XBox 360 Dual Firmware Mod

After months of having a 360 that works except the Samsung dvd drive, I finally bought a spare dvd drive off of ebay and decided to try and transplant the firmware from my broken driver to the new one. While I am at it, I might as well make it dual boot between the good firmware and another hacked firmware for other obvious reasons.  Now you might be asking why go through all the trouble when you can just flash the new drive.  Well my old 360 dvd drive was quite dead, to the point that I literally ripped the plcc chip off of the board with full intention of doing a complete brain transplant!  Otherwise there was no easy or cheap way to get the drive firmware key.

The above picture was all the remained of the old board, the traces where ripped up by the epoxy that was placed quite evilly on, around and under the plcc chip.  I had removed this a few months ago and has it in a safe place, waiting to have the time to use it.  Now, if you are reading this planing to do the same, I give you a big warning, if you see blank epoxy on your board, give up now.  My replacement drive had clear epoxy that was nice and soft after heating with a heat run.  However the black on the original board only got brittle making it impossible to not break parts.

Next I went online looking up everything I could find on the firmware.  On the Samung drives, It is stored on a plcc chip next to the large hole in the board. Each chip has a unique key, so you need to have this before you can use any other drives. With my drive not talking to anything, transplanting the entire chip was my last resort.  Next I found http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/tutorial/tightmod360installation.pdf it contained the steps to dual boot my old chip with the new drives one.  This way I did not need to try and remove the current plcc chip, which may destroy the board in the process.  However, it is quite a bit more work and on a whole different difficulty level.  Another warning, do not try to attempt a dual firmware setup unless you have a good soldering iron with temperature control and a very steady hand.  It is easy to get solder everywhere!

I started out with thin ethernet wire to connect the two chips. I connected all of the top lead first but quickly found it was too thick and needed to use the tiny individual strands from twisted christmas tree light wire.  Then it was easy to use long strands and connect the bottom lead first and then stretch and line it up with the top lead.  After each pair of pins where all attached correctly on a side I would trim the extra wire.

This was very delicate work, and preparing the leads was not easy, more then once I needed to carefully clean up a bridged solder connection between leads or wires.  Also it was important to completely tin each strand before trying to connect it, otherwise it would not stick.  The above picture shows how small each wire needed to be, with a penny for reference. These pictures where shown with a magnifying glass.

After that following the rest of the guide was easy, I found some spare 10K resistors and attached them to pin 4 and 15 as the guide shows.  This may differ from what others need to do, as I later needed to switch it to pin 5, as 4 caused the driver to make the 360 show a E65 error. Luckily I was persistent and kept poking otherwise I would have just assumed the drive was dead due to some error on my part.  So you may need to play with pins to get it to work on different drives.

After that I closed up the drive and connected it to the 360.  The drive boots up and reads disks, the old firmware reading games, and the new firmware without the correct key only shows everything as a dvd.  Next I need to get the drive key, but that is for another day.

Apple LaserWriter 12/640 setup with OS X

Owning an old networked Apple LaserWriter LS 12/640 is cool, especially as found I can use the waste toner I clean from another printer to fuel this one.  While the result is not amazing print quality, it works well for the occasional print job at home.  The big problem is that setting up the printer is no longer supported in OS X, yet there is some unix and window hackery that will do the trick, the problem was getting them all to work from my Macbook Pro and not having to drag a PC into the mix.

First off you need to setup an IP for the printer, which by default has an IP of 0.0.0.0 and a subnet of 0.0.0.0.  Normally back in the OS 8/9 days you would use the printer utility over appletalk.  Sadly(?) apple talk has been removed as of 10.6.  So time to delve into some unix to fix the issue.

Chapter 4 in the manual for the 12/640 covers setting of the printer for unix. Basically this breaks down into adding an entry to the host file (/etc/hosts) for the printer name and ip address of your choice for the printer.  Then get the mac address for the printer, which is listed on the configuration page it will print out each time it is turned on when in config mode, e.g. little switch on back out, not in.  Then use the following arp command in the terminal "arp    -s    printer_IP_name     printer_Ethernet_address" followed by "ping printer_IP_name".  This will create a link to the printer despite an IP address not being configured.  Use this temporary link to telnet into the printer using the IP address you chose and finish up setting final network settings using the text menu system.

