Enter the catchily-named Treedix TRX5-0816-AC.

It will test just about any sort of USB cable and tell you what it does - and doesn't - support. It will also show you which pins are connected, how fast it can transmit data, and what the eMarker shows. Nice!

Let's put it through its paces.

Inputs and outputs

On one side are your output ports - you have a choice of USB-C or USB-A 3.0.

At the bottom you have this range of ports to choose from:

So you can go A-C, C-micro, C-lightning etc.

Finally, on the other side you have a button, a switch, and input power:

The power switch toggles between the internal AAA battery (included) and a 5V supply from a USB-C cable (not included). Pressing the white button moves between the different diagnostic screens.

Power Only

I tried with a short USB-C power-only cable designed for charging low-power devices. I plugged in the USB-A end and the USB-C end.

It correctly identified that it couldn't do data transmission.

With a power-only USB-C cable, it had much the same display. Pressing the button on the side of the Treedix told me what it knew about the eMarker.

Perfect!

Passive USB-C

What about a data and power USB-C cable? This is the ChubbyCable I reviewed a few years ago.

USB 3.2 Gen2 and power of up to 100W. It has also correctly guessed the likely length of the cable by measuring the latency.

Interestingly, when looking at the basic functions, it says it can only do USB 2.0 speeds and correctly identifies that it doesn't do PowerDelivery 3.1 (which goes up to 240W).

Finally, which pins are connected?

That looks about right!

ThunderBolt 4 or 3?

Let's compare two high-performance cables. The one I usually have plugged into my Framework Laptop and USB-C hub

Thunderbolt 4 capable of 100W of Power and 40 Gbps of data. As expected, no PD3.1:

Let's test a different high-quality cable I bought recently. The labelling claims 20Gbps and 240W of power. We can see that it does have PD3.1:

But! Looking at the eMarker, it reports that is only a ThunderBolt 3 device capable of 10Gbps!

I asked the cable manufacturer if that's a problem with the cable or the eMarker or the diagnostic machine. They said:

eMarker tester can only show single channel transmission rate 10Gbps, devices supporting dual channel can show 20Gbps. our products have 18 months warranty, if there is any problem, please feel free to contact me, I will provide you with satisfactory after-sales service.

I contacted Treedix to see if they could shed light on this. They replied quickly:

Yes, we sincerely apologize - this tester currently does not support dual-channel detection at this time.

Which is a bit annoying.

Of course, my laptop only supports 10Gbps, so it is a bit moot!

Firmware

Update!

I emailed Treedix about possible firmware updates - they said:

Our devices with firmware version V2.3 and above can be updated. Currently the latest version is V2.3. you can see your version number. The way to view it is the boot page will show the version number. In addition, our test boards cannot be updated to test dual channels at this time. Because this is the information written inside the EMARKER, we can only read the information inside. We are currently working on the data inside the information we read to see if we can read the number of channels.

Mine shows a firmware of 2.3.04 - which does appear to be the latest. If a new firmware appears, I'll update this post again.

Weird Cables

As well as your standard USB-C, it will also do the ugliest plug known the mankind - the USB Micro-B SuperSpeed.

It'll also do Lightning cables - as long as they also have a USB-A or C end.

Downsides

Other than having to replace all your duff cables, there are a few annoying little niggles.

• The battery compartment is really stiff. I had to unscrew the back of the device to get it open.
• The power switch feels a little flimsy.
• The function button is a little small and fiddly.
• Screen brightness can't be changed (but it is pretty bright).
• No USB-B (the chunky one often used for printers).
• Lack of dual-channel detection.
• No firmware updates.

Those are all minor complaints.

The biggest complaint is that USB-C terminology is hard. Which is better, 40Gbps but only 100W or 10Gbps but 240W? How does ThunderBolt relate to USB? What is EPR and why does it matter? Where does DP Alt Mode fit in?!

Verdict

It powers up and detects all features instantly. It goes to sleep after a few minutes of not being used. It will even show you the electrical resistance of the cable if you think that's useful.

Total cost? £40 at the moment from Amazon. I reckon that's a bargain. It is an indispensable piece of kit - especially if you have a big box of ancient USB cables. This will allow you to quickly and easily see which ones are broken, which are mislabelled, and which deserve pride of place in your collection.

If you're running a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. If you've ever wasted time trying to diagnose a USB problem, this should be your first port of call.

I splashed out on the larger Framework 16. Again, I only bought one stick of RAM (32GB) so I can buy more when the price falls. Similarly, I only got a modest 500GB SSD, and I didn't bother with a super-premium CPU or extra graphics card. Total cost with all the gubbin was close to £1,700.

So here's a quick review: it's really good.

OK, here's a slightly longer review:

Set Up

The setup guide is beautifully designed. It has text and video to show you exactly how things work. All the screws are numbered, and are tackled in order. They all use the same (supplied) torx screwdriver. Oh, and the main body screws are attached, so they won't go flying.

Removing the case, fitting the bits, and putting it back together was a breeze.

The BIOS / UEFI is an ugly pig of an interface. No worse than any other laptop, but really detracts from the quality of the product.

There was a BIOS update which was easy enough to apply - unzip it onto a USB drive, shove it in, wait.

Installing Pop_OS Linux was simple - although you do need to disable "Secure Boot" in the UEFI.

Everything worked without needing to futz about. WiFi, sound, keyboard back light, Bluetooth, camera. Once I installed fprint I was able to use the fingerprint reader to log in!

I got 4 USB-C expansion ports and, reluctantly, two USB-A for legacy devices. I didn't bother with HDMI or Ethernet - I have USB-C hubs. To the future! The expansion ports slide in easily and can be locked in place. They are annoyingly small though.

Usage and tweaking

The screen supports 165Hz. That's bonkers. Yes, it does look gorgeous, but it probably eats battery life. So I set it back down to 60Hz.

The screen is beautifully tall - with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The resolution is 2560x1600 which, again, is probably too good! Everything looks crisp and gorgeous - but tiny. I used Wayland's fractional scaling and set it to 150%, I also boosted some of the fonts.

Sound is strong - for a laptop. Bass was just enough to feel it in my legs, voices were clear, there was no obvious clipping or distortion. But, it is only a laptop. It isn't going to drown out the neighbours or deafen you.

The trackpad is geneously large and very responsive. It worked with multi-finger gestures and has a pleasing click to it.

Keyboard

The en-GB keyboard and numpad are great - but they're a different layout to my old one which makes my tired old brain a little confused. I don't get why insert / del share a key.

Other oddities:

• There's no right context menu key:
• The backlight is only a single colour (white) and only has 4 levels of brightness including off.
• The numpad backlight is not controlled by the keyboard
• There's a keyboard information site but no easy way to remap keys.

On the plus side:

• The dedicated calculator key is nice.
• The function keys have controls for media playback, volume, brightness etc.
• Impressively, both Function Lock and NumLock remember their state between reboots. Sadly there's no indicator light on them.

Battery Life

Fine. Looks like 5-8 hours of moderate use. To be honest, I spend most of my time near a USB-C power source. The UEFI has an option to set a maximum charge for the battery, so I set it to 75%. That's a good balance between usable battery life and preserving its longevity.

Suspend seemed to work and wasn't too heavy on the battery overnight. It runs cool - I haven't heard the fans spin up yet. That said, I'm not running loads of 3D games or recompiling my kernel.

Niggles

There's a significant gap between the touchpad and the chassis when it is clicked.

After reassembling, there is a slight but noticeable lip between the trackpad unit and the spacer units.

The BIOS update seemed to take longer than the OS installation! Seriously annoying having to watch it transcribe each bit via the pony express. It doesn't stop when finished, so you'll need to keep an eye on it otherwise it goes through it again.

The hardware switches for the camera and microphone feel fragile. Because they're slightly stiff, I'm always worried I'll damage the screen when I use them.

