I’ve just recently created an ELM327 OBDII Bluetooth module that plugs into post-1996 vehicles. I’m using it with my droid and the application “Torque” available on Android Market. I’ve also designed a module using the new STN1110 chip, which has an ELM327 compatible command set.
Here’s a picture of one of the complete adapters: 
This post is just to document all the scripts that were created/reused to make the Dockstar run pretty much on its own…
One of my more interesting presents this Christmas was a crystal growing kit. I thought it would be cool to take some time lapse video of the crystals growing, but I don’t have a camera/software that’s capable of such things. Plus I wanted to be able to easily make a video of all the pictures in really any format/framerate/bitrate that I wanted. This is where the Dockstar (Wifi Webcam) comes in!
I finally was able to get my hands on a Motorola Droid 1 a little over a year after it came out. I’ve wanted one for a while now, but I didn’t want to pay for the monthly $30 data plan (apparently unlimited texting is another $10 on top of that, ripoffness).
In this post, I’ll tell you how I flashed my droid 1 to CricKet without needing CDMA Workshop 2.7 or paying anyone a single cent to accomplish this (surprisingly all legally….)
Now on to the hardware for the wifi webcam. I wanted to keep the whole “remote webcam” portion of the monitoring system under $75.
The heart of the wifi webcam is the Seagate Dockstar, which has been heavily modified. The following hardware mods have been done to the Dockstar: A serial debug header, a micro SDHC card slot, missing RTC parts, internal 802.11b/g wifi, and CPU heatsink. The only external piece of hardware is a plain old webcam.
Here’s the modified Dockstar:
For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to find a way to monitor the house, or at least the entrances, while we’re away on vacation or visiting family. I’ve been hoping to find a good deal on a pre-canned wifi webcam, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened. To put things into perspective, I was looking for a few webcams that could be had for $75 or less. Last I checked, such a thing didn’t exist at this price point, and if it did, it probably didn’t support WPA/WPA2 authentication (much more stable and secure than WEP), didn’t have resolution above 640×480, and may not be easily relocatable/reusable.
So yeah I don’t really do this blogging stuff and I’m probably not the best writer ever, but this is somewhat of an effort to document the projects that I have come up with. Some are “finished” (aka they meet the goals I was hoping to meet, but could be improved upon), others are not.
Hopefully this helps someone out, or at a minimum, amuses someone.
Enjoy!
