Tag Archives: Hardware

Tech Friday: Programming the Logitech Orbit Webcam

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Just dabbling.

The Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF Webcam is a motorized point/tilt/zoom (PTZ) web camera with outstanding resolution and performance. Logitech has provided some additional documentation on manipulating the webcam. In Windows this is done through the DirectView API. To get as far as “Hello World”, i.e just to demo the whole thing, I first downloaded a sample C++ program provided by Logitech called. PTZ.exe Then I realized that I better see if the camera works in the first place, so I downloaded the current QuickCam driver set qc1150 from the Logitech site. Once that was installed, it worked fine when testing.

Then I tested PTZ.exe. This seemed to work fine. It is a command line program which does the following:
* Scans existing USB ports to find the webcam.
* Issues a series of commands to exercise the mechanical and digital PTZ functions of the camera.

Because my camera is an older version, just the zoom seemed to work. I’ll have to test it again with current AF.

Since PTZ.exe also comes as C++ source code, I downloaded and installed Visual Studio C++ Express Edition. This is the free version of Visual C++ . I opened the PTZ “solution”, when showed the various header files, and the main routine in a “folder” hierarchy to the left of a standard editing pane.


[Click picture to see full size]

Just like old times. You compile. You link. You run the application in a command box. This all works pretty reliably, even in Vista, running on my Mac through Parallels.

I then downloaded a USB port sniffer, and watched the messages merrily going to and fro between the web cam and the USB port. Much more on USB in Jan Axelson’s books and on her web site.

Next steps: Get the proper webcam, and try modifying the PTZ program myself to see if I can change the parameters. Oh, and maybe get a proper Windows development system.

By the way, the Logitech support forum has support for Linux and Solaris.

Death to Microsoft LifeCam

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… and Logitech Orbit MPs as well.

One reason I convinced myself that it would be good to move to the Mac is that I’ve been really tired of trying to solve Windows problems. I figured that there would still be problems, but at least they would be new problems. I was coming off a Vista disaster, where we attempted to install Vista on ten production machines, (because the University’s license with Microsoft specified that they can’t use XP) and Vista never worked. Hey what’s a hundred or more hours down the tubes for the sake of Microsoft?

Like childbirth, one forgets the pain with time, and I have merrily installed application after application on the Macbook and the iMac. This almost inevitably is a two-step process which takes at most two minutes:
1. Download file
2. Drag file to the Applications folder.

On the other hand, installations for Windows usually involve an opaque installer program which may or may not have an option to install things that you don’t want. Then there is the Windows registry… a nightmare. To make a long story short:

I had a Logitech Orbit AF camera installed on one box, and I removed it to substitute an older Orbit MP. The MP didn’t work, even after attempting to reinstall the drivers three times. I don’t know if if it is a USB issue…or what. So, I had a Microsoft LifeCam VX6000 lying around, and I figured I could use that. Hey its from Microsoft, right? This installer got into some kind of infinite loop, pegging the processor to 100% and basically hanging. Twice. Finally after five reboots, and a lengthy process where I just ignored the machine for awhile (fifteen minutes or more), it finally did install, and the camera does in fact work with my application. Elapsed time almost an hour.

A similar thing has happened multiple times with Hewlett Packard ink jet printers, and even my LaserJet 2420. The hardware is crap. How is it that a $500 LaserJet 2420 overheats after 30 minutes and stops printing when my Laser 2000 is still going after something like ten years? (I gave it to a non-profit.) HP has hundreds of printer models, each requiring separate support and drivers, many of which don’t work well. (Even the Indian tech support people have said that HP driver installer programs are useless).

Both HP and Microsoft have lost control, desperate to foist any half-assed product on to the market in an attempt to maintain their market share. And each of these sorry products can represent tens of hours of lost time and frustration. Grrrr!

MacBook Hard Drive Replacement

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They say bad things happen in threes. Ok…I broke my foot three weeks ago, I blew a loudspeaker on my stereo (but it was 36 years old, “The Smaller Advent”) and now a week out of warranty, my MacBook hard drive headed south, giving a forlorn “click, click, click”… I found this out on a Saturday as I attempted to syncronize some files between the MacBook and the iMac. So far the aftermath has been relatively painless.

1. I put in a call to Small Dog Electronics. Within two minutes I was talking to a knowledgeable tech support person, who immediately verified that they had a replacement drive in three sizes in stock at both of their stores.

