTDI Vinco Touch Key shield is available at a cost of $33.75 for single units.
 
More information is available for download at:
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/DataSheets/Modules/DS_Vinco.pdf