Author: John

Scribbler Programmable Robot

scribbler

I found this on MAKE today. Not as expandable as the Boe Bot, but then again it’s price tag is lower. From the photos on the Scribblerrobot main page it looks as if the micro controller is not socketed, that’s a pity because it means you can’t replace the Basic Stamp with it’s pin-for-pin compatible ( and much more powerful) rival, the Basic X-24 – one look at the other chips specs and you will see what I bring this up. Still, if you on a budget and just want a simple robot to use as a basic programming platform or you need robots for a classroom you could have a lot of fun with this. The down looking IR sensors could either follow a line (like for a race) or to keep the robot on a piece of paper (draw a black line on the edge of the paper ad use a light colored pen). Other features include:

* 3 photoresistor light sensor
* 2 Infrared object sensors
* 2 Infrared line detection sensors
* 2 independent DC motors
* Stall sensor
* Speaker with full range of notes
* 3 LED indicator lights

The Scribbler Robot kit includes:

* Fully assembled Scribbler Robot
* Programming Cable (serial)
* The Scribbler Robot Start-up Guide
* Scribbler Software and Documentation CD-ROM

Parallax to intro Scribbler programmable robot

The Scribblerrobot home page

robotics, Parallax, robotics

Good Color at Low Prices

Dry Creek Photo

As I said in a previous post, I use Costco for my photo printing and they use this nifty Frontier printing system to process the digital images you give them. Dry Creek has on file a number of different profiles for digital printers at places like Costco, Ritz, Wallmart, etc. By using one of these you can proof your images and get better color accuracy when you send you images to them for printing.

Dry Creek Photo

color, proof, workflow

Argus C3

C3

This is a little brute of a camera but if you ever have a chance to pick one up you should. For a while this was one of the most popular cameras of it’s time. How I don’t know, the outside gears are like something out of a Jules Vern story. Maybe that’s why I like it so much. If you want a camera that isn’t going to cost you much that you want to tear down and hack on it this could be the one. It’s so simple that you can add different lenses to it, make it into a pinhole camera, convert it to half frames, etc… It’s also the perfect camera for a beginning student. Sure, its not and SLR but a rangefinder is perfectly acceptable for most everyone. Being fully manual it also makes the kids learn a thing or two about exposure.
I bought mine on eBay for around $15US and I’m quite happy with it. I do need to fix the close focus on it but there is enough info on the ‘Net that it should be easy.

Argus Collectors Group
The Argus C3

Argus, camera, antique

DIGG

What is Digg? It’s none other than the latest and greatest social bookmarking site on good old planet Earth. Go have a look and if you see anything on TeamDroid that you like, please Dogg it ok? I could use the traffic.

digg

info, cool, feeds, bookmarks, social

EckBox

Hacker
This is a future project for me. After hearing about Van Eck phreaking in high school (I think it was that far back) I have wanted to give it a try. I don’t have a real reason to do it other than to say that I did. Good enough. I just want to be able to see what my PC is displaying. I’ll have to get Linux up a running on a box first but that shouldn’t be a problem. Oh wait, my work bench is no more, a move to a tiny apartment took care of that for me. Hey, I have an idea, just click on the ‘donate’ button and send the TeamDroid site $5. All of it will go towards a new research center (bigger apartment). Once I have that I’ll have a place to build and review all sorts of cool stuff.
But I bet your still wondering what the hell this ‘Van Eck Phreaking’ thing is aren’t you? Well, think of your computer as a series of radio transmitters. You can pretty much think of all electronic devices as transmitters and receivers in some way or another actually. What a Van Eck rig lets you do is tune into the radio station in your computer that is coming from your video card. I think your seeing the idea here. Once you have all the timing right you should be able to see what is one someone else’s computer screen. Cool, eh? Sounds like a dandy cloak-and-dagger sort of thing that would be happening all over the place don’t it? Well, as will most things, the truth is that it’s hard to get it to work and when it does the results are sometimes not all that good. Van Eck Phreaking is also known my another name, TEMPEST – that was an old code word for a general electronic surveillance project back in the ’50’s and the name stuck.
Things like this are pretty much the reign of the NSA and cyberpunk authors, but if you have the time and will you can play with it yourself and if I get a larger work bench I’ll do the same.

EckBox – an Open Source van Eck Phreaker
AllYouEverWantedToKnowAboutTempest

hack, phreaking, Van Eck, project