Next you will need to finish setting the other printer configuration items.  However they are missing from the telnet menu.  To gain access to these additional setting, such as turning off config page printing on powerup, you need to grab a copy of the Windows Laserwriter Utility.  This can be run on a pc, through a virtual machine or by using Crossover Mac to simply run it in OS X.  I used Crossover, installed the utility and it connected automatically the first time I ran it.  You can tell the setting have been changed as the printer will be sent a job for each command and then print a wasteful page that confirms each change.  After that the printer will be all set up and ready to be added to your printer list.  The 12/640 driver is pre installed in 10.6, but must be chosen manually.

Once again I am recycling old tech for current use.  Plus it is a pice of Apple history, is your made by Apple, for most that would be a no.

Install Microsoft SDK in Visual C++ 6

A recent project required me to work with the JobObject feature of the Microsoft API, this worked fine with VC++9 however when it came time to re-try it in VC++6, I quickly became aware of the fact that the base SDK that comes with VC++6 did not have a definition for the JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION struct or the enum needed to attach it to a precess in order use it.  Sadly I needed this for a "kill at end of job command", where as other more basic JobObject features did work with the base SDK. So while I could re implement the struct I was stuck beyond that.  Lucky a SDK update fixed the issue.  But like so many other things getting the update working was not quite that easy.

VC++6 will only work with Windows Server 2003 SP1 SDK as the latest update, be careful not to grab anything newer than that. Get it Here (bottom of page) Next let it install, which will take a good ten minutes.  After it has installed then launch VC++6 and go to Tools > Options and click the Directory tab.  Now in each of the correct lists (drop down option) add an entry for either the include, bin or lib folders that are located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK\. Finally, the last important step is to move the new SDK items up to the top of each of these lists, if you do not the order will cause issues and the SDK files will not be used or will have errors.

Now JobObjects work as expected.

Adding an AUX to a Clarion PF-2597A-B

Originally I had planned to just buy a new after market head unit for my car, do to its lack of an AXU input for my iPod, however after seeing nothing within my price range that was decent looking, I realized that I may have been on the wrong track.  While doing some research, I stumbled upon this forum posting about adding an AUX input to an old car tape deck.  After digging some more on this topic I found that people have been successful with hijacking both the AM/FM and CD input on stereo circuits.  The CD methods seemed like a bad idea due to needing a silent cd to play constantly, which is just asking to wear out the stereo cd drive.  So I went with hijacking the FM audio out pins of the stereo.  The interesting part about using the AM/FM method is that due to the Auto Gain Control built in, when a MP3 player is connected, its stronger signal seems to overrides the AM/FM on the board and effectively shuts it off without any extra effort on your part. From what I have read, this seems to be the case with most car stereos, however your results may vary.

Here is a good place for the standard warning:  I did this project knowing it could potentially destroy the stereo and/or the mp3 player, if you attempt the same thing or something similar you face the same risks.  Do not blame me if you break anything by following my information or pictures, I express no warrantee on this information's correctness or usability.

I started off my taking the stereo apart and looking up the chips on the reverse side of the board shown here.  There is a lot of mixed opinion on where the best place to connect to is, and it seems to vary from different stereos, so it is best to see what you are working with first. While this gave me some good extra info, I quickly realized that this was not necessary, due to the pinout being printed on the back of the board.  I did some voltage checks while the stereo was plugged in and running, the FM outs gave a normal voltage variation between 0v and 3.6v, which means that I would not overload anything with a mp3 player's small voltage output. After figuring out on paper what I wanted to do and finishing my voltage checks, I did a quick test run with a temporary 1/8 inch plug connected and an older expendable mp3 player.  While I was expecting this to work out, it was exciting to hear it function, when the player was plugged in, the FM cut out and the mp3 was clearly playing unplug it and the FM comes back as normal.  While the signal is stronger, the max voltage from the mp3 player is lower than the FM, so the mp3 player needs to be set to at least half volume to be heard well, not bad, but definitely not perfect.  There may be a better connect point that uses a lesser voltage, however I am sticking to the ones on the edge due to it being easy to access and solder.

