USB widgets are go (part 2)

Well, we're getting there on the USB IR widgets - we now have Creactive doing some industrial design for us on the casings and the second spin of prototype PCBs is at the shop - back next week, hopefully.

Our core consumer functions are as they always were - will work with any RC5 remote control, programmable via USB serial port, no install on any major platform. As a result of having sourced some cheap remote controls, we'll also be supporting a proprietory NEC remote protocol and selling moderately cheap dedicated remotes to anyone who wants them (to control your model railway, for example).

We've managed to cram on a few new features for the geeks this time:

• Boards can be made using 3.3V or 5V parts.
• SOT-23 LDO so you can power the boards from somewhat unregulated supplies - eg. to use them without being plugged into a USB port.
• UART, I2C and SPI brought out so you can use them as bridges (not all at the same time, though).
• More I/Os brought out so you can have ADC inputs and control pins.

And we should be able to open-source both the schematic and the software, though as the software is still encumbered by Microchip's licence for the USB code it sadly can't be GPL.

Oh, we've lopped a couple of millimetres off the size in each direction too :-).

Anyway, watch this space and do get in touch if interested - early product should be available soon and if you ask us nicely we'll sell you some of the pre-production batch.

Grr. Apologies if the code examples in the previous post are truncated at the right - this is because of the way blogger tries so hard to make the blog a nice column down the middle of your browser. Which is a laudable aim for a plain text article, but doesn't work so well for code examples. If I have time I'll look into it (some more) in the future (I've already tweaked the blog settings to try to make previous posts look sensible).

Update: OK, I think I've fixed that. Now on to trying to make "cut" work in posts...

muddle: Cross-compiling V8

So, I'm transferring a native (Intel) build of various things to a cross-compiled build for the ARM (specifically, for my beagleboard).

Today's tasks were sqlite (which was harder than I expected) and V8, Google's open source JavaScript engine.

We're hiring!

In case you hadn't heard:

Kynesim is urgently in need of developers to expand our team.

We're a small, friendly technology consultancy firm located on Castle Hill, Cambridge with strong links to the University of Cambridge, for which our Managing Director routinely teaches.

We provide top flight hardware and software development services to a variety of clients; mostly doing STB work, embedded Linux (although WinCE expertise welcomed), quite a bit of wireless/embedded micro stuff, but we have been known to do everything from soldering bits onto PICs to writing web applications. We have an outstanding track record of delivering complex and challenging technology on tight deadlines.

Code is mostly in C and C++ with a smattering of assembler, Python and Java and a surprising amount of Javascript and HTML. C# is hovering threateningly on the horizon. A good working knowledge of C and/or C++ is essential.

Starting as soon as possible, this role would suit Computer Science or Maths graduates. We aim to recruit bright, hard working people willing to muck in with challenging tasks they may not have met before.

In return, we provide a decent salary, free food including a pub lunch on Mondays, interesting work, a Playstation 3, proper flexitime and occasional soft toys.

Sound fun? Contact Richard Watts for further details.