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Handhelds Hardware

Tilt Sensors For Palm Pilots 42

Posted by CmdrTaco from the don't-lose-your-balance dept.
lowlevel writes: "This site has been updated with plans for a 'dongle' version of the tilt sensor hack, which does not require you to modify your palm pilot. There is new code/drivers as well. After adding this to your palm pilot, you can play MULG which is the Palmpilot + tilt sensor equivalent to the timeless classic frustrating box with knobs and a marble that so few of us could master... (Note: there is a color beta version, too!) "
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Tilt Sensors For Palm Pilots More

Tilt Sensors For Palm Pilots

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  • WOW! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My penis becomes engorged with blood when I read news like this. This kicks ass!

  • For more fun with accelerometers, check out what Scrawl Software did with a Newton, an accelerometer, and Canobie Lake amusement park [scrawlsoft.com].

    A Pilot version of this hack would be even more usable!

  • Hmm....hardware... I can see it now...

    I go hiking...The tilt sensor 'senses' me falling down a cliff, the modem calls for help, and uses the GPS module to tell the rescue chopper where I am.
  • It looks like the use of the dongle and an app could replace the G-TECH/Pro performance meter [gtechpro.com] for 0-60, 1/4 mile, braking and lateral G measurements, maybe even horsepower. Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?
  • In the Development Zone [palm.com] area of Palm Computing [palm.com]'s web site, they have a pinout diagram [palm.com] of the Palm's serial port. More importantly, however, if you register [palm.com] as an independent Palm Solutions Provider with Palm (registration is FREE), one of the many things Palm provides is a list of hardware vendors which sell serial port connectors and modem casings which will fit various Palm devices. In addition, Handspring [handspring.com], which makes the PalmOS-based Visor, provides mechanical information [handspring.com] on all of their products, including suggested dimensions for both standard and expanded SpringBoard [handspring.com] modules. They also provide a list of recommended vendors [handspring.com] for SpringBoard module casings.
  • I also seem to recall that Mulg II running on the internal accellerometer (if it was stuck in that mode), has an awful habit of crashing on a TRGpro.

    Seems that the TRGpro uses the same pins as the accellerometer, and can trick Mulg into thinking there is an accellerometer when there isn't - instead it goes to the compactflash hardware.

    This dongle will be useful...
  • Imagine that instead of scrolling up or down while reading etextz, you'd just rock the palm up and down.

    Hmmm. No. After all you are reading, and shaking you display in order to read further sounds really awkward at least.

  • The new "dongle" version is great, since it doesn't require you to void the warranty on your Palm. But what is the point of "teasing" everybody with the cool new design without a lot of details so others could reproduce it? ("And no, i don't know a cheap source for the parts")

    Given the non-standard connector used on the Palm devices, at least the guy could have described how he obtained the parts for his prototype dongle (listed the part number of an existing cable that he hacked or whatever), or listed the Palm connector specs so you could try to search for something that might work. Instead you get a schematic and nothing else to go on. Kind of a bummer.

    The one cable I've found that I can see providing the necessary connector for the Palm V series is the programming cable included with the "Palm V Travel Kit". Spending $50 just so you can cut up a perfectly good cable seems a bit steep though...

    Has anybody else managed to locate a low-cost source for just the connectors, for either the Palm III or Palm V style cases?
  • OK, I'm a geek. I have at least ten GPS units (see www.gpsy.com for the reason why) but one thing I'd love is a programmable altimeter/barometer and temperature gauge.

    Think of all the fun geeky things you could do! Stick it in your pocket and get your ski run total altitude. Or match it with GPS for accurate elevation data. Stick your GPS unit in a FedEx package and look at time/elevation/temperature to see if they send them in pressurized or unpressurized airplanes. Just how cold do those unpressurized baggage holds get anyway?

    Sigh....

    Karen the geek girl
  • There are countless cool things that we can do with our Palm devices, but are limited by that damned non-standard connector. As someone else stated, I don't want to spend $50+ just to chop up a cable. Where can we get just the dongles? Anyone? Could Palm make them available to developers cheap, so we can make new, cool, applications for this very neat platform?
  • I cannot remember whether the Palm has any ports but I do know that there is another licensed PalmOS machine around with a slot. The IR port at the top has been moved over to make room for an expansion slot. Sorry about not remembering the name of the company producing this but I do remember them saying that the expansion slot is their major selling point over the Palm.

  • Re:Why? (Score:1)

    by pxpt ( 40550 )
    Since we are discussing alternative sensors etc why not have a Hall effect sensor add-on. I'm sure the Hall effect sensor could detect the earths magnetic field then you would have an electric compass. You could even have a compass display on the palm screen. That would be of use to surveyors. It might just work...

