Fermentable Code

My Arduino board has arrived. That and my $100 worth of electronic components to start with. Unfortunately, I have already realized some stuff I forgot to order. Oh well, I can still play around with the board!

So, I thought that I was all prepared with the software to just plug the board in and go, but this was not the case. Apparently, there are some major issues with versions of the AVR gcc compiler on openSUSE. Here's what I did that finally worked:

• Added the AVR Cross tools repository (download.opensuse.org/repositories/CrossToolchain:/avr/openSUSE_11.2/)
• Installed avrdude (5.10-154.1), avr-libc (1.6.8-9.1), cross-avr-binutils (2.19.1-31.4), and cross-avr-gcc (4.3.3-23.1)
  Note here that only gcc 4.3 will work for this board (I'm not sure where I read that, but it was my experience too). I even tried compiling 4.3 myself, but that didn't work with a slightly different version of binutils. The above worked for me, though.
• Downloaded and unziped the software from the arduino site (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software). I downloaded the 64 bit libs.
• In the arduino directory I made softlinks to all of the avr-* executables in /opt/cross
• Some places talked about compiling RXTX for java, but I didn't have to do that. However, I do get a version mismatch on that library when I run the software; it doesn't seem to cause a problem so I ignore it.

I've been having an issue connecting the Arduino board to my computer, however. Many times I'll connect it and get this error in dmesg:
[ 501.160010] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
[ 501.273010] usb 3-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 501.488013] usb 3-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 501.690014] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
[ 501.803010] usb 3-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 502.017012] usb 3-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 502.220010] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
[ 502.628010] usb 3-1: device not accepting address 6, error -71
[ 502.730010] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 7
[ 503.138009] usb 3-1: device not accepting address 7, error -71
[ 503.138026] hub 3-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1

I've found that if I just try a few times unplugging and replugging that it will finally recognize it, but I'm not sure what the problem is. I tried running this command, but I'm not sure if it does anything at all. (Run as root)
echo -1 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend


Hopefully that can help someone, now it's on to understanding electronics as a CS guy...

Here's the first post!

In the past I've never been good at the whole "writing" thing. Hopefully this will allow me (force me) to get better about it. Now, why would I want to make a blog?

I decided that I needed to start a blog. Mostly because of OriginDB. I really think this project could be something great, and if it is, I need to document it better. That's the number 1 goal of this blog.

Reason number 2: I am taking this summer "off" to work on some personal projects. I have at least two or three planned out already. I want to create a "SmartKeg" a la KegBot, and I want to create a good Python interface to the Rovio robot. Both of these projects I could see other people liking to know how I did it, so I'm going to try to keep a record on this blog.

And finally reason number 3: I love homebrewing. Homebrewing to me is like FOSS, it should be done out in the open. I am going to use this blog to document all of my recipes as well as my methods and the outcomes.

I am really looking forward to trying to keep this up. Let's hope it works!