If you have one of these weather stations, you can now download the application (as is, where is) and the source code. Are the strings attached? DEFINITELY. I want you to tell me and other what you do with it!

My goal with the weather station is to get a old Mac Mini (doesn’t make any noise or very little) and run it in a DMZ off my firewall, then on the Mac Mini run OS 10.5 and use the built in web browser to serve weather data and graphs from my home on the internet. I am missing a few things… A Mac Mini for starters, then the software to run on the web pages, and time to implement. So if you get there first… I want to know.

Source Code

Weather Station Application

I’m looking forward to some good stories…

I have released a update to my Screensaver. Leveraging some web assistance from this web site I added the iLife Media Browser window into the Screensaver. Now when you click on the media button the ilife Media Browser appears and you can click and drag photos into the image. This means you can easily choose from your photo or photobooth library to select a picture for the screen saver rather then having to navigate through the file hierarchy to find the picture you want.

This update does restrict usage to users on Mac OS 10.5.x.

Download your copy from the download links on the sidebar of this web page.

This release has a bit of an interface change… That’s the cosmetic stuff. Behind the scenes though there is been some improvements as I’ve mentioned in a previous post:

• Distribution created by automated build
• Changed application identifier from “com.david.USB Missile Launcher NZ” to “com.david.USBMissileLauncherNZ” - this resolves issues with PackageMaker 3.0 - preferences are also reset as a result of this. Users could also delete the file “~/Library/Preferences/com.david.USB Missile Launcher NZ” if they want to.
• Enhanced deployment package so that System Extensions (Kext) files don’t always need to be installed, and thus don’t need to reboot
• Code Cleanup in USBMissileControl, DeviceNotification procedure
• Found and fixed an issue with menu controls for the launcher - specifically move up/right
• Fix an issue in Germal localisation language translation file
• Major internal engineering change with main window and NSResponder
• Modified driver code to handle USB device connection issues better and in a more friendly way to avoid application crashes
• Video window can now be closed and re-opened
• Main application window cannot be closed
• Fixed a bug in MissileControl for handling multiple launchers - only impacted there was DreamRocketII style launcher connected
• Launch controls drawer now has background picture (yea, big deal - I know).

Click on the download link on this page to get the latest version

It has been a while, coming up on six months, since the last update to USB Missile Launcher NZ. Occasionally I look at the program source code and make some changes and some fixes. This usually means that I get to find something that doesn’t quite work the way I want it to and then figure out some improvements or enhancements. Currently I’m sitting on 12 fixes/enhancements, though not all are visual or effect missile launcher operations. I was listening to an episode of Late Night Cocoa on automated builds which inspired me to do something in that space and in turn had me playing with the command line interfaces to many of the Mac Development tools. This means that I can “push the GO button” and automatically build a package for distribution… 

Until I do publish a new version of the launcher software, have a look at the enhancement/fix list:

• Distribution created by automated build
• Changed application identifier from “com.david.USB Missile Launcher NZ” to “com.david.USBMissileLauncherNZ” - this resolves issues with PackageMaker 3.0 - preferences are also reset as a result of this. Users could also delete the file “~/Library/Preferences/com.david.USB Missile Launcher NZ” if they want to.
• Enhanced deployment package so that System Extensions (Kext) files don’t always need to be installed, and thus don’t need to reboot
• Code Cleanup in USBMissileControl, DeviceNotification procedure
• Found and fixed an issue with menu controls for the launcher - specifically move up/right
• Fix an issue in Germal localisation language translation file
• Major internal engineering change with main window and NSResponder
• Modified driver code to handle USB device connection issues better and in a more friendly way to avoid application crashes
• Video window can now be closed and re-opened
• Main application window cannot be closed
• Fixed a bug in MissileControl for handling multiple launchers - only impacted there was DreamRocketII style launcher connected
• Launch controls drawer now has background picture (yea, big deal - I know).

Further to my last post on this subject, I discovered last night that the while the camera does work with maccam, it only seems to work correctly when plugged directly into the computer. In other words it does not function when plugged into a USB HUB (and it was a 2.0 HUB). This was tested while the hub was powered and un powered.

