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In an earlier post I described my solution for using a Garmin Forerunner 305 under Linux and uploading to Garmin Connect. I lost my GPS, and had to replace it with the 405. This post documents the communication interface and other technical details I used to implement Linux support for the 405 and possibly other ANT devices. You can find my implementation of ‘ANT Agent’ for Linux and user documentation on github. Unless you’re curious of how the device works or want to write code, you can skip this post and read install instructions.
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I recently installed one of those horrible Android apps which restricts features to only whitelisted devices. The application allowed video playback on my OG Droid but not my much more capable Android tablet. This post explains my approach to patching the APK to remove the device restriction.
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FPM2 is a GTK2 password manager. I’ve been using it for a couple years to generate and save random passwords for each of the websites I use. It does a great job, but sometimes I need to access password when I’m away from my PC. To solve this problem I created a simple Android application which can read FPM2′s encrypted data file. This was my first android application. more »

Here’s a collection of projects I’ve been to lazy to write up. more »

I really like my Ethernet AC Controller. Its probably the most useful thing I’ve built. So when I decided to give PCB manufacturing a try, it was a good candidate for an upgrade. This post covers the (re)design and features of my new Ethernet AC controller. If you haven’t read my other posts, my goal here was to be able to control my air conditioner from my cellphone. more »

I recently picked up a Garmin forerunner 305 to replace the broken Garmin Edge on my bike. While researching my options for a GPS and linux, I found Garmin Connect. Its Garmin’s online training software. For windows and mac there’s a plugin which links the website and GPS device, but for linux no direct support. This article covers what I did to get it working.

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I just finished the NYC Century. Here‘s my ride. My GPS was giving my trouble the whole ride . It lost power 4-5 times. Mostly for my own reference (I always forget), here’s how to combine a bunch of tracks into a single ride and convert it to KML. more »

I’ve taken a break from my Verilog programming to better understand USB. My goal is to create some sort of FPGA data processor running over high-speed USB. The BASYS board includes a Cypress EZ-USB FX2 controller. I think the BASYS also comes with software for communicating with the board, but its windows only and a closed api so I haven’t looked into this at all. I’m trying to replace the Digilent’s firmware for the EZ-USB. This post covers some of what I’ve done so far. more »

Now that I’ve got ISE working, I’ve started to learn Verilog. Verilog is an HDL (Hardware Description Language) used to express the behavior of logic systems. Its been fun. I’m still adapting to the shift in paradigm. This post covers some of the resources I found useful, and some of the bloated crap I created while learning to code. more »

In my previous post I mentioned I didn’t have any trouble installing ISE on my Ubuntu 08.04 PC. I lied. Actually, I installed it on my laptop with no problem. Today, I tried to install on my desktop. It took a lot of tweaking to get the software running well on x86_64. Here are some tips for getting ISE working. more »