WLAN card to generate pulsed RF?

Nordic Semiconductor

- and possibly others too - do a range of small RF communication chips, some running at 2.4GHz. I assume they do comply with the relevant standards. Maybe you can (a) build a simple sender using one of these, or (b) trick a stock wireless card to talk to a Nordic chip?

Hello David,

Nordic has some nice chips, so do TI, Infineon and others. However, the minute you roll your own you have to go through the whole FCC cert from scratch. Lots of $$. That's what I really want to avoid.

If I really have to design starting from a blank piece of vellum (yep, occasionally using it for first drafts) then I might as well pick a lower ISM frequency where things are lower in cost.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Yep, no DOS or Win16 applications. Mind you the *DOS* box is gone, not the (32 bit) command line. You ought to be able to run one of the VMs and a 32 bit OS under that of the odd 16 bit application.

What is that you have that continues to require the DOS box that can't be replaced with Win32 command line code?

There are some hardware issues with the processor running in the AMD

64 bit mode (and compatibles).

While the hardware might not support some instructions on new hardware, there has been a tradition of emulating the "missing" instructions in software since the 1960's (IBM).

If Microsoft doesn't want to provide the emulation, there are several other operating systems that will provide the 8086 emulation in software :-).

The issue about user interface is a thing that any real OS designer with any kind of self-respect would not touch even with a long stick:-).

IMHO, the user interface should not be a part of any operating system, just an add-on program.

Do you have any positive observations about this ?

While technically this could be done, there are political/commercial reasons to _not_ providing such emulation.

Any program that is supplied as binary (.com or .exe), since the original company might not exist anymore.

Paul

The real problem is not an 8086 emulator (in addition to several that already exist, a basic 8086 emulator would take a few weeks, at most, to bang out, I/O would be tougher). Rather it's the OS interface. While MS-DOS is fairly small, and would be reasonable to emulate, Win16 is a much bigger undertaking.

I'm perfect clear on that. Unfortunately it's quite common to for users call the Windows command line the "DOS prompt". Didn't help the MS called it that themselves in Win9x. Many people are also unclear that you can actually have Win32 command line applications.

Not personally, but, VMWare 5.5 runs under Win64, and lets you boot 32 bit Windows guests. VMWare claims WinNT/2K/XP and Win9x support, as well as Win3.1 and DOS 6 support in their guests. Never tried anything other than Win2K/XP through.

MS has stated that their VM implementation will be usable on Win64 to boot Win32.

Certainly that's the usual case (or something homegrown and not moved to 32 bit). That's usually the case for one or two point installations, but the poster I was responding to claimed this made Win64 unusable for their entire office and lab.

So the question remains, why can't they move to a Win32 app? In many cases the reason is either inertia (haven't upgrade my copy of SuperWhatsit since 1994) or misconception (Command Prompt = DOS Box), in which case it's not a real limitation.

This is perfect possible with any transciever having an analog RSSI output (like MAX2820 to MAX2829 or a digital RSSI output like Chipcon devices) *IF* woud be used in a clean RF environement (near and on the

2.41-2.48Ghz ISM band there are a lot of licensed and unlicensed activities: WIBRO, WIMAX, WIFI, WIBREE, Bluethooth, Zigbee, etc)

Again, only IF the executable will be received clean and the CRC will be OK. Much doubt will be like this on long distance.

Ohh, software... without a good hardware means zero.

Like someone said, a microwave owen or a Zigbee transmitter very close to your receiver :)

So, why bootloading over the WIFI ?

greetings, Vasile

At least most older users would still have the Win 3.x license, so there should not even be a legal reason for not running Win 3.x in a virtual machine.

I am referring to the user interface in a broader sense (not just a command line interpreter CLI), since for example Win NT 3.51 Progman.exe would typically start a new application with the ordinary CreateProcess() call used to start other programs.

I have never used Win9x operating systems, but on the WinNT side, since NT 3.x days the command interpreter window has been referenced as "console window".

