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Topics - DarkestEx

#1


I have been very busy lately, developing a complete replacement main board that will fit into the empty shell of a TI-84+. This will enable you to build your completely own, Linux powered, TI-84+
You almost can't differenciate the original from a modded one.

It features an ATmega328P-AU Arduino Uno compatible keyboard processor and power management controller and real time clock (to keep the time running, while the Pi is turned off).
This will be a two board solution. There will be an upper and a lower board.
On the upper board, there is space for fitting a Raspberry Pi Zero (W) and a 128x64 monochrome/grayscale LCD that I would provide. The bottom half of the board (including keypad matrix, RTC, Uno and the Adafruit PowerBoost500 for LiPo operation) will be attachable to the upper board through a few solder links. Therefore you can decide whether you want to provide your own single board computer or if you want to go for a Pi Zero and my preferred, matching LCD.
The headphone/Link jack will either expose the Pi Zero's analog video signal plus one GPIO pin or the  I2C bus, depending on solder jumper configuration. The Uno is connected to the Pi via SPI and UART. You should be able to reflash the Uno from the Pi, if you disable the Linux console on the serial port.
Otherwise, the serial console will be displayed on boot in a serial terminal mode of the Uno.
The Uno is also connected to the 128x64 screen and will go into high impendance mode to let the Pi access the screen, once the Pi is booted and ready.

I guess I can already warrant a sneak peak at the keypad matrix ;)


I hope there is demand, and if there is I may offer a kit or the bare PCBs.
If someone does not like to solder SMD, I could also offer individual assembly of the boards.
There is also need for a good name. Currently I have settled for "Pi84--", but feel free to post any suggestions if don't like the name.

From a price perspective, the bottom board with all components (except for the Adafruit PowerBoost 500) may end up costing around 12€. The power boost is available for about 15€ and a matching battery will cost under 10€.
The top board may probably cost around 18€ (not including the Pi Zero (W), but including the screen).

Dead TI-84+'es are often available at your school/uni for free or just a tiny fee, if there is a renting program available. On eBay, used TI-84+'s with a broken screen can be bought for as little as 10€.

So, in total, you will probably be paying about 65€ for your own, Linux enabled, fully hackable, state of the art, calculator.

And of course could you run one of the TI-84+ emulators on there if you wanted to ;)


Note, that this is the actual, project releated topic, while my original post was posted in another topic here.
#2
Good evening,

back in late 2015, I have developed code to automatically generate a dynamic, animated gif, scroll text for my signature.
You can see it in action down below.

It is capable of displaying live content as can be seen by the date changing.
I could easily add support for displaying my latest posts or some kind of live ticker.

The script is caching the .gif so it is not always regenerated, but this delay can be set to preference.
There is a ton of configuration options that can be found in the configuration file.

I have finally decided to open-source my old and not very polished code, so that people can have fun with it here.
If someone wants me to host their banner, just post down below. It will need a copyright free background and a copyright free font.

So here's the code: https://gist.github.com/bmuessig/fd33426523d5b6a7d845a5985c6c8f8f

And my signature banner in action:


Cheers!
#3
Hello, beloved CodeWalrus community.

I have been with you almost since the beginning of this site.
Over the years, I have met a lot of interesting people here, that I still have contact to.
I have also found good friends that are more than just online friends.
It's really sad to see the community slowly die because of the lack of activity and honestly some stupid administrative decisions here.
Now, it's time to deddicate some time back to CodeWalrus and keep the community alive.
People, just go to the Latest Activity Feed and just click any post you may find interesting and post something nice.
Tell them your opinion on the topic. Share your ideas and constructive criticism!


Don't let this site die! Also don't let it become a sole Discord channel since Discord can just not replace a flourishing forum.
#4
So, we've stopped paying for the domain ninjabyte.eu and it got sold and converted to some pr0n/sex site (looks pretty disgusting).
Essentially this is it. Was fun to work on this Europe wide project, but this is the end.

Good news though:
p2 and I are working on a very nice retro system at this very moment that will come with a CRT :D

Also to any admins (I have no clue anymore who is after all these incidents):
It would be nice to have this theme as an option for the main site too (theme settings) since the default theme is really had on the eyes at night.

Cheers
#5
Hello!

I would like to host a capture the flag event on CW.
Essentially people can sign up to participate in the contest.
There will be multiple challenges (mostly security related, but I am sure we can figure out additional non-security tasks) which you will have to solve (alone or in a team). If you solve a challenge, you will be rewarded points.
The person with the most points when the challenge ends, will be the winner.

Is there interest? I would love to have such a CTF here on CW. It is really great fun!

LiveOverflow does a great job explaining basic concepts and how such CTF might work:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClcE-kVhqyiHCcjYwcpfj9w

Of course it will be :walrii: releated and I have already thought of a few challenges. If someone would like to help me prepare some challenges, feel free to join!
As already mentioned, I am not just planning security challenges, but other fun ones, so everyone will have fun.

