Power Racing series schedule for the 2012 season has been released.

• June 23-24 Kansas City @ Union Station
• July 28-29 Detroit @ The Henry Ford Museum
• August 4-5 Chicago @ Downtown Evanston

for more information on these events visit.

http://powerracingseries.org/blog/ppprs_releases_the_official_2012_season_schedule/ 

- Car update 

Yesterday we installed and verified that our current / voltage sensor works. The sensor was bought from Spark fun electronics http://www.sparkfun.com/ . Next time we work on the car we will be installing our hall effect sensor which senses tire revolutions which will help us compute MPH and a Arduino uno microcontoller http://www.arduino.cc/.  The Arduino will read our analog inputs from our sensors and output data to a 4 line lcd display that will display voltage , current  and mph. With this data we can play with gearing and use our batteries more efficiently. 

Stay tuned for Arduino fun!

Turn Your Web Cam Into A Security Cam

Are things disappearing from your desk at work or are you just curious what happens out side your window all day while your at work. All you need to answer your questions is a web cam and a windows based computer with Dorgem http://dorgem.sourceforge.net/ on it. Dorgem is a open soure security camera software that takes a picture after the frame changes. Dorgem also puts the date and time on every picture so you know exactly when it happens. Here is quick totorial how to get you up and running with Dorgem.

Click the arrow from the blank drop down menu in the middle of the window and chose your camera. If you don't do this it will not work! Source, from the main menu changes camera options. You can leave those at default. Format, is picture resolution. Leave these at their default. Preview, will show a live feed. Leave Caption settings to default. Store settings sets up where to store pictures. Chose "file". Name is going to be the name of this profile, name it any thing you want. Check the enable box to enable this profile. Interveral is how long the computer checks to see if the picture changes. Chose 1 second the most sensitive setting. Go to store settings press add click file then ok.  Now create a file some where on your computer example mine is Pics. Then in Filename : type the path in example mine is C:\Users\mneumayer\Desktop\Pics\matt%G%g.jpg   %G adds the date to the end of the file and %g puts the time at the end of the file. Then press ok. Once you get to the main menu check Auto Capture to begin operation.

Use this free software and find out what happens when your not around :)

CTB

MIUI On Motorol Defy

This week I installed the Miui custom android rom on my Motorola defy and...it....is...Money. It has Cyanogenmod under the hood and a colorfull interface that is very customizable and easy to use. This is the second time I installed it on a Motorola Defy the only catch with this phone is that the OS was Gingerbread and the other phone was Froyo. Froyo had no problems installing. First I installed super on click http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/31432-faq-cyanogenmod-7/ and then I installing Defy 2nd Init from the Android market.. Then loaded the rom file from clockwork recovery mod which installed Miui. The second phone had Gingerbread, first Rooted the phone with super one click which worked just fine then installed  2nd Init from the Android market which also worked fine. But when I tried to install the rom from the sd card I got the message  " Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0) " I saw posts about down grading to froyo which works because I installed the same software on a older phone with no issue but it is completely unnecessary. The problem is that clockwork recovery mod is looking for a folder that doesn't exist in Gingerbread. To create these files you have to install adb. http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html After adb is install plug your phone into your computer. 

Open the adb command prompt

# cd /dev/block/

# mknod mmcblk0 b 179 0
# mknod mmcblk0p1 b 179 1

reinstall Defy 2nd Init from the android market. boot into clockwork recovery mod and your sd card is recognized. You are now free to install any custom rom you like. I recommend Miui.

CTB

Power Wheel Racing Series

Here is the power wheel I have been working on for the last few months. This at one point was a 12v childrens toy. Now a 36v 1000W 21 MPH current slamming demon! Code Name: Big Brown

For those of you that are not fimilar with the Power Wheel Racing Series, Essentially it's a bunch of grown men racing childrens toys. My buddy and I witnessed this amazing sight at Makerfair Detroit 2011 and thought it was so amazing we had to make our own. So the plan is to make a car and enter it into the race the following year. The car has to cost less then $500. Can't be more then 36 V.The rest of the rules can be found at http://powerracingseries.org/data/pppwrs-packet.pdf

Here is a picture of the rear end. The frame is entrily made of 1" and 3/4" electrical conduit.

Here is the cars frame with it's hand truck tires and a bicycle steering column.

Here is the carts maiden voyage / pimp my ride pose. The speedometer is a cell phone electric taped to the  handle bars. The batteries are rachet strapped to a refrigerator rack on the frame. Shortly after this picture the front end came apart and had to jump off. Note To Self: Torque down front end parts!

Here is the rear end of the power wheel body mounted to the frame. It's starting to look more like a car.

Here is the modified car next to a stock one. Big Brown is track worthy at this point but I  need to add a couple more things. I need gages that will display data Like Current, Voltage and MPH and Moxey. Moxy is when you add stuff to your car to make it that much more ridiculous like a car stereo , Nerf Guns, Confetti Thrower , Paint Job , Headlights, Ect...

Check my blog for future car improvements and moxy!
CTB

CyanogenMod Android On The HP Touchpad

The long awaited CyanogenMod Android OS on the HP Touchpad has arrived and here it'done. This is a Alpha version so everything isn't perfect but is definitely usable. It took me about 10 minutes to complete the installation process and i didn't have to install a virtual machine. Here is the website that will walk you through it on windows but this method can also be applied to Linux and Mac. http://www.howtogeek.com/76960/how-to-install-android-on-your-hp-touchpad/ This site gives you easy steps to install the Moboot boot loader so you can switches between Web Os and Cyanogenmod Android 2.3 effortlessly on your HP Touchpad.

CTB

Exporting And Importing A MySQL Database

This week I ran into a problem when cloning my Ubuntu's MySQL database.I am using Phpmyadmin to manage my database and found it worked fine with exporting my data. The problem came to importing the data to the new server. Phpmyadmin has a file limitation of  2048 Kib and my file size is 1.8Gb. I searched the internet and found many convoluted ways of importing data to Phpmyadmin and none of them worked. The way I found out by trial and error is the fastest, easiest, and best of all works! Export data with phpmyadmin and import with MySQL directly. First log into phpmyadmin. Click on the export tab on the top. Once the export screen opens select all tables on the left. Leave all options and data to default. Chose where you want file to be created then press go. After you transfer your file to the new server. Use the Mysql command    "mysql -u root -p -h 127.0.0.1 <  /var/www/hpl_data.sql" ( /var/www/ is where I put my file yours might be different) the command prompt will then ask for your password. Type in your root password to your Mysql server press enter and your data base has been imported. Check phpmyadmin to confirm.

CTB

Chicago Tech Blog

-Welcome

My name is Matthew, i am a technology enthusiast, and this my blog. This site is for me to document my side projects, get feed back, show the world what I am capable of, and learn a thing or two. What I will be blogging about will include but is not limited to Arduino, Linux, Electronics, Databases and PPPRS.I'm going to try to stay on topic of technology but occasionally I will talk about other things that I deem interesting. I am not currently part of a hacker space but have most of the capabilities of one. My main project is the fabrication of an electric powered go cart. Upon its completion I will be entering  it in the upcoming 2012 Power Wheel Racing Series. http://powerracingseries.org/ It currently has a top speed of 21 MPH and I will be documenting it's progress.

CTB