If you’ve got one of the DreamCheeky MSN Missile Launchers (you know the ones that come with the camera on top and would like to get the camera working on your Mac… Here’s how.

Download the MacCam software from sourceforge. Make sure you get the latest version (I got the CVS build of 2008-03-13). This includes support for the camera (specifically the ZSMC ZS211 USB PC Camera (ZS0211). Actually the camera seems to have come from Vimicro.

Once you have downloaded MacCam, unzip the archive. You will need to manually copy the file maccam.component into the /System/Library/Quicktime folder and copy the MacCam application into your Applications folder.

Plug in the Camera only to a spare USB port and run the MacCam program. You should get a black window with a right pointing triangle in the top of the window. This is for “Play”. Press it. You should now see web camera images on the screen.

If you’ve got this far and it’s all working… you can now use the “Missile Camera” with the USB Missile Launcher NZ software. It will be automatically detected and if you open the video window, the onscreen target will be what the camera sees.

The additional good news here is that now you have the camera working, it also works with Skype. No fiddling or configuration changes are required.

If you are using a machine that also has a built in iSight, you will need to alter the video settings in USB Missile Launcher NZ so that the source for video input is the USB Web Camera mounted on the Missile Launcher.

Good Luck. Happy shooting!

With much anticipation I awaited the arrival of my 7th USB Missile Launcher, or was that 5th - I’ve lost count. What I was keen to confirm was if my Mac software, USB Missile Launcher NZ, would drive the launcher or if I needed to make coding changes. So first onto the unboxing.

In the box are: 1 x Launcher, 3 x nurf missiles, giant Target, instructions, and installation CD. This is the first launcher that I have received that has 4 pages of instructions. 

The first two pages of instructions guide you through the installation of the windows software noting that the software must be installed before connecting the launcher to the USB port(s) on your computer. There is a special note that says “Using an external USB HUB or docking station may result in the loss of power to the MSN missile launcher. The unit may not work properly”. I suspect that this is because the devices do not supply their own power, they draw it from the computer and connecting the devices to one USB port may cause an issue. My recommendation is that you use this unit with a powered USB Hub.

The outstanding key difference between the MSN missile launcher and its predecessors the USB missile launcher are that this one comes with a USB Camera (web cam) mounted very nicely on top of the launcher. This web cam is separately and thus has it’s own USB connection to the computer. So, that’s one USB connection for the web camera and one USB connection for the missile launcher.

How easy is the MSN missile launcher to set up? Well I gave the missile launcher to my 10 year old and asked him to set it up on his Windows XP machine (I didn’t give him the supplied documentation). He had it all up and running within 10 minutes or so after installing the software, and he even asked me for a USB Hub. I was impressed.

He ran up the missile launcher software and has been firing missiles at me, with great joy, all afternoon. There is a separate application to run to get the camera view from the camera on top of the missile launcher. And you can manually press a button on top of the camera to get a freeze frame picture. The web camera has a ZS211 IC in it, so I thought a little experiment was in order - I can confirm that the camera does work with Skype. And it works really well. Now I particularly like the design of the web camera and launcher fitting. It is easily interchangeable between the MSN Missile Launcher and any of its older family members.

If you’re into MSN there is one and a half pages of instructions on how to install and use the missile launcher through the MSN service.

Back on the Mac the internals of the missile launcher are the same as the “Rocket Baby” - the previous USB missile launcher (green one). This means that the USB Missile Launcher NZ software simply just works. I have not yet been able to get it working with the camera and will issue a new release of the software if needed or instruction on what you need to do to get the camera working on the Mac.

PROS

Works with existing Mac software (aka RocketBaby)

Camera mount is great camera works well with Windows 

MSN integration is unique

CONS

Windows software still the same

Not easily able to integrate Camera support on the Mac (yet)

May need a powered USB hub if you’re running short on USB ports

SUMMARY

I like this new launcher and the slick camera integration. I admit to being somewhat surprised to see two USB leads for the device, though it is actually devices and makes software implementation very easy. It also means you can use the camera as a web camera and its already mounted. Nice implementation DreamCheeky, can we get an ICMB integrated with Google Maps next?

