My entry for 2012 AVC @ sparkfun

I am unable to make it to 2011 AVC, held at Sparkfun, USA headoffice. http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10435

AVC stands for autonomous vehicle competition. The idea is that the vehicle has to go aroud the Sparkfun headoffice, completly unaided. The vehicle that makes this route in the shortest time wins the competition.

I have started work on my entry for the year 2012

Update to 06/04/2011

I have bought a Remote control Audi R8 1:18 size. It runs of 3.6V NiCd battery, and 27Mhz RF.

To convert it to autonomous vehicle, I am going to be useing a 2AH custom lithium polymenr pack.

The motor control and brains are going to be provided by Pololu Baby Oranguatan controller http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1220

The sensor for location is goingt to be a GPS while the obsticle detection is goign to be done using either ultrasonic range finder or infrared.

Pictures to follow

ZT-180 My Wifi MOD

Here is my Wifi MOD

MY ZT-180 is the old RUBY 1.3 mother boards. These came with a RT2070 wifi module that uses a microstrip PCB antenna.

Possibly due to the mismatch of this chip antenna, the Module produces a lot of heat that results in repeated disconnets from the AP. Also the reception is very poor due to bad antenna design.

A lot of methods exist to improve the antenna recption. The way I did it was using a http://www.antennafactor.com/products/embeddable/chp-series-chip-antennas/  2.4 GHZ chip antenna that I already had with me.

Data sheet http://www.antennafactor.com/resources/data-guides/ant-xxx-chp-x.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_antenna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopole_antenna

 1. remove microsd card
2. open ZT-180
3. disconnect battery
4. Now as shown in PIC below, remove the capacitor, solder coax core and then shield. Avoid the shield touching the pad in the centre of the semicircles.

5. Use a copper tape of about 40x20cm and put it on a card. Use this as ground plane. Solder the shield on the antenna end of coax to the tape. Solder the antenna directly to the coax core on antenna end.
Cover coper tape with paper masking tape to avoid shortcircuit to other components in the tablet.

Android Tablet ZT-180 All I could Find

Received ZT-180 on 28-09-2010 from www.merimobiles.com Ordered on 21-09-2010, shipped on 26-09-2010

Received with battery fully depleted.

The first thing I wanted to do was to install the latest Firmware as I had head that the stock firmware installed on all ZT-180 was quite old and rubbish.

After going through a lot of links I found that If you want to install firmware then first thing you should check is what frim ware you have.

To do this ---> From the home screen find the settings icon.

Click Settings > About Device > Build Number

Find the string starting eng.2010 and the next four characters are the build number.

I found mine to be 0830 which was not that old and thus I decided not to install the latest version. Also , it turns out that there are no current drivers for WIN 7 64 bit for flashing the ZT-180 android tablet

-----------------------------------------------------------
I have now updated to 0930. I had to use my WinXP netbook todo so

Some news. I have now updated the wifi antenna. To do this I have removed the first capacitor in the matching network and added a monopole antenna to it. Doing this I have incread the signal by 5-10db
-----------------------------------------------------------
The list of internal hardware (as I build it and find more about it)


Zenithink Ruby 1-3 Main board
- USB link to a USB wifi module based on RT3070 wifi chipset
- EUP8057 Charge Controller for charging the 7.4V battery pack (marked 8057q on IC) http://www.eutechmicro.com/PDF/EUP8057.pdf
- FDS9435A Mosfet used in combination with EUP8057 for charging (marked PS9435S) http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/FD/FDS9435A.pdf
- Wolfson Micro Electronics Audio Codec Chipset  WM8988 http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/documents/uploads/data_sheets/en/WM8988.pdf
- Possibly LM3410 LED driver (marked p3410) http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM3410.pdf
-Possibly LTC3451
- M4890 1W Audio amplifier IC

Zenithink Processor Daughterbaord

- DOESTEK DTC33LM85AL 18bit flatpanel display transmitter using LVDS. Datasheet http://www.doestek.co.kr/pdf/data/6.DTC33LM85AL_Rev.1.0.pdf
-RTL8201CL http://realtek.info/pdf/rtl8201cl.pdf
-2x Hynix 64x16ddr2 k 1GB DDR Ram
- 1x samsung k9gag08u0m 16gbit (2GB) Nand flash

ZT-180 My Battery MOD

Hello All
I was looking for a good battery to upgrade my ZT-180 but was very difficult to find. Finallly I have the battery and I did the MOD to the tablet.