The microphone is ridiculously sensitive. I had to set it to the lowest level otherwise it would pick up sounds from other rooms and made me sound a bit boomy.

Here's an audio test of it.

The setup guide didn't mention the tape which needs removing from the thermal pads - I only found out about it by reading the comments.

The expansion ports seem like a good idea, but they are ridiculously small. There's just about enough space to fit an HDMI socket and a smidgen of circuitry.

Personally, I'd have liked them to be even longer to allow some more complicated expansion ideas. I think I'm going to struggle to design an NFC reader for them.

WiFi

The 5GHz WiFi seems slow. I can hit 250Mbps on the Framework. Another laptop in the same position hit over 300Mbps. I've also noticed it drop out once or twice. I don't know if that's the hardware, software, or firmware.

Obviously, that's plenty fast for most day-to-day operations, but it is a bit weird that it is noticeably slower than other machines.

WebCam

1080p @ 30fps. Excellent quality. The hardware switch disables it. I usually prefer a physical cover - but the switch does the trick. Here's a quick recording.

More than good enough for endless video calling. The tallness of the screen is an advantage here - it puts it much closer to your eye-line.

Final thoughts

I've only been using this for a few days, but it is a dream. Screen is big and bright. Keyboard is responsive. Sound is decent. The community are friendly.

The total cost of the laptop and accessories was £1,700. That's a fair whack of cash! But I wanted to support a new way of building and designing laptops. In the few days that I've been using it the performance has been excellent and build quality is solid.

Is it a lightweight and svelte powerhouse like the M3 MacBook Air? No - but it isn't designed to be. I'm hoping this machine will last me into the 2030s with significant upgrades along the way.

If you have any questions - please drop a comment in the box. And if you have any laptop stickers, send them my way - it is looking a little bare!

It has the most bizarre product description I've seen:

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Always nice to review a gadget which comes with a reminder of your own mortality… pic.x.com/wGJYcWCVyJ

---

I think it is trying to say that if you leave the room the light will extinguish.

Anyway, this is what it looks like:

Four columns of LEDs - two are cool white, two are warm white. Tapping the button toggles between cool, warm, and mixed. They are dimmable.

Speaking of buttons...

The lights can be set to always on, motion sensitive, or motion sensitive only when it is dark. There's an RGB LED hidden in the sensor which lights up to tell you which is which.

You'll notice there's a grille near the sensor. Is it for a speaker?

Wanna look inside? Warning - this is a boring teardown!

Pop the end off and this circuit slips out.

There's an unpopulated part of the board which, I guess, was for a buzzer? Or maybe a microphone.

The back doesn't reveal anything interesting.

With the plastic diffuser slid off, we can see the "rustic" layout of the LEDs.

The board is JHCH-6001B.

Almost certainly an anonymous Shenzen manufacturer.

There's a weird bridge in the middle.

Slide out the LEDs and you'll see the battery and a disc magnet.

There's a magnet at each end - and they're strong enough to hold the lightweight unit upside down.

You get two of these for about £30. They're bright, and the PIR motion sensor works well. Each one comes with a metal bar with a sticky pad, so you can shove them in cupboards or under cabinets. They recharge quickly via USB. Keep the instructions handy - because you'll never remember which button does what.

It is miniscule - almost dominated by the Ethernet port. And the specifications are ridiculously good - considering this thing costs US$10 + postage.

• 256MB RAM
• USB-C power
• Ethernet
• 26 GPIO pins
• Another 26 pins for voice/audio (I2C, PCM, TDM, PDM, SPDIF, and HDMI ARC)
• And, of course, it runs Ubuntu!

Quickstart

Head over to the download page and grab either Debian or Ubuntu. Follow the guide to burn the OS to a micro SD card.

Shove the card in the Pi, and attach the board to your computer using a USB-C cable. Here comes the clever bit!

The OS responds to adb (Android Debug Bridge) commands.

adb shell connects to the Rock Pi.

/bin/bash starts the regular shell.

By default, a "heartbeat" LED blinks.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

And, for those who like well-lit close-ups of circuits…

Did I mention that the board only costs $10? pic.x.com/WhEJ5RcBLS

---

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

BLINKENLIGHTS! pic.x.com/RXfomlCTt6

---

Disable it with the following command:

echo none > /sys/class/leds/rockpis\:blue\:user/trigger

OK. Now what?

Connect to the Internet

The higher spec versions have WiFi and Bluetooth. If you want them on this version, you'll need to plug them in to the USB port. Or, shove an ethernet cable in it. Once connected, the date automagically updates and you can upgrade the OS with

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

SSH is enabled on the device, if you don't want to use ADB. The default username / password is rock.

Music

The board is pretty well optimised for audio work.

As a test, I ran an example .wav through the Opus encoder, on a ridiculous quality setting.

Encoding using libopus 1.1.2 (audio)
-----------------------------------------------------
   Input: 48kHz 2 channels
  Output: 2 channels (2 coupled)
          20ms packets, 512kbit/sec VBR
 Preskip: 312

Encoding complete                                
-----------------------------------------------------
       Encoded: 1 minute and 30.82 seconds
       Runtime: 13 seconds
                (6.986x realtime)
         Wrote: 5647048 bytes, 4541 packets, 100 pages
       Bitrate: 494.968kbit/s (without overhead)
 Instant rates: 121.6kbit/s to 510.4kbit/s
                (304 to 1276 bytes per packet)
      Overhead: 0.494% (container+metadata)

Good enough! Decoding back to .wav from .opus took 6 seconds.

The arm64 version of ffmpeg is also available. It was similarly quick at decoding AC3 and DTS audio.

Conclusion

Obviously, everyone wants to know how this compares to the Raspberry Pi.

Pros

Cheap! Tiny! And USB-C. Everything I love in a device.

The audio support is magnificent.

Cons

Lack of community. There's excellent documentation, but the forum is sparsely populated. There are lots of enthusiasts, but I worry that's not enough to sustain interest.

It is audio only - no HDMI for video output.

The first time a customer holds your product in their hands should be a moment of joy. Something to reinforce the notion that they have been wise with their investment.

I'm going to walk through an example of a poor unboxing usability, in the hope that it will show you what not to do.

This is the Three Home Signal Box - it is a femtocell to improve reception at home.

It arrived in a fairly anonymous postal sack, and has an easy to open box.

Knowing that the audience aren't likely to be technical, it comes with some reassuring messages on it. Good!

This is, of course, a lie.

The instruction card is a little boring, but does the job.

Just plug in the cables! Easy. There's even a picture guide. So, I followed the instructions, plugged in the cables, but nothing worked.

I checked the packaging. There was a warning sticker on there - obviously added after the box was printed. Revisions to packaging in response to customer feedback is sometimes necessary. A slightly ugly hack, but better than nothing.

I checked the flashing lights on the unit. Then re-read the instructions. The very last troubleshooting tip is check that the SIM card is inserted.

What SIM card? This was all that was in the box.

I retrieving the postal sack from the bin. This is what I found inside:

I've no idea why there's a spare PAYG SIM there - or how many people get confused and put the wrong SIM in. But I do know that this is a crappy way to bundle necessary equipment.

Ideally, this is what Three should do:

1. Pre-install the SIM.
2. If they can't, put the SIM in the same box as the device.
3. Make sure the instructions tell people to plug in the SIM before they attach the cables.
4. Stick some instructions on the back of the box, perhaps.

To be fair, once I'd found the SIM, it did tell me what to do with it. Well, I say that. It didn't tell me that I had snap the SIM from the holder. But the instructions on the card's packaging say "For more instructions, see the getting started guide." The same guide that doesn't mention you need to install the SIM!

There is, of course, nothing on the Three website relating to this problem.