2. Went to the South Burlington store, stood in line at their repair window (equivalent to a genius bar) and got the replacement drive. I took the opportunity to upgrade it to 320 gig, from the 250 gig drive that failed. $120.00 for the drive. I also asked if they could do the replacement on the spot, but they demurred, saying it would be a couple of days before they would be able to get to it. Having seen several explanations on how to do this myself, including a YouTube video, I had no fear.

3. Disassembled everything per instructions. Vexacious. Tiny screwsheads easily stripped. The worst are the TT8 Torx screws that hold the shield on top of the drive. Naturally, I’ve never needed a #8 Torx screwdriver in my entire life, and didn’t have one. Ran to the hardware store, they didn’t have one either except as part of a Christmas special of 40 screwdrivers packaged in a blister pack for $13.99, product of China and evidently fabricated of pressed cardboard. Never mind, it worked.

4. Fiddled with restoring the operating system. The install disks from the iMac don’t work. The MacBook Leopard install disk was an “upgrade” disk, and since I haven’t already installed the earlier version of it said it wouldn’t install Leopard, until I had installed Panther. However, in the disk installer menu there was a restore option to restore from Time Machine.

5. Booted again with the Time Machine disk attached. Went around in circles as the restore program didn’t see the new disk. I hadn’t formatted the disk, so how could it have seen it? (some things would have been second nature in Windows, oh, and by the way, a format on a Mac is called “erase”). Once I did format the disk I was able to start the restore process , and it has been merrily restoring now for about 90 minutes with another 30 or so to go. I’m excited…will my new Parallels installation with Office 2007 and Vista survive the restore? Will my eMail be there and the VPN?

So far so good… everything works; Parallels, Mac Mail, Safari, iWork, iTunes and all the bits are there. Nice.

More on Time Machine

While at the ‘Dog, I took a look at the new alumininum MacBooks, trying to justify a full replacement. Something equivalent to mine would be about $1600, I think… a little steep, considering that I’m happy as a clam with my current plastic one from November of ’07. The performance appeared to be better on the new one, of course, and it seemed substantially lighter. In short..they are nice.

Ubuntu Linux rescues Windows XP Embedded

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This being summer, we’re back on the Windows XP Embedded kick. After generating an image, the question was..how do we get this on to our target machine?

We wasted a lot of time on this one. As recommended in the docs, we installed “regular” Windows XP on the target machine to make sure that it would run Embedded. No problem there, it installed without problems from CD. We ran the Target Analyzer, to get our device.pmq. Copied device.pmq back to the development machine and generated the image.

At this point, we started fiddling with a second partition on the target machine. We created and formatted this using Acronis Disk Doctor, which comes on a bootable CD. Our plan was to install our target image on this partition, change the ARC listing in boot.ini to point to the second partition as the boot partition. We spent a day fooling with this, including changing the drive letters, hiding the partition, moving stuff around. Didn’t work.

Finally, we reformatted the hard drive on the target machine. Now you’d think that Microsoft would have something like a “LiveCD” for this purpose, which would boot a version of Windows enough to allow copying to an existing hard drive. It doesn’t, but Ubuntu, Suse, and Fedora Linux all have this, and Ubuntu had drivers that would read the USB drive where we stored the image, as well as the NTFS formatted hard drive.

A quick drag and drop, and we’re done!

Have they no shame? (Microsoft that is…) There is a Community Technology Preview out for a new version of Embedded…let’s hope this issue might be addressed with a couple of extra tools.

Mac Conversion: A progress report and some backsliding

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The Spousal Unit always wonders why I upgrade my computer and operating system as frequently as I do. The fact is I think the world has enjoyed a pretty long run with Windows XP, wasn’t it out in 2001? She doesn’t sympathize with my explanation that sometimes I just get to the point that I’m tired of solving old problems, and I would just as soon solve new ones.

I bought a Macbook back in November. I was just coming off a bad experience with Microsoft Windows Vista. Partly I needed a new laptop…my Dell Inspiron keyboard was terrible, even after two replacements. So even thought the Inspiron is as great laptop, it was essentially useless for actual work, like word-processing. It was also heavy, but considering it could be a replacement for a desktop machine, I was willing to live with the weight.