@Snektron, @DJ Omnimaga, @Streetwalrus what do you think? Could we run such a CTF here?
#6
Hello everyone.
This question is directed to anyone who has experience with GCC and the ELF file format and the releated Unix tools.
Maybe one of you, @Sorunome or @Streetwalrus?

Essentially I have a .ELF file for ARM which is not stripped. I need to remove Symbols from it. It could be in any unorthodox way possible, but it needs to be done. Later I need to replace said functions with equivalent ones from .o files.

I would be glad if anyone had an idea or could point out a way to do this.
The ELF file in question can be downloaded from here: http://data.bmuessig.eu/CNC/DDCSV11/Dumps/Files/motion.out
It can also be viewed in ODA: https://www.onlinedisassembler.com/odaweb/H7yyMp7I/0

I just need to remove the main symbol really, so that I can link a custom main or modify the existing main to call my main function and then return. E.g. the original code could first jump to my function and then the rest would be NOP'ed.
#7
Hardware / RPN-Calculator
February 03, 2017, 10:16:54 PM
Hello everyone!

For many weeks I have been working on a custom and completely hand-built calculator.

So let's start with some eye-candy first ;D

[spoiler=More Images ;)]




[/spoiler]

The Software is still in the works and nowhere near done.
For the CPU I am using an STM ARM CPU which is overclocked to 96 MHz. It also has USB, an SD Card, a Serial / IO port, a 2200mAh LiPo, a Status LED, a Nokia 5110 LCD and a 3x4 keypad.

I hope you like it :)
#8
Hardware / Pi84 - The Raspberry Pi powered TI-84+
December 17, 2016, 01:13:19 PM
Hello together!

This is my second go on a Raspberry Pi hearted TI-84+. (Note to mods: I really want to make this a new project without any affiliation to the old so I need a new topic).

I have decided for an early hardware version of the 84+ as it's PCB can be cut smaller than on the new versions.
For the keyboard and power management, I am going to use a Teensy 3.2 that will hook up to the 84+'es matrix.



The Raspberry Pi Zero is the perfect solution for the CPU since it is the smallest and the least power-hungry of all Raspberry Pi's.
For the power supply I will be using a slim power bank or an old Samsung Galaxy S3 mini battery (depending on how much space I have left).

To keep the authenticity, I am sticking to a monochrome LCD, however, mine is 128x64px and has the same physical size as the original screen:
#9
Media Talk / Favourite webcomics
October 16, 2016, 01:00:45 AM
Hello!

what are your favourite webcomics that you (ir)regularly read?

A while back I read Sandra and Woo.
Then I stopped it for xkcd which I still regularily read to date.
I also like checking out theodd1sout's webcomic.

Also the new european ad currently shows this webcomic:


Have you had a look? What do you think?
I read the first chapter, found it okay, but am not going to read more in the future.
#10
Hello together.

I have been working on a prototype for a custom calculator. It only has a small, monochrome screen and a convoluted off-the-shelf keypad, but apart from that the hardware is the same as what I might use in a future project. It would be an ST ARMv7M @ 120 MHz with 1024 KB operating system Flash and SD card for program storage. It has 128 KB of RAM and also a coprocessor for WiFi. There is an app available to program it on the go with either your phone, your web browser or with the normal offline development tools you used to love.
What if I said that one could make a calculator out of that?
Would you like the idea?
What screen would you use? What screen technology? OLED, TFT, LCD, maybe even eink?
Also a custom keypad would be used. What layout would you like?


I am curious to what you come up with!
#11
Tech, Science, IT discussion & News / DarkestEx' Tech-Blog
September 18, 2016, 12:33:16 PM
Hello!

I have now finally started writing posts for my blog: http://bmuessig.eu/
They focus primarily on Technology but I will surely post the one or other different thing.

I have started with a series on the HP 100-LX:
http://bmuessig.eu/posts/hp-100lx-restoration-part-1
http://bmuessig.eu/posts/hp-100lx-restoration-part-2
http://bmuessig.eu/posts/using-cf-cards-in-the-hp-100lx

I hope you will find it interesting ;)
#12
Media Talk / Your favorite YouTube channels
September 05, 2016, 11:25:53 AM
Hello Walrusses :walrii:

I noticed that we didn't have a dedicated YouTube channel suggestions thread yet so here you go :)

[spoiler=I am subscribed to the following channels (as of 5th Sept. 2016)]



[/spoiler]
I don't regularly watch all of them, and there are certainly some that I would unsubscribe from by now, but that's a good overview.
Btw, notice how I am German and I basically don't watch any German YouTube channels (because they suck :P).

My favorites are theodd1sout, bigclivedotcom, Tinkernut, CNLohr, ashens, colinfurze, Cody's Lab,Tom Scott, danooct1, The Obsolete Geek, Lazy Game Reviews, 8-Bit Keys and Druaga1.
#13
Hello together!
I just scored an HP 100LX on eBay which is a really awesome little retro machine ;D

It has an Intel 80186 CPU running at 7.91 MHz, 1 MB RAM, 2 MB ROM and 10 MB Flash (expandable with PCMCIA 2.0 cards, e.g. CF cards).
The display is 640x200px in size and has 4 shades of gray. CGA graphics are supported.
It runs MSDOS 5.0 from it's ROM.