Usability testing isn't finished until the user has the product in their hands and have successfully set it up. I've no idea how may dejected customer service agents are giving an exasperated sigh of "and have you put the little green card in the box?"

Make it easy. Make it right.

Over the last few years, I've purchased several Evoluent mice. They've kindly sent me their latest model so I can write a Linux guide for it.

Look

It's a Daft Punk Helmet of a mouse. Chrome and matt black plastic and blinkenlights. My photos are crap, so here are the press shots:

This is a much needed upgrade over their previous models, where the sweat of human hands tended to discolour and degrade the surface. The new version should be a lot sturdier.

A wireless version is available - it's gold! Sadly, the wireless version isn't Bluetooth, so you'll need to use their proprietary USB dongle.

There's still no way to disable the glowing Evoluent logo on the back. Use of masking tape may be required.

Buttons

There are five buttons - two thumb, three fingers - and a scrollwheel.

There's been a change for the worse with the buttons. The mouse wheel is not clickable. This is either a minor inconvenience or a grave sin depending on how quickly you can retrain your muscle memory.

No idea why they've made that change, seems a bit odd.

Speed

There's a "jewel" button which controls the four levels of speed. On the slowest, moving your mouse the whole span of your arm's reach will move it along half the screen. On the quickest, the merest flick of your fingers will send it spanging onto the edge of the monitor.

MacOS

There's a set of Mac and Windows drivers - I don't use Windows (for religious reasons) but the Mac configuration is pretty handy. It allows you to change the function of all the buttons in a handy GUI. Here are all the button settings available.

Useful!

Linux

By default, this works as a multi-button mouse on Linux. If you want to change the button order, you can follow my guide to configuring Evoluent with Ubuntu.

Verdict

I've used cheap vertical mice and, frankly, they're not as good. They don't have the weight, sturdiness, configurability, or ergonomic comfort as the Evoluent line.

The Evoluent looks like a million dollars, and performs flawlessly. My only quibble is the lack of a clickable scrollwheel.

You can buy the Evoluent C from Amazon UK or buy the wireless version.

This an excellent bit of kit. Easy to use, impressive results, and an app which works pretty well.

A single click button to take photos and videos, recording audio in surround sound, and perfect for uploading to Facebook or YouTube.

Unlike most of the kit I review, I paid for this myself. I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who wants to get started in spherical photography.

You can find the tech specs yourself - I'm going to show you a few of the photos and then tell you why you shouldn't buy it.

Sample Shots

This is what a "raw" equirectangular image looks like. Click for MASSIVE. If you zoom in, you can tell exactly where the stitching is. It's pretty good - but not seamless.

Design Flaws

The camera is not perfect, I'll start by talking about the things which show this is a V1 product.

Charging Flap

On the base of the unit is a flap - it covers the USB charging port and the microSD slot. With the flap open, you can't use the tripod. 

Or, to put it a different way, you have to take off the tripod every time you want to charge it.

USB Connection

I like the fact it uses the newer USB-C standard. But it appears that the camera can only be charged over USB, you can't transfer files from it. When plugged into a computer, it doesn't show as a USB drive. The only way to get photos and videos off is over WiFi using the app. WiFi transfers pretty quickly, but you end up going camera to phone to laptop if you want to edit anything.

No Live Streaming

The camera streams video direct to the handset over WiFi, but there's no way to put that on YouTube or Facebook directly.

There are some hacky workarounds

No Built-in GPS

Photos do have GPS EXIF - but the location is that of your phone. That's fine if you're holding both, but if you put the camera somewhere then get out of shot, the location will represent your position, not the camera's. 

Password Protection and WiFi Connectivity

When you first connect to the camera, it prompts you to change the default WiFi password. A brilliant idea! 

But it doesn't actually work. I repeatedly tried changing the password, to no effect. 

WiFi can be a little hard to manage. Your phone connects to the camera - but some phones will complain that there is no Internet connection, and will disconnect. It sometimes takes some manual clicking around the options to get connected. 

Even then, the connection can be spotty. Move too far away and the live video feed from the camera stops. The camera still took photos and videos, but the preview stopped. The range seemed to be about 5 metres.

Verdict

I'm being overly harsh on such a cheap product. For quick snaps or full videos, it's incredibly good.

The app is decent - not always a given with hardware. Plenty of options to fiddle with and relatively quick to use.

For around £150 it is excellent. Hold it high above your head and create some gorgeous images.

You can buy the LG 360 from Amazon UK

Straight up, it looks like a plastic toast rack. It's a chunky beast, but surprisingly lightweight. You won't have trouble lifting it, but it stays firmly in place.

Round the other side are 10 USB ports. Well spaced out, not too cramped.

It might be nice if they lined up with the rack, but that's a minor quibble.

There's a fan inside the unit, although I never got it to switch on.

Good airflow all round. It takes a standard "kettle" lead. I was happy to see a UK plug - complete with earthing - came with the unit.

Wired up competently, and with a 13 amp fuse. OK. Let's test drive this thing!

I thought I'd try and tip the unit over by placing a 10 inch Android tablet at one end. But the unit's centre of gravity is just right. Let's pile on the tech!

MOAR TECH!

The slots are just about wide enough for a MacBook Air to fit in.

EVAN MOOOORE TECHHHH!!!

2.4 amps is sufficient to power a Raspberry Pi. Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of those!

BUCKAROO!

Yup, the Nintendo Switch also fits.

OK, let's press the big button at the back and see if it explodes...

All the devices switched on. Those that support fast charging were able to draw the maximum current from it.

There is a fan inside the unit - to prevent overheating - but I wasn't able to get it to come on, even with all 10 devices charging.

Downsides

There's a lot to love about this mega-charger, but it isn't without flaws.

Firstly, it costs seventy quid. I guess £7 per charger isn't too bad - especially for a high power one. You also only need one plug socket.

USB-C devices are supported, but there's no USB-C specific slots. You won't get the advantage of USB-C fast charging. You can charge your new gadgets - but at slower speeds than with a dedicated charger.

Cable management is a bit horrific with 10 things plugged in. That's inevitable unless all 10 devices have a charging port in exactly the same place.

If I was going to be nit-picky, I'd prefer the USB slots to be spaced out in line with the "toast rack". It might be good to have individual LEDs for each slot.

Conclusion

If you've got 10 devices that you need charged simultaneously... This is probably as good as it gets.

You can buy the Ntonpower 10 port USB charger on Amazon.

The obvious comparison is with the Raspberry Pi - and the ultra-cheap Pi-Zero.

The Omega2 has a few advantages.

• It has a (small) amount of built in memory - so even if you don't have an SD card to hand it is still usable.
• WiFi is also built in - only 2.4GHz, but good enough for most purposes.
• Arduino compatible.
• A whole range of expansion boards.
• It runs Linux Embedded Development Environment - the fork of OpenWRT.

On the downside:

• There's less RAM than the zero (128MB vs 512MB)
• No HDMI port.
• A slower CPU.
• Fewer GPIO pins (15 vs 40).

Basically, it's fine for building a simple IoT device. You're probably not going to be using this as a media-player or a full desktop replacement.

On its own, the Omega2 is of limited usage. It is a pin-only device. If you want to power it, or get data on or off it, you'll need to wire in directly. So you'll need one of the expansion boards if you want to make life easy for yourself.

The basic expansion dock has USB in for power, USB out for regular USB devices, an RGB LED, power and reset switch. The price is $15 - which takes the TCO up closer to the Raspberry Pi.

There are a range of expansion boards - one with batteries, one for Arduino, OLED screens, relays, GPS, Ethernet, breadboards, and more promised.

You can buy the Omega2 and accessories on IndieGoGo and on KickStarter - or direct from Onion.

Installing software

All software is installed via the opgk package manager.

opkg update
opkg install python

A few minutes later and you've got a python environment ready to play with!