After testing and finding out that this did indeed work, I drilled a hole in the back of the stereo and added a 1/8 inch plug and then ran a short shielded audio cable to the pins I used in my test.  The board picture above has the final wiring, which pokes out of the side and is soldered to the correct pins coming from the separate AM/FM board and ground which is a larger solder point connecting to the metal housing.  By using a shielded cable inside the radio, it will prevent any extra interference due to the wire stretching across the board from the back panel. After doing one final check, I reassembled the stereo, now with its new AUX plug.  Finally, I put together a separate cable to plug into this AUX port and run it to a more convent location in the center console.

The wire runs down from the back of the stereo and connects to another 1/8 inch plug from which I can easily plug in an mp3 player or another other audio device. After making sure everything was in order I snapped all the console panels back into place leaving just the new 1/8 inch port left in view.  This is nice, because it means that there is no obvious indication that the stereo is no longer stock, making it a far less likely target for theft, not that the radio is easy to get out to begin with.

After doing some actual road testing and letting it run for a while using my expendable mp3 player, I am quite satisfied as well as confident that there is no chance it will harm my iPod, so now I am ready for the commute on monday morning.  I must say that the only down side to this setup is that the mp3 volume needs to be over 50% and the stereo volume ends up being about 12 higher than cd or radio (25-30 vs 10-15 out of 40).  Not that this is a problem, it is just the only flaw to the design and may be fixed by using a closer point to the volume control chip.  Either way, I am happy and my car now has a handy AUX port, all at the cost of $3 for 1/8 inch plugs.

Other possible options instead of this and costs...

DIY AUX ($0-$50 depending on your extra parts supply)

Clarion CeNET adaptor EA1251B ($99 and cannot have CD Changer option installed)

New separate head unit with AUX ($60-$500)

Reading plist files

When developing for the mac platform, app preferences are supposed to be stored in ~/Library/Preferences/.  While finding and reading a preference file is easy enough, reading usable information from it is another matter.  This is because in the last couple of system updates (10.5+) the xml based plist files used for preferences are now saved in a binary format, not the UTF-8 format you would suspect.  The tricky part of this is that if you are using the NSDictonary class in Objective-C you will not encounter any problems, but when using any other programing language you suddenly get a mess of garbage text.  Luckily OSX had a built in command to help remedy the issue.  The plutil command converts plists between the text based XML and binary based.

As an example in Java you can use the Runtime class to invoke the command on the fly.

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{plutil", "-convert", "xml1", filepath});

To convert a file back once you have read or edited it use this.

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{plutil", "-convert", "binary1", filepath});

It is also good check for the lastIndexOf("bplist") as it will alert you if the file is currently in binary form.

DIY Fog Chiller

I have owned a fog machine for many years now, but I had always wanted to make a fog chiller to get a crawling fog effect. However, due to the wind around my house in the fall, it makes it usually pointless for halloween, so until now I had held off on spending any money on it. But when low lying fog was needed for a youth play I was helping setup and run lighting for, I finally had the excuse I needed.

So before any details, a bit of physics… A simple fog machine works by vaporizing a fluid (usually made of mineral oil, glycol, or glycol and water mixture) into a heat exchanger, where the fluid is quickly vaporized. This means that fog is usually somewhat warm, as it does cool down quickly as it expands, similar to compressed air. However it is still warm enough that it always rises as it is released. To remedy this, a fog chiller is used to cool down the fog faster so it lays low and clings to the ground. Some simple examples can be found on youtube that use a metal pipe or plate and ice to cool down the fog, which to my surprise does not need a lot of ice to achieve the task. Though watching expensive professional fog machines run is rather impressive. [Check it out]

Still I wanted to do something more than a simple metal tube, so after purchasing the cheapest plastic bin I could find ($5) I gathered up some PVC tube, mesh window screen, a 120mm computer fan and a plastic sandwich bag.

As you can see from my pictures the mesh is bent and woven into a wave shape for a clear path the smoke can move through, this ensures maximum exposure to the ice is possible and allows the fog to fill the container. Next the mesh smoke path is placed between the PVC inlet and the outlet fan using the lip in the container to to hold it up. Ice is filled all around the mesh as well as in between the gaps between the smoke path. A variable voltage transformer and a remote controlled outlet is used to control power and the speed of the fan. It is pointless to leave the fan running all the time as it will melt the ice faster. Finally a plastic bag with a stiff edge is used as a simple laminar to help smooth and direct the fog to the ground for a gentle rolling effect. While I did not get a chance to take a video of it in action I have included a video of another person's fog chiller which produced the same effect. (AKA, It is not my home, and I do not own such a sketchy rug...)



