Mar 222015
 

In a previous article, I had tried to move a XNA+Vb.Net game developped on Windows to Ubuntu.
I had limited success (I was only able to install monodevelop + monogame for C#).

This time I restarted from scratch :
-install ubuntu 14.04

-sudo apt-get install gnome-sharp2 mono-xsp4 (not sure about this line)
-sudo apt-get install libglade2.0-cil-dev (not sure about this line)
-sudo apt-get install monodoc-base
-sudo apt-get install monodevelop mono-vbnc

At this point, monodevelop (4.x) works and I can write vb.net programs.

-sudo apt-get install libmonogame-cil-dev monodevelop-monogame

At this point I can write c# monogame programs (a new template for monogame c# appears).

I then imported a vb.net monogame program and it works 🙂
I had to copy paste the monogame dll in the game folder thus.

monogame

 Posted by at 17 h 57 min
Mar 082015
 

In the previous article, I started to look for a way to build an infrared receiver based on an Arduino.
So far no luck…

So I decided to take another approach : plug my infrared TSOP component directly tot he Raspberry GPIO.
See the wiring below.

IRwiring2

Here below the steps required to settled a remote (any will do) with my receiver :

1-Add the following to config.txt dtoverlay=lirc-rpi

2-stop lirc daemon to be able to record codes in step 3 killall lircd

3-record your remote control codes with : irrecord /storage/.config/lircd.conf
tip here : your enter button should be key_ok and your back button should be key_exit in last openelec version (5.x)

4-check that your system detects your buttons press : irw
if yes, then you are good to go : Reboot and enjoy !

 Posted by at 13 h 57 min
Mar 032015
 

These days it is pretty easy to setup a Home Theater PC using a cheap computer (raspberry being my preferred choice).

Still, the remote control is many times the weak point.
It is easy to buy or refurbish an infrared remote transmitter, it is less easy/cheap to find an infrared receiver.
Thus, you can find some cheap telco+receiver like these :
amazon
ebay

I then thought it would be fun/interesting to use an arduino for this.

Quickly googling, I found 2 ways to achieve this :
-turn my arduino into a HID device (probably the cleanest way but more complex) thru the use of the v-usb firmware
-have the arduino send (over serial) the expected datas to LIRC (less complex but more prone to errors)

Lets do some mad googling and collect some interesting pointers

-setup LIRC and a FDTI232 adapter : here
-the arduino IRRemote lib as you will need to decode the incoming signals : here
-some arduino code which seems to turn the arduino into a lirc receiver : here
-another possible interesting thread : here
-a similar project with interesting links especially around irman protocol : here
-similar project using IRMAN protocol : here
-related, on attiny85 : here

-v-usb track : here

Mar 022015
 

A very simple GUI for the mkisofs command line utility (from cdrtools) to create a bootable iso.

-Choose your source folder
-Choose your bootsector
-Choose you target iso file

Supports EFI as well.

The zip file contains grub4dos (0.4.6) and isolinux (6.0.3) bootloaders with example menus.

Download/discuss it here