It's also simple to install Git in a similar fashion

opkg update
opkg install git git-http

Cloud!

The operating system comes with built-in cloud access via https://cloud.onion.io/.

There are a few "apps" available - but nothing too exciting.

You can also see what the GPIO ports are doing.

I've mixed feelings about this. It is undoubtedly handy to be able to access some parts of your Omega2 from afar - but there's a lack of services there.

Overall, it isn't quite as useful as the Cayenne software for Raspberry Pi.

Final Thoughts

This is a nifty little prototyping board. It has a tiny form factor - smaller than the Pi Zero - and a good range of accessories. As with all small-batch hardware, you may struggle to find the exact accessory that you want.

The built-in WiFi is brilliant - as is the web-based configuration - it takes away a lot of the hassle of setting up the device.

The real downside is the size of the community and the resources the manufacturer can offer. There are thousands of Raspberry Pi tutorials and literally millions of people who can offer help and advice. The Pi foundation puts a lot of effort into creating clear and comprehensive documentation.

With the Omega2, you're left on your own to tinker. Yes, they have a good range of documentation, but their forums aren't used by the board's creators.

If you're happy doing your own troubleshooting when things go wrong - this is an excellent board to play around with. The price is ridiculously low and opens up endless possibilities.

You can buy the Omega2 and accessories on IndieGoGo and on KickStarter.

Enter "The ReSpeaker" - an open source alternative to Amazon's Echo. It promises ultimate hackability, speech recognition, and IoT control, wrapped in a cheap single-board design.

ReSpeaker is an open modular voice interface to hack things around you. Let you interact with your home appliances, your plant, your office, your internet-equipped devices or any other things in your daily life, all by your voice.

I've been sent one by seeed.cc in advance of the Kickstarter campaign which launches on the 23rd of August.

Seeed Studio

@seeedstudio

Subscribe to #Respeaker Newsletter & get its latest updates! 6 Demos are waiting, come on! respeaker.io pic.x.com/cyjd4drfoh

---

Here's their pitch:

I've been sent one for free - and I've only had a few days to play with it - here's what I found.

Specs

One of the most interesting things about ReSpeaker is how open their specs are. You can download the schematics freely from GitHub.

There's a brilliant range of hardware and open source software on board. Let's take a quick tour.

• The main chip is an AI7688H - is is a Linux (3.18.23) based, WiFi SOC, and it runs OpenWRT 15.05!
• LPC11U35 coprocessor which controls the 12 RGB LEDs and the GPIO ports.
• Audio is handled by the WM8960 chip.
• A single microphone (more on that later).
• Mono speaker header - up to 1W.
• MicroUSB for power and/or data. Power can be wired directly onto the circuit if you know what you're doing.
• Standard TRRS headphone jack - although I wasn't able to get the microphone working with on it.
• MicroSD card slot. There's only ~6MB of free space on the file system (yes, MegaBytes!) - although /tmp has ~60MB available (wiped on reboot).
• Three I/O buttons, which you can see on the reverse of the board:

Getting Started

1. Plug into a Micro USB power supply. I'm not sure what the minimum power requirements are, so I played it safe and used my 2.4amp multi-USB charger.
2. Blinkenlights!
3. Connect to the WiFi network generated by the device.
4. Set the root password (yup, you get root without having to faff around).
5. Select the (2.4GHz) network you want to connect to.
6. Done!

You can, if you want to, directly configure OpenWRT, although it is a little tricky on a phone.

Only takes a couple of minutes and you now have a little Linux computer attached to your network. Go ahead and plug some headphones in, or connect it to your HiFi system.

Connecting

You've two different ways to connect to the device.

If you've connected the ReSpeaker to your laptop via USB, it will present as a serial device which you can connect directly to.

screen /dev/ttyACM0 57600

If you're connected to the same WiFi network, ssh is open on port 22 as per usual. Use the root password that you set earlier and off you go!

Speech Recognition

This is why we're here, right? To be able to say "Play 'Flight of the Valkyries'" and have music suddenly appear.

For complex tasks, everything has to go to a recognition service in the cloud. Quite how you feel about an always on Linux box sending everything you say to Microsoft depends on your levels of paranoia.

My first attempt wasn't overly successful:

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Tried to use bing's voice recognition service.

It didn't understand much of my English, but apparently 我的中文是很好！ pic.x.com/jybv9jtddy

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Why was everything being recognised as Chinese? Ah! Because that's what the default was set to! Quickly changing zh-CH to en-GB made things work slightly better.

There are a couple of core problem with this approach. Firstly, the little microphone in the middle of the board isn't of particularly high quality.

ReSpeaker has an optional add-on board - the ReSpeaker Microphone Array promises multiple microphones and improved sound detection.

Secondly, the general slowness of the board - and the round trip delay of bing's processing - make for an unacceptable delay.

Finally, Microsoft's free tier offers just 5,000 transactions per month. Depending on how often you're planning on using it - that could be an annoying restriction.

Is that all we're limited to? No!

Local Recognition

ReSpeaker have provided an way to recognise speech locally using PocketSphinx. You'll need an SD card and to git clone a bunch of stuff, but it is pretty easy to get set up. Here it is in action.

OK, Bing lets it down - but the local keyword recognition is pretty cool! That makes it possible to hack together simple "OK Google / Hey Siri / Yo Alexa" styles of home automation.

Blinkenlights!

There's a reasonably good tutorial on how to use the Arduino software on the ReSpeaker Github.

I've not used Arduino like this before, and it was relatively simple to set up. There's currently no documentation on how to handle the LEDs, buttons, and GPIO from Python.

Airplay / DLNA / Audio Quality

I wasn't able to use the device as an Airplay or DLNA receiver. None of the apps I tried could see it as a server, and port 5000 didn't appear to be open. This looks like something that needs to be installed separately. Personally, I'd have preferred to see Bluetooth rather than DLNA, but I'm strange like that!

Audio quality was average. With nothing playing, there was a hiss on the line. No ground hum - just gentle white noise.

Hacking

Make it speak!

By default, the venerable espeak is included.

From the command line, you can run something like:

espeak -ven+m2 -s150 "I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. Shall I proceed?"

The voice quality isn't brilliant. I used gTTS which is a simply Python package to Google's Text to Speech API. Very handy for creating stock phrases to use repeatedly.

pip install gTTS

Then

gtts-cli.py "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that." -l 'en-uk' -o sorry.mp3 madplay sorry.mp3

System

Some highlights that I found.

• The device presents as 2341:0036 Arduino SA - which is an Arduino Leonardo. Basically, an ATmega32U4.
• git 2.3.5 is installed.
• Python 2.7.9 is installed. Along with pip.
• curl 7.40 - also wget.
• node is only v0.12.7. You also get npm.

Basically a pretty comprehensive set of utilities.

Ports are open on 22 (SSH), 53 (DNS), 80 (webserver), and 445 (SAMBA file sharing).

Expanding

This is modular hardware, with loads of expansion ports. You can get an idea of what people are able to make on the ReSpeaker site

Backing

The ReSpeaker Kickstarter is now live! Early birds get the ReSpeaker for US$39 - which is a pretty compelling price.

The usual Kickstarter caveats apply - but Seeed Studio have released several hardware products so they have a good understanding of what it takes to manufacture and ship hardware.

Final Thoughts

This is a fun little unit - but it is not without its flaws.