Now, I would like to program it (preferably from Linux - Fedora) but Windows would work too just fine.
Does anybody of you know a good cross-compiler to develop programs for it?
#14
Hello Walrusses!

My old domain name is going down next Monday.
Until then I need to find a new name replacing the old one. Best would be one ending in .eu.

But other names with domain privacy would be fine too.
Which TLDs do you know that don't disclose the owner and what cool domain name should I pick this time?

I would be really glad for suggestions :)
#15
Other / Allgemeiner deutscher Chat [German]
August 23, 2016, 12:53:52 AM
Hallo!

Wer von Euch allen spricht sonst noch so Deutsch?
Das könnte ja ne mini-gruppe hier werden XD
#16
Hello, walrusses! :walrii:
This is my first news post, now being a news editor, so let's get rolling:

A while back this and last year, Cumred_Snektron and I were creating official real-time post notifiers.
Unfortunately many new users and even some of the die-hard walruses that have been with us since the beginning of CodeWalr.us are still not aware of them.
So I would like to present you the two post notifiers today:

CodeWalr.us Post Notifier (works on Windows, Linux and Mac)


The PC notifier works well on Windows, Linux and Mac.
On Windows, it requires .NET framework and GTK-Sharp.
Linux and Mac need a full installation of Mono and the respective GTK packages.

The notifier allows configuration of audio notifications, visual pop-ups, the design of the UI and allows ignoring posts based on parameters such as title and content.
Other useful features include a customizable update interval and gzip compression to save you bandwidth.
The Source code is available under the terms of the MIT License on GitHub.
A discussion topic can be found here.

You can download the ZIP archive with all the libraries from here: http://benedikts-workshop.de/dl/private/Projects/CodeWalriiNotify/Builds/CodeWalriiNotify_1_5.zip

On Linux you can run the following command-line in your terminal to install the notifier:
wget http://benedikts-workshop.de/dl/private/Projects/CodeWalriiNotify/install_on_linux.sh && chmod +x install_on_linux.sh && ./install_on_linux.sh && rm install_on_linux.sh

Walrifier (works on Android)


The Walrifier works on Android only (sorry iOS people! :P) and displays notifications through the Android UI.
Cumred_Snektron kindly released the source code on GitHub.
It's features include bandwidth saving and a configurable interval between checks.
The original topic can be found here.

Download the APK directly to your phone from here: http://quantuminfinity.space/files/Walrifier.apk
#17
Drawing & Animation / Claw logo request
July 22, 2016, 11:50:42 PM
Hello everybody!

I am still missing a logo for Claw and I am not so good with vector programs.
Is there anybody who could make a vector graphics logo that is like the following:

A single color (monochrome) (Cat / Tiger / ...) Claw that is shaped like the letter C.
Maybe put it in a cogwheel (or similar)?

I would be really happy if somebody could do that :D
#18
PC, Mac & Vintage Computers / Claw poll
July 06, 2016, 11:10:41 AM
Heya,
This is the poll regarding what platforms to port Claw to / make it compatible from the beginning.
Feel free to post suggestions for other platforms too.

And of course please vote (for multiple platforms)!


Info to admins/mods:
Something went wrong posting this I guess.
I just clicked add poll.
Please don't delete it anyways. It should be deleted after the poll is over. Also it took me an eternity to write this on my phone.
#19
Hello guys (and girls)!

After my last post got eaten by a session timeout and I don't feel like rewriting it entirely, here's the short form:

I want to make chiptune music and bought a special YAMAHA keyboard from eBay UK, the only place I could find it for an acceptable price (and find at all, as it's quite rare already).
The device I bought is a YAMAHA PortaSound PSS-470:


This keyboard features the wavetable synthesizer that was used in the SoundBlaster ISA audio cards back in the late 80's to early 90's that many DOS games used for sound. It was called the YAMAHA YM3812.
The wavetable synthesizer chip has 9 voices (or 6 voices and 5 drum sounds) and sounds really amazing (I assume even better than the one of my C64).
Another speciality of the keyboard is, that it allows manually adjusting the registers of the synthesizer chip using slide switches and therefore allows creation of these retro sounds and not just the standard piano sounds.

I don't have any experience playing the piano yet, but I am willing to learn it myself as far as possible. Any suggestions for me?
#20

Introduction
For the last year, I have been working on Claw, a development system for embedded devices.
It has a very small RAM footprint and can run on systems with as few as 2 KB of RAM.
The VM's own memory footprint is tiny and most of the RAM remains to be used by the applications.
Claw will probably support multitasking in it's operating system releases and also support CEFS (Claw embedded read-only file system) and FAT32 for loading (and storing) files from and to.
The files are streamed and therefore can be as large as 4 GB (on 32 bit VM's) or 64 KB (per executable) on 16 bit systems. 64 bit is supported as well, though 4 and 8 bit is not.
Claw features and assembly language and an high-level language that will compile to CXE executables that Claw can execute. On any platform, as Claw executables are binary compatible!
So you focus on your code and write and compile it once. Claw will deal with libraries and device specific hardware! But this freedom is of course still limited by hardware factors (e.g. it needs a screen to display graphics, or processor speed and RAM size).

