I was home from work slightly later than usual today. Normally this is down to managers bursting in at the last minute demanding that I look into something, sometimes it’s due to me getting carried away in the moment and not realising the time. Today it was because there was an online assessment snafu.

It’s an event I knew about, it’s an event I’d planned for, it’s an event that I’d added to my calendar. It’s an event I completely forgot about because:

1. I added it to my, and my colleagues’, calendars a day late. Call this a moment of insanity if you will.
2. I forgot to set a reminder.

Anyway, at quarter-past-four, a rather anxious member of a department’s admin staff comes into the office, asking where I’ve been for the past fifteen minutes. Cue a hurried rush downstairs, to see the academic who fired off the original enquiry coming to the end of her introductory slides, and a room full of student’s at computers.

A silence descends on the room. Everyone in the room turns to look at me. No idea why. I’m here purely to see what’s going on. (more…)

So yeah. I lied. I’m not posting as often as I had promised.

There’s a good reason, seriously…

Anyway, I have made some tweaks to the site.

• The site now defaults to 75% width, up from 70%. I had aimed/hoped for 80-85%, but my header images aren’t wide enough, expect that to change at some point.
• My code boxes now word wrap, so you’ll be able to see my code in all it’s glory.

Not much, but a start. And some content.

Although I already have Left 4 Dead, my wife recently purchased a Roomba. Disappointed by the lack of dueling harnesses for sale on the internet, I decided to get one of the Rootooth Bluetooth serial modules, that allows PC control of the newer Roombas.

Although SparkFun says that they’re out of stock, it seems to be more of an ‘order on demand’ type of thing. I purchased a Rootooth on backorder, and had one posted to me within two weeks. For reference I chose the cheapskate AirMail option with no tracking, and the item turned up within about 3 weeks from my original order date. Although SparkFun had marked the box belot its actual cost, Customs had decided to open and hold it for a few days anyway.

The Rootooth itself. Don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t work out of the box. I discovered three things with mine:

1. You need a Bluetooth dongle that works on Widcomm or the Windows Bluetooth Stack (preferred). I initially tried it with a cheap Bluesoleil Bluetooth dongle, and it failed miserably – Vista refused to connect to the virtual serial port on the Rootooth, and XP would consistently drop the connection every few minutes.
   I eventually bought a Belkin Bluetooth dongle for £10, the F8T013UK. Although it has Widcomm drivers, you can get it running under the Windows stack by following some simple instructions.
2. The Rootooth has been upgraded to use a Firefly Bluetooth module. This version is rumoured to set an incorrect baud rate for the 5xx series of Roombas, despite using the SU,115K instruction. To fix, send the following commands to your Rootooth:
   $$$
   U,115K,N
   Your Rootooth should return back to normal mode (not command mode), and you’re ready to go.
3. There are few websites/forum posts giving information relating to the Roomba 5xx series, even fewer bits of code/software which work with them, and even fewer that work with both.
   I discovered that the 5xx series uses a different set of codes, and that one person had coded for the latest Rootooth/Roomba combination.

So, my Roomba now goes backwards and forwards, and I can monitor the sensors. Next stop, Roomba/Twitter and Roomba/Wiimote.

Just a quick, blatant, plug. Everyone should download and purchase Mount and Blade.

I believe that it’s already been posted on a number of other blogs, but these photos of frozen bubbles is awesome.