Author: admin

Categories
General

Life of an open source programmer

open-source-logo

I am a programmer. Yes a musician to.  But most of all a programmer. Yes for sure. No question about that.

At Friday last week I started to do a reversion of the REST interface of the VSCP daemon.  Nothing strange. I do that all the time.  A fast reversion. A day to fix.

Today, Tuesday,  after working on this, including the  weekend,  since then, I am still at it.  And I will be the rest of the day. At least.

Oh well. Nothing strange. Life of a programmer. In this project I have been at it for fifteen years.

The question is why? The fix I spent so much effort on the last couple of days will hardly be noted by anyone.  Is it worth it?  Is it worth the time I could have spent on other things? Is it worth the money I spend to keep this going, money that I probably never will get back?

I don’t know. But I will continue. Life of an open source programmer. Stupid people.

 

Categories
General

How to get started with current sense amplifiers – part 1 – Analog Wire – Blogs – TI E2E Community

Ask questions, share knowledge, explore ideas, and help solve problems with fellow engineers and TI experts.

Source: How to get started with current sense amplifiers – part 1 – Analog Wire – Blogs – TI E2E Community

Categories
Frankfurt Eth Paradise of the Frog

Ethernet boards and CAN4VSCP power

Two Ethernet boards designed.  That is Ethernet <-> CAN4VSCP. Powered from the CAN4VSCP bus as all other CAN4VSCP modules. Maybe there will be a version with generic Ethernet <-> CAN  as well in the future.

The board are designed in two versions. A Microchip PIC and an ARM version.  We will probably go for just one of them in the end.  This is the first step in a switch to ARM in our product line.

The Ethernet board will be able to plug and playish connect to the VSCP daemon but could also work alone on a segment and as a port out in the world for remote controlled equipment.

Need to sell some more of the other stuff before they can go into production though.  Earn money before spending them is the mantra here. So shop as crazy from the FrogShop. 😉

The other two modules are power injectors for CAN4VSCP. Two version. A big a and a small.  The samll version just powers a RJ-45 while the big have 16 daisy chain connectors.

frankfurt_eth_arm_rev_a_brd

Frankfurt Eth ARM version

 

frankfurt_eth_pic_rev_a_brd

Frankfurt Eth PIC version

 

power_injector_mini_rev_b_brd

Mini CAN4VSCP power injector

 

power_injector_big_rev_c_brd

Big CAN4VSCP power injector

Categories
VSCP

Oooooops, wrong day!

Ops! Wrong day.  VSCP birthday is today. Oh well another day of celebrations does not hurt. “Hand me the cake…”  😉

Categories
General

The Official Contiki OS Blog: Contiki 3.0 Released, New Hardware from Texas Instruments, Zolertia

Source: The Official Contiki OS Blog: Contiki 3.0 Released, New Hardware from Texas Instruments, Zolertia

Categories
VSCP

VSCP turns fifteen today #vscp #IoT #m2m

13070402-celebrating-and-party-design-with-festive-balloons-floating-with-confetti-and-streamers-as-a-symbol-

Today VSCP turns fifteen.  Well the project was called EDA, for Event, Decision, Action from the beginning,  but it was put up on Source Forge this very day fifteen years ago after having being around for a week or so before that and brewing in my head since the end of the 70th.

The project started as a simple replacement for a home automation system project that Ericsson and Electrolux was running.  This project died after some years and VSCP really never made it into it anyway.

To be the little brother of other projects is a little bit of the signum for VSCP. They have been many the big and hyped projects over the years (“winners”) that came and went, died,  and which now is burred and  forgotten while VSCP still lives and is in active development. Small in numbers but alive and well. Very much alive. Dancing.

Some paper the other year dubbed VSCP the “IoT protocol that is older then IoT itself“.  And yes it is true. If labels like IoT is important.  For me working with VSCP, the framework, and what it can do is more important than labels put on to it. VSCP is still the only franework around that present a solution that scale from the smallest to the largest devices and actually solves “the problem”.