Memory
Claw is entirely stack-based and uses three main stacks. There is a call-stack which stores the source address every time you call another function. As Claw has file system support built-in you can of course call functions from libraries dynamically. Dynamic linking is performed by Claw automatically, so you don't need to worry about library versions. The next stack is the work stack. It stores the function arguments, is used for arithmetic and other instructions and is arbitrarily accessible. The third stack is the array pool which programs use to allocate parts of memory to store data to. New memory can be allocated at any time but as in a stack, only the last array can be deallocated at a time. There cannot be holes in the memory map.

Supported platforms
The architectures and systems that I will port Claw to include but are not limited to 32- and 64-bit Intel and AMD computers running Windows, Linux or BSD; AVR (especially Arduino Uno and Mega); MIPS (routers); ARM and XTensa (ESP8266). Somebody might want to do a port the TI-84+CE and I might do a port to the TI-84+ if I find time.

Online IDE
There is also a planned online IDE that includes an online compiler as well as a standalone, offline compiler and assembler that runs on Windows, Linux, and BSD. The assembler also works for Mac OSX.

Open source
Claw is an open source project and is on GitHub: https://github.com/bmuessig
The chosen license is as permissive as it gets: The "new" / "revised" 3-clause BSD license.
This means Claw can be used free of charge, can be modified and used in closed source and commercial projects, as long as the name is not miss-used and I get credited appropriately.

Development status
I have completed most of the assembler so far and a good part of the VM. The compiler is just a draft so far, but will be started soon.  Most parts of Claw that are not yet made are already documented and planned but just not yet written.

Have fun!
#21
Hardware / DarkestEx' own CNC machine
February 26, 2016, 01:37:11 AM
Hello everybody!

I have been working on my own tabletop CNC machine recently as I always wanted to build one.


You can see more photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/139723640@N07/albums/72157664936085041

It should be capable of cutting plastic (PLA, ABS, etc.), wood (even harder woods) and some metals (maybe thin aluminium and PCB copper).
#22
Hello guys, I just discovered this nice piece of tech when I was looking for small portable routers:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00SMHXMQW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

It is a Hame MPR-A1 clone with 32 MB of RAM, 4 MB of flash, USB 2.0 host, UART and I2C broken out to pins, Ethernet and WiFi b/g/n (150 Mbit/s).
The processor is a Railink RA-5350f that runs at 360 MHz and is based on the MIPS architecture.
Another cool thing is, that with an I2C I/O expander, this thing could drive motors and do other IoT things. It can also theoretically talk to an Arduino or similar using UART.
OpenWrt (Linux) runs happily on it https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/hame/mpr-a1 and with it's 32 MB of RAM, even a C compiler or Lua environment could run on it together with a webserver.
Using USB storage, the filesystem can be expanded and more programs added.

The best thing is the price, 8€ delivered!
It is also fairly small: 6.2 (L) x 2.5 (W) x 1.3 (H) cm and it might actually contain a power bank, though this clone might not have one.



I just ordered two of them and plan doing some modding with them and I am sure there are some people here who think this is a great deal too.
As always, have fun!
#23
Hello, I was in need for a program to convert .8xp files to .bin files to be able to disassemble them, so I created a small tool to do this task for me.
The tool runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, but for the latter two, the mono environment is required.
It is written in .NET (C#) which makes the tool portable.

Download is here: http://legacy.bmuessig.eu/media/Z80/Tools/TI-8x/8xpconv.exe
Syntax is: 8xpconv.exe <input file> [output file]

Have fun :)
#24
Hello!

Adekto and I were working on a new project that you fellow Z80 hackers should love:
A DIY Z80 computer kit that you can solder and more importantly hack into every aspect!

It will have 128KB of fine SRAM, VGA, mono audio, a 10 MHz Zilog Z84C00-10 processor, SD card interface for loading the kernel and for accessing files from the Z80, PS/2 for attaching a keyboard and a fancy LED indicator.
#25
Hello everybody!

After thinking about this step for some time, we come to the conclusion that we are not up to the task of finishing the project (currently?) :(
We had big issues with production, couldn't find a factory, had issues with the PCB prototype and too few money to get it working.
There will most likely not be a PCB version of it and we will not sell it or do a kickstarter. We have started another project that we think is simpler for us to make, easier to produce and a lot more fun, trust me :)
The people who believed in the microcat and helped will still be awarded. If you have interest in our new project, you will still get your discount. I hold my promise!
I can't talk about the new project yet, but it has something to do with Z80, that's said. And it is all DIP parts, no stupid .4mm pin pich (unlike the Microcat :-\)

The prototype will be finished and we will not let Claw die. It could still be handy for other projects. I hope I have not disapointed anybody too much and I feel sad too.
Best wishes,
Benedikt M. (DarkestEx) and Iwert H. (adekto)
#26
Hey everybody!

So I will be participating in the Walrii contest but on a very unusual platform that I got for christmas:
The Commodore 64!

