Add a tilt sensor to your PalmPilot

Dan Wineman writes "Here are instructions for enabling your Pilot to sense gravity and acceleration. You need a steady hand with a soldering iron, and it definitely voids anything resembling a warranty, but imagine the possibilities! There's already an Oxyd clone (like 2-D Marble Madness) that supports it, and I suppose a pedometer application might be doable. Remember, never ask a geek "why"; just nod your head and back away slowly... "

/.'d already :-(

[tzanger]

Hopefully Rob won't get slapped with the bill for upgrading all of the "offramps" from the backbones due to his omnipresent and unpredictable /. effect. :-)

Slightly more on topic, it's too bad the little Pilot didn't have better protection from bumps and jostles. My rhinoskin [rhinoskin.com] is *great* for protection... Now if I could only program the little thing better :-)

No Subject Given

[bgarrett]

Install Linux.
Install tilt sensor.
Connect to Lego Mindstorm.
Connect to wireless modem or radio unit.
Whee self-navigating robots.

Cool! Useless!

[SEE]

Hey, as someone who tried to sodder a modem for a TI-85 calculator, how in the world can I criticize? This is great.

Use radio instead

[uradu]

I was thinking of another "poor man's" GPS a while ago: use radio station triangulation to calculate position.

You can get radio station databases from the FCC including transmitting frequency, power and location. Next, using an FM receiver chip, you create a signal strength map of the current location (find the strongest stations, their frequencies and the relative strengths). Then you do a probability analysis against the station database and try to find the most likely location that this signal strength map would occur.

It's all theory and it might work, but then again, it might not. I don't know if enough ambiguity would exist to make the approach futile (i.e. more than one place having similar enough signal maps). Besides, you need enough processing power to do these calculations, and sufficient storage capacity to hold the database. It might be cheaper (and certainly a lot more accurate) to just get a cheap GPS chipset. Those are coming on the market now, like in new cell phones.

Those Silly Europeans....

[uradu]

We might feel a bit defensive about outsiders making snide comments, but we should have a healthy dose of self-criticism. Let's face it, Europe has completely missed the Internet boat. We were so extremely lethargic about the communcations revolution, and many places are still completely clueless. For crying out loud, in most European countries you can barely afford to check your email twice a day, let alone surf or--heaven forbid--download the latest Linux distribution. Till recently we didn't even have our own Pan-European backbone, with most traffic going via the USA.

We might have a lot to brag about, but regarding communications we should extract our collective thumbs both out of our mouths and asses and get to work.

Organized to terrorize. :|

[FireReaper]

Hmm... how about..

[Palm Pilot scheduler/program log]

or "A day in the life of a terrorist palm pilot program."

6:30am [palm-auto-signal bomb-net to attention]
6:45am Wake up alarm
7:00am [palm-auto-signal check house perimeter logs]
7:15am Show latest horse race results.
7:30am Activate lawn sprinklers.
8:00am [palm-auto-signal internet-email-threat send to predetermined list of people]
8:15am [palm-auto-signal check bomb-net readiness]
8:20am Send page to "boss" signalling readiness.
8:30am [palm-auto-signal respond to email's with demands]
9:00am Analyse response emails for lack of belief.
9:05am Detonate bombs in areas lacking belief.
9:10am Re-send threats and demands.
9:30am Record all emails and analyse for straggling believers.
10:00am Page "boss" with new updated status.
10:30am Send page to dry cleaner to have suits delivered to suite.
10:45am Phone local florist to deliver flowers to address.
11:00am Re-send threats and give instructions on how, where, and when to deliver on demands.
11:30am Send page to "boss" about results.
12:00pm Order out for pizza.
12:05pm "Boss" returns home.
12:10pm "Boss" receives pizza.
12:30pm "Boss" recieves dry cleaning.
01:00pm incoming call for "boss" from "girlfriend". Flowers recieved.
01:30pm Funds transfer detected. Routing funds to private account.
01:45pm Funds retransferred to seperate accounts.
02:00pm Previous funds transactions deleted.
02:15pm Make reservation for limmo. Reserve seats for movie/show.
03:00pm display reservation dates/times for "boss".
03:15pm send page to "boss"'s girlfriend.
04:00pm Girlfriend arrives.
04:05pm Reservations printed out.
04:15pm Limmo arrives.
04:20pm House empty. Turn on porch lights.
05:00pm Sync discs. Explode remaining bombs. Send thank-you emails to threat targets. Erase dummy transaction fund accounts.
05:05pm power-down/recharge.

- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.

Cool! Useless!

[goochieboy]

Isn't all technology Cool and completely Useless?

poor mans GPS

[jerodd]

Guided missiles still use this kind of navigation (along with gravity contour maps) as a backup system in case the GPS fails.

Hacking up the Palm Pilot

[HarveyOpolis]

Well.. I suppose it's worth a try, I don't use mine that much...

I'd like to see an infrared scanner for the palm pilot.. one that plugs in and will actually show the infrared picture on teh screen. That's be pretty cool... make it part of the Star Trek tricorder program.

I want a pinball machine !!!

[Atreide]

tilt
tilt
Game over !!

no more battery shortening ?

[Atreide]

there are watches that use movement to recharge themselves.
maybe someone will find someway to do the same with your Palm P ?

then you'll be able to say :
I go out to recharge my "batteries"...

Robot

[Bryan Andersen]

Hey, cool! Now I can do the hexapod without worrying about how to get touch sensor inputs into the pilot. Just run into something, and the shock of inpact will be cought. Makes turning a PalmPilot into a RobotPilot much easier.

too poor

[sweet reason]

it only measures in two axes, and has no rotational sensors, so even if it had the precision of a real INS, it would be useless for navigation. it can't tell if you turn or climb.

Maaannnnn

[JonnyRotten]

whhoooops...hit enter to fast...
i got here under 10 minutes after this was posted and the site is allready inaccessible....

It's like that old Dilbert cartoon...

[Dilbert_]

Now you can really tell your boss to "Shake it real hard to reboot it" ;-)

Hmmmmmm

[MrNobody]

Now if we could only slap electromag sensors on it, and maybe a toaster.