I was quite happy with the results, the ice lasted and with plenty to spare, while sitting in-between uses for a good hour. And produced a good layer of fog for the two scenes that needed it. Interestingly enough a chiller seems to works better in cold air than warm, due to it keeping the fog cool longer, which is the opposite of what I assumed, as I thought it would be better to have warm ambient air to keep the fog as the cooler sinking air. Also the slower the fog is, the lower it will stay, so if you have a container to pump it into first before cooling it will help slow it, but I will save that for the v2. As you can see from my results, if you own or want a standard fog machine (quite cheap now a-days) you need to make a fog chiller, also don't buy a combined model as they only produce a slow steady output of fog, which is only is useful for an small indoor room.

Installing Quicktime 7 in Snow Leopard 10.6

On small annoyance with 10.6 and Quicktime X is the some important older components do not work yet. So in order to use these older components you will need to install an older version of quicktime 7.

1. First off download quicktime 7 from Apples website here.

2. Right click and select view contents of the Installer and view the Contents folder.

3. Expand the Archive.pax.gz and open the resulting Archive folder.

4. In the Archive/Applications folder drag the Quicktime application to your Utilities folder

5. In the Archive/System/Library/PreferencePanes double click the QuickTime.prefPane and have it install for all users.

6. Register Quicktime pro if you have a license key.

There you have it a easy way to use Quicktime 7 in 10.6 with out having to reinstall your OS.

Mac OGM to iPOD conversion

This is more of a post for my self because I always forget what the name of software tools, so here is my simple guide to converting OGM files on a Mac.

1. Download D-Vision from http://www.objectifmac.com/

2. Download and install the Xiph quicktime component. from http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/

3. Click tools and use the OGM Demuxer function to split the OGM file into separate parts.

4. Open the AVi video only file in quicktime 7. (Snow Leopard aka 10.6 will need an older version of Quicktime as vr X does not work with the Xiph component yet)

5. Copy the audio track and use the "add to movie" option to insert it over the video track.

6. Finally use the export option in quicktime to export it as iPhone or iPod format.

This works fine under 10.5 and below, however as noted in 10.6 you need to use the older ver of quicktime, see my guide on installing Quicktime 7 on Snow Leopard here.

Xbox USB Controller Mod

The xbox I got off of ebay had three controllers with it, however I recently noticed that one of them did not have the breakaway connector I needed to actually use it. So I looked online and found I could get one for $5, however, my cousin was only here for a few days and I wanted to play three person halo 2 matches. So like any resourceful modder I decided to change it to usb.



The basic design of the xbox uses a modified usb port to plug controllers in, with an extra yellow line that seems to be used for the light gun from what I have read. So there is nothing stopping you from changing a controller port to a standard usb port. This will not only let you use an xbox controller with a usb port, but also a keyboard if your dash will recognize it. You can see from the pictures I have drilled out the plug in the fourth port and glued a standard USB port inside. This looks quite nice from the exterior. Next I cut the breakaway end off the controller and connected a usb plug instead. No real brain work was necessary as you simply ignore the yellow wires and match the red black blue and green wires on the inside of the xbox and in the controller wire. After everything is connected, the controller can be plugged in and used like normal. You can get more information and pictures here on how to connect the usb wires.



As an added bonus you can now use the usb xbox controller with your computer as well. Check the links below for the drivers.
Mac Driver
Windows Driver

XBOX Soft Mod

My friend Matt had soft modded an xbox he got during my last year at school, at first I though it was cool, but did not see any use, however I quickly started to love the ability to stream any media to the big CRT tv we had in the living room. After I graduated I started to miss that ability, as well as having something to play Halo 2 on from time to time. So I went on ebay and found a good deal for an first gen xbox with three controllers, the advanced av pack(s video + optical sound) and the DVD remote kit. All for $33, which is not a bad deal at all. Then after waiting a week for it to arive, stupid ups ground, I finaly got a chance to have some fun with new hardware.

