So I finally decided to take a plunge to make an electronics hobby into something more, maybe a full-time job. As one of the first things to getting there I bought the Rigol DS1052E digital oscilloscope. Decided to buy this one because it’s hackable: with a small firmware update it should be possible to make this 50MHz scope into a 100MHz one. Apparently this is the same hardware as DS1152E, just firmware needs to be updated to transform it into a twice more expensive instrument! More about this in another post.

A bunch of electronic parts are coming from China in the next couple of weeks (hopefully). Very exciting times indeed!

1. Type in the address-bar about:config and press Enter
2. Confirm warning dialog
3. Type in keyword.url in the filter
4. Change value of keyword.url to http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q= by right clicking on it and selecting “Modify” from the popup menu

Installation of ICS depends on 2 main tasks: flashing custom recovery and installation of ICS. Please note that doing this can and probably will void your warranty.

Flash custom recovery & root

Original thread can be found at XDA developers forum.

“What you need to do can be encompassed in these following short steps (will be detailed later on) in the following order. Each step is required before you can proceed to the next one. However, make sure that you are very very careful and don’t try to take any shortcuts. That may soft-brick your device, and you may have a difficult time to explain that to your wife … You have been warned!

I strongly recommend you to read the entire guide before trying. In fact, read it twice to ensure that you have understood everything.

Just a note before we begin: the different Xoom. Models that are able to use this guide are the following:

• MZ600 – stingray_cdma – Motorola US 3g Xoom (technically this device is stingray as well, but I will be using stingray_cdma as the two devices have incompatible software)
• MZ601 – utms_everest – Motorola EU 3g Xoom
• MZ602 – stingray – Motorola US 4g Xoom
• MZ604 – wingray – Motorola Wifi Xoom

Overview

1. Install Motorola USB drivers for your computers (for USB connectivity)
2. Install Android SDK tools (for adb and fastboot commands)
3. Unlock the device for flashing (allowing replacement of recovery and boot images)
4. Install a modified recovery image (ClockWorkMod recovery for Android)
5. Root the device (Allow r/w access to the device filesystem)

Steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 require that you download install, image and zip files needed for the flashing.

All this was performed on a Windows PC. Windows 7, Mac and Linux users will probably have to do some steps differently.

1.0 Install the latest Motorola USB drivers

The installation file can be found at: http://developer.motorola.com/docstools/USB_Drivers/

1.1 Install the drivers and ensure that your Xoom is recognized by the computer

2.0 Installation of development software

Download Android SDK Tools from here: http://www.android.net/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=67

2.1 Extract the contents of the ZIP file to C:\SDKTools

2.2 Test that ADB and FASTBOOT works.

2.2.1 Press Win+R on keyboard

2.2.2 Type in “cmd” without quotes and click Ok

2.2.3 Type in “cd C:\SDKTools” and press Enter

2.2.4 Plug in your Xoom to your computer with your Motorola cable (it may not work with a generic cable)

2.2.3 Make sure that you have USB debugging enabled in Settings/Applications/Development on your Xoom

2.2.6 Type in “adb devices” and press Enter

2.2.7 Here is what you should see:

c:\SDKTools>adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached0a8051c041ff95d7        device

If your windows computer doesn’t see your Xoom, consider this:

When the xoom does not show up on PC it may be the problem of…. windows media player!
Xoom uses drivers of WMP to communicate with PC. If someone does not have the newest WMP drivers it will not show up and you can see xoom device in the devices tab on PC having an exclamation mark.
So the solution is to download and install Windows Media Player 11.

3. Unlocking the device for flashing

This step will effectively erase the internal storage, including all your apps and settings. Use whatever backup you want to secure important data before you start. (It will also void your warranty, so you still have time to go back.)

3.1 Power up and start the Xoom.

3.2 Ensure that your device is fully recognized by the computer. A good sign is that the ‘Portable device’ dialog is activated on Windows when your Xoom has booted. The Xoom should also be seen in ‘Computer’. If not, go back to step 2 and double check your USB drivers.