I’ve got 2 x USB hard drives connected to my AEBS and the Airport has disk sharing configured with user accounts.
I found an issue the other week… I thought I’d backed up my data to my “personal drive” on the AEBS… only now the drive had nothing in it!

Turns out that the AEBS (had been restarted at some point) and was now presenting my personal drive off the “other” hard drive…

I’ve been searching for an explanation on this tonight and while I’ve not been able to find anything on the web, I eventually ran help in the Airport Utility

AirPort Extreme (802.11n): Using an attached USB storage device as a home directory is not recommended

You should not use a USB storage device connected to an AirPort Extreme (802.11n) base station as a home directory. An AirPort Extreme (802.11n) base station may not be able to locate a home directory on an attached USB device if it is powered off or if the enumeration order of attached storage devices changes.

Article: 305013
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305013

So… if it’s not recommended to set up the AEBS in this way, why allow the option in the configuration? Oh and how many people are going to understand what the word enumeration means anyway?

A few weeks ago I brought a weather station from a local electronics retrailer (Jaycar). It was high up in their catalogue and was promoted as having a USB PC interface and a TV interface. Well here we have yet another manufacturer who only distributes windows software with their devices.

My idea was to be the next person in my area with an online weather station, one where you could hit my web site and see what the current conditions at my house are. And the crippled windows software supplied with the weather station only displays data to the connected PC.

Getting this thing internet connected means that I’d need to understand what the USB protocol is that the weather station is using with the PC software… enter USBSNOOP for windows (it’s a sourceforge project), some time, a bit of luck, and oh a quick note to the manufacturers to see if they would give me a copy of the USB specification for this device. The response was a polite bit firm “Unfortunately this is proprietary and is information that we can not disclose“.

I can advise that on the Mac I am successfully retrieving data (wind direction, temperature, humidity, pressure, etc) from the weather station. One data element remains to be decoded at time of writing, along with a bulk startup data sequence.

I’m working on building the Mac program now. The interface won’t be flash - it’s more to prove it works. When this is done I will look at the web interface part. I want to run this on a Mac running its built in web server. Actually I’m thinking PPC Mac Mini - it will be silent and if I can find a second hand one, quite cost effective.

If you would like details of the USB Protocol specification that I have thus far, send me an e-mail and I can share what I have.

FootNote: 2 April 2008 - have largely decoded output information from the Weather Station and have the details displaying on screen in a program that anyone can use. The GUI doesn’t have any dials or fancy stuff, but does have some “bars” for representations of temperature etc (as well as their decimal equivalents showing). Oh and I only show Celsius at this point, that is what is coming from the Weather Station.

Apple released TimeCapsule and Airport 1.0 last week and since then various blog sites and forum postings have been filled with comments about now being able to backup using Time Machine to disk attached to an AirPort Extreme base Station. Sadily, I could not.And I’ve figured out that the disks attached to my AirPort Extreme Base Station were setup at a time when my Mac was running 10.4.x (not Leopard)… Anyway, this fix worked for me… read on…

I’ve got 2 x external hard drives connected to my AirPort Extreme base station. The base station disk sharing is configured to be on with user accounts created and as it happens at the moment guest access read/write (though I suspect that doesn’t matter). [an interesting side note with 2 drives, is that "my personal drive" created by having user accounts now has nothing in it where it once did - it's on the 1st or 2nd hard drive and the Air Disk utility is showing me the other drive]…

anyway back to the Time Machine subject…

1. Using Airport Utility, disk connect all users of your hard drives.
2. Physically disconnect your USB disks and connect to your Mac.
3. At this point a file is created on your hard disk (may well not have been there before) “.com.apple.timemachine.supported”. The file has no contents.
4. I then copied the file into the Shared folder on both volumes - doing this using sudo from terminal of course
5. I then copied the file into the Users/<my user> on the volume that was sharing user folders - same as above
5. Also while I had the drives connected to the Mac directly, I took the opportunity to run disk utility and First Aid repair disk (which found and fixed errors on both drives).
6. Unmount disks from Mac
7. Connect back to AirPort Extreme Base Station
8. Run TimeMachine (turn on)…. look mum I can see volumes to back up to!

backup in progress…

credit to the posting at TUAW by tobias