Making Two-Sided PDFs with a Single-Sided Scanner

The Canon Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) on my MP-830 is pretty good, has the capability of scanning double-sided pages into a PDF document. However, I was having trouble scanning a large, dog-eared document - it kept jamming after a few pages. I could still scan single-sided pages OK, but that only got me every other page in the document. What to do?

Use the wonderful pdftk, available here for most OS platforms.

The process is as follows:

  1. Scan the ODD pages first, just putting the document through the ADF in the normal reading order. Face up, this will be a stack like: Page 1, 3, 5, .... etc. Save the resulting file as something like doc_odd.pdf
  2. Scan the EVEN pages next. Take the document and TURN IT OVER, so the last page is on TOP. Take the last page and start a new stack with the EVEN side face up. Stack the EVEN pages one-by-one on top of this stack. For example, if you have a 40 page document, page 40 will be on the bottom of this stack, then 38, 36, etc. up to page 2 on the top. It's actually easier to do than describe... Put this stack through the scanner and name the file doc_even.pdf
  3. Put both of the new PDF documents in the same directory
  4. Burst the pages for each of the documents and merge them with the following code:

pdftk doc_odd.pdf burst output doc_pg%04d_A.pdf

pdftk doc_even.pdf burst output doc_pg%04d_B.pdf

pdftk doc_pg*.pdf cat output final_merged_doc_name.pdf

The pages will be combined in the order of: 1A/1B, 2A/2B and so on, giving the correct odd/even ordering.


There is a script for this documented here.

Sugru fixes a Sansa Clip clip

The clip broke on my Sansa Clip. Sugru to the rescue. I actually put more Sugru on than necessary, and I didn't align the jaws - they overlap when they should just touch. That makes the clip harder to spread.

It still works, but I probably will break the plastic body of the clip over time.

(download)

Sent from my iPhone

First full prototype, Christmas Lumineria

Here's a photo of my first attempt to Laser-cut a full lumineria lantern from a single sheet of material. The idea is to have a tab-and-slot construction to hold the thing together, and then be able to take it apart and lay it flat for storage.

In the photo below, the sample on the left is cardstock, the one on the right is a heavier material from Staples called illustration board. The cardstock is easier to work with, but the illustration board is sturdier.

Lumineria_first_full_prototype
I used the color mapping parameters of CorelDraw to set up a perforation vector cut on the fold lines of the lumineria. I used Speed=60, Power=10, and Frequency=10 on an Epilog 60W laser. That worked perfectly on the cardstock, but didn't cut through on the heavier illustration board.

I'll have to experiment with the power settings on the illustration board to see if I can get perforation cuts, and also see if I can reduce the charring/smokiness left by the full-power cuts. 

Adding Arduino Libraries in Mac OS X Lion - Arduino 1.0.1

I already had arduino-0022 on my MacBook Air and wanted to keep a separate application of Arduino 1. I have at least 3 years' worth of *.pde sketches that I don't want to convert right now.

I easily downloaded Release 1.0.1 of Arduino for Mac OS X, but didn't know how to add a Library. Here's what worked for me:

  • Download and copy the Library you wish to install
  • Open the Application folder, then Command-Click on the new Arduino 1.0.1 Application. This will open a New Finder Window
  • Select your Arduino 1.0.1 Application
  • Click on the icon that says "Perform Tasks for Selected Item" when you hover over it
  • Select Show Package Contents
  • Double Click Contents; Double Click Resources; Double Click Java; Double Click Libraries

You can paste your new Library into this open folder, then restart Arduino 1.0.1 to see the new Library.

You can also do this from the Terminal.Starting at your Downloads folder (or wherever you have the new Library):

cp -R NewLibraryName /Applications/'Arduino 1.0.1.app'/Contents/Resources/Java/libraries/NewLibraryName

The -R is to recurse the new folder for all its contents.

Windows XP Install - Fix for "Can't Activate/Can't Login" Problem

I recently bought a refurbished HP/Compaq DC7600 for  < $100 for a client of mine. This unit came with Windows XP installed, included a valid (special refurb) COA and a CD with Windows XP and SP 3 slipstreamed on the same disk. That was worth $100 right there!

Powered the unit up and was treated with the Dialog Box, "Can't login, you must Activate first". OK, let's activate. "Cannot connect to activation server". Uh, oh - networking isn't set up, I need to login for that. So, I can't login until I activate, and I can't activate until I login!
Zugzwang!

I googled a bit for how other people fixed this one. Got the idea from them to use Safe Mode under Administrator, (NOT Safe Mode with Network). The I used the "Setup Internet Connections" wizard under Control Panel. Rebooted. Bingo! Activation complete.

LED Edge-lit Acrylic Valentine's Day Sign

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This project is a variation of the work of yergacheffe at the atomsandelectrons blog. I wanted to create a Valentine's Day present for my wife, and thought a nice edge-lit sign would go over well.

On his recommendation, I tried out some octobrites from macetech. Although I have some experience with arduino and other electronics projects, I quickly realized I would have to really dig into how the octobrites work in order to achieve the effects I wanted. I didn't have that kind of time, Valentine's Day was quickly approaching, so I decided to go with an array of 10 Ultra-bright white LEDs available from adafruit.com. I used the LED Array calculator to determine the resistor values for the array. Note: you need to know the Forward Voltage value and Foward Current value of your LEDs to use this calculator, but that is easily obtained from the LED data sheet.

