Per Malmberg

AVR Dragon up and running

Per — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:17:04 +0000

After a few hours of reading up on the AVR Dragon, and then a while for some soldering, my brand new AVR Dragon is functional!

I’m so happy

Hooked up

Per — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:21:55 +0000

The old laptop is now hooked up to the stereo and Sptoify can now be controlled through Remote Desktop on the 10″ screen. Next is integrating it all into MSure, but first the xAP module has to be finished.

MSure + Spotify = true ?

Per — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:27:16 +0000

Call me crazy if you want, but late evenings/nights are usually a very productive time for me; both kids in bed and the wife too – blissfully quiet

Earlier this evening I started to reinstall my wife’s old laptop to use it as a multimedia box with Spoitfy as the player. At first I was planning to control it though remote desktop, but then I thought “can Spotify be controlled remotely?” Unfortunately there is no API available (at least not a public one that I can find) – but it can be controlled using the keyboard locally, which means that it can be controlled from another application.

So I set out writing some test code, and 10 minutes later I am able to control Spotify from my test application. Nothing fancy, really. The fancy stuff will be the ability to control it from the 10″ touch display I’ve got in the hallway – one button to turn on the stereo and ‘press’ the Play-button in Spotify. Another key for stop, back, next etc.

Controlling other applications are not yet supported in MSure, but I do not see any reason it should not be possible to add. The only issue I see is that a Windows service (like MSure) normally cannot interact with a desktop – but I see three solutions to that problem:

Write a small client application that sits in the user’s notification area.
Allow the MSure service to interact with the desktop
Let MSure start Spotify as a child process.

Solutions two and three are my favourites, but if either one will work remains to be determined.

Now it’s just a matter of finding the time to do this.

Atmel AVR – a new world of fun!

Per — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:59:27 +0000

Finally something to write about

As a result of a discussion in the #MSure IRC-channel on DalNet, I’ve been looking into the world of micro processors units, or MCU for short. It is like a new word opening up!

Sure, I’ve been developing embedded system for years now, but that has been on the x86 platform and this is totally different. So much to learn. So much fun!

To get started I’ve put together a little list of things to buy:

From Elfa.se

AVR Dragon; development board. Elfa #73-219-41, 464 +VAT SEK
A couple of ARV MCUs
Parallax USB Oscilloscope #73-205-71 1191 SEK (maybe later on)

From Kjell & Co

Bread board 279 SEK
Jumpwires 79 SEK
Some various wires 69 SEK
2x UA7805 15 SEK
Simple Power source 299 SEK
Lab cables red & black 2x 29 SEK

Maybe, sometime….

Per — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:20:06 +0000

…I will start blogging again, but for now you should head over to MSure.se

MSure.se down again!

Per — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:54:57 +0000

My host has once again managed to destroy the DNS pointer!

Things will be back to normal asap.

MSure.se back online

Per — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:54:31 +0000

MSure.se is now pointing where it should again.

Msure forum?

Per — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:13:13 +0000

Somethings has happened with the DNS so msure.se no longer points where it should so you end up here.

You can find the form here: http://www.pmalmberg.com/msure/

The Wiki is however currently inaccessable.

I’m looking into it!

MSure goes wild

Per — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:25:03 +0000

MSure v0.7 was just released. Check it out at the new website.

Ny version av MSure

Per — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:30:28 +0000

MSure 0.6.4 blev klar idag.

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