Ideas: dangerously cheezy.

Me += EM4102;

2007-03-30T05:37:40Z

Quite a bit has happened in terms of design ideas since my last entry. An issue of IEEE magazine came in the mail a few weeks ago featuring an article about a man named Amal Graafstra who was implanted with two RFID chips, one being an EM4102. Previously, this had hardly been done in humans, as it is usually done in animals for identification purposes. After glancing at the cover I told my roommate that as soon as that was available for the average person, I would be the first in line. Later on, I realized that the article was about how you or I could, in fact, do the same!
I have settled on a single plan: starting my 1990 Honda Accord LX with my right hand. I recieved an EM4102 RFID tag which will soon be implanted in my right hand next to my thumb. I currently have a Phidgets reader. Tomorrow I will be ordering a RWD EM4102 reader. This is a nifty little chip that acts as a reader/microcontroller for a few purposes. It will be connected to a Microchip PIC18F4550. This will allow me to control various functions of the car, as well as control the reader itself.
Tonight I started on the design of the project using Gschem from the gEDA project. Once I finish the layout, I will convert it to PCB and order it.
As for the function of the project as a whole, the setup will be pretty nifty. The reader will be implanted near the driver side door handle so that the chip in my hand will be read when I reach to open the door. As soon as the chip is read, the doors will be unlocked and the ignition will be turned on. There will also be a start voltage supplied, but the car will not yet start because of the clutch switch. This means that all I have to do is get in the car and push in on the clutch and the car will start. There will also be a mode select switch which will allow me to turn the whole thing off (and only be allowed to start the car with the key) or force the unit to wait for a button push to start the car.
When the schematic becomes a bit better and more complete, I will post it. I'm still kinda learning this whole Gschem thing.

]]> This material is copyrighted...

A couple of things...

2007-02-15T22:18:06Z

There are a couple of idea's I've been thinking about latey, and I figure I need to write them down.
Implementations of the PIC or something like it to do something nifty
I found a RF transmitter/reciever package for a decent price ($11.95 plus shipping)
Some way of putting Linux on a PIC
And, completely different, creating a Linux distribution that is geared towards engineering students

Hmm

]]> Implementations of the PIC or something like it to do something nifty:
I guess I think it would be cool to use the thing to actually do something cool. Some ideas have been to use it as an arp sniffer or a packet watcher. My roommate wants to use it as a key cracker. It could also be used for:

I found an RF transmitter/reciever package for a decent price ($11.95 plus shipping):
I could use the PIC and the RF transmitter/reciever, as previously stated to do something useful such as open the garage door when I drove up to it or turn on the lights in my room when I entered with the transmitter. Ideally, I would like to integrate it with my Palm Pilot for this purpous, furthering the idea of a multi-use device. A cool site to check out is http://www.linuxdevices.com/

Some way of putting Linux on a PIC:
I found an interesting distrobution of Linux called uClinux. http://www.uclinux.org/ This is an ultra-lightweight Linux distribution (The 'u' in the name is the symbol for the SI prefix, "micro."). Currently there is no port to any PIC microprocessor. I certainly do not have the expertice to port it myself.

...creating a Linux distribution that is geared towards engineering students:
I think it would be nice to have a distro that contains suites of programs such as gEDA and gpasm that would boot of a USB key or live CD. This would not only make the idea of using Linux for engineering projects much more feasable for the new Linux user, but it would support the idea of open source. Perhaps when I have the time I will try to gather a list of software that I know about that could go on the distro.

Haha

2007-02-12T20:12:33Z

Some info...

2007-02-09T07:01:17Z

Sourceforge for Ettercap: http://ettercap.sourceforge.net/
Wiki for Ettercap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettercap_(computing)
DDWRT for the router: http://www.dd-wrt.com/
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT
Setting up ACM site for backups, info, etc.
Adding some additions to Simpic. Maybe.
Mplayer is the shit. GUI?

Adventures with the PIC18F452

2007-02-02T20:34:37Z

EE2361 Intro to Microcontrollers has led to a desire for a usable implementation of the little black thingy. Best ideas so far have included light/power source controllers, which, unfortunately, is quite a common idea. So I'm thinking about trying something else. Possibly something having to do with ARP control/poisoning or sniffing. Perhaps some kind of cheap version of Ettercap or Ethereal. Who knows.

]]> http://ettercap.sourceforge.net/
http://www.ethereal.com/

Also found this interesting:
http://manugarg.freezope.org/notes/arp_spoofing/

Hmm, I can blog...

2007-02-02T20:31:55Z

Forgot about this thing. Seems to me it will be a good tool to help me give back to the open source community of which I have taken so much. I will never be able to do anything actually useful, however hopefully blogged entries of my escapades with Linux and other stereotypical computer-engineer-in-training type projects and whatnot will help at least one other person somewhere (even if that person is me...). That being said, I currently use a Dell XPS m1210 which dual-boots Fedora Core 6 (yeah I'm a sucker for Compiz...) and Windows XP. I have two old Compaqs in the basement which serve as my webserver and router (potentially). The webserver runs CentOS 4.4, and the router runs (read: kinda runs) OpenBSD. It has yet to be correctly set up due to class taking a priority.

]]> http://fedora.redhat.com/
http://www.openbsd.org/
http://www.centos.org/