• Audio in is only via the central microphone - the quality is acceptable, but it is a shame that there's no audio-in from the TRS headphone jack.
• Bing isn't very good at voice recognition - local recognition is OK though.
• Only 2.4GHz WiFi. Small and cheap devices like this don't tend to have 5GHz WiFi. They don't need the speed, but with the 2.4GHz band getting more crowded in urban environments, it's a pity it wasn't included.
• The CPU is, understandably, a bit slow. Running pip install tweepy took a few minutes. Obviously you're not going to be doing much intensive computation on this thing, but it makes setting things up a little tiresome.
• No digital out or surround sound support. Given that the Raspberry Pi Zero has HDMI out for audio, it's a little disappointing to see the ReSpeaker stuck with stereo.
• Lack of high-fidelity playback. As above - if you're happy listening to MP3s via a 3.5mm jack, this is great. If you want it to playback your lossless 96kHz FLACs, you're out of luck.

Really, the challenger to this unit is something like the Raspberry Pi. You need the £30 Pi 3 model B in order to get a Pi with WiFi - the other models require USB dongles. The Pi family don't have microphones - so that's another add-on. The ReSpeaker is a slim, circular package with built in RGB LEDs and buttons - whereas the Pi is fairly chunky and devoid of extras.

My friend Sam Machin has got the <a href="https://www.sammachin.com/posts/the-10-echo/>Amazon Echo service running on a US$10 CHIP computer and also running on a Raspberry Pi - I think the ReSpeaker fits in nicely to this class of product.

Overall, the ReSpeaker works well, looks good, has great hackability, and is at a pretty good price point.

You can back the ReSpeaker on KickStarter until 23rd September.

Disclaimer

As I said, I received the ReSpeaker for free. If you'd like me to review your technology product, please get in touch.

Hmmm... Perhaps I don't need a laptop. I could use a tablet and my new Bluetooth keyboard...

Enter BQ's Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition.

It promises the Ubuntu experience in a convenient tablet package.

I wanted to love this tablet. But it is so unbelievably bad that I'm returning it for a refund.

Unboxing

It all starts pretty well.

OK, a few usability issues. These could easily have been caught in new-user testing. But, it appears, no such testing has been undertaken.

This review is based on the latest OTA update (10.1).

Why it is crap

Let's get one thing clear - this is not Ubuntu! It is some form of bastardised, cut down, limited access version called "Ubuntu Touch."

I completely understand why a tablet needs a different, finger-optimised UI. But that's not what Canonical have done here. Ubuntu Touch doesn't run Ubuntu programs!

Like an iPhone, you can only install blessed apps from the app store. And there's pretty slim pickings in there. No Chrome, Audacity, Python... Basically nothing useful.

Oh, about that finger-optimised UI. Yeah, not so much. Several of the apps are unoptimsed for touch. The device comes with LibreOffice built in - but it doesn't support the onscreen keyboard! There's nothing on screen to tell you that - you just have to keep hitting the screen impotently until you give up.

If you do manage to open a dialogue box, you'll find it nearly impossible to use with your fingers.

It works well enough with a USB mouse - but that's not the point. I want to be able to use this tablet as a tablet occasionally.

There's a "desktop mode" which lets you move windows around (no wobbly windows, boo!) and a rudimentary split screen mode, but nothing which is useful for actual work.

Task switching is another area where the tablet falls down. Take a look at this screenshot - notice anything funny? Yup - some of the screenshots are rotated. If you use the tablet in portrait and then switch to landscape, expect a mish-mash of confusion. Basic mistakes which could have easily been avoided.

But, suppose you're OK with that. Take a look at this screenshot. I've started Alt-Tabbing - can you tell which window is now ready to open?

I thought it would be the one on the extreme right. Perhaps the one in the centre?

It appears to always be the 2nd one from the left!

Except when I've tabbed to the end - then it is the last one. Until I tab round everything - then it's the 1st from the left.

I'm confused - and this makes me feel stupid. In every other version of Ubuntu I've used, the centre/foremost window is the one which will be opened. On this tablet, I feel like I'll never know which will open.

I guess that's the crux of why I hate this tablet. I love Ubuntu - but this tablet makes me feel like an idiot. I can't even run sudo apt-get install ... to get it to do what I want.

Incidentally, Firefox comes with the tablet. It's not touch compatible - you have to use a keyboard and mouse. But if you alt-tab out of Firefox and then back, you can't use the keyboard to type any more. Not without rebooting.

To give you a general idea of some of the slap-dash attitude to the rest of the software - take a look at the icons on gEdit, the text editor in the Ubuntu store. Oh, that's right - there are no icons. They're broken.

Finally, I tried checking the spelling of a document I'd typed in LibreOffice. I couldn't. There's no language packs installed. I don't mean there's no en_GB and I have to use American spelling - I mean there's no spell-chequer available. It's also impossible to install one.

The Good

It paired easily with my Bluetooth keyboard.

(Even that's a bit of a lie. Some apps, like Firefox, didn't respect my keyboards language settings - meaning that @ and " were swapped.)

It charged quickly and managed about 6 hours of fairly hefty use before it needed plugging in again.

The screen was clear and bright - although the graphics juddered a lot in scrolling.

One of the default apps given pride of place on the default launcher was XChat. Yes, that's right, you can log in to IRC like it's the early 1990s. Well, you could if the app worked with the on screen keyboard.

There are two map apps! One of which doesn't support pinch-to-zoom...

The built in Twitter app launches the mobile web version of Twitter - so you get a tiny column in the middle of the screen. It does, however, do push notifications! You can't click on the notifications though - they just wobble maddeningly when you do so.

I comes with a phone dialler app. There's no SIM card slot in the device - it's just a vestigial leftover.

A whole host of snags which should have been caught before the device shipped - let alone received its first update.

In fairness, the top-tier apps look great and respond well to the touch interface. There are some clever touches - like swiping from the sides to bring up options, change apps, etc.

Conclusion

For €300 I expected a lot more. I could have got a decent Android tablet for less money - it would have been more functional, better supported, and have higher performance. I wasn't expecting to be able to run full-stack development on this, but I did expect to be able to run basic Python, Ruby, PHP, etc.

Instead, I got a flakey tablet with a dumbed-down UI which hasn't been properly localised.

The bugs I've reported have gone unanswered. I dropped a note to some people at Canonical, and while they were helpful, they didn't have any public roadmap for fixes.

Honestly, the tablet feels like it hasn't been given to a normal user for five minutes. There's a host of issues which should have been picked up in early user testing. Some of these are easily fixable but others are more are fundamental to the hardware and software choices they've made.

I don't normally mind being a beta tester - but not at this price.

The quest for the perfect Linux laptop continues! If anyone knows of a large screen tablet which can run full Ubuntu - please let me know!

What I Want In My Perfect Ubuntu Tablet

• Larger than 10 inch screen. Ideally 13-15 inches. I need that size to be able to work effectively without eye-strain.
• Ubuntu. Not "Ubuntu Lite" or "Ubuntu Touch" or "Ubuntu 2K" - I want a full Linux machine which can run everything I throw at it. Sure, have a simplified interface for touch-mode, but once I plug in a keyboard I want a desktop OS.
• More ports. I bought a £3 USB OTG hub which lets me charge and use USB simultaneously - but it's a bit of a faff.
• Charging via micro-USB (or, I guess USB-C) is a must. I don't want yet another proprietary charger.
• User testing. I don't want to buy something with basic snags and flaws. Concentrate on fixing things before adding more decorations.
• Smooth 2D graphics. I'm not planning on playing hyper-realistic VR games - I just expect web pages to scroll smoothly.
• Supported hardware. I don't want to upgrade my distro only to find out that the hardware manufacturer has stopped supplying drivers.
• I'm not particularly price sensitive - although I guess under £500 would be nice.

Onwards!

For years I was a devotee of the Microsoft 4000 Keyboard. It's a big old beast - and that's its main drawback; it's just too large to carry around. It could also do with an integrated USB hub if it's going to take up one of my precious laptop ports.

So I moved to Microsoft's wireless model - the Sculpt Desktop. It's a delightful bit of kit. Just about small enough for me to carry around. Only two real drawbacks - it takes AAA batteries rather than being rechargeable, and it doesn't use Bluetooth.

