The Silent Horn: Design flaw in HornIt bike horn

The Hornit is certainly the loudest bike horn on the market by not the strongest. One morning Jack discovered his Hornit bike horn was suddenly all quiet. He opened the casing at Hackerspace Phnom Penh to find the over sized resonator(not quite sure if it one) had broken off. Perhaps the designers could have reinforcing this component with some glue or something instead of relying on strength of soldering alone. After all this is meant to be mounted on a bike and should withstand bumpy rides and vibrations. This is a very good example of technology world as built.

Hackerspace Phnom Penh's Jack, Leo managed to solder it back on. And put some copious amount of glue to prevent it from breaking off in future. I hope someone at Hornit is listening and try to remedy this flaw.

Autonomous Mozilla Stumbler with Android

Mozilla Location Service (MLS) is an open source service to determine location based on network infrastructure like WiFi access points and cell towers. The project has released an client applications to collect the large dataset of GSM, Cellphone, WiFi data using crowd sourcing. In this blog post I'll explore an idea to re-purpose an old Android mobile phone as an autonomous MozStumbling device that could be easily deployed in public transport, taxis or your friend who is driving across the country.

Bill of Materials

1. Android Mobile phone.
2. Mozstumbler Android App.
3. Taskbomb Android App.
4. Mini-USB cable.
5. GSM SIM (With mobile data).
6. Car lighter socket power adapter.
7. Powerbank (optional).

Putting it together

In this setup, I am using a rugged Android phone running Android Gingerbread. It can take a lot punishment. Leaving a phone in overheated car is recipe for disaster.

From the Android settings I enabled allow installation of non-market applications 'Unknown Sources'. Connected the phone to my computer using the Mini-USB cable. Transferred the previous downloaded apps(.apk) packages to phone and installed the Mozstumbler and Taskbomb applications.

Configured the Mozstumbler application to start on boot with Taskbomb app. Also configured Mozstumbler to upload using mobile data connection. The phone has GSM SIM card with data connection. Made sure both WiFi, GPS and Cellular data is enabled.

To prevent phone from downloading software updates and using up all the data. I disabled all software updates. Disabled all notifications both audio and LED notifications. Finally locked by phone by setting a secret code. Now the device is ready for deployment. The phone is plugged into car's lighter charging unit to keep it powered up. You can also use a power bank in case where charging options are not available.

Planning to use this autonomous Mozstumbler hack soon. Perhaps I should ask Thejesh to use on his epic trip across India.

SamyGO: Modding Samsung TV

SamyGO project provides custom firmware for Samsung TV's. If you have any LED, LCD and Plasma TV models made by Samsung from 2009(Check the compatible TV list). Follow the instructions to load the custom firmware using serial interface.

SamyGO Demo

The project enables you to unleash the full power of the Smart TV. In this hack, you can watch movies from your local network media server running Samba/dlna using built-in Wifi connection.

Arduino workshop in Hanoi (May 2012)

La 4uatrième: Arduino workshop 12th/13th May at la 4uatrieme//Hộ...: Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

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Hacker T-shirt Idea

One look at this Wordle word cloud visualization of Bruce Sterling's book The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. I knew it would make a great hacker t-shirt!

Take a quick peek (picture above) how it will look when done.

Computer Cleaning Solution With Isopropanol

Here is a tip that would make your gadgets sport that sparky clean just-out-factory look all year long. Well, here is trade secret(Yeah Duh!) that I was able to wean out of the computer service guys, they use a solution known as Isopropyl Alcohol (Isopropanol) to clean the components. The bottle in the picture can be brought from the chemists shops that supplies lab chemicals.

Alternatively you can use some rubbing alcohol which actually 70% Isopropyl mixed with some water. I think medical stores do stock rubbing alcohol, but be sure to double check the label. Also read this post mention Hexane is a good choice too.