So, an update on the Macbook, and my (non)-conversion to all things Mac.
The hardware is terrific. Even thought Apple upgraded the processor speed and hard drive capacity shortly after I bought mine, both have been more than adequate. What is really nice is that the weight is about half of the Inspiron. I can keep this machine in a LL Bean Sportsman Briefcase, along with the essential accessories and a leather-bound pad for note-taking. It has an excellent and usable keyboard. It has a track pad which mimics a single-button mouse. This is still a pain for us two-button mouse users, but it something you can live with if you want to go naked, or you can buy a Microsoft two-button notebook mouse to carry in the briefcase.

The Macbook plays nicely with external non-Apple peripherals. When you aren’t traveling, you can plug it into one of those Dell 19″ monitors from Staplesand work at 1440×900 resolution. If put the notebook to sleep, and then attach the external mouse, keyboard and monitor, you can restart it with the lid closed. Not as convenient as a docking station, which might be something to try next.

I’ve got the Macbook printing to an HP OfficeJet Pro K5400 ink-jet printer. Two of these printers have been working reliably and well for the past eighteen months under what I would call light duty. The printer has a USB interface. If you need to plug this in with a USB keyboard and USB mouse, then you need an external USB hub. I note that the docking station advertises five USB connections, which is another reason to consider it. Right now I’m using $14.95 keyboard from Logitech as the external keyboard. It is a little scary to realize that this dirt-cheap keyboard is superior to that of the Dell laptop keyboard.

Having all this paraphernalia connected to the Macbook detracts considerably from its sleek and smooth look. The Macbook is considerably more attractive running alone on a battery, connected wireless to the unseen network cloud. I’ve gotten well over three hours on the battery when running wirelessly which is fine. With the wireless connection enabled, the machine will sniff out the strongest local network connection and walk you through the connection process. If you have done this once already, the connection will be automatic the next time. It works fine on the university’s VPN with the addition of the Cisco VPN client which requires manually logging on.

Mac heads rave about the Mac software and operating system. I think the OS is fine. I don’t care really for the “Finder”, but that is partly because I haven’t really transitioned comfortably from the Windows “Explorer”. But I really like that fact that the OS on the Macbook is the same as the OS on all other Macs, and that it is available in one version only. It is an operating system instead of a demanding lifestyle. Apple doesn’t try to bludgeon its competition or its customers with its operating system. Really, can you imagine the Apple OS getting the same kind of treatment and publicity that Vista has gotten in the past two years? Upgrades and patches are a fraction of what comes out for Windows every week.

As for the backsliding, well, I installed Vista using the Parallels software. I did this strictly so that I could run OneNote, the one essential Microsoft program that doesn’t seem to have a Mac equivalent. Except for the onerous secondary startup process of booting Vista within Parallels and then starting OneNote, this seems to work fine. In fact, the Macbook would really make an ideal Windows laptop.

Other Mac Software

Safari is much maligned in the blogosphere, and it has crashed several times. I installed Firefox as an antidote, but it crashed even more, so I’m sticking with Safari on the Mac side of the house at the moment. IMail doesn’t really compete with Outlook, and I’ve had trouble trying to duplicate the series of folders that I have in Outlook with rules that automatically move new messages into specific folders. The calendar and address book have separate interfaces, and I guess I prefer how Outlook integrates all these into a single (albeit bloated) application.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that I’m really attached to this notebook. It is a fine combination of price and functionality with a sleek and comfortable design. I’m not sure if I would recommend it for an office, but for an individual’s private machine it is ideal. With the addition of some inexpensive peripherals, it doubles nicely as a desktop machine as well.

Books Books Books

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Trying to get some of this stuff off my desk, chest, mind, whatever… A spate of new books:

The Big Book Windows Hacks by Preston Gralla
This is a compilation of tricks for Windows users. Although addressed primarily to people struggling, er, working with Vista, many of the hacks work with XP. The book contains a lot of more generic information as well, regarding wireless networking, Microsoft Office, and PC hardware.

Windows Registry Guide, Second Edition This second edition does not include Vista, but is primarily oriented toward XP and Windows 2003 Server. It includes a couple chapters of basic registry description…how the registry is organized, how to back it up, and then goes into some detail about how to change registry entries on your own. Lots of practical advice here. For example:

  • Customizing Folders
  • Renaming Desktop Icons
  • Adding Desktop Icons
  • Reorganizing the Control Panel
  • Adding File Templates
  • Preventing Messenger from Running
  • Customizing Internet Explorer
  • Logging on Automatically.