    How about having to point it in different directions for inputting of characters for those with a lorry load of patience...
  • Should work fine, the real question I have is can it work with the GeeZ! Palm Software!
  • I don't want to clamp down on fun and creative ideas, but...

    1000 times more likely: The palm falls out of your backpack. You get to pay $20k for the helicopter rescue the palm sent for while you kept hiking.
  • As I'm sure most other readers know, that'd be handspring [handspring.com], with their Visor [handspring.com] machine.
  • I don't see why that won't be possible. I guess the only possible limitation could be the size of all the maps you need to store.

    The Psion palmtops have this feature for quite some time now; with products like 'street planner' I can install maps of different regions and when I connect a GPS device to the serial port it will show me exactly where I am. The internal Psion 'disk' on my machine is 16Mb (other machines can have 8Mb) which can hold some of the mapdata quite fine (the program is surprisingly small) but I do find an extra flash module (24Mb) a bit more easier to use (ie; more maps you can store)

    Further on in the thread I read that the Palm also has a regular serial port so there should be no problem where hardware is concerned.

  • Mmmmm.
    Dashboard accelerometer; keeps time, does math, measures acceleration. Test and tune on the deserted stretch of highway near you. -If you don't like your performance on the skidpad you could use it as a level to set the caster. I'm pretty sure I could use this once a day...For the first week anyway.
    If nothing else it would give me a prop for my long, drawn-out, boring explanations to simple questions that were probably merely observations to begin with.

  • This tilt sensoring tech will make classic games like pinball more true to the original with tilt thresholds in place you can 'cheat' like you used to. does anyone know if it can sense changes in overall accelleration? you could make an interesting tracking device or even a golf swing adjuster for it. the palm truly is turning into the tricorder from star trek.
  • Great. Now where's my pinball machine with a newest tilt sensor powered by Palm IIIc?
  • Almost as much fun as the vibrating dongle I put on a few months ago. I wonder if I could combine the two for some.. er.. new experiences. It's great to see some major headway into the new functionality of the Palm Pilot as a life-long companion. If you've ever uttered the phrase, "My palm pilot and I...", you need to seek help.
  • Can you get connect a GPS system to a palmpilot? You could use GPS to get approx position, and the tilt sensor to get the extra level of accuracy, and for tunnels etc.
  • When you want to close down an app, you just turn it upside down and shake.
  • Oh, wait, I misread the article title.

    Very odd, to sit here at my office desk and think "Why on Earth would you need a Palm Pilot to spot them?"

    Need more coffee... more coffee...

    ***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START***
    ***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***

  • I have a Palm Vx and I noticed the page does not include any info on how to modify the Vx... or even the V as far as I could see. Anyone know if it is possible?
  • It is inherently more difficult to do this on a V-series device. For one, the V and Vx are glued shut. You'd have to use a heating element to unglue them, make the mods, then glue them back shut. There have been reports of people who bought original V's and had them upgraded to a V8 (before the Vx was released) that the reglue job starts to fall apart after a while. More importantly, internal space is at premium on the V to make room for the LiIon battery. It's unlikely that you'd even find the room to solder in your mods.

    --

  • Maybe someone could write a utility that took the movements and turned them into letters. After all Palm Pilot users are already putting up with what seems to be a somewhat twitchy hand-writing interface.

    Then people could shake their Palm Pilots to see what interesting prose they product (a bit like the old infinite monkeys).
  • As I read the article on /. and the article itself you DON'T have to change your Pilot. If I had one (boy, I wish I wasn't a poor student...) I would be very reluctant to do so. I'm quite sure Palm wouldn't give any kind of service after that little bit of editing... But both the article state the new dongle edition. as I read it this just plugs into the Palm 'somewhere'. Apparently the Palm has at least some form of port, where would that dongle go otherwise?? the page itself could be a little clearer though. It looks like it's all one big text. Upon closer inspection I think it's two (2) seperate things though. The dongle, you 'plug in somewhere' and the already ealier developed way of hardware 'editing' your Palm.
  • Yes

    There's a serial port on the palm, so hooking it to a GPS is trivial. StreetAtlas even comes with the software to do the GPS tracking and also lets you download maps onto the Palm.

  • What do you know, such a thing exists.

    The Palm Navigator [yahoo.com] is a compass that plugs into the serial port of your Palm.

