serial/parallel ports are dead, long live the universal serial bus!
sigh… i dream of a day usb interface chips will be available at ratshack

This is great as a USB primer tutorial

i’ve got a related mod on my wall mounted pc (aka colossus) that uses a scrolling led sign to display various stats such as cpu, disk io, temps etc:

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8455/colossus0rl9.jpg

analog displays are great because they have been proven to be more quickly and easily comprehended compared to numeric data, where your brain has to do some processing to understand the information.

i also like analog because it’s different – i’m really sick of lcd this and lcd that; i’ll even take an led over and lcd these days (but nixies rule for numeric displays).

I think that shift light would be more useful as a high heat indicator, or something to indicate that the fans are now running faster because of the CPU loading.
Heck, just line those gauges right on across the bottom or something! -they’re great!

When shopping for a refrigerator a few months back, I was taken with a huge fridge that featured at least three beautiful analog gauges.
Could never afford that one, but I did get one with crushed ice in the door.

-crushed ice- people!

(but i digress)

Frogz: This is the user manual for the mx240a
http://safemanuals.com/user-guide-instructions-owner-manual/MOTOROLA/MX240A-_E

It looks like you need a base connected to an internet PC for these devices to work.

ya, the base is a standard usb device, like i said i bought 2 of these things but dont have much use for em anymore, basically a wireless b/w display/keyboard, was thinking about merging the driver with a ssh client or somthing, semi wireless nethack!!

@agent420 : where is the bud ^_^? interesting project. Although it has an interesting look, I can only imagine the joy of swapping any component out, particularly hard drives or that powersupply @_@.

I don’t know much about CPUs and how they work but it would be kinda cool if you could write some code that would basically allow “shifting” CPU cores. So if you had a multi core machine you could start with one and then “shift” up depending on use. Might result in using less energy when you don’t need it. It isn’t very practical sure but I think it would be fun to play with.

Can’t wait for cyberpunk to come back in vogue..

All we have are will smith movies and obscure novels right now.

You know, I had my name and email entered, and the posting failed, and it cleared my entry. thanks a million stupid comment box…

I have also had odd triple posts because of this horrible comment box.

@agent420, Nice PC, colossus was a good movie, I like how both machines found each other, and began communicating independantly. haven’t seen it in a while though.

The wall pc idea fits nicely with my ideal of using underutilized space, high walls + ceilings. no need for a pc on the top of a desk.

Also what is the unconnected board to the left of the optical, with one ribbon + 4 silver connectors?

there is another system…

With CPU usage like that it must be vista…

@EvilBeans

Some machines (When I say machines, I mean things that are and aren’t X86) allow processors to be hotplugged, i.e. added and removed while the machine is running. So disabling and enabling processors on the fly isn’t an issue if your hardware is capable.

If you just wanted to attempt to squeeze all the work on top one processor when possible (so the others could remain idle, and hopefully save power) you would write that into your OS’s scheduler.. i.e if (Work < Potential of CPU0) then Processor Affinity (Which processor to use) = 0; end if; However you have stuff like interrupts and things to also contend with. ;)

@Frogz – fer crying out loud, and on Hackaday of all places too. This is technology, not a religion or fashion statement. I have a mixture of digital and analogue displays on my workbench to cover different needs; digital is more accurate, but analogue shows trending and signal dynamics better.

USB is good. RS-232 is good. Centronics printer ports are good. MIDI is good. RS-422/GPIB is good. Using the joystick inputs is good. Using the speaker output is good. It’s *all* good if it does what you need without fuss or complication. My workbench ‘puters are typically old AT’s or whatever running DOS or early ‘doze, and they are still very useful for the specific tasks I set them up for. Laugh if you like, but if I do happen to accidentally put the mains up the printer port it’s only a minor matter to chuck it and swing in another one.

But sometimes I have to wonder about the application of digital smarts, and wonder how long it will be until I see a *crowbar* with 32-bit micro and LCD display.

There’s nothing wrong with hanging over the bleeding edge, just don’t assume that because a particular technology isn’t the current flavor of the month that it’s automatically useless. 3.5 floppies are on the way out and that creates some serious problems for me because they are variously ideal for some needs, and indeed vital to keep some music synths going.

There are valve (tube) guitar amps out their still gigging strong after 40 years, yet a modern amp or mixer that uses some modern but now outdated tech (e.g. 720k 3.5′s) is reduced (very) prematurely to junk. I think SD cards are magic, but I’d think very carefully before committing to anything that depended on their long term availability.

To my mind a good hack comes from keeping as many options open as possible thus multiplying the possible combinations. Do we turn our noses up at a 270 degree moving coil meter as a display? Or do we recognise that some old tech like this is hard to even equal using an LCD and 64-bits of digital crunch?

Now to make a Fuel Gauge memory monitor…

I WANT IT!!!!!! usb verion or sth?

Never mind, just clicked on green words of article. And I used to think clicking on random stuff would get me in trouble.