Cheep QCN Dongle

[Dandasarge]

So I've been looking over this project for a few months it seams now. I have come up with a way to get credit for aprox 1/2 of the list price. I wanted to pass this along to anyone that is thinking about crunching it.

I ordered the dongle from this place http://www.saelig.com/MFR00093/IC2007.htm

Then I took one of the 50 or USB cables I had leftover from an old printer cut off the end and soldered it onto the board. Took me about 5m to get it all figured it and done.

The shipping I thought was high. I ordered 4 chips and shipping was like 12 bucks. Was well packed in an oversize box wrapped in bubble wrap.

They also aren't in a cool little box that says QCN. Mine right now is just in the static bag. they are 1x1.25 I think I will find a small pill box and put a washer in the bottom so it doesn't get bumped around so easy. They weigh nothing.

I'm pretty sure so if you wanted you could solder a male plug onto it and use it that way. but I would have to say it probably wouldn't work correctly if you didn't have a usb plug parallel with the floor.

I got the first one done just to make sure it would work, you know for those days when It would be imposable not to work but it just don't :)

Chip $27.75
USB cord Free If you somehow don't have one they are less then a buck on ebay.
Pill box $1
Shipping will be at least $11

Cost of home built $29.75
Cost to buy kit $42.25
Cost to buy assembled $49

It won't be the best point to dollar ratio but Its fun to try and win them all. This is a project we are slipping away on. Team FB is going to try and even it out. Wouldn't be hard with some help from the MM.

[YoDude9999]

Why would a project require this? Doesn't make sense.

Yo-

[Dandasarge]

Why would a project require this? Doesn't make sense.

Yo-

Its really hard to feel an earthquake without one? I'm not sure why. Both IBM and Apple laptops come with them built in. Why don't all computers? Lack of need I would guess.

[DrBob]

Nice find Dandasarge. :-bd

They also have the newer JW24F14 sensor http://www.saelig.com/product/IC2037.htm although it's $10 higher than the JW24F8. :(

The JW24F8 http://www.saelig.com/MFR00093/IC2007.htm still works on the project so I would guess saving the extra $$ is in order.

Thanks for the link, I've bookmarked the page so when I need my next sensor I can save a few bucks.

Now get those machines going on QCN, your 4 sensors are going to make a big difference in keeping our #1 on the project!

[Fire$torm]

Its really hard to feel an earthquake without one? I'm not sure why. Both IBM and Apple laptops come with them built in. Why don't all computers? Lack of need I would guess.

Almost every laptop made in like the last 5~10 years or so has one. The sensor is used to restrict the laptops HDD from doing reads/writes during excessive or sharp movements. This keeps the user from killing the HDD.

The problem is that most lappy manufactures are so anally secretive about how they implement hardware that they refuse to release the data needed to access the sensors via software. Hence the need for the external sensor.

[trigggl]

Almost every laptop made in like the last 5~10 years or so has one. The sensor is used to restrict the laptops HDD from doing reads/writes during excessive or sharp movements. This keeps the user from killing the HDD.

The problem is that most lappy manufactures are so anally secretive about how they implement hardware that they refuse to release the data needed to access the sensors via software. Hence the need for the external sensor.
...or more to the point, some of us don't have laptops. Also, it's more accurate to have the USB sensor because you can give it the proper x,y,z orientation and place it somewhere more stable/permanent.

[Dandasarge]

I didn't want to start a debate on QCN I just wanted to show my path, hopefully its useful to at least one person in the team.

[Fire$torm]

I didn't want to start a debate on QCN I just wanted to show my path, hopefully its useful to at least one person in the team.

No debate, or at least not what I intended.

@triggl: Very true. My thinking was a bit to linear I guess. I wanted to run this on my two lappys but QCN cannot access the hardware which really irks me to no end.

Just had a thought. I wonder if it would be possible to set up a sensor or multiple senors via Ethernet so that it/they could be accessed by any number of systems? Does anyone know of a USB-to-Ethernet bridge chip or prefab board? Too lazy to look at the moment.....

[DrPop]

OK, so this is an interesting thread I just stumbled upon. Do you need 1 dongle for each machine, or could all your rigs network to access 1, or how does this project work, exactly? For credit hounds like me trying to get the S.USA RAC up, is the credit any good, or is it pretty much "credit only an [MM] could love" type thing? ;)
Thanks for cluing me in!
Pop

[Maxwell]

It's 50 credits per device per day. They are free credits, mind you...

[trigggl]

At some point I want to figure out how to use the PS3 controller. It has an accelerometer, just need to get Linux to use it.

[joker]

Can you feel what the ROCK is shaking???? >:)