Yes- CW will hopefully get their own retro game on an awesome machine. I have never done any 6510 assembler so I have three options:
- Program it in C; yes I can do efficient C and there is a good little C compiler for this very machine
- Learn 6510 assembler quickly (I (badly) know Z80 assembler yet and I also have designed and partially programmed my own assembly language too so learning shouldn't be *that* hard as the understanding is mostly there)
- Learn some more Basic and do it with the builtin Basic interpreter (is reasonably slower but should work in any case)
#27
Web / Dynamically generated GIF scrolltext
December 20, 2015, 10:14:58 PM
Heya!

I was recovering the dynamic GIF generator for scrolling images that I wrote a few months back to generate my signature image on the fly.
Today I reworked the PHP script some more, made it even messier, but added a lot of new features. I will clean the code up one day.
I also changed my avatar to a dynamically generated version. If anybody wants to have a custom bar inside their signature or an animated avatar, I would love to help.
Those who want an avatar can give me a font and a background image, tell me the remaining settings and I will create them a dynamically changing avatar or one that is generated once that they can download.
At some point will I release the code or create a service for these images.

I hope you like them :)
#28
Hardware / Keyberry Pi - A small, keyboard sized computer
December 14, 2015, 12:39:18 AM
Hello, I am working on a project, where I am building a Raspberry Pi Zero into a USB keyboard which has a USB hub builtin.
This gives me more space and also allows me to plug multiple devices except the keyboard into the Pi.
The Pi Zero will sit inside of the keyboards casing and i will add holes and connectors for HDMI and USB power the cord will be cut and wired to the Pi inside the case.
This way i can plug devices into the integrated hub (such as a mouse or a USB stick, WiFi or another Hub) and have a keyboard at the same time.
22nd december is the estimated arrival date of my Pi Zero (which I got for 15 euros). The special rectangle adapters and the keyboard should arrive on the 16th.

This is the keyboard that I will build it into:




I will keep you updated :)
#29
[Did you know android has a way to wipe the full phone just by entering a phone number?

Go into the phone application and enter:
[spoiler=WARNING, this will reset your phone!]
*2767*3855#[/spoiler]
It will wipe everything.
#30
So I guess we will also have a so called Claw Data Notation to have easily editable configuration files that will be used by the OS and the games to store highscores and savegames and to load levels from.

It will have arrays of numbers, numbers, strings and booleans and uses key-value pairs.
Comments are there too. The overall style will be similar to Claw.
I think I will also make it possible to compile it into bytecode too so that it loads faster but then the possibility of editing it easily is lost.

Here is a sample:

name = "Sample"  -- this is a comment
levels = [1,2,3,4,5223,4,3,2,22,45,243,34,564,2,4,55,63,24,35,244,56,23,532,556,25562,252,224,25,24]  -- note that we only have one dimensional arrays, but we can always use y*width+x or level*level_size+offset to make a two dimensional array out of it.
level_size = 5
hard_level = true  -- will eval to numeric 1, also we can use A-Za-z0-9_ for names

#31
The microcat is going to be very modular and open. The BIOS will support loading different firmwares which can either be runtime environments for games written in (compiled-) scripting or VM based languages or C based games (similar to the Gamebuino). Changing the firmware will be easy and will be done using a graphical menu or the firmware that is currently running (if supported by it). The flash has an endurance of only 10^4 erase-write cycles and therefore writing C games will be supported but it's not recommended to change between them too often (yes, the whole flash gets overwritten every time you change the firmware). This is a reason to primarily focus on scripting languages / VM based games. Sure, the ARM processor does indeed support executing from RAM, but this is rather useless as we only have 128KB of it which is shared between the variables and the game code then.

Now, initially we wanted to port Lua over, but this might not be the best idea as Lua games would need to be loaded into RAM and take up most of it in the end.
Then we were thinking if Basic games would maybe fix this issue and they probably do, but Basic is less powerful than Lua.
So we were thinking about making a new language that is very similar in syntax to Lua but has no tables and only four different data types being nul, int16, int32 and an array of int16.
It would also have static functions and local and global variables. This langauge would in any case take up way less space than Lua would and it would be more powerful than Basic.
The only problem is, that we would have to write it first, but we were already planning time in for such a task if necessary.

So what do you think?
#32
As the whole microcat subforum kindly gets its own color scheme, this is what I am working on:


If you want to try it out yourself, just install the Stylish extension and put the following stylesheet:

@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Coda);
@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,400italic,700,600);

body {
    background: #333;
    font-family: "Coda", sans-serif;
}

#content-section a, #content-section a:link, #content-section a:visited,
#upper_section .user a, #upper_section .user a:link, #upper_section .user a:visited,
#content_section a, #content_section a:link, #content_section a:visited {
    color: #b7e55b;
}