3.3 Use the command ‘adb reboot bootloader’ to go into Flash mode.

3.4 Use the command ‘fastboot oem unlock’. This will trigger a dialog on your Xoom. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the unlocking. I repeat, this *will* do a factory reset and all data will be lost!

3.5 Once unlocked, the Xoom will restart and work as normal. Don’t bother to do any setup at this time, just make sure that USB debbuging is checked in settings, and now go on to step 4

4. Install recovery image (CWM)

If you haven’t done it already, download the recovery image file and save it to your computer in the Platform Tools folder.

Download the recovery image from this link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1604014 only the *.img file must be flashed through fastboot.Copy the *.img file to the C:\SDKTools folder.

Warning: Never put any zip files in your Platform Tools folder. Flashing zip files through fastboot will cause very serious problems. Zip files must be flashed from the external micro SD card through CWM recovery on the Xoom…we’ll get to that later.

Important: At this time, make sure you have a working microsd card in your sdcard slot in your Xoom. Reboot the Xoom with the sdcard in the slot to make sure it’s mounted.

4.1 Boot into flash mode with ‘adb reboot bootloader‘.

4.2 Install your downloaded recovery image: ‘fastboot flash recovery eos-recovery-r6.img‘ or whatever is the exact name of the recovery *.img file you are flashing.

4.3 Enter CWM recovery with the procedure below.

4.4 Restart the device with ‘fastboot reboot‘. Timing is essential here, so be alert when the device restarts, or you will have to redo section 4.

4.5 Once the Motorola logotype is shown, start counting to 3. At 3, press the Volume Down button. This should result in the text ‘Android Recovery’ in the top left corner. If it does not work (if you see Starting Fastboot Protocol), experiment with the timing (see below).

4.6 When ‘Android Recovery’ is shown press the Volume Up button. This should invoke the CWM recovery menu. If that works, then congratulations for getting this far!

Problems you may encounter:

• If you are unable to enter CWM before the device boots into Honeycomb, then the newly installed recovery image will be overwritten by the system default recovery. Just repeat steps 4.1 through 4.6 if that happens.
• If you accidentally get into a different menu item other than “Android Recovery”, press and hold Power button together with volume down for 10s and the device will reboot.
• If you reboot the device for such reason, just do the 4.5 step again as soon as you see the Motorola logo so you don’t have to reflash recovery image

UPDATE(12/28/11) Since putting this guide together, Motorola has issued a number of Over-the-Air (OTA) updates that have complicated the process of flashing the Clockwork Mod recovery, so if you have accepted any OTA updates, please read the following:

“The green bot of !

there is one problem that exists with all xoom roots/cwm hacks. I had this problem as well as a bunch of other people when trying to flash CWM. If these files are present after an OTA update, then your xoom when entering recovery will show the green android robot with a exclaimation point instead of CWM.

If you have applied an official ota update.zip then you have a file like this on your xoom that will prevent CWM from working:

Lesson in all of this–be careful when you install an ota update! –you never know what surprises you will end up with.

For those of you that get stuck with some error like ‘device not recognized’ here is some advice:

1) Be sure that you have your adb folder in the root of C drive directly and be sure that you are in adb folder in command prompt program (CMD in Windows machines) i.e by typing “cd c:\XXX” where XXX is the name of adb folder in your machine.
2) Be sure that you type “adb reboot bootloader” in comand prompt to activate adb program. if the problem persists, try typing “fastboot reboot” then after reboot type “adb reboot bootloader” in command prompt program.
3) Use the USB cable that came with your Xoom (some cables are not good in flashing for unknown reason..!!
4) make sure that you activate USB debugging mode.

5.0. Rooting the Xoom

The Universal Xoom Root zip file from solarnz is located here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43942134/Xoom-Universal-Root.zip

5.1 You need to transfer the Universal Xoom Root zip file to a working external micro SD card. You can do this on a computer or cell phone, but the Universal Xoom Root zip file must be located in the root directory of the micro SD card. If you are following this guide, please note that it’s safe to take out the micro SD card from Xoom, copy the universal root zip and put it back in the Xoom.