That is their problem.

Paul

Yes indeed.

Any application running in the license exempt bands that also are ISM bands, such as 13.5 Mhz, 27 MHz, 2.45 MHz (and 900 MHz in the US) should be designed to be idiot proof. Anything can happen on these bands.

When using applications running on a licensed frequency, you can always request the licensing authority to handle the interference problems.

Paul

The inverter can be driven on/off at several 10s of Hz, but it takes several 10s of ms for the driver to reach full output.

That depends entirely on the speed of the LCD screen. Latency of TFT lies somewhere between 4 to 10ms. The latency number specified for TFT screens is the sum of the time required to go from black to white and from white to black. A screen rated for 8ms may have a white->black time of 2ms and a black->white time of 6ms.

With OpenGL it is possible to update the screen buffer on vertical blanks. Since almost every TFT screen is driven at 50Hz, you could make the display flash completely at a rate of 25Hz (40ms period). A good Windows programmer should be able to program something like this in a few days.

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Reply to nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
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Hello Nico,

Yes, but I'd rather not flick the inverter unless I know exactly how it is designed. PWM circuits often exhibit some bizarre pathologies and some lamps might not like this mode either.

Thanks, Nico. That is excellent information. It wouldn't be necessary to swing between the extremes, a good photo receiver circuit could work with 25% modulation or even less.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Hello Robert,

[ ... ]

There are some SuperWhatsits that simply cannot be upgraded. Mostly this happens when a university group that produced excellent work and useful routines has disbanded. Either because they moved on to something new or because the professor retired. Academia isn't exactly known to maintain older things like we do in industry.

Example: "FilterDesign" from Prof.Mildenberger, Wiesbaden, Germany. He retired and now they even took down his web page. It's a great and rather indispensable program when you have to design wave digital filters. The PC switches to full screen DOS to use it. Besides routines from TI there isn't much else. Those routines are also hardcore DOS, including one that was released this September.

Bottomline is that if MS drops DOS this business will not upgrade anymore for a long time and then possibly migrate to another OS. Why should we upgrade if that reduces productivity?

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Hello Vasile,

RSSI is one option. Sometimes the chip that includes it costs too much. Then I use transistors. But at 2.45GHz a chip might be the better deal. Still single source, usually, and that is always detrimental from a business perspective.

It's not long distance. The target device would be right next to the laptop.

That's why we only design the good stuff :-)

It's in the field. Not much around it, plus the field strength two feet from the laptop will swamp almost any other source. The user is, of course, not supposed to do this next to a microwave while heating a bag of Redenbacher's popcorn in there :-)

Because you will neither need any cables nor any accessory to the laptop. Wifi is mostly already built in.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Hello Paul,

Absolutely. There needs to be a simple "Re-flash successful" and "Re-flash failed" signal, nothing else. Plus the option to just leave the target there for a minute until the "Re-flash successful" light has finally come on.

Good luck with that one. Tried it a few times. You are usually dealing with huge bureaucracies there. "Speed" can take on a very different meaning.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Could always use an ipod screen. Make a "music video" that has the correct modulation.

Alex

only if it's audible, I'm sure the speakers in most laptops will go to

22KHz without much effort....

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Bye.
   Jasen

audio needs a microphone built into the device and a demodulator, no cabling.

Bye. Jasen

yeah!

If the data was encoded in the lengths of the wifi bursts and the gaps between them were arbitrary (which they neccesarily would be) it might be able to work.

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Bye.
   Jasen

or lcds ...

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Bye.
   Jasen

Hello Jasen,

But I am not sure the electronics will. AFAIK 22kHz would be really close to the Nyquist limit of lower end sound chips. Also, 22kHz could drive animals such as dogs nuts. We have a little beeper (called ultrasound but it's really only around 25kHz). While our rottie could care less because he is quite noise tolerant a terrier that was visiting almost fell off the stairs when it sounded.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com