Fist of all. The battery didnt come with a connector. So I opened up my tablet and removed the original battery. Then, I cut off the connector and soldered it to the new battery. The new battery is 4000mAH instaed of the 2500mAh original battery, but the new battery is longer and wider than the original, thickness is 8mm. It comes with built-in charge balance and protection circuit, so only needs charging using the two supplied wires.

So I put in the new battery and try to close the lid but the battery "holder plastic" on the bottom plate of the tablet did not allow the tablet to close. So with a help of a sharp blade and some cutters, I cut the excess plastic out of the way and  WOW, it closed.

I gave it some initial test and it surely seems to last much longer than the original. Howmuch longer I will not be able to know because I did not measure the original battery.

I am trying to include some pictures here, but not sure how they will actually come out to be.
Please note:
1. I have removed my internal bluetooth becasue it broke. So it may have been easier for me to fit the battery in
2. there is a slight bulge in the botton of the tablet as shown in the picture

Hope OK

---

Hi Teslabe
I followed your test for battery life. I was running out of patience so I just charged the battery to 95%. Pushing in the last 5% of charge just takes too long.
Put brightness to 100%, volume to max, no Wifi (actually my wifi is broken),  and then ran a movie continously on it. It ran it for 5 hours and 40 minutes, that is very close to your results with your 4000mAH battery. I will now charge it agin to 95% and run same movie continously at 30% brightness and see if results are still close.

---

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lithium-Polymer-4000mAH-7-4V-30WH-battery-/220715578720

OK
here is a quick "HOW TO"

1. Turn off table and Remove microSD from its socket
2. Open the ZT-180 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+open+zt-180&aq=f
3. cut the old battery wire. Picture "battery 0"
4. solder the new battery to the connector - red to red, black to black. Use cable heat shink or insulation tape on the contacts. Picture "battery 4"
5. Cut the plastic edges on the base plate as in picutre "battery 1"
6. use thin double sided sticky tape , (most pound marts, dollar shops like places do them). stick the battery to the base plate as in "battery 3"
7. Plug the connector into the socket
8. before closing the case, do a quick check to see if the connections are OK, by switching on the tablet.
9. If all OK slowly close the tablet and see that it does not press hard on to any components or sharp edges etc. If its pushing on to something then use some foam tape to protect it. The battery is in a metalic looking pouch but it is not metal and can easily be punctured, resulting in excessive heat, explosion and expulsion of hazardous materail. So it is absolutly important to protect the battery from bending, breaking, or getting punctured etc. I.e, read up on saftey points. Again.. its very important
10. Relevant to point 9, I did not have wifi in my tablet when I did the MOD, so if you have wifi and its hitting the battery you wil have to move it slightly towards the edge.

11. The battery has built in protection circuit and charge balancing PCB so you dont need any extra circuits for it.

Any question/suggestions please do ask. I'll ammend the post accordingly

---

---

Kebabish Original Glasgow

677-681 Pollokshaws Road
Glasgow, Lanarkshire G41 2AB
0141 423 9988

KO is a franchise and this is the same. However thier £25 family meal is quite good and can feed 4 easily and includes all thier chef special grills and kebabs etc.

It is fully halal and as far as I know they dont serve alcohol. Mostly friendly staff. If you do eat thier do try thier dessert "Kheer" becasue its different and much better than other keers I have eaten.


Environt is good, seating is plenty and has not been too busy a few times we have been there for lunch.

Review of Village Curry House Glasgow

129 Nelson Street
Glasgow G5 8DZ
0141 429 6727
Great Pakistani Menu, All Halal

Tested Sindhi Biryani, Afghani Biryani, Chicken Tawa, Bhindi (Lady Finger), Chapati and Kachuri

All tased great. It was a last minute decision to go to Village curry house. The choices were village or kababish. Sat nav said kabish was too far away so we decided to test Village Curry house. I was presuming it to be the same British-ised asian food with its bhunas and vindaloos. We got a very fortunate surprise as we walked in and found pakistani sweets in the corner, my favourite chapli kebabs (from north west of pakistan) under teh front counter cabinet. A closer look at the menu showed that the food was as close to desi food we may get in Scotland. The staff was very nice and helpful although the food prepration took a bit longer than usual (or may be we were too hungry).

this place is highly recommended to people wanting authentic Paksitani halal food in scotland. I really wish there was somethign similar to this in fife or dundee