5.2 Insert the now prepared SD card in the Xoom.

5.3 Boot into recovery as described in 4.3 if you are not already in recovery.

5.4 When in recovery navigate using the volume buttons and press the power button to select “install zip from sd card“.

5.5 Next select menu item “choose zip from external sdcard”

5.6 Select “Xoom-Universal-Root.zip” and confirm you want to flash it.

5.7 Once done, navigate to the top menu to reboot the device

After this step your Xoom should be rooted and you should be able to access EOS Recovery every time the device reboots by following step 4.3.

That’s it! Now you are ready to install ICS!

Installing ICS

Original thread can be found at XDA developers forum.

1. Download the correct ROM for your device. You will find the download links on the original thread. For example, I downloaded and installed Eos-wingray-2.0.0.zip, because I have MZ604 model on my Xoom’s box.
2. Download the Google applications package gapps-ics-20120422-signed.zip or newer that you can find on the original thread.
3. Place these two files on the root folder of your sdcard
4. Perform a factory rest within recovery
4.1 Select “wipe data/factory reset” and follow instructions
4.2 Select “wipe cache partition” and follow instructions

5. Install the ROM by selecting the zip file through the menus.

5.1 Select “install zip from sdcard”
5.2 Select “choose zip from external sdcard”
5.3 Select “Eos-wingray-2.0.0.zip” and confirm you want to flash it
5.4 Go back to root menu

6. Install the google applications package IMMEDIATELY after.

6.1 Select “install zip from sdcard”
6.2 Select “choose zip from external sdcard”
6.3 Select “gapps-ics-20120422-signed.zip” and confirm you want to flash it
6.4 Go back to root menu

7. Reboot your device and have fun with ICS!

My setup is:

• Windows 7 64bit host
• Windows XP x86 guest
• Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.0.4

And here are the steps needed to set up USB device forwarding:

1. Make sure that the guest virtual machine is turned off.
2. Download Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack if you don’t have it already installed. Install it by simply double clicking on the file.
3. Restart VirtualBox application just in case.
4. Select the virtual machine, click Settings button, open USB page and select “Enable USB Controller” together with “Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller”.

   

5. Add USB device by clicking the button highlighted below.
   
6. Once the device is added, select it and click on the edit button (one button below the add button). Make sure that Remote is set to Yes.
   
7. Start guest virtual machine
8. When it has started, go to Devices -> USB Devices and select the device you want to be available for the VM
   

Your device should now be available to the guest virtual machine.

Open Terminal and copy folder ~/.mozilla-thunderbird to the new location expected by Thunderbird 3:

copy ~/.mozilla-thunderbird ~/.thunderbird

All emails, settings and extensions in ~/.mozilla-thunderbird will be your backup.

Get Ubuntuzilla package signing key to your keyring:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29

Add Ubuntuzilla repositories to the list of your sources either by using main menu System > Administration > Software Sources on the Other Software tab:

deb http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main

Hit Reload button when asked to update software list.

Alternativelly the above step can be done with the following two commands in your terminal:

echo -e "\ndeb http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

And finally you can install the latest version of Thunderbird by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install thunderbird-mozilla-build

Don’t forget that you can erase the folder ~/.mozilla-thunderbird if the upgrade was successful. Have fun using the best email client in the world – Thunderbird 3! You can find it in the main menu Applications > Internet > Mozilla Build of Thunderbird.

Cool Components

www.coolcomponents.co.uk – great resource for Arduino shields, sensors and wireless communication hardware.

Robot Bits

www.robotbits.co.uk – wheels, chassis, gearboxes and various robotic kits ready for you to assemble based on Arduino.

Oomlout

oomlout.co.uk – great store for Arduino stuff, value starter bundles, essential tools, outstanding customer service and prompt delivery. With every component purchased you will get a very nice bonus – printed schematic for breadboard with instructions on how to connect the component to Arduino like this one.