Fist off I read up on the steps to soft mod an xbox, check it out the tutorial here. I had no problem getting my kernel version and using ndure to build a installer, then packing it up and for burning a disk with xboxhdm. However that was when my problems started to happen, first off I could not get the drive unlocked by hot swapping the drive, it ended up not being a swap issue, instead it was a bios problem with the dell model I was using. After a few hours of poking I finally realized I had to plug the drive in first for the bios to know that there was a drive attached then do a double hot swap to the xbox for unlocking then back to the computer. I only figured it out because the drive would only show up if I plugged it in before starting the computer.



After getting the drive hot swapped, I ran into my second problem, the install failed due to lack of space. I am still not sure what was up with this, however after using the restore option twice, I finally decided to try letting it fail and see what happens. This turned out to be fine as it still soft modded the drive, which started up fine, however it was lacking any applications other then the basic dashboard. This was fine as I was able to grab a copy of ConfigMagic and ftp it to the apps folder and then use it to get the EEPROM off the board. This was my main focus as after I got the EEPROM I could always unlock/lock a new hard drive at any time. After I had it backed up I was able to breath easy.

My next step with to change the drive to a 200Gb so I would have plenty of room for movies and other files. This also gave me a challenge as well, as I did not have a DVD drive in the PC I was using, which meant I could not use xboxhdm to format the drive. I was stuck for a bit till I could out that there is a much easier way to clone the drive by using Chimp (Read more Here). I did a test on a 10Gb drive first and it cloned it perfectly. Then I tried the 200Gb, sadly it took three tries, but after stalling and eventually returning to the main menu a few times, it finally moved on to the next menu and I was able to clone it. The nice feature of Chimp is that automatically formats the F partition with the extra space difference between the drives.

Now that I had my drive all set and the xbox soft modded all I needed to do was install XBMC as the dash, which was simple, and then move all my files over to the hard drive, which took the longest till of all. After that I was playing with the built in skins. Matt had the xTV skin that I liked, but I eventually decided on MediaStream as my favorite skin, and I think it is a little easier to use for my family as well.

All in all, a successful and useful mod, now I just need to mod the stock fan, as it is loud and annoying at times.

Applet ProgressBar Flickering Issue

I had recently taken the the time to convert my EpicGame Code from VB to java, so I could make an applet that could be played online. (I was lazy and did not want to make it flash based) However after finishing it and testing on the mac side I though I was finished. Yet, later I started hearing complaints of the game flickering, I was confused as it worked fine for me and as usual I had double buffering setup, which in theory would prevent any flickering. Still, for some reason Window's version Java would flicker uncontrollably. I spent several hours trying different graphics buffering setups and also drawing to separate panels, but with no success.

Luckily I randomly stumbled onto the problem, it was the JProgressBars that I was using. When you update a value in the progress bar it calls the update method that then calls paint, which would happen concurrently mid screen refresh and draw a blank white screen, which was the rouge flickering.

So on Windows do not use JProgressBars with animation as it messes it up, or you need to extend the class and override the setValue method so it does not update the UI. Oh, and of course on the Mac side it all works flawlessly from the start.

Samsung CLP 500 Network Driver

One really annoying issue I have run into while working at CADY is that older Samsung printers do not have much... or any support, namely the CLP 500 series that is in the office. As it was my first job to get it up and running it took me a while to even find a driver for it.

For my own convince and others I now have it saved here -> CLP-500Series_1.84.exe.
Please click my ads if you find this useful, as it was a huge pain to find!!!

The next issue is that it does not have any network support, well not documented at least. The printer does have a network card in it, so it must work on a network. I have just been spoiled by HP as their network printers do the network settings at setup. So,to get the CLP 500 printer working on a network you have to do a few extra steps.

1. Install the driver, this will put a generic printer in your list, however it is set up on the wrong port.

2. Open the printers/faxes window then right click on the printer and select properties.

3. Click on the ports tab and hit "Add Port", then select Standard TCP/IP port and hit "New Port".

4. Follow the wizard and enter your printers IP, found by printing the printer config page in the printer information menu, and a name if you desire. Hit next...

5. On the next page leave it as Standard and Generic Network Card, then hit next and hit finish.

6. Check to see the printer is now selected to use your new port, which it should be. Apply and/or close the window. You should now be all set.

I highly recommend setting a static IP for your printer, otherwise you will need to update the port every time the printer gets a new IP.  (CADY Printer is 192.168.1.47)

UPDATE:
Win 7 steps...

