Play with RFduino

Happy Newyear !!!
This is my first blog post in this year.

I have received my first RFduino board. thanks to Manu.

"RFduino: An Arduino shrunk to the size of a finger-tip and made wireless!"Some of the project ideas and details can be found from http://www.rfduino.com/
Documentation from http://www.rfduino.com/documentation/index.html

Installation for windows 8.1:
Step 1: Download the Library From http://www.rfduino.com/download-rfduino-library/index.html
Step 2: Download and install the Arduino IDE from http://arduino.cc/en/main/software note that IDE version to be downloaded is 1.5.X now the current version is 1.5.8
Step 3: Download and install FTDI drivers. depending on the OS and processor. 32 bit or 64 bit.
Step 4: unzip the library downloaded from step 1 and place it under Arduino folder under "hardware\arduino"
eg: c:\program files\arduino\hardware\arduino

Step 5: connect rfduino

Run arduino IDE and make sure Rfduino is listed in Tools->boards. Select the same and choose the com port for the RFduino. This can be found from the device manager.

Some samples will be listed in the Example section in File menu.

You may now program the RFduino and create some fun projects.

I will be creating some example projects and will post the same. 

Planning to do some thing as simple as lighting LED using android phone (Yes not using iPhone) with RFduino.

Some of the applications using RFduino from their site given below 

Making of PCB Hand drill using VCR motor [Failed]

I got an old VCR motor. I thought of creating Hand drill.
Here are the steps I followed.
Unfortunately drill did not work expected :(
I will try 12 V or using different motor.
Items used:
1) Mini Motor.
2) 1 mm drill
3) Battery 9 V
4) Mini Chuck PCB Drill Bit Holder (bought from ebay here)
5) Micro Push Button
6) Adhesive tape.
7) Scissors.
8) Heat shrink tube (optional)
9) Solder materials

Here is the photo of materials used:

Open Programmer for pic and atmel

I was looking for a free, open source, USB and Linux based programmer for pic micro controller and guess what, I found this.
http://openprog.altervista.org/OP_eng.html

This is perfect and beyond.
I could make this from the details provided by this site.

Custom made Raspberry Pi case from acrylic

Raspberry Pi, I just love it.
My self and my father tried to create a case from acrylic.
and this was the out come
I am also part of Pi User group

Digital Photo frame from my old laptop.

Last year I had a blog post to convert track pad to external mouse. link

The same HP pavilion dv2000.
After converting the Hard disk to external, DVD drive to external one and track pad to external mouse, I wanted to reuse the rest of the component left out with the laptop. So I decided to create one Smart Digital Photo frame.
My Goal was to create a wall mount or standing Digital photo frame that when started open a full slide show.
Features:
Operate it with a remote control.
Slide show that show shall have video and image.
The content of the photo shall be updated from out side (Dropbox).
Possibility of online video chat.
Play video.
Use as Internet browser
Use it as a computer for advanced users.

The Making

Ubuntu 14.04 Installed and Mac Theme

After Installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS I just saw one blog post

http://www.noobslab.com/2014/04/macbuntu-1404-pack-is-released.html

To theme Ubuntu as mac.

After following the steps, I get this.

There was a video tutorial for making this

My Favourite Software to install on fresh Linux distro

 These are the list of software that I use on a Linux distro.

Recently I have migrated from elementary Linux to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

I use computer for browsing, programming(web development, micro controller, desktop applications ), watching some videos and sometimes graphics related works.
This list is not complete I will update as an when a new must have software I find.
System Software:
1) Grub customizer:
 This is the first software I install. I use dual boot for Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu. I want some fancy grub menu selector to switch between windows and Ubuntu.
 You may find the link here
 You can find some really good themes from http://kde-look.org/
 This is the theme I am using

Entertainment:
1) VLC: This is the best and my favourite video player. I use it in windows as well.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
2)Google Chrome: I use both Chrome and firefox mainly to test the compatibility of the websites that I create.

Multimedia:
1)Blender: Fantastic 3d Software. I was amazed with this software.
2)GIMP: I find this alternate to Photoshop.
3)Inkscape: A beautiful vector graphics creator.

Web development:
1) git: I use gitlab as a version controller and source safe. This is an excellent alternative to github. Github too being used.
https://about.gitlab.com/
2)filezilla: When it comes to FTP this is the software that I prefer.
3) sublimetext: the alternative to notepad++ that I use in windows

Programming:
1) Android studio: This is alternate to eclipse for android development. recently I moved from eclipse to Android studio.
https://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/studio.html
2)JDK: for android studio require JDK to be inplace.
The version I used is here
3)SDCC: This is a compiler I use for Microchip pic micro controller programming.