Rapid Online

www.rapidonline.com – if you are more a do-it-yourself guy, this is an ideal resource for you. Store features everything from microcontroler ICs, LEDs to discrete semiconductors, sensors, gearboxes and complete robotic kits. Very competitive prices and free shipping for orders over £40.

I’d be very happy to hear of any resources that you know in the comments. :)

This is a another sample demonstrating Arduino MEGA, LCD screen and SRF05 ultrasonic range finder. The distance measurement from SRF05 is displayed on the LCD screen in centimetres.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Different from Infra Red range finder witch uses IR light to measure distance, ultrasonic range finder sends short high pitch sound pulses and measures the time for the echo to come back to the microphone. Here is a very good comparison of the two types of range finders. The code running on the Arduino:

// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>

#define echoPin 6             // the SRF05's echo pin
#define initPin 7             // the SRF05's init pin
unsigned long pulseTime = 0;  // variable for reading the pulse

// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2);

void setup() {
 // set up the LCD's number of rows and columns:
 lcd.begin(16, 2);

 // make the init pin an output:
 pinMode(initPin, OUTPUT);
 // make the echo pin an input:
 pinMode(echoPin, INPUT);
}

void loop() {
 digitalWrite(initPin, HIGH);
 delayMicroseconds(10);
 digitalWrite(initPin, LOW);

 pulseTime = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);

 lcd.setCursor(0,0);
 lcd.print(pulseTime / 58, DEC);
 lcd.print("cm");

 delay(100);
 lcd.clear();
}

Another application for SRF05 is a basic theremin by LuckyLarry. You can see it in action here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read on here:

• Arduino: A Basic Theremine
• Arduino: Basic Theremin meets Processing!

<pre>avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51

I had to hit Reset button just before uploading a sketch. This issue was due to some sort of defect in the Reset capacitor. The fix is very simple: just solder a 100nF capacitor on top of the defect one.

(via)

This is a bit enhanced version of the “hello world” blink application for Arduino: traffic lights emulator. The top three LEDs control car traffic and the bottom two are fore pedestrians.

int carRedPin =  13;
int carYellowPin =  12;
int carGreenPin =  11;
int pedestrianRedPin =  10;
int pedestrianGreenPin =  9;

// The setup() method runs once, when the sketch starts

void setup()   {
  pinMode(carRedPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(carYellowPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(carGreenPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pedestrianRedPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pedestrianGreenPin, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop() method runs over and over again,
// as long as the Arduino has power

void blink(int light)
{
  digitalWrite(light, LOW);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(light, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(light, LOW);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(light, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(light, LOW);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(light, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(light, LOW);
}

void loop()
{
  digitalWrite(carRedPin, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(pedestrianGreenPin, HIGH);
  delay(3000);

  blink(pedestrianGreenPin);

  digitalWrite(pedestrianRedPin, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(pedestrianGreenPin, LOW);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(carYellowPin, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(carRedPin, LOW);
  digitalWrite(carYellowPin, LOW);
  digitalWrite(carGreenPin, HIGH);
  delay(3000);

  blink(carGreenPin);

  digitalWrite(carYellowPin, HIGH);
  delay(2000);
  digitalWrite(carYellowPin, LOW);
  digitalWrite(carRedPin, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(pedestrianRedPin, LOW);
}

The code above is straightforward: just enabling and disabling LED at certain time. Traffic lights in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was one of my first projects to try out various features of Arduino. I got this 2×16 LCD screen from Oomlout. The breadboard schematics came together with the LCD screen and is relatively simple.

Here is the sample code I uploaded to the controller:

// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>

// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2);

void setup() {
 // set up the LCD's number of rows and columns:
 lcd.begin(16, 2);
}

void loop() {

 lcd.print("                 arvydas.net");

 lcd.setCursor(16,1);
 lcd.autoscroll();

 for (int thisChar = 0; thisChar &lt; 28; thisChar++) {
 lcd.print(" ");
 delay(250);
 }
 lcd.noAutoscroll();

 lcd.clear();
}

Just a simple scrolling text and here is the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.