1.  Use the add a printer option.

2.  Select Samsung instead of TCP/IP

3.  Update Printer Drivers from Microsoft

4.  Use the CLP 510 Driver

Easy Symbolic Links in OSX

From time to time you have to rely on symbolic links when Alias is not enough, such as re-mapping folders like your itunes library. You can always open terminal and use "ln -s target destination", however this can be annoying if you do not do it often or need one fast. So there is SymbolicLinker to help out, it is a handy context menu add on that give you a "create link" option when you right click an icon. It is handy to have for that random time you quickly and easily need a symbolic link.

Crossover for games

A short while ago, CodeWeavers was giving away copies of CrossOver Games for a promotion they where running, it dealt with politics so I am not going any further then that. Anyway... Everyone could grab a free copy of of any of their Crossover products. I grabbed games and mac, and so far I am very happy with it, it does not work for everything, but it does work for a lot. For those who do not know, Crossover uses the open source project Wine which "implements the Windows API entirely in user-space, rather than as a kernel module at the time of writing. Services normally provided by the kernel in Windows are provided by a daemon known as wineserver. Wineserver implements basic Windows functionality, as well as providing extra functions such as X Window integration and translation of signals into native Windows exceptions." Crossover is a commercial version of wine, so it provides a little more support then the open source project. If you have windows software and do not want to use BootCamp or Virtualization options, this is a very nice options. Plus I got to bust out my copy of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, which was just plain awesome. Also it will play the Windows version of Hydro Thunder with full 3D support, unlike playing it under regular wine.

Uninstall and Reinstall Cydia

In an attempt to fix the Cydia POSIX errors, I stupidly removed the cydia.list sources files, then in an attempt to fix that I uninstalled cydia, only to realize that I could not reinstall because I had removed the apt-get sources for it, so I had to figure out how to reinstall cydia. After an hour of looking I finaly found a way!

1. ssh into the ipod touch...
2. grab the package from apt.saurik.com
3. rename to cydia.deb, for easy typing
4. place in the / directory "aka root directory" on the ipod
5. type and run "dpkg -i /cydia.deb"
6. respring
7. [click the advertising on the bottom of the page if this was helpful!]

Then it is back, but still POSIX errors... Still working on that.

Update: Fixed the broken link...

Run Riven on OS X

I have always been a big fan of the Myst series, I even still have the original Mac only Myst cd from 1993. Sadly that is still not playable on OS X, though there is a port for iPhone comming soon, which makes me happy, that might just be the first non free App that I will get from the iTunes store. Still there is progress being made to get all of the Myst games running on the latest systems, which is where /dev/klog · Riven X comes into play. Riven X is a program that runs the Riven (MYST II) card based engine on os x.

I had heard of this around two years ago, however at that time it would not play anything, it would just let users view any of the cards in riven. However it is has great progress, and now with the latest version 6 or beta 7 you can actually play the game. Of course it is still far from complete, lacking save in the latest stable release, and the beta crashes easily, the fact still remains that you are now able to play Riven on the latest Mac system, which is just plain awesome.

Remember you can still play Myst III Exile (My personal favorite), Myst IV Revelation and Myst V End of Ages(My least Favorite) in OS X with out extra work. Now we just need a update of the Original Myst, not realMYST, and I will be a happy fan.

AppleCare Repairs

I am very happy because I just got my Macbook Pro back from Apple, after undergoing some repairs/updates before I had back to school. I have been VERY impressed with the Applecare shipping, box in one day, ship to factory in one day, fix in one day, back to me the day after. My computer was gone for only three days, not just this time but every time Apple has fixed problems for me.

First off new hard drive, the old one had some bad disk sectors, and apple was happy to replace that. Fixed the DVD drive, that would not burn DVDs and as a bonus the new drive is noticeably quieter. Plus I have a new screen, the old one had some uneven backlighting, nothing horrible, but still for a $2000 computer I expect perfection! I think the new screen might even be LED lit, but I will have to compare with my friends MBP that is, to be sure. Also for some strange reason my computer came back loaded (but sans Install DVD) with 10.5, I only have 10.4 still, so apparently they want me to try out 10.5, not that I am complaining.