Yup, it requires a proprietary dongle from Microsoft which is hideously insecure. Oh, and if you lose the tiny dongle, you need to buy an entirely new keyboard!

It's also too fragile for a normal laptop bag...

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My Tweets may make less sense than usual today... pic.x.com/2gvopjpr10

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One of the keys got knocked off in my bag.

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Replying to @edentTried to transplant the mechanism from the "Insert" key to my broken "L". Didn't work 😢
Any help @MicrosoftUK? pic.x.com/6olzxm7iwa

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*sigh*

Last week, an unexpected present dropped through my letterbox. Some kindly anonymous soul bought me a gift from my Amazon wishlist - a brand new Goldtouch Go!2 Mobile Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard.

OMG!

It's an ergonomic, adjustable, Bluetooth keyboard. (Geeky lanyard via Jenny Wren Creates.)

Watch it fold!

The Good

• Bluetooth. Works perfectly with Linux and Android alike. No dongle needed. Uses a random passcode to pair.
• Has a Mac mode for those people who like their @ key in the wrong place.
• Micro-USB rechargable. Battery life seems good - and it takes the same charging cable as all my other kit.
• Ubuntu shows the battery level remaining as part of the power menu.
• The right size to rest on top of a MacBook Pro *without* interfering with the in-built keyboard.
• Adjustable. Good range of vertical and horizontal movement.
• Extra function keys work in Linux (Calculator, Home, Volume, etc)
• Excellent range of "extra" keys - Print Screen, Home, End, etc.
• Solid feel. Even when typing away with the keyboard raised, there's very little flex in it.
• Pairs with Ubuntu before the login screen - so you can type in your password using the keyboard.
• UK spec - so has the £ and € keys where you'd expect them.
• Rubber grips on the bottom - keyboard doesn't shift even when you're hammering it.
• It folds away to protect the keys!

The Bad

I'm going to be really nitpicky here.

• No backlit keys. Understandable on a battery powered device - but I think I would be prepared to lose on battery life (or take a larger device) to make typing in the dark easier.
• Bit of a faff to set up and put away. Much like a Brompton bike - you have to remember which bits to pull at in which order. You have to lift the lever to release the hinge mechanism. Pull the Unlock switch if you want to fold or unfold the keyboard. Flick the power switch. I think the pairing and power buttons could be on the other side - but that's a personal preference.
• I could stand to have a little more horizontal movement.
• I'm sure the joining cable is tough - but it looks a little exposed and fragile.
• Slightly odd key placement. Print screen is easy to hit accidentally. Just as with any new keyboard, it takes a little time to learn.
• No wrist rest. So extended periods of typing may be a little uncomfortable.
• Caps Lock light is a little dim. Yeah... I'm stretching here!

Honestly, there's not a lot to criticise here. The keys have a decent level of travel, it's quiet, easy to configure, and looks awesome!

The Ugly

I think it is a gorgeous bit of kit. Once you've learned how to type on it and what position works best for you, it feels great to type on. The only fly in the ointment? The price.

Brace yourselves.

£170!

Youch! That's the cost of a cheap laptop or tablet.

I'm conflicted here. I'm hugely grateful to the anonymous patron who bought this for me - I had been vacillating as to whether to get it - but I can't help wondering if it provides value for money.

There is nothing like this on the market. No cheap Alibaba clones, no fast followers - this is unique.

It is the best damned ergonomic Bluetooth keyboard - if only by the virtue of being the only one!

If you take your hands' health seriously, and can't stand laptop keyboards, I highly recommend it. Goldtouch have made a great product and my fingers thank them.

The one problem with the beacon I have is that it has an exposed button. Every time it got bumped in my pocket, the token would emit a couple of shrill beeps and set itself into config mode. After a couple of months, the CR2032 battery died.

Replacing the battery is easy - but let's crack the casing open to see what powers this wee beastie!

There's no obvious way in - but several months of being in my pocket has shifted the top sticker. Apply a little heat and it peals right off.

Hurrah! Standard screws! No pentalobes or other weird things. What's that in the top right? An LED window! Covered up by the sticker and, it seems, disabled in the firmware.

The casing lifts off and the circuit board pops out easily.

Two things become apparent - the left third of the board is completely unpopulated, and there's a massive KLJ-1230 buzzer on the bottom. With those two removed, the circuit would be around the same size as the coin cell powering it.

Time to dive underneath that sticker and see its brains.

It's the CSR 1010 BLE chip.

Finally, flip it over and see what mysteries the back holds.

As well as the battery connector, we have an SPI Bus - presumably for flashing the ROM and/or debugging.

And that's all there is to it.

Personally, I'd have jettisoned the speaker and used the LED to indicate if the beacon was ready to be overwritten.

After replacing the battery, I snipped off the plastic button, and reassembled the unit. I covered up the hole with a little tape. Now the beacon can't be put into pairing mode accidentally and, as a consequence, the battery life should be much improved.

Now all I need to find is someone with the Physical Web app so I can share my business card ?

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If you hurry down to WHSmith in Oxford, there are still a few @TheMagP1 copies left.

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Replying to @edentIn related news, @summerbeth is the best wife of them all!
#PiZero pic.x.com/utsf2m13jo

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Ok, so what can I do with a wafer-thin Linux box? I had thought of turning it into a simple door sensor, or perhaps wiring it in to a lightswitch, or swallowing it to see if I would get super powers. Then it struck me - turn it into a games console!

Now, don't get me wrong, this has been done many times before - but I think I've come up with a unique twist. Build it directly into the controller!

My original plan was to buy some USB NES controllers - they're about the right size, but with only two buttons I'd be restricted to playing, well, old NES games. Also, buying new plastic stuff... nah! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Long term readers will remember that I turned my original Xbox into a Linux running media centre. I still have the original (giant) controllers, my brilliant wife suggested that there was probably enough space in one to fit the Pi Zero.

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Replying to @edentIt's probably too late to start soldering, isn't it? x.com/edent/status/6…

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Replying to @MrPJEvansOoh! The #PiZero just about squeezes inside a gutted original Xbox controller.

Inspired by @MrPJEvans pic.x.com/vlesbizfgg

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Terence Eden is on Mastodon

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Replying to @edentRight, time to load an OS into my games controller ☺ pic.x.com/xqyup3i3dm

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Let's Go!

Getting Started

WARNING! Playing around with electric items can be dangerous. You risk damaging yourself or, worse, breaking your toys. Proceed with caution.

Equipment

1. Raspberry Pi Zero (£5).
2. Original large-sized Xbox Controller (£variable).
3. USB OTG cable (65p).
4. 2A USB power supply (£5).
5. Mini HDMI adapter (80p) or Mini HDMI cable (£5).
6. MicroSD card (£5).
7. The usual assortment of screwdrivers, knives, wire-strippers, and nerves of steel!

Right, remember this big brute?

The Pi nestles neatly between the triggers, so it should fit.

Open it up:

I removed the chunky memory card holder. I left in the physical slots as a wedge to hold the Pi.

After unscrewing all the cross-head screws, we can see how well it fits.

Nifty!

Ah, but can you spot the problem?

The Pi is blocking that strut. Only one thing to do...

The plastic was soft enough that a penknife made short work of this.

As you can see, the inside of the controller has lots of room.

In order to connect the controller to the Pi, we need to do some wire stripping. The Xbox controller uses bog-standard USB wiring, but has a proprietary plug. So, chop the ends of that and wire it into a USB OTG cable.

I suppose I could have just wired in a regular USB plug, or bought an Xbox USB adapter. But where's the fun in that?

One thing to note, you'll need to insulate the bottom of the Pi against all the contacts on the controller. For this quick hack, I'm using some of the cardboard packaging. Not exactly sustainable from a long term POV! Nor is the BluTak used to hold everything into place.

