FEL: Introduction to MCU8051IDE

There is a lot of free and propitiatory IDEs for micro controllers. Here I like to write about MCU 8051 IDE - An open source project packaged under FEL (Fedora Electronic Lab). Intel 8051 is a standard micro controller and that's why it is essential in engineering syllabus even though some good stuffs are there in newer micro controllers from Microchip, Atmel etc. Simulating 8051 is pretty easy if you own a good 8051 IDE. There is a lot of IDEs available for 8051 simulation and emulation. But it is not a good idea to spent your valuable money for that, if such good free and open source IDEs are available. I am just coming to my point. It is about MCU 8051 IDE. It is packaged with fedora electronic lab. If you intend to stick with other OS, you need to compile the source code. Currently it supports more than 79 MCUs. Know more and how much powerful it is. I have uploaded a screencast of MCU 8051 IDE and I think it is enough to start with for a beginner who knows assembly level programming in 8051. Of course, one can write and simulate the program in C also.
Download video tutorial mcu8051.ogv.

You can view the screencast with VLC media player or any other ogv supported media player.

mcu8051IDE for Windows

Inside the Mosquito killer

Nowadays, people widely uses mosquito killer bats because of their easy usage. The product is imported from China for very cheap price. There's some electronics inside it. If you understand the working principle of that circuit and if you are an owner of soldering iron, you can easily troubleshoot the problems and can use the product for a long time.
The power source of old products was dry cells, while now it is rechargable battery of 2.4V. There is bridge rectifier and a capacitor is used to get enough power to charge the battery. Transistor become ON, when switch is closed and the sudden change in current in the primary coil in the transformer forms a higher voltage. The voltage is coupled to the secondary coil. transformer winding is so that peak voltage will be about 2000V. The diode network only pass a fraction of the output voltage to the metal net.

Slider game using Qt

It is better to do simple things first in Qt before making hands dirty with complex programs. Now I just prepared a slider game using Qt.Hope all of you know how to play slider game. My code is simple and having a slider panel of 3x3 matrix. I know the code is not much pretty. But I just put my source code to download. It may be helpful for beginners. Of course, you can modify the code to satisfy your needs.
Enjoy!

Download slider.zip
Note: You need to recompile the code before using. I successfully compiled the code in Linux. Of course, you can compile it in other platforms without modification of code.

Welcome note on Puppy Linux boot up screen

Is it fun to display a welcome note with your name while booting up Puppy linux? If you think so, you can continue reading. Here I am telling how to set up your Puppy Linux to display "Welcome, {your name}" at boot up. Probably you can do this in other Linux based OS with slight or no modifications. But nowadays bulky operating system intentionally hide the boot up screen with a splash image.
First of all, navigate to /etc/rc.d
Then open 'rc.sysinit' . You should have root privileges in order to edit this file. Read carefully the 'Read me' file before going to do anything. If you are not going to take a risk, back up the file into any other externally accessible directory.
After you open the file in your favourite text editor, just go through the file, you will notice that, this script is automatically executed at every boot up. Go to the end of the file and append the following script.

##########CUSTOM SCRIPT##############
echo -n "

" >/dev/console
/bin/echo -e "\\033[10G\\033[1;34mWelcome, {Your name}\\033[0;39m" >/dev/console
echo -n "

" >/dev/console
sleep 2
###################################

Edit the script with your name instead of '{Your name}'. The script is nothing but an echo statement to the console. It is possible to change the display properties by changing the parameters along with the text. First test it in terminal and then write script is recommended. Now save the file and reboot.
Done.
If you avoid 'sleep 2' statement, you may not see the text at boot up. One best way is remove the line 'sleep 2' and set a login password for Puppy as I did. Then Puppy gives a cool welcome to you and then ask password.

Free anonymous email now for security

If you want to register in a website which is untrusted and you are not intend to reveal your identity to them, but the website need your email ID and it is mandatory. What do you do? In such cases it is good idea is to have a temporary email which lives only for few days or months and will expire. But for some instant access, it is necessary. You are allowed to read incoming mails till the account expires.
Go here.
You just need to make your account by entering your user name. password is optional. you also need to specify the date which the account expires. Nothing more and you have done.

Yo Frankie: Open Game Project from Blender

Do you remember Big Buck Bunny?

'Big Buck Bunny'(Code-named Peach)is a classical animated short film entirely from Blender platform which is open source. The video reveals the power of Blender of course, and also contains a neat story with full of fun. If you didn't see this short film yet, you are too late, but here is the chance to download. The hero in this film is a big Buck. Other characters are some naughty animals named Frank, Rinky and Gamera. I personally like Frank's acting than others. I think many people realize that secret, that is why the rise of new open game named Yofrankie (Code-named Apricot). The name came from Frank's name and hero is Mr. Frank. You need to download the game (~120MB) which will run on a Blender engine or Crystal space. Another good side of YoFrankie is that you can develop it in your way wince it is open source. A number of good tutorials are there published in the official website. Both Big Buck Bunny film and YoFrankie are released under Creative Commons Attribution License. Watch a video of Yofrankie below:

Let's have fun during festivals!

Festivals are not only for entertainment. You can do some cool things. I have just made a fire powered car using commonly available things during festivals. See how:

The things you required:Now, make the things done.
Unfortunately, I can't capture pictures and videos of running the car, because, my mobile phone did something wrong while capturing. Sorry. I don't have another sample to do once again. I will try it next year!

Car after launching.I got everything fine. Even though you think this type of stuffs are gibberish, people like me find entertainment by doing so.

Warning: use a metal or card board plate above toy car in order to avoid over burning. Don't do it in you room. Do it away from your home as well as from inflammable things. Don't launch while you stand behind the car.