[XCSSA] XCSSA Meeting: High voltage, Hardware Hacking, and other fun stuff (Mon, June 15th, 7pm back in the NTC building, old room 140 (not the basement))

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

Thanks for the heads up Fredrik..  Hope you don't have strep.. or that if you 
do.. you get better soon.  Drink lost of liquids and get some rest man.  

So I guess we'll just be doing my AMD PIC thing tonight.

Is anyone else going to bring out any cool hardware?

Tweeks
p.s. if someone could bring a camera.. that would be great.  I wanted to get 
some pics of the PIC hardware, and my wife took my camera (and kids) out of 
state for the week. :)

On Monday 15 June 2009, X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
> Howdy...
>
> I'm 99% sure that I got Strep Throat this Saturday, however I'm not
> showing any symptoms yet... I know this is contagious so I'm not going
> to the meeting tonight, don't want to get anyone else sick...
> I'll save the Plasma Fractals show and tell until the next meeting...
>
> /Fredrik
>
> X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
> >                 Xotic Computer Systems of San Antonio *
> >                  \_____\________\__________\___\______X
> >                         \________\__________\___\_____C
> >                                   \__________\___\____S
> >                                               \___\___S
> >                                                    \__A
> >          (* this email is best viewed in fixed fonts)
> > 	http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html
> >
> > Hey all!
> >
> > NOTE: This meeting will be held in the NTC building, back in our "old
> > old" room 140 on the 1st floor!
> >
> > No formal presentations as of yet... but some cool show-n-tells going on.
> > :)
> >
> > First up...
> >
> > Plasma (High Voltage) Fractals: By Fredrik
> > Besides propeller and microcontroller hacking, Fredrik also has a thing
> > for things that make sparks.  Specifically, high voltage sparks.  A while
> > back, Fredrik built a simple flyback high voltage kit that puts out
> > 25,000 volts AC at around 25kHz.  About what you get from a CRT based
> > television set HV flyback circuit.  In previous meetings he's lit up
> > light bulbs, globes and what not (see links on web site) but now he's
> > playing with the burn patterns that can be achieved by dampening
> > composite wood boards with water and hitting them with HV plasma arcs. 
> > Some pretty cool fractal-like patterns can be created very easily (links
> > on web site) and he's going to show the results, and with building
> > approval, do some demonstrations of the process.
> > http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html#NEXT
> >
> > De-WinCE-ing the AMD "PIC Brick": By Tweeks
> > A few years back, AMD released a sealed, rubberized PC about the size of
> > a brick called the AMD PIC (link).  It only ran a specific version of
> > WindowsCE (and not very well at that), and could not run anything else as
> > it had a special "Trusted Hardware" BIOS in it that would not allow any
> > other OS to be booted(link).  Well after some discussions on the XCSSA
> > mail list... Tweeks has decided to go ahead an un-WinCE-brick the device
> > at XCSSA and load a small Linux distro on it to show how easy it is...
> > and what a nice little system the AMD PIC can actually be, if the right
> > OS is employed. (links to the directions and flash ROM image related
> > files are linked to from the web site)
> > http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html#NEXT
> >
> > There has been some other x-otic hardware chatter on the list.. so come
> > out ans see what shows up.. We might have some other interesting hardware
> > show up too.
> >
> > FREEBIES!: Tweeks finally GOT that handful of free (as in beer) Ubuntu
> > Case Badges to brandish on your Linux lappy!  He'll bring them in to give
> > out.
> >
> > ** See the web site for links to the above subjects. **
> > http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2009-06-15.html#NEXT
> >
> >
> > Should be a fun laid back meeting this month..
> > Hope to see you there!
> >
> > Tweeks
> > President of XCSSA.ORG
> > _______________________________________________
> > XCSSA mailing list
> > XCSSA at xcssa.org
> > http://xcssa.org/mailman/listinfo/xcssa
>
> _______________________________________________
> XCSSA mailing list
> XCSSA at xcssa.org
> http://xcssa.org/mailman/listinfo/xcssa