Some of this we’ve covered ourselves, (indeed using using the same sources). And some of these things are covered by utility programs such as TweakUI and other PowerToys..

The Practice of System and Network Administration – Second Edition
This very fine book of systems administration is broad enough to provide help for everyone from entry-level to senior management. It includes a balance of nuts and bolts tactical information with high level planning and strategic ideas which is a rare thing in a single volume. Backups, disaster planning, and staffing are discussed alongside open source vs. closed source, supporting mixed environments, maintaining your asset inventory, and maintaining your sanity. This is the one book I’d take on a desert island, assuming there was a network to maintain there.

And a trio of hardware books by Jan Axelson…

These editions are by Nuts & Volts and Circuit Cellar author and tech columnist Jan Axelson. If you want to know anything about interfacing computer hardware, she is the go-to author.

USB Complete – third edition
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) has evolved to replace “legacy” connectors on many computers, including serial RS232, keyboard, mouse, and printer ports. In addition, almost anyone who wants to connect to a PC these days will provide a USB interface. This book explains how to develop and debug such interfaces and describes the hardware and software necessary to make them work.

USB Mass Storage
This sub-class of USB devices encompasses things like interfacing a digital camera to a PC via the USB interface, where the mass storage is actually contained on a chip in the camera, or a removable card. Although generic mass storage units (USB thumb drives) are ubiquitous these days, there are a variety of emerging applications for this kind hardware.

Embedded Ethernet and Internet Complete
This is the classic “internet web server on a chip”, where you have a device or sensor located remotely that you want to access over the web, or as the subtitle describes:

Create tiny Web servers and use TCP/IP to communicate over local networks & the Internet

The book as a thorough and readable discussion of the internal parts of TCP/IP. She even talks about crimping cable connectors. But then the book continues on to work through example applications using two popular modules: The Rabbit RCM2300 and the Dallas DSTINIm400. Want to interface your toaster to the web? This book will show you how.

Tech Friday: Programming the Logitech Orbit AV webcam

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Logitech provides a site for programmers who are interfacing the Logitech webcams to their own applications. There is support for both Windows and Linux, and there are forums to ask questions. Very nicely done using Plone, the open source CMS system.

I’m hoping to spend a lot of time here, after we finish installing about 12 end-user sites using Vista.

Photos of a Intel "Mini-ITX" type system

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Wanted to show some photos of the little systems picked up from Logic Supply. Here’s a look at the exterior of the fanless one. The top and sides are perforated to let the heat out. Click on the photos to see a larger image.

Here’s a look with the covers off. You can see the massive heat-sink that sits over the processor, to the right…the smaller, shiny heat sink sits above the hard drive.

A look right down on the top…

And, a view with both heatsinks removed. You can see the mini hard drive to left. It is mounted into a carrier that has the hard drive heat sink already attached.

System specs:

Intel Celeron M440 (Yonah) 1.86Ghz
1 meg of Ram
2.5″ Samsung hard drive SATA 80 GB

Tech Friday: Lightening up Vista Business

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As with all Windows installs, there are lots of possible deviations that you might want to make with the default. We’re shoehorning a Vista Business on to a Mini-ITX machine with 1 meg of RAM and 1.86Mhz Celeron processor (socket M) and we want to keep the level of background processing down. Here’s what we’ve found you can do to reduce the footprint.

  • Turn off User Account Control [link]
  • Turn off Vista automatic searching [link]
  • Set for automatic login – (eliminate the log-in screen)
  • Set Window resolution to 800×600
  • Turn off the enhanced graphics and Aero [link]
  • Turn off Windows firewall. [link]

Both Vista and the Mini-ITX machine that it is running on, from Logic Supply, are growing on me. I attached a $179.00 Dell monitor from Staples to the machine as well as an inexpensive Logitech keyboard and Microsoft mouse. You are better off using newer peripherals; there are no ‘legacy’ connections on the machine. Even the monitor requires a digital connector. Fan noise is a problem when using the unit for video or VoIP calls, so we’ll also be testing a fanless version and crossing our fingers that it won’t run too hot. Cost for the unit, plus Windows, plus the peripherals will put you in the $1000 range. On the other hand, a colleague is testing an Acer 4620 laptop that he got at a special at Best Buy for $499. Comes with Vista Home, (here are the differences between home and business) and it has been running everything that he can throw at it.