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I used an adafruit Perma-proto full-sized PCB as the base for the array, cutting the board in half length-wise to fit. I used a Dremel-like rotary tool to cut out the base and shadow box of an IKEA picture frame as yergacheffe did. I was surprised that I was getting smoke off the material as I cut it. I used fluorescent red acrylic, 1/8" thick cut on a TechShop Epilog Laser. The actual heart logo was clip art I grabbed from the web, then did some smoothing in CorelDraw. I used the trick yergacheffe discovered of mirror-etching the sign on the front of  the acrylic, then mounting the sign reversed so the text was the correct orientation and was brighter. Good tip!

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Finally, I added a switch and a 5V voltage regulator circuit. That way, I could use either a battery or wall power to light the sign. The result is a bit dim, even on wall power, but where my wife has placed it, it's plenty bright.

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Music Box Based on ATTINY45

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I saw this post (http://elm-chan.org/works/mxb/report.html) about WaveTable synthesis and creating "music box" like sounds on an ATTINY45 and thought I would try it. That post documented the code and schematics needed to build a "music box" song generator. I have some experience with the Arduino platform but hadn't used the ATTINY before, although I bought some to have for future projects. Chan laid out enough info to get started with this project, code and a schematic, so i rigged up an Adafruit USBtinyISP to a breadboard with the MCU and loaded Chan's code with avrdude. Rigged up a test with a small Radio Shack speaker and it worked like a charm!

There's a saying in Science Fiction writing, "Make the metaphor real", so I thought, why not make this look like a real music box? I got a craft "treasure box" at Michael's Art Supply for around $1.00. Then, I downloaded some clip art of musical staffs with notes on them. I combined these with some text and laser cut the top of the craft box with an Epilog 60W laser at TechShop SF.

Next, I got a hole saw drill bit about the diameter of the speaker I had and cut a hole in the craft box, gluing the speaker down. I found a Mercury switch at Fry's - this would turn on the music when the top was tilted open. A better choice would have been magnetic switches, freely available on eBay. The Mercury switch will activate if you tilt the whole box, not a desirable effect.

I put a laser cut piece of mirror acrylic over the works to hide them and feel more like a real music box, just held in by friction. I cobbled this all together with a deadline of my wife's birthday. She was delighted to receive such a cute, personal gift.

 

SOLVED: Win 7 SP1 Install Error 0x800f0a12 on Dual-Boot System

I have a system that boots Ubuntu10.04 from sda and Windows 7 from sdb. Sdb is a recent reinstall of Win 7 on an SSD.
 
Windows Update finally notified me that  it had downloaded SP1 for installation, and my troubles began. Kept getting Error 0x800f0a12, which isn't terribly descriptive.

I tried a number of suggestions I found on the web, including marking the System Reserved partition active (turns out it was in the first place), giving it a drive letter, and other "solutions".

Then I found this page on the Microsoft site:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/windows-7-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-sp1-installation-error-0x800F0A12

The first suggestion in the web page fitting my error code was to make sure the system volume was mounted using:
mountvol /E

Nope, same error.

Read a little more in the page and saw this:

If a disk management tool from another software manufacturer was used to copy (sometimes called clone) disks or partitions on your computer, the SP1 installer might not be able to identify the correct system files.

  1. Turn off your computer and physically disconnect any external disks or drives that aren’t required for startingWindows. 

That worked! Windows must not have liked having the GRUB2 startup manager on the first disk. Or something.. 

Anyway, it got me past the problem.

Laser Cut Lumineria Panel

Below is another Laser Cut project I did recently at TechShop SF. As an experiment, this is one panel of a kind of lantern common in Santa Fe, New Mexico, known commonly as a lumineria but more accurately referred to as farolitos. These traditionally were small bags containing candles set in sand.

These are seen at the Christmas Holidays.

The finished lumineria would consist of two of these panels on opposing sides, and a different design panel on the other two sides, glued/attached to form a box lantern.

Material for the experiment is just reclaimed sandwich cardboard.

The cardboard retains a smokey odor and some of the edges are just slightly blackened.

Photo

Sent from my iPhone

First TechShop Laser Cut Project

Visited TechShop yesterday to cut some faceplates/stands for two different VFD displays using the Epilog laser. Cuts were straightforward, had to adjust the settings (power, speed and frequency) slightly to get the lower left screw hole cut properly. Other than that, it took about five minutes or so to cut the 1/8" acrylic sheet.


The pictures show a hacked router displaying local weather from wunderground on an Epson VFD.

Photo_1

Front of stand showing "reclaimed" Epson POS VFD. A hacked Asus router is attached to the stand behind the VFD.

I know, the white screws on black are a fashion faux pas - I didn't have any black screws in 4/40.

Photo_2

Pointing out one 4/40 screw hole for the router.

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A matte version of the laser cut acrylic sheet for seeing cut detail. I used a glossy version for the final display.

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Back of weather display showing Asus WL-520GU hacked router and controlling Arduino on protoboard .

Sent from my iPhone