I can’t promise VSCP will be around for another fifteen years.  But I will work for it to be. It isn’t always easy to carry out what you believe in.  VSCP is struggling with the same problems most open and free projects are struggling with. If you have the 10K dollars you should of course bet on one of the “open” standard projects.  If you don’t have that kind of money you should probably bet on one of them anyway. It’s a safe ride. Most people like safe rides. It’s ok to be a follower. After all most people are. But VSCP is about changing the world. And that is actually what we celebrate here today. Leading the way to the future. A solution for the brave. I will celebrate this day and the continue the work.

Ake Hedman
Maintainer of VSCP (Paradise of the Frog)

Categories
General

“Programming cheerleaders” hired in China to motivate male developers – JAXenter

In another blow to achieving diversity in tech, Chinese startups have started hiring “programming cheerleaders” to spur on their mostly-male developers.

Source: “Programming cheerleaders” hired in China to motivate male developers – JAXenter

Comment from the Frog:

Well I don’t know what to say…

Categories
General

It’s Official: The Internet Of Things Takes Over Big Data As The Most Hyped Technology – Forbes

Gartner released last week its latest Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies. Last year, big data reigned supreme, at what Gartner calls the “peak of inflated expectations.”  But now big data has moved down the “trough of disillusionment,” replaced by the Internet of Things at the top of the hype cycle. […]

Source: It’s Official: The Internet Of Things Takes Over Big Data As The Most Hyped Technology – Forbes

Categories
General

Workday and a smile

Another workday  and I smile when I open the door to the office.  Well I do that every morning.  Smile when the door opens. I love this. I love creating things that others around the world use.  Is this work really serious, I have to ask. Shouldn’t serious things be a bit boring. Struggling. Not fun like this is? I don’t know. I just work on and smile while doing what I do. Today building some boards.

IMG_1309

Categories
General Grodans Paradis AB Paradise of the Frog VSCP

Open Hardware #VSCP #m2m #IoT

IMG_1126

Well in my last post I told about  our hardware designs/firmware/docs going fully open. Some guy out there asked me the other day in a mail if something happened, and I really felt he hoped something bad was going on, but nothing happened. And I told him. He probably got disappointed.  Well except for a very cold summer and some happiness over some very nice days in the sun this week, everything is moving on as usual here at the Paradise of the Frog.  Hard work. Many hours a day.

The fact on this matter is that I’m not after big profits. I have never been. I am a good guy and want to feel like I am to.  My goal is to have enough money to pay my bills and have as fun as possible doing so.  Some think that attitude is bad. But I have lived long enough now to know it isn’t. All them shiny cars and waterfront houses and money in the bank is probably fun to. But it is not just my bag of fun. Yes to maximize money you should probably protect as much as possible. Well I’m the good guy…  You even get a meal and a beer without charge if you come around to my house. And some open hardware and some software.

I truly believe that the world becomes a better place if we share things with each other.  It is in any case impossible to build anything at all without building it on others achievements. It does not matter how clever the things we come up with is. It is always built upon other peoples work. I think we all should recognize that. By sharing that is.

So just like VSCP is open source licensed the modules we make and sell at Grodans Paradis AB/Paradise of the Frog  is now under an open source license. This includes drawings, documentation and firmware including sample code etc.

The license we selected in the end is the The Artistic License 3.0. You can read all about it here.  In short it means

You are free:

  • to Share—to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and
  • to Remix—to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

  • Attribution—You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work.)

With the understanding that:

  • Waiver—Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
  • Other Rights—In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:
    • your fair dealing or fair use rights;
    • the author’s moral rights; and
    • rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.

So if you use the stuff we make in your own products you have to give credit to us. If you don’t want to do that. You should contact us to arrange another license.

A lot of hardware i brewing here.  I have put some of it up on GitHub already and a lot more will follow.  If you want to support this buy something from the Frogshop or contribute code. It is as simple as that really.

Cheers
Åke HedmanGrodans Paradis AB / Paradise of the Frog