- Wearable Mac Progress
- In hopes that I will begin work on making the wearable mac concept a reality I'm making this page. Hopefuly I'll make this a weekly update at worst and record progress in retospect.
- 2/18/04
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Well I now have a monocular display for the wearable, now its a matter of Mac and input device until I have the absolute basics. Some quick photos on the display can be found here.
- 5/26/03
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I know I haven't been keeping this (or the main portion of my site) up to date but heres where the Twiddler stands.
- I have an interface that I believe is correct.
- I have a Twiddler that I think is working
- I have several serial/adb Macs with a varity of OSes
- I have the Mac Drivers (unsupported) from HandyKey's download and support site (Handykey's site)
- I've crashed at least one system (PB 16x) after using the interface, drivers, and Twiddler at the same time.
- The MIT documents said that PBs didn't work with the Twiddler
- I'm not sure but I believe that said system was running OS 7.5
- When the material I'm working with was published 7.1 was the latest OS from Apple (latest system mentioned as wrking was a 7100- released with 7.1.2)
- I think I'm dealing with an outdated extention on new software.
If I get a chance I'm going to try using the Twiddler and interface with a CC I have thats running 7.1.x. I suspect that I'm on the right track. If the MIT students had a problem with the Twiddler on a Powerbook it could be related to a power issue. A desktop, or so it sounded, was able to drive the twiddler.
On the other hand if I can't get the Twiddler to work soon I may go back to fighing with the ACK idea.
4/26/03
I haven't done a lot of work on the wearable Mac recently due to other projects, but I have worked on the Twiddler some. It either doesn't work, the drivers don't work in OS 9, my adapter doesn't work, or Murphy is putting his laws to the test.
4/6/03
Haven't done a lot with it recently, and probably won't for a good pat of the month. As it stands I'm going to need more tools to get the Twiddler working. Since I'm probably going to have a real house next month I'm waiting until then to get everything out to really start working on it again.
3/23/03
Its been a while but Ive been fighting with the Twiddler Chording Keyboard I bought, mainly doing an interface conversion MIT documented. I'll do a page when I get it working, but most of you probably won't care as Twiddler ones are a bit rare.
3/11/03
Today was a software day. Currently I've installed a number of programs, most of which are listed in the newly updated Wearable Mac Specs Page many with links in some forms.
3/9/03
I got even more work done today on the wearable and the PBFH. I'm now the technical owner of a Twiddler 1 Chording Keyboard Should be shipped tomarrow. Yes its supposedly "PS/2 only" but theres a reason why we have MIT, Hacks. I've already got the drivers, Handykey is nice in that manner.
I also got the PBFH to display video, but unfortunatly not on the MLB I wanted. So at the moment there's a working 'book that doesn't have S-Video out. In other words I have a laptop that won't output the display standard I need it to. Oh well, I've got a post on AFF right now so there may be hope yet. Then again I've also got a scan converter I can use if I really have to. All in all a very productive weekend.
3/8/03
I know its been a couple weeks since I've updated this but mainly I've been watching Twiddler Auctions. On the other hand I made a break though on the drive and I'm finaly in. Now its a matter of transfering the files, wiping the drive, a fresh install of OS 9.1, update to 9.2, then configure for wearable use. Aside from Battery Issues I may have it mostly up by 5 PM EST. Updates on the progress will go right into site blog for Saturday, March 8th 2003 (I think thats the right URL).
2/22/03
I think the screen is shot but I'm going to try and pry into the system folder to plant VNC and some modified preferances. But I'll have tho jerry rig something, I've got the wire now so Ill post how it goes...
2/16/03
It's alive! it's alive! I swear it's alive. Yes the PBFH is alive and working (sort a). I managed to get it to boot after reseating the PMU and it boots. I can even get it up and talking. Problem is that the LCD is only half way out of hell. I can't get an image to show up but I know the rest of it is working.
2/16/03
Did yet another dissassemble on the PBFH to see if I coiuld jump start it, and it did its usual chime and then die deal. Maybe I'll swap in the other boards and see if that does the trick.
2/10/03
My PMU shoed up today and I got it installed. Good news is that it does the trick- I got a chime and could hear the drive spnning. That means I'm further than I've been since I got it. Bad news is that my power is flaky. I only got it to chime once after a little wigeling. I'll do another take apart soon and see if I just didn't leave something unplugged. This looks very promicing.
2/9/03
ViaVoice, cool, very cool, but not for wearables methinks. So far it isn't exacty accurate, but that might just be a matter of training but I think it could be the fact that my 266 G3 with cache seems slow and that its hard to make a low noise enviroment out of nature. Maybe in remote areas, but for the most part I doubt that voice recognition will be a primary entry method. It also uses the mouse alot something that I still haven't figured out. PMU should be here later this week, it shipped on the 7th via USPS. We'll see.
As I sidenote one of the trades I made might allow me to to the ACK version 2, it should be shipping Monday so it could be here as soon as Friday.