Sadly, Apple would not replace my 2 year old starting to die battery, no matter how much I reasoned/complained/pleaded, which I understand why, as batteries only last around two years on average, but I am still a little bitter about, hey if I am going to pay $300+ for apple care, it should cover everything, unless I personally break it.

Also I could not get ware the top (keyboard side) of my MBP fixed, Apple considers that user damage, which I expected, however still annoyed for the same reasons stated above. Still Apple is not a charity, they are a business, which had sold me a computer that so far I have been nothing but happy with.

Logictech Quickcam on Vista

I have never been a fan of the software team from logitech, which is too bad, because their hardware is generaly pretty good. One problem I reciently ran into was that the Quick Cam Zoom that my grandparents have does not work on vister <(not a mistake). Luckly some resourceful people have found out how to get it runnin on vista.

1 Download the latest quickcam drivers from any of the new quick cams, it was ver 11.5 at the time.

2 Install, but skip the set up camera part at the end.

3 Download the old 32 bit window xp drivers for the quick cam, ver 8.3.8 or something like that.

4 Install, but at the end it will say it can not update, this is fine.

5 Go to device manager and manualy chose the driver, it is in C:/Program Files/Logitech/Logitec WebCam Drivers/WinNew/PRO

6 Install and enjoy.

Apparently SP1 breaks the audio driver, but when I update I will post that fix too.

DDR Pad Controller

Well after about 4 years the pad controller board died. I should have expected this, because I am forcing the circuit to run under much higher resistance then the 2 inches of wire it was designed for, but still 4 years of heavy ues is pretty good. So it was off to staples to grab a new USB key pad. I personally like the Targus Keypads because they are simple and support more then one key press at a time, which is very important for the pad to work correctly.

After getting the keypad I brought it home and took a look at the circuit, it was quite a bit different from the version they had 4 years ago, mostly because it used small contact pad instead of the holes for leads like I was hoping. This was a small set back, however after ripping the contact holder off the board to get access to the solder points I realized that I was going about it wrong. There where some lead holes on the board, just not right there.

I got some very thin copper wire with the insulating coat, and soldered them onto the board. It took some careful placement to correctly solder the wires that where very close to either the contact on the top, or the other solder points on the bottom of the board. Still after an hour of work I had it working, and could test in StepMania that it was indeed working.

All that was left to do was correctly wire it back to the pad. Sadly this was a lot more complicated then I had hopped, because the way I had the old version was slightly different. But I quickly fix this problem and had a wiring diagram to use. All I needed was the up,right,down and left buttons so I have two main wires 4 and 5 that are contacted to the remaining wires to get the correct button press. I am not sure if did something wrong or just shorted something, because after I had it all working for some-reason when you press left and up or down both up and down are pressed. Luckily this does not interfere with game play, it is just a small anomaly.

There you have it, all the instruction you need to make your own pad controller, however I expect that Targus will change the board again before this one breaks, so I am sure I will have to go through this hassle again sometime in the distant future.

How to fix an iBook

Well I got another iBook from surplus for another dollar, which also was showing the same symptoms of the GPU having solder connection issues. Also once again by putting pressure on the chip and the board the LCD would turn on. However unlike the last iBook I tried this fix on, this one required less pressure to get the screen going, and would stay on at certain angles, so what ever was wrong with the solder was quite a bit less than the last iBook, which makes my life easier.

So, I grabbed the propane torch and set up the board by removing anything that would melt. This time, after doing some research of others attempts at this process, and found that a slow heating and cooling process is much more effective. So I heated for a minute at a low setting from a little distance, then heated at full for about another minute while watching the screen. At the start, the screen was a garbled mess, however soon the chip overheated and the screen did a weird blurring effect. This was normal and happened last time, so I backed off with the heat and allowed it to cool a bit, after a few seconds the chip started again, but was still not quite right, so I repeated the process. This time after backing off with the heat, the screen went to the blinking question folder that I was looking for. After getting this far, I let the chip cool on its own, which took around ten minutes. After it cooled correctly, I made sure the board turned on, and shook and slightly bent the board to make sure it was securely connected. My last attempt had several failed successes, which by bending the board showed it had not correctly reflowed the solder. However this time it was fully connected.

Ha, it may have taken two attempts to get right, but now I have a working iBook for my digital picture frame project, and as requested I have pictures of torch in action, which where missing from my other post, enjoy.