#content-section a:hover {
    color: #ccff66;
}

h4.catbg a, h4.catbg a:link, h4.catbg a:visited,
h4.catbg2 a, h4.catbg2 a:link, h4.catbg2 a:visited,
h3.catbg a, h3.catbg a:link, h3.catbg a:visited,
h3.catbg2 a, h3.catbg2 a:link, h3.catbg2 a:visited,
.table_list tbody.header td.catbg a, .table_list tbody.header td.catbg a:link, .table_list tbody.header td.catbg a:visited,
div.cat_bar a, div.cat_bar a:link, div.cat_bar a:visited {
    color: #fff !important;
}

h4.catbg a:hover, h4.catbg2 a:hover, h3.catbg a:hover, h3.catbg2 a:hover, .table_list tbody.header td.catbg a:hover, div.cat_bar a:hover {
    color: #fff !important;
}

.buttonlist ul li a.active {
    color: #fff !important;
}

.buttonlist ul li a {
    color: #000 !important;
}


h4.catbg, h4.catbg2, h3.catbg, h3.catbg2, .table_list tbody.header td.catbg, div.cat_bar
{
    background: #b7e55b;
    color: #333;
    font-family: "Coda", sans-serif;
}

.windowbg, #preview_body {
    background: #666;
    color: #000;
}

.windowbg2, #preview_body {
    background: #666;
    color: #000;
}

#header, #content_section, #footer_section {
    background: #333;
    color: #fff;
}

#header div.frame, #content_section div.frame, #footer_section div.frame,
#header, #content_section, #footer_section {
    border-top: none;
    border-right: none;
    border-left: none;
    border-bottom: none;
}

h1.forumtitle {
    width: 100%;
    height: 100px;
    background-image: url(http://img.codewalr.us/smflogo_microcat_border.png);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: center;
}

h1.forumtitle img {
    display: none;
}

blockquote.bbc_standard_quote, code.bbc_code {
    background: #999;
}

blockquote.bbc_standard_quote, blockquote.bbc_alternate_quote {
    border-top: 1px solid #444;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #444;
}

.pagesection, p#whoisviewing {
    color: #fff;
}

.roundframe {
    background: #666;
}

Then you can some URL rules such as:
- https://codewalr.us/index.php?action=post;board=40.0
- https://codewalr.us/index.php?board=40.0
- https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=646
- https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=815
And you should see the new style :)

The style is nowhere near completion yet, but how do you like it so far?
#33
In this topic I would like to discuss the design and layout of the microcat.

adekto made this drawing a few days ago:

The green boxes would go on the back and I was thinking about putting headphones jack and usb port on the top.
Also the row of four button ontop might be replaced by two buttons.

What button layout would you suggest? And how do you like the overall shape?
#34
Hello, in this topic you can suggest and vote for graphics and drawing routines that I we will use in he official API and system.

To start, I want to have some sprite routines, but I can't get them to work:
void oled_bdraws(int16_t x, int16_t y, uint8_t width, uint8_t height, const uint8_t bitmap[]) {
uint8_t ow = width;

if(width + x > BUFFER_WIDTH)
width -= width + x - BUFFER_WIDTH;
if(height + y > BUFFER_HEIGHT)
height -= height + y - BUFFER_HEIGHT;
if(width + x <= 0 || height + y <= 0)
return;

for(int yi = y; yi < (y + height); yi++) {
for(int xi = x; xi < (x + width); xi++) {
if((yi - y) < 0 || (xi - x) < 0)
continue;
if(bitmap[(yi - y) * ow + (xi - x)] > 0)
screen_buffer[yi * ow + xi] = bitmap[(yi - y) * ow + (xi - x)];
}
}
}


The language for all routines should be C, but many other languages can be ported pretty easily I guess.
There is one framebuffer called screen_buffer[128*128]. It is using a palette. If you want to make your own functions, just make them take inputs (coordiantes, colors, etc.) and let them write to screen_buffer. The color 0x00 is transparent when drawn.
#35
Hey guys!

WE FINALLY LAUNCHED OUR NEW WEBSITE  ;D
http://www.ninjabyte.eu/

I designed and programmed it and then made a design for the razor CMS out of it.
The CMS used has been heavily customized by me and does now perfectly fit our needs.
#36
Calculator News, Coding, Help & Talk / TI-OS 84+ Bugs
October 13, 2015, 07:36:06 PM
I discovered another bug in TIOS some time ago. It shifts the screen up (I assume the display gets out of sync) until the calculator is turned off and on again.

This simple Basic program is enough to trigger it:

CLASSIC
Degree
Seq
-47//10->Xmin
47//10->Xmax
1->Xscl
-31//0->Ymin
31//10->Ymax
1->Yscl
1->Xres
{100}->u(nMin)
"u(n-1)+.15*(80-u(n-1))"->u
DispGraph

The // is the thick /.

#37
After some playing with personality quizzes and talking on WIRC, I want to make a Walrii personality quiz, where you have to answer questions and get the Walrii that matches you best.
I will do all PHP and possibly all HTML and CSS (if nobody wants to style it) and I need your help.

Please post:

  • Walriis that should participate
  • Categories and values for the Walriis
  • Questions for the categories and their values

I hope we can make it come true and maybe host it on CW if it becomes reality.
#38
Other / Personality test: Painting preference
October 03, 2015, 04:46:20 PM
I did the painting test.