So, the controller's cable loops back into itself and plugs into the Pi. The Pi takes in power and outputs over HDMI.

It would have been great if HDMI also supplied the power - but I don't think that's possible. There is enough space inside the controller for a USB battery pack should you want a more portable solution.

And... errr... that's it really!

Emulation

The good folks at RetroPie have a pre-built image which contains everything you need in order to run a variety of emulators. It even includes some built in shareware games.

We want the build for the Raspberry Pi version 1. It automagically detected the Xbox controller, and after a few clicks I was playing Doom!

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OMG! I'VE ONLY GONE AND BLOODY DONE IT!
#PiZero hidden in an Xbox controller playing DOOM!
x.com/edent/status/6… pic.x.com/b9irxokxg7

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Replying to @edentRight, time to load an OS into my games controller ☺ pic.x.com/xqyup3i3dm

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The Raspberry Pi Zero is, without exaggeration, a marvel.

When I was a kid, computers were unreasonably expensive. I remember reading this passage from The Demon Headmaster series of books:

I felt so angry that the computer revolution was restricted to those whose parents or schools could afford such luxuries. The Pi is (almost) cheap enough to give away with cornflakes. Sure, the sundry items cost a little bit more - but this puts powerful computers within the reach of everyone.

The size is also... It's almost too small! If you lose one in your home, it's probably cheaper to buy another than waste an hour looking for it. That also means it can sneak into unexpected places - I can see kids hiding these in games controllers, hair brushes, or flick knives. Add a battery pack and a mesh-networking module and you've got a communications infrastructure that a school cannot censor.

Interesting times ahead!

Update! Well, that went better than expected. You can read what people have to say about the project at:

• Hacker News
• Heise (German)
• der Standard (Geman)
• Make Magazine
• Geek Times (Russian)
• Hackaday
• LifeHacker
• Xatak (Spanish)
• IT Pro
• Wired

David Bower

@rddave

Mini-bot had great fun playing on @edent's hacked Xbox @Raspberry_Pi #PiZero with @LinuxUserMag #PiParty pic.x.com/zzmcfnsuew

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It's a clever little device with several useful functions:

1. Travel adapter. Plugs into most power sockets and has a universal plug on top.
2. Two USB charging sockets.
3. Connect to Ethernet and share the signal via WiFi.
4. Connect to WiFi and share the signal via WiFi or Ethernet.
5. In built router with lots of network configuration settings.

Use it at a hotel and share a single WiFi connection with all your devices. Handy!

So, what's inside the thing?

Disassembly

Warning - playing around with electrical items can be dangerous. You risk damaging the delicate electrical components and seriously injuring yourself.

This is a remarkably easy device to take apart. No screws and no glue.

The green ends pop off with a little force.

There's a small clip on one side holding the rest of the shell together. Gently insert a screwdriver or spludger to force it apart.

Once open, its secrets are exposed! Inside we find the venerable Ralink RT5350.

It's an incredibly common WiFi SoC which is supported by OpenWRT.

Looking at the power supply, we get a few more clues about the origin of the router.

Aha! This is a re-badged EEC-230 from Ahoku. They're an OEM, so the devices are sold under a variety of names.

There's more regulatory information on the device at the FCC.

Or, watch this incredibly informative video:

Software

Judging from comments in the code, it would appear that the interface was written by Go Ahead Software.

Accessing the router via a web-browser shows a basic configuration wizard. There's also a manual mode.

There's an impressive amount of configuration available to the power-user.

Filtering, port-forwarding, DMZ, VPN - much more than you'd expect from a basic router.

Digging through the JavaScript of the pages reveals a few curiosities:

Apparently, there is fossilised code for sharing devices plugged into the USB sockets.

I wasn't able to get this to work - but it may be possible with different firmware.

I emailed Ahoku and they sent through the latest version of the firmware, dated 2014-02-22.

Satechi provide two older official versions of the firmware:

• 2013-10-23 - the generic Ahoku version.
• 2013-10-28 - branded Satechi.

Other than the branding differences, there seems to be no functional differences between them. I've contacted Ahoku to see if there's a more recent version - but have not received a reply.

This really is quite the package! If you're a frequent traveller, it deserves to be in your hand-luggage - associate it once at the hotel and have all your devices connect automatically while simultaneously charging your laptop and phone. Nifty!

The WiFi Travel Router & Charger is available on Amazon for £35.

TO THE SCREWDRIVERS, ROBIN!

The Sercomm RC8230 is remarkably easy to open. Behind 4 rubber stopper are regular cross-head screws.

The shell comes off with some light pressure - no clips!

The microphone at the front is connected via a basic pin connector. A gently tug on the plastic port and it comes off.

Just above the camera is the horizontal movement motor (the vertical one is inside the gimbal.)

I undid the four larger screws around the black gimbal. It lifts off easily - that's when I saw the problem...

The motor should probably be attached, no?

It would appear that the constant motion of the motor had caused the plastic to shear. As we can see from this image of the camera gimbal.

The stepper motor was unplugged and removed - it'll find its way into a Raspbery Pi project at some point! But now the camera was swinging loose. How to keep it still?

BluTak! Second only in usefulness to Gaffer Tape :-) The camera was reassembled - although sadly restricted just to vertical motion.

Before putting it back into service, I noticed something interesting on the motherboard of the camera:

That WiFi module is... USB! It's a dual antenna system just plugged into a standard board.

I removed the foam padding and pulled it out carefully - without damaging the wire antennae.

Only one thing to do - plug it in to a laptop!

It's a "Ralink Technology, Corp. RT3072 Wireless Adapter" - a fairly common component.

A quick dmesg showed:

[37597.927670] usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=3072
[37597.927679] usb 2-1.2: Product: 802.11 n WLAN
[37597.927681] usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: Ralink
[37597.927683] usb 2-1.2: SerialNumber: 1.0
[37598.046881] usb 2-1.2: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
[37598.164195] ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 3071, rev 021c detected
[37598.218612] ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 0008 detected
[37598.224263] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[37598.240133] ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin'
[37598.240397] ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.29

So, there you have it - simple enough to investigate, but not really repairable.

If you've enjoyed this post, you can buy me something from my Amazon Wishlist.

The headset is USB - and worked instantly with Ubuntu Linux: It even has a dedicated "mute" button to cut off the microphone. Handy when on a conference call.

The only problem was, the stereo was reversed! Testing the left speaker played a sound through the right, and vice versa. Not a huge problem for VoIP or music - but I'd rather it worked correctly if I'm ever playing games or watching movies.

Before I started diving into the arcane Linux files which control such things, I thought I'd check to see if anyone else had this problem. They had, as this thread on HP forums shows.

Basically, the microphone is reversible - you can flip it over, turn the headset around, and the mic is on the other side of your face. When the mic is rotated, it hits a microswitch which flips the stereo sound.

Rather than implement this properly, HP have gone for a system where all you need to do to flip the stereo is click the switch once.

So, to get the correct stereo orientation, all you need to do is lift the mic vertically until you hear the click and then lower the microphone back to its original position.

For a shade under £20, it's decent enough headset. The volume control and mute button are nice additions. The USB cable is about 2m long - which is long enough to be useful without getting tangled all the time.

So if you want to code up an interface for the AES2810 or AES2550 you can!

A word of note, the best way to get the latest version of these documents is to register for the Authentec Developer Program. You then need to drop the team a note asking to get access to these specific documents - devportal AT authentec.com

That way you will get informed when there is a new release of other sensor's specs or updates.

So, here are the documents :-)

• AES2810 Design Specification V1.20
• AES2550 Design Specification V0.12

NB, I specifically asked the development team about sharing these files. They said:

Since we have released the documents without requiring any NDA or other such agreement signing we can't prevent you from sharing them.