  • Surveying? Palm Pilot, contractor's edition? Alternate mode for gamepad type input? I got it, you put an alarm on the thing in case it gets jacked! Ok, maybe not. I guess the real question is why not!
  • Yes, one way is to solder an additional chip into your pilot, the other way is to make a small thingy to plug into your serial port (yes, the port's there!) and use a small software hack to mimick the behaviour of the internal solution.

    greetings,

    Reinout
  • Hey, it's the Magic 8-Ball interface!
  • I bought a tilt sensor controller for my PSX, but I ended up returning it because the response was so poor. Admittedly the device had some design flaws that meant that when you move your hand/arm the sensor tended to bounce around and the rumble-pack was in the same enclosure as the the motion sensor. But I do tend to think that the system itself is a little underdeveloped. Also I can't see it as being particularly useful in a Palm, unless you're skydiving or something. Can anyone give and example of the usefulness of such a device, outside "Mulg"?
  • A tilt sensor would make a rather interesting UI design. Imagine that instead of scrolling up or down while reading etextz, you'd just rock the palm up and down. Or rock it sideways to pan. The Compaq Itsy has a feature similar to this, except that they use "yaw" motions instead of "pitch" motions (borrowing the terms from pilots).

    I don't know beans about solid state accelerometers (I'm assuming that's what they are using...) so I can't comment on the sensitivity. Device like that though must have some sort of discriminatory circuit. Afterall the human hand does not actually stay still, it shakes a bit (more so if you are on a caffiene high 8-) ). The really difficult part would be to discern background motions (such as reading on a bus, etc).

    Still an interesting hack though.

    -=- SiKnight
  • Yes! Yes!!!! I love it! Why stop there? Add more stuff! How about a Trimble TANS Vector system, 4 synchronized p-code GPSes spaced about a meter apart which gives you x, y, z, course, speed, yaw, pitch, and roll in real time... dang... hey, are you married? Oh never mind, I am already. ;)

    "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off."
  • Yes, indeedie doo, and there have been ports of David Flater's Xtide [flaterco.com] harmonic tide-prediction program (I know of one for the PalmPilot, so a Palm one is probably not far away), so your little PDA is now your compleat navigator's assistant... God I love this stuff... John Walker, please port Home Planet, so we can do celestial navigation too!!!

    "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off."
  • I was at an electronic music festival/show thingie at the Cube at MIT, and some people there had set up a device on the flor about 25 feet square that was pressure sensitive - it could basically tell where you were standing. then they hung a projector from the ceiling and projected a picture of the tilty-bok-with-maze-and-ball onto this rig, and you could play the game by standing on the pressure plates and running around.

    (good to see someone made a smaller version for the palm.)
  • I'm not a Palm user myself, personally I prefer Psion, but the whole idea of a movement 'scanner' does indeed sound very cool. However; I can't quite understand the part about having to modify your machine in order to allow such an external device to work.

    So I wonder; doesn't the Palm have any external ports ? The Psion has a 'full blown' serial port on the back which can be used to attach nearly anything, even devices which are officially meant for PC's.

    I know the Palm has been profiled to be more like an organiser then a palmtop (correct me if I'm wrong please) but I'd say that the serial port could be quite essential. Especially for stuff like this.

  • 1) Get yourself (yes, you!) away from your computer and do some DIY - use your PP as a spirit level!

    2) Do they have a tremor dectector yet? Et Voila - a seismograph.

    3) Hook it up to your PC and use it as a joystick.

    4) ...
    hmm - I'm at work and should be doing some - fill out the rest yourself ;)

  • The palm has got a serial port, although you need an adapter to use it with other stuff than the cradle.

    The whole idea, i think, with modifying the palm was to have the sensor internally and thus leaving the port for other uses...

  • I have installed the ADXL202 in my Palm Pilot. It works reasonably well (especially for something like MULG, which I also never mastered). The modification isn't too difficult if you're electroniclly savvy, but if you've never soldered before, don't even try. Soldering SMT components is a bit tricky. An external module would be nice, but I can't imagine that it would sell particularly well (but then again, who thought people would pay money for a TaleLight). To answer a few questions: 1) The device is useful for things other than MULG - The fact that the ADXL202 is an accelerometer means that you can do cool things like use it as a pedometer, etc. Carry it on roller coasters with you to look like a real gadget-head. I've tried to use mine to measure rock angles (strike & dip). 2) The chip (ADXL202) is a MEMS (I think that's Micro Electrical-Mechanical Something) chip. From what I understand, each accelerometer is effectively two plates separated by a tiny spring (and i mean *tiny*), and it looks at the capacitance as the spring is compressed/decompressed with accelerations. That sounds fragile, but since it's so tiny, the chip specs at a max of 1000g (thats survivability, not measurement range). 3) Accuracy - Mine isn't all that accurate, because I didn't quite follow all the instructions on the mod page. I've got lots of noise/ripple in the signal. It resets its value(s) to zero when you first turn the Palm on, so if you turn it on upside down, all values will be relative to that.

  • Next thing you know.... (Score:5)

    by KlTheKiten ( 20181 ) on Thursday March 30, 2000 @11:39PM (#1159491) Journal
    You will allow you to turn it over and clear the screen by shaking it...

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