I mainly picked non-war and lighter images (with persons on them), because I liked them more.

You can play the test here if you want: http://personality-testing.info/tests/APS/
This is a follow-up to http://codewalr.us/752

EDIT: I redid the test and got different combinations to choose from. The test is now different.
#39
Hello!

I noticed that we are missing a "x Reasons that you are a CodeWalr.us" thread.
So here it is :)

In this thread you describe reasons what identifys you as a CodeWalr.us member.
Be creative!
Feel free to comment more or say which of them you experience yourself.


I am a CodeWalr.us...
1. because I make douzens of Walrii sprites.
2. because the first website I open when I start my computer is CodeWalrus
#40
I'd like to present you the new console @adekto, @Cumred_Snektron, @gbl08ma, @Streetwalrus and I are working on!
Special thanks to all of them, they are awesome :)

The microcat

Preliminary specifications:
- ARMv7 Core @ 120 MHz
- ESP8266 WiFi @ 80 MHz
- 128 KB builtin RAM
- High speed SDIO interface for SD cards for program and media storage (resulting in almost unlimited program and ressource sizes)
- 128x128px 16 bit OLED (about 1.5 inches in diagonal)
- 4 direction buttons, 4 action buttons, a soft power-, a home- and a reset button
- big expansion header
- Digital 16 bit audio and headphone socket
- LiPo battery with builtin charge circuit
- USB 2.0 full speed, host and slave

Estimated price is about 45 EUR for the base unit
About 59 for a full starter kit.

The console will be very tiny. Just about smaller than a credit card.

We are still in prototyping phase, but I want to log progress here, and we really hope that you like it :)

Have fun!
#41
Hello!
I was having the idea of allowing some certain, trusted people (The original 5, Elite Coders and Moderators) to use javascript-free HTML in posts to allow them to format their posts better.
There are plugins / mods which strip any Javascript and object tags from the HTML.

I hope you all like the idea and accept it.

Cheers!
#42
Hey guys!

@adeko (from Gamebuino.com) and I have been working on the ultimate extension board for the Gamebuino: The Ninja Board

The features
- Boosts SRAM to 129 KB!
- 128x64 OLED for extra status information like texts, maps, images
- Intelligent keypad matrix for text and other input on the Gamebuino; customizable by games
- ATmega328pu coprocessor @ 8 MHZ
- Plugs right into the I2C and the SPI bus of the Gamebuino (connects to the Gamebuino's top)
- Connections for more SPI devices on the Coprocessor's bus
- Works standalone (needs 3V3 and GND)
- Leaves I2C in tact (I2C ontop of SPI)
- Blazing fast hardware SPI communication
- Fully compatible with BuinoBasic
- Updateable using a special loader on the Gamebuino: Create your custom firmware!
- Arduino library for easy integration in games
- Powered right from the Gamebuino
- Hackable (e.g. make your own TVout, serial terminal, ... with it)

Estimated pricepoint:
- Bare PCB: ?? EUR + shipping from Europe
- Full kit: around 20-30 EUR + shipping from Europe

We are already taking preorders if anybody wants one.
#43
[spoiler=Cursing]c![/spoiler]
The graphics chip of my main Notebook died yesterday. It does still boot but there is no video on VGA, HDMI nor the LCD.
I guess I have to buy another Notebook even though I can't afford a new one right now [emoji20]
#44
Hardware / Tiny Basic Microcomputer / Calculator
June 23, 2015, 10:00:25 PM
Heya guys!

A few weeks ago I was working on another of my old projects, which actually got me into electronics. It was a build from the Ben Heck Show.
I started with electronics for building this project, but back then I wasn't able to make it, but now this is not a problem anymore.
The project is to build a small, BASIC computer with an ATMega328p or similar and a 4x20 LCD and a XBox 360 Chatpad.
The programming and the breadboard part is done. There's only one program bug to fix and still needs to be rewired onto a PCB and put into a nice case.
Because I don't have a PIC programmer, I had to write my own Chatpad driver based of the work from another person's reverse engineering.

Here is a picture for you:
#45
Hey, guys.
I was on a flea market last Sunday, where I bought an old, 50's rotary phone for 18€ (~20$).
My idea was to get it going with our analog, business DTMF telephone system.
At the beginning I wanted to build the converter by my own, but my dad probably doesn't like the idea of using a not 100% tested device on our telephone system and actually bought me a converter for about 40€ (~44$).
I restaurated, took apart, cleaned and repaired it. When the converter arrives tomorrow or in two days, I'll try it.
This might not be the most interesting project for you, but I kinda like to have such a retro phone :D

Pictures from it before and after the process will follow.
#46
This is my latest and almost my largest project so far. A Basic compiler and VM for the Gamebuino platform.
You can find more information on GitHub (VM, Compiler), on my blog and my project page.


What is BuinoBasic?
BuinoBasic consists of two main parts, which are the BuinoBasic compiler (or short bcc) and the BuinoBasic VM (bvm). The compiler takes your Basic source code and translates it into a memory structure, that your computer can understand. These structures are then compiled into binary tokens and then saved to a file. You then put the file onto your Gamebuino's SD card. Now the VM comes into play. It's job is to execute the binary tokens and perform the operations assigned to them. So you flash the VM's compiled hex file onto the Gamebuino like any other game using the loader. Now you can select a file you want to run. After selecting your file, the VM will validate and start executing it.