A few weeks ago, I won a Raspberry Pi at the #OTA12 hackday. It arrived on Friday, so I thought I would turn it into an SMS server using the incredible FrontlineSMS.

0. Setting up the Pi

This is the easy part. Follow the excellent guide on the eLinux wiki. Essentially, download the Debian image, extract, and dd it onto an SD card.

The hardest part was finding a full sized SD! In the end, I found an old adapter and stuck in a 2GB micro SD card.

1. First Boot

My first boot was a failure. Nothing appeared on the screen. So, I switched off the power, unplugged every lead, plugged them back in, and powered it on. Success!

The first thing I did was ensure the operating system was up to date.

Check for updates:

sudo apt-get update

Then, apply those updates

sudo apt-get upgrade

This took a few minutes.

Finally, set up SSH or VNC if you plan on using the machine remotely.

2. Dongle Hardware

FrontlineSMS maintains a list of USB dongles which work with its service. I used a Vodafone branded Huawei E220. Sold as Vodafone K3565 The Raspberry Pi only has 2 USB slots - the dongle was slim enough not to interfere with the other USB cable, but it did mean I could only run either a keyboard or a mouse without using a hub. It's recommended that you use a powered USB hub - although my keyboard and mouse didn't seem to draw too much power.

3. Frontline SMS

Downloading Frontline SMS via the commandline (using v1.6 because v2 isn't ready for Linux yet)

wget http://frontlinesms.com/download/secure/FrontlineSMS-distribution-1.6.16.3-linux_i686-dist.zip

Unzip

unzip FrontlineSMS-distribution-1.6.16.3-linux_i686-dist.zip

Run

cd FrontlineSMS-distribution-1.6.16.3
./FrontlineSMS.sh

Gave an error - FrontlineSMS requires Java.

4. Installing Java

The Java install takes about 140MB of disk space. After downloading and extracting FrontlineSMS, I only had about 220MB of free space. I deleted the FrontlineSMS zip file and had 234MB free. Just about enough room!

sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk

Wait several minutes and you'll be good to go.

5. Running for the First Time

Frontline SMS requires a GUI.

Running a GUI is as easy as typing

startx

The resolution was set at the slightly odd dimensions of 1264*672 - which meant there was a large black border around the screen.

Open a terminal (Start, Accessories, LXTerminal, then type

cd FrontlineSMS-distribution-1.6.16.3
./FrontlineSMS.sh

After several minutes of waiting, FrontlineSMS started!

However, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get FrontlineSMS to detect the dongle. The OS could see it fine (using "lsusb" and "dmesg"), but it just didn't appear to be detected by FrontlineSMS.

A delve into the commandline, showed this error:

librxtxSerial.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
(Possible cause: can't load IA 32-bit .so on a ARM-bit platform)
thrown while loading gnu.io.RXTXCommDriver

6. Installing the Correct Libraries

We need to load the correct (ARM) version of rxtx.

sudo apt-get install librxtx-java

Find where the install process has dumped it

find . -name "librxtxSerial.so"

It should show you two location - the first being where the correct version is, the second where the FrontlineSMS version is.

./usr/lib/jni/librxtxSerial.so
./home/pi/Desktop/FrontlineSMS-distribution-1.6.16.3/librxtxSerial.so

All we need to do is overwrite the incorrect version.

cp /usr/lib/jni/librxtxSerial.so /home/pi/Desktop/FrontlineSMS-distribution-1.6.16.3/

Then, run

./FrontlineSMS.sh

And, after some warnings and waitings, you should see

Hey Presto! FrontlineSMS up and running on a Raspberry Pi!

(Oh! I finally worked out how to do screenshots! install scrot and run "scrot -d 10" to take a screenshot after 10 seconds.)

7. Manually Sending an SMS

Running FrontlineSMS via Java on a 700MHz ARM device is very slow. It is possible to talk directly to the dongle and manually tell it to send SMS.

First, I installed picocom.

sudo apt-get install picocom

To find out where the dongle has been installed, type:

dmesg

Which will give an long output, which should contain some text like this like this:

option 1-1.2:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
usb 1-1.2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
option 1-1.2:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
usb 1-1.2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1

The dongle installs itself in two places - ttyUSB0 & 1. It's the first one we want.

Connect by issuing this command

picocom /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200 -l

Which will give you the output

port is        : /dev/ttyUSB0
flowcontrol    : none
baudrate is    : 115200
parity is      : none
databits are   : 8
escape is      : C-a
noinit is      : no
noreset is     : no
nolock is      : yes
send_cmd is    : ascii_xfr -s -v -l10
receive_cmd is : rz -vv

Terminal ready

From now on in, we're typing commands directly into the dongle. You cannot press the delete key! Copy & paste, or be careful when typing!

First, to make sure everything is working, we type

AT

We should see this response

OK

Next, set the dongle to text mode

AT+CMGF=1

Again, the response should be

OK

Let's send our first SMS!

AT+CMGS="+447700900123"

This will not say "OK", rather, it will prompt us to type a message

> 

Type your message, so the screen looks like

> This is a test

DO NOT HIT ENTER. Instead, hit CTRL and Z at the same time.

You should see a response like

+CMGS: 193

OK

The number is the "sent items" reference. Within a few moments, the SMS should have been received.

You can send an SMS to the dongle. To check for messages, type the command

AT+CMGL="ALL"

You should see all the messages in the inbox

+CMGL: 0,"REC READ","+447700900000",,"12/06/19,13:53:19+04"
Received
+CMGL: 1,"REC READ","+447700900321",,"12/06/23,17:16:29+04"
Testing
+CMGL: 2,"REC UNREAD","+447700900555",,"12/06/23,23:27:48+04"
This is another test

To quit picocom, hold down CTRL, then hold down A, then hold down X.

Useful Links

A collection of links I found useful when writing this blog post

• http://designbuildtestrepeat.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/huawei-e220-on-linux-for-sms/
• http://www.diafaan.com/sms-tutorials/gsm-modem-tutorial/
• http://www.shapeshifter.se/2008/04/30/list-of-at-commands/
• http://raspberrypi.homelabs.org.uk/raspberrypi-the-arduino-development-tool/
• http://developer.vodafone.com/labs/opensource/linux- connection-manager/operating-systems/ubuntu-linux-setup/
• For unlocking Huawei modems

I've been very impressed with how well Ubuntu runs on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200. Everything worked out of the box - with the exception of the fingerprint reader (AuthenTec AES2810).

Now, I know that fingerprint readers can easily be defeated by jelly-babies, but it annoys me when something doesn't work.

The manufacturer of the fingerprint reader has a great developer community, so I contacted them. Here's their response:

Linux support for AES devices is not yet available.

But based on the increasing number of requests we are currently considering to release the technical specification to the Linux community to be able to integrate selected AES sensor devices to the Open Source projects.

We still need to finalize the related discussions with our legal team regarding NDA requirement for the particular developers and clarify all remaining concerns.

I will make a note to let you know once we come to a conclusion and will be ready to move forward.

Another plan is to extend our BSAPI SDK (currently supporting our TC devices under Windows/Linux/Mac) with AES devices support. The BSAPI is available for free download in it's Lite version.

However, it's not all good news:

since it is hard to predict how exactly and when we will decide to provide the support at the end I would suggest to be careful when blogging about it to avoid false expectations in the community.

I realise that Linux is currently a niche OS - but lack of open software support is a serious omission from any hardware manufacturer. I learned this to my cost when Creative stopped supporting the Hollywood DXR3 card - it was a cracking bit of hardware, but Creative decided that they didn't care about pissing off customers who had Windows XP.

If a hardware manufacturer won't allow you to use their hardware with any software you choose - guess what; it's not your hardware. You may have thought you bought it from them, but you didn't. You are only renting it until they decide they no longer want to support you.