Arduino TPDD update

It lives!

The problem that I had was my null modem cable.  For my use, I should not have crossed the TX/RX lines in the cable.  All I needed to do was loop back the control lines.

At this point, I have communications.  As expected, I found bugs in my code.  But I get data and send data and I can see what's going on.

Now, I need to handle the TS-DOS extensions that I didn't expect.

Arduino TPDD update

I tried to change the RS-232 Shifter to provide the signals that my 102 needed, but that didn't work out.  So I made a null modem cable based on the Club 100 documentation.  So that's all soldered and looking good.

However, testing completely failed.  Using the new cable, no tests worked and no communications at all.  Going back the old cable, my tests worked.  So the new cable is the problem.

But I checked continuity on all the lines and everything was correct.

I'm stumped right now.

Arduino TPDD update

The code is written, tested, reviewed, and tested again.  Everything looks good.

I've validated the inputs and outputs from the Arduino through the serial monitor and everything looks good.

But I'm stopped at TS-DOS.  It keeps saying that the drive is not ready.  I expect it has something to do with the cable signaling.

Here's what my monster looks like right now:

Arduino TPDD update

The Arduino Uno had too little SRAM for both the SD library and the other code I need to run. So I updated to an Arduino Mega (which has 8K instead of 2K of SRAM).

The Mega moved some pins around, so I had to adjust for that.  But after some trial and error, the SD library is working along with the software serial library.

I am able to access the SD card and hear commands from my T102.

I also added a drive activity light.

I've spent time studying the DeskLink+ (dl.c) code as well as the TPDD base protocol at bitchin100. So I'm ready to start writing the code that will link the serial communications with the SD card.

The code is now on GitHub under a GPL license.  I'll be checking in fairly frequently as I start fleshing out the code.

Penguicon 2017 - why I won't be there this year

I've attended Penguicon every year since Penguicon 2.0. I loved it back then. But I don't want this post to become a "Pining for the glory days of the past" post.

Over the last few Penguicons, I've noticed some trends:

1. Too much diversity.
   By trying to become everything to everyone, Penguicon has become nothing to everyone. Out of all the tracks, I only like 4. Of course, everyone else is the same, but just a different 4 tracks. The problem is that with 20 tracks, that's only 1/5 of the resources for what I like.
   There's been no big speakers, for example, in any areas.
   This year's talent, for example, is Cory Doctorow and a bunch of other people who I've never heard of and even when I read their bios, don't really care to hear from.
   Cory is a nice person, and a good writer, but he really hasn't done much in the last several years.  I like him, but if this is the best Penguicon do so for a GoH, it's an indication that the con has really slid down.
2. Social Justice "warriors" and other regressives (not "progressives").
   These are people with an attitude of "I can do what I want to offend you, but don't you dare offend me."  There are a growing number of very inconsiderate people at the con.  Keep in mind that I know how inconsiderate geeks can be since we tend to focus on ourselves.  I account for that.  This is different.
   These are people who do things that they know will be offensive and harmful to others.  They do it on purpose for the purpose of offending (or as they call it "to make a statement").
3. Non-con-people.
   I realize that you can't keep the public out completely, but over the last few years, I've noticed a growing number of non-con goers in the hallways in the evenings. It's kinda nice to know that "normals" like geek parties, but these people aren't always nice people to have at the con.

The combination of less content for me and more objectionable people attending has made Penguicon something that's not for me and my wife.

As a geek, changing my routine is something that makes me apprehensive. I tend to resist it. But the more I think about how little I've gotten out the last 3 (at least) Penguicons, and the less I see as far as talent (again) for this year, the apprehensiveness has faded.

We'll probably go to the Vermontville Maple Syrup festival instead. After all, they may be hicks out there, but they don't try to offend or make "statements", and there's more interesting things to do.

Arduino TPDD (Tandy Portable Disk Drive) project

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, and because I love old tech, I created a project for myself.

I've always loved the Tandy 100/102, but by the time I could afford one, they were gone from the market.  Later, I had the money, but not the time.  Now I have the time and the money, so I picked up some second hand ones from eBay and enjoyed the feel old old time computing.

But one thing that I wanted was a nice, more modern, way to store my data.  Club 100 used to sell a NADS box, but no longer.  So I figured I could create one myself.

The ingredients:
An Arduino Uno R3
I needed to hook it to my Tandy 102, which only supports RS-232 serial, not the TTL serial that the Arduino supports, so I picked up an RS-