Archive for September, 2009

More on that Android serial port stuff…

Published by spiritplumber on September 12, 2009 in Software. 1 Comment

Here’s a stable build for the serial-port-enabled kernel, finally! Get it at

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4521020#post4521020

and play safe!

What does it do? It lets you use the serial port present in the G1 phone for custom applications. Such as, I don’t know, robots ;)

The main change from the older one, other than “it’s easier to install” because it doesn’t need the SDK, is that the older one had issues with wifi and bluetooth occasionally. This one on the other hand Just Works with most Cupcake based firmwares, just install it on top of the firmware. Here’s a good one from another Italian developer.

A verbose explanation for a simple hack

Published by spiritplumber on September 12, 2009 in hardware and robots. 0 Comments

Here’s how to modify a servo for continuous rotation. There are many ways to do this, in this brief video I’m explaining how to do it in a way that is:

1) reversible,
2) doable by people who don’t want to mess with a soldering iron.

This is very handy if you live somewhere servos aren’t easy to come by, so you have to make do with a few which means you’ll probably go back and forth; I’m also showing you how to undo the changes and get your servo back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caKvJL72BTs Part 1 (How to do)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWs5CB4cLkI Part 2 (How to undo)