Poem by Ahmed Nadeem Kasmi

Review of Bismillah Halal Food Store Dundee

This is a family run business. I guess the owners are from Punjab, Pakistan. A father and 3 sons run this store. The Halal meat quality is good and they supply to a lot of Halal takeaways in dundee and surrounding area as well. Beef supply is intermittent but leave your number with them and they'll call to let you know when beef has arrived. Also stocked are Halal Frozen food, Shan and National Masalas, Achars, Some vegitables and other standard Halal shop items. As there are usually two or more people serving meat, the service is usually quick for small orders. For larger order call them and pick up at pre arranged time. They also own Kurry King (kingsway) and Curry House (dura street) takeaway in Dundee. Dura street one claims home style cooking and that their chicken karahi is popular, but need to actually taste it.

This is a short review of the only Halal Nandos in Scotland (as of 16/09/2009)

Nandos in Springfield Quay in Scotland is the only halal Nandos in Scotland. It is usually quite busy except for in afternoons. At night you can be in the ordering cue for a long time. as it is halal, a lot of customers are muslim. The environment is quite nice. Child seats and baby change is available. My personal favorite is the extra hot full platter with spicy chips and extra hot sauce, followed by a tofee cheese cake. the best way to reach it from outside of Glasgow is to leave M8 at junction 20 towards Springfield quay.

This is a short review of Halal Taza Buffett Restaurant in Dundee Angus

Taza Restaurant is Based in City Quay Dundee, within walking distance of town center, town bus station, and Tay bridge. The owner/manager is a Pakistani Woman. All food including jelly is halal. The food is divided into three sections, i.e. starter, main course and desert. The starter includes chicken pakoras, spicy chicken wings, vegi pakoras, onion rings, chips, different chutneys and sauces, salads etc. The main course is standard indian food to British taste (not authentic Pakistani food). The usual suspects are there including nan, pilau and white rice, chicken korma, chicken tika masla, chicken bhuna masala, lamb mince, daal and some others. The desert includes, fruit, cakes, jelly, ice cream, kheer etc. The food in busy days is usually Taza (fresh) and you can also see the chef frying pakoras etc in a big fryer. On most quite days, the food doesn’t look fresh, just heated. So it is advised to go there in a busy time. Per head cost a quite reasonable, about £6 for lunch in non week days and £8 for dinner. Although you get more choice of food during higer price times. This includes the addition of spicy rice and spicy chickpea salad. They serve alcohol and hold parties on weekends. This info is for those people who have problem with alcohol being served. As mentioned before this is not authentic Pakistani home style cooking. If you know of some place that does home style cooking ( I am talking nehari, haleem, buryani, chapal kebab, type stuff) in Angus or Fife then please let me know by adding a comment in the comments section. Taza can be found in 1A City Quay Dundee, DD1 01382 203 070 www.taza.co.uk/

This is a short Review of Al Noor Halal Store in Dundee.

The Store is run by an Iraqi Father and Son. Both are very humble and polite. The Halal meat they provide is of excellent quality. Un like Bismillah store who slaughter their own animals, Al Noor orders halal meat from a factory, probably some where near Glasgow. Waiting times on getting meat can be quite high as there is usually some one there with a big meat order. The best way to get meat is to call a few hours in advance and book our meat. The actual shop is quite small, but still has quite a lot of items, including Shan Masalas, fresh vegetables and the usual Asian and Arabic stuff. The shop can be called on 01382 522558 and the address is Blackness Rd, Dundee, DD1 5PL It is about 15 to 20 minutes walk from welgate center although it seems there is a good bus route as a lot of buses pass by. If you are running out of cash, there is a cash machine next to a local Spar Store about ten minutes walk from the shop if you keep going west on the blackness road. Hope this review helps those do have just arrived in Dundee Angus and are looking for halal meat.

Nihal Khan produces some stunning paintings. Her art is based on contemporary Islamic/ Arabic themes

Nihal Khan's Islamic art and more information can be found on her website at http://www.nihal-art.com . She can make art work to order. She is based in Fife/Scotland UK. Her paintings have been commision by muslim and non mulsims, for home, gift and office spaces.

This is a list of Halal Food Resturants and Take Aways that I know in Fife (St Andrews) and Angus (Tayside, Dundee) area of Scotland. If you know of any more please write in the comments area. Thanks

Resturants and Takeaways
1. Jehangir Tandoori Resturant,http://www.jahangirstandrews.co.uk/home.html, 116a South Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9QD. (Must ask for Halal when ordering)
2. Marmaris Take Away, 52-54 Market Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9NT (Halal written on Menu)
3. Zara Take Away, 67 Elizabeth Street, Tayport, Fife, DD6 9NB (Halal, Run by Pakistani)
4. Karachi Tandoori, 189-191 Blackness Road, Dundee, DD15PH (Halal on Menu, Pakistani Owner)
5. Tazza Resturant (http://www.taza.co.uk/), Unit One, Camperdown St. City Quay, Dundee, DD1 3JA (Halal, Pakistani Owner)
6. Chopsitx Chineese Resturant and Take Away (chopstixdundee.co.uk) 12 St. Andrews Street, Dundee, DD4 6NZ (Ask for Halal)
7. Punjab Spice, 65-67 ST. Clair Street, Kirkcaldy, KY1 2NW (Halal, Pakistani Owner)
8. Istanbul Takeaway, 117 Nethergate, Dundee. DD1 4DW (Employee Says Halal)
9. Ashoka Express. Food Court, The Wellgate Centre, Dundee, Angus DD1 2DB ( Employee says Halal)
10. Chillies Grill, 311 Hilltown, Dundee, DD3 7AQ, 01382 225502, (Kebabs, Curries and Chineese, Halal, Pakistani (Pakhtoon) Owner)

 Halal Meat

 1. Alnoor Halal Food Store, 202 Backness Road, Dundee.
2. Bismillah Halal Food Store, 122A Hilltown, Dundee


!!Continental Food Store in Hiltown Dundee is not recommended as Owner is very abusive and arogant!!


Just ate fantastic food at Lahore Karahi, 145 King Street, Aberdeen,AB24 5AE. A fantastic menu of real home style cooking and good very tasty halwa, chana-aloo puri breakfast. http://www.lahore-karahi.com/

This guide is about the SYMA 608 Mosquito helicopter

The SYMA 608 Mosquito helicopter is one of the copies of the original Micro-mosqito helicopter. The box contains the following
1. Mosquito helicopter
2. Transmitter
3. 9V PP3 Battery for transmitter
4. Spare tail rotter blades
5. Antenna for transmitter

The SYMA 608 I purchased was a 40 MHz model. The exact frequency is 40.680 MHz. This is a three channel helicopter. It is a coaxial helicopter, what that means is that it has two main rotor blades using a single axle. The two blades spin in opposite direction, creating stability. A tail roter is present in unconvential horizontal direct to tilt the helicopter backward to move backwards and forward to move forwards. The turning left and right is achieved by the difference in the speeds of the two blades.

Two tactile buttons on the transmitter are used for the trim. Basically, when the helicopter is first air borne it will rotate in either left or right direction. The trim buttons help bring the speed of the two motors together so that the heli can be stable.

The SYMA helicopter is an RTF (ready to fly helicopter). it has four LEDS, two green LEDs are used as mosquito EYEs like the original Micro Mosquito helicopter. Two additional dual Color (RED and BLUE) LEDs are used to create lighting effect around the heli. This is first time I have seen these in a mosquito helicopter. The helicopter is very light, and used a 180mAh Lithium Polymer battery (although the box says 210mAh).

The transmitter
 The transmitter is based on a three main segments

1. PCM generator
2. 40.680 MHz third overtone oscillator
3. Simple one stage amplifier transmitter

1. PCM Generator

The PCM generator is an unmarked 18 Pin PDIP IC with a 4 MHz Crystal. This also suggests that it might be a microcontroller. The input to the microcontroller is the two trim tactile switches (buttons). Also three code generating pads are used as inputs. When the user moves the control sticks, a metal brush connects some pads to 5V supply. So as the brush moves over these pads, it creates a number of codes to the microcontroller. There seem to be about 14 codes (4 bit wide) for the throttle stick, 5 codes for Left and right rudder where the rudder is on normally in the center and three for forward /backward movement where the stick is normally in the centre.

2. The Oscillator

The PCM generator creates a code that is then sent to the 40.680MHz transmitter. the transmitter works in OOK (on off keying). So the oscillator is always on at 40.680mhz. This is third over tone helicopter, so first tone is around 14mhz. The 2SC1815 transister keep the oscillator is a stable oscillation when the transmitter is on.

3. The Amplifier

When a zero comes in from he PCM generator the amplifier stays off. When a one comes in the amplifier is switched ON. the Amplifier is a 2SC8050 transistor. and its collecoer input is from the PCM generator. The antenna is a simple telescopic monopole antenna as used in most RC transmitters.