2/6/03
MMMMM, PMU card. And its mine now too. Yeah thats right I got he card I needed and will be sending off the money later today. Somehow it seems a whole lot closer now. Granted it leaves the battery issues on both the 'book and display but its closer much closer to haveing the brains of the thing. And as I said thats a very good thing
I also messed with the software side of everything including Mind Control and plan to do more tommarow, Saturday and Sunday (gotta love winter messes)
Lastly I also got a copy of Macaddict today with reviews of both the input devices I was looking at- the Belkin game pad and the wireless mouse. Both got "Great" reviews, but the $100 seems steep for the wireless stuff then I'd also need the USB card and gamepad but admittedly those aren't as bad.
2/5/03
OK I think I know whats wrong. Then again if I did I wouldn't be saing this for the thrid time in 3 months. In any case this month I think I need to swap out the PMU for a known good one. When messing with the current one I managed to get the keyboard LEDs to flash when I hook up the juice. In case you're blind to the obvious thats a good thing- a very good thing. Since the PMU was what I was messing with and the PMU manages the Keyboard, and the LEDs that lit up for the first time were on the keyboard I've got a strong guess as to what was wrong this time. I'm watching a few eBay auctions and plan to bid on one before the week ends the get it shipped and hopefuly have the PBFH working by next week.
I also might be heading to one of the cities with a CompUSA so I might be able to grap a USB card and the below mentioned Nostromo n50 SpeedPad. More later.
1/27/03
The card is here and no dice :'(. The good old PBFH is still refusing to work and I'm running out of ideas. more when I know more
1/26/03
My processor should be here Monday or Tuesday, and I've got some rough ideas on how to case the thing. I've also been considering picking up a second display and hacking that into a covert/monocular display. We'll see. In any case I did some reseach on my GT-270 display to get what amprage it sucks down and found 7.2v at 800 mA. From there I measured the battery compartment and checked out some battery offerings. ATM I think I'm going to go with some flat 1.2v 1400 mAh batteries with a small form factor. With luck I can build 2 7.2V packs and get 2800 mAh for a decent 3.5 hours about what I'm expecting from the PB batteries. More as I get it.
1/22/03
I have a processor card in transit, only cost me a 1 gig hard drive. With any luck it will be the last part needed to get the PBFH working. On the other hand its the PBFH. I also have some more ideas for keyer and pointer devices. Thanks in part to JT on the Applefritter fourms and the long line at the document center at Staples. The keyer is a Belkin Nostromo n50 SpeedPad and the mouse a gyroscopic mouse that caught my eye while waiting for the hard drive to be shipped. It screams "HACK ME" since a gyroscopic mouse could be an easy addition to a wearable.
1/18/03
Fixed up a lot of the code in the wearable section, mostly bad images and some links. Not really hardware progress but its betterment of these pages.
1/14/03
Well I might have found a new card, 233 with no cache but better than dead. Hope to work out the details soon and use it to get the thing working. If the card doesn't do the trick its back to drawing board. More coming soon.
12/28
I think I had a dead card- some comparing to tables at a OCing site is leading me to think that I had a 66MHz bus card in a 83MHz bus motherboard. I can't be sure but I'm going to be watching for a new card. I'll have to compare the stuff again but I feel a bit cheated. On a better note I found an old wallstreet battery I was told to toss and didn't. If it charges I'll have a second battery- if not I have some contacts to use, its a win win situation.
12/24 to 12/27
This is driving me nuts, I canÕt find anything significant on any wearable mac project out there. Micheal Clarks work has been lost forever since google doesnÕt cache the photos and archive only has a couple. the one I did save is now in the gallery and IÕve done some other codeing in the wearable section.
12/21 to 12/22
Finaly got the motherboard, thats good, but realized that the card is for the 83 MHz bus NOT the 66 MHz bus board I bought. [insert favorite curse here]. I'll find something, I think everything else works. its just a Major pain to have the wrong board, but the 66MHz varity is more common. If I can't get it to work with a new processor card I'm stumpted, I'm running out of boards to swap out.
12/18 to 12/19
Parts have been coming in recently, 256 Megs RAM on the 18th and an AC adaptor on the 19th, MLB with luck will show up on the 20th, so building can start. I'll post more once I get it.
12/10 to 12/14
Got the display, got it working with a wallstreet and bought a new main logic board and AC adaptor. I'm also working on concepts to extend battery life for the wearable and HMD. It leaves the keyer to be redone but as a start for getting the HW and SW to work. With any luck I'll be building by the 20th. More soon as the project is really going to take off with break coming up.
12/8
I'm getting the display, a pair of Canon GT-270's for a bit over $200. Considering I was willing to go up to $400 I'm in a good mood. I'm also going to be ordering some RAM shortly as well as spoting a Duo power brick on eBay for a nice price. Added a page for the specs
11/27 to 11/29
A plan! I'm finaly getting to the point where things are starting to fall into place. Its going to be located on a project plan page. I also got some schetchs of my own, I'll try and scan those soon. I'm also considering a second and third revision ACK. More on that in the planing pages
Week of 11/3 to 11/9
Found an interesting site- Code Mercs -over in Europe that produces keyboard controller chips that work with PS/2, USB and ADB interfaces. With any luck I'll get my hands on some of these chips to make the ACK version 2. Half Keyboard's use these chips to support thier Mac, PS/2 and USB interfaces so this chip has the potential to be very useful.
I've also been working on getting the donated Wallstreet powerbook working so I can use it for the project, but I still need a power supply and possibly some new boards to get it working.
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