What features does BuinoBasic bring?
BuinoBasic allows you to use a subset of (Q/GL)Basic for the syntax of your game's source code. Basic is one of the easiest and in this dialekt a very powerful language, supporting functions, 8-64 bit integers, strings and even arrays. It has flow control blocks, I/O, sound, graphics, file management functions. But that is not the end. Using BuiniBasic, you don't have to reflash your Gamebuino to load a new game, making it faster to play or to debug a new game. Just drop it onto the SD and start it in the VM. This will also save you flash-cycles making your Gamebuino's main MPU's memory last longer. There will even be a small compiler on the Gamebuino itself, which allows you to experiment with a limited Basic subset on the fly! But as everything, BuinoBasic also has its drawbacks. It is a some slower than plain C++ and a lot slower than optimized assembly. Also does BuinoBasic not allow you to include any kind of unmanaged code, so any hardware feature must be implemented as a function or it won't work, but you can still request a new feature to be added.


How can I help with Development?
Help is always welcome! Below you will find a list of tasks with which you can contribute:


  • If you are good at C, I'd be happy to welcome you in our VM team. Together we can make it happen a lot faster!
  • If you're good with C# you can help with the compiler and make it more awesome than ever expected. :)
  • If you are good with Basic, you could set some Demo programs up or help with the syntax.
  • If you are good at HTML and CSS, we'd love to see what new design, you make for our page.
  • If you feel like writing, and know a little Basic you could help writing the Basic documentation and provide some graphics.
  • If you are not able to help with the above, you can still beta test on an actual device or emulator.
And don't forget to spread Gamebuino and BuinoBasic to the world!
#47
Hey, everybody!
As I already said, I've been working on a PC version of a CodeWalrus Post Notifier.
The notifier will run on Windows, Linux and Mac.
It's written in C#, without WinForms but with GTK and is 100% Mono compatible. Target framework is .NET 4.0 but could be even lower.

The source code is (yeah, this time I'm publishing source!) available under the MIT Licence at GitHub:
http://github.com/muessigb/CodeWalrii-Notifier/
Additional helping hands are as always welcome!
The only requirements is Xamarin Studio or the OSS alternative to it.
#48
Hello :walrii: sses!
I am working on a convenient API and desktop notifier for post replies.
The API is currently located here: http://api.muessigb.net/walrus_notify.php.
It outputs data using minified json and reads a number of get parameters over http.
If the client supports it, the data is sent using gzip compression.
The API is publicly usable for anybody who wants to make a post notifier for CW and should really not be overused (normal polling every minute is okay), but I would really like you to download it instead and upload it to your own server if you go below this refresh rate.
The API does alot of things: It downloads and parses the feed (saving you the trouble to configure the feed and saves you some traffic), makes the data more machine readable, converts the relative dates to unix timestamps, converts the relative links to absolute ones, parses the HTML and does one of three things (mode is selectable over get parameter):  1: Simply strip all html;  2: Strip all html, but preserve convert smileys;  3: Strip all html but convert smileys and convert tags like b and i to ** and // markup;  4: Leave the html intact
The api makes polling easier and you can ask the API if any updates happened since a specific post id. Also you can specify how many posts are checked or returned.

The desktop notifier will be using this API and refreshes between twice a minute (only for me), every minute or every 15 minutes.
It is going to get a similar design to the one of @Cumred_Snektron

More details will follow.
#49
I am really interested in building myself a small, tabletop CNC Router to route out parts for enclosures and exactly cut wood and plastic (1mm accuracy or less).
I don't want to spend much money on it and I really want to build it cheap (150 - 200€ max).
Does anybody have good resources or know good sites to start from? I already found two nice projects, but they're too inaccurately written or too expensive.
It would be great to have some kind of a template that I could let somebody laser cut for me. Any suggestions are really welcome!
#50
I bought myself a Netgear WNR2200 Router. Not that I need it for it's original purpose, but it is a quite advanced little Linux computer with Wifi and USB actually.
It also has 4 MB Flash for the kernel (you can still use USB with overlay ext4 or fat32 fs to expand up to 32 GB or even more). I built my own firmware for it, which is based on the same Linux distribution as the stock one: OpenWrt.
I am using the trunk version Chaos Calmer which works great on this model, although I needed to patch some files to get it working.
I compiled USB drivers, got the USB chip working and included avrdude (only on overlay fs right now), gcc (overlay fs) and some usb serial FTDI drivers.
I am playing with the idea of letting the router (which I set to client mode wifi), connect to an Arduino / Atmel ATmega chip to get linux and web capabilities.
The router is (as far is I know) more powerful than the Arduino Yun and also a lot cheaper. I bought the router from amazon as used. It was one product that has already been opened but then sent back. It is alright, only the packaging was damaged.

I hope this is somehow useful.
Greetings, Benedikt
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