💾 Archived View for sdf.org › stug › phlog › 20230108.txt captured on 2023-03-20 at 18:53:21.
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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8th January 2023 - Technology Battles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have been battling technology of late. All self inflicted but I have been chuffed with myself still. The first battle has been with pilot-link. This is a suite of software to provide you with means to communicate with your Palm Pilots. I have acquired a Tungsten E and Tungsten E2 with a TX on the way. Why? Well I got curious about them and the cost has been naff all. Palm OS amazes me as a whole with how efficient it is. Anyhow, it is always great to be able to load programs to your device. Well...... solitaire. Yes, I basically have 2 solitaire machines to satisfy those urges. I should really get help with that addiction. Anyhow, I thought this would be easy. I use Manjaro and love the aur, a repository of software with the build instructions provided so you don't have to do much. Nice in principle and most of the time. However, sometimes you hit road blocks. Jpilot was one of them. Jpilot kept failing to install due to pilot-link. Something about GCC not being able to execute programs. This was a nightmare to work out options. Well, until I found I could simply use the package pilot-link-git. That worked without hassle. However, I still could not install Jpilot. Why? I can't really remember but it conked out complaining about missing files. So I decided to build it myself. Oh dear. I do not build many programs. I am not all that interested in the depths of linux and unix. They are tools and a means to an end. Well.... I got stuck in an autoconf loop. There were missing files from the build so I had to run a whole string of tools to get this all to build. ARRGGHGHHHHHHHHH! It is a good thing I was jonesying for that sweet solitaire hit or I would have thrown the palm device through a window. Eventually I got Jpilot compiled and then hit the next issue of syncing the bloody thing. I got there but could never get the installing a program to work. Eventually I discovered the existance of pilot-xfer. This is by far the most simple way to instal programs to your palm pilot. A lot of frustration but I am mildly impressed with being able to work through it. The added bonus of scratching that solitaire itch helps. The second battle has been with an ARM cortex M0+ board. This is a thing called a sensor watch and is basically a micro-controller designed to be fitted into a Casio F91-W. For those who are not aware, the Casio F91-W is the squarish classic digital Casio which has been made since the 80s and always seems too cheap to be true. Well... I got interested in the possibilities of making a dumb watch smart. There was also a sort of desire to support someone who has come up with a smart design. It clearly has been thought about and some sensible design decisions have been made. I also liked the idea of logging temperatures on a watch for Scout camps. It would be nice to understand what the temperature was against how the Scouts feel. Well, this whole thing involved downloading the git directory and you can then add new watch complications written in C. The standard image lacks a few features I was after so I went about reconfiguring an array on the main configuration file. All very simple. You then use the build tool in a specific folder to get your image. Well... in theory that is the case. I kept being hit by errors about missing libraries. Turns out those were linked projects in the original repo so I had to download those seperately. The documentation made no mention of this. I then kept getting more errors. Turns out I am a terrible typer and failed to spot the typos I added. Then I was able to get an image. SUCCESS! Now I just had to get this on to the watch. In theory, you connect the board to a USB B Micro port and then double click a reset button. This should enter things into reprogramming mode and then the board appears as a mountable drive. Yer.... that doesn't happen and I cannot work out why not. I assume I am doing something daft but I am fed up of fighting technology. The PCB is on the desk with some soldering bits I got out in excitement and ready to transfer the piezo arm from the old PCB to the sensor watch PCB. I will try to solve this one day but not for a bit I think. The first issue was simply with being lazy and not wanting to build the software. I can do better.... I should do better with that sort of thing. However, the second just feels like the instructions are incomplete. They assume a level of software engineering skills which not all of us have. I probably should expose myself to more of these but meh. I spend enough time solving engineering issues at work to have an urge to learn about software. Grumble grumble grumble! It is nice to only have these as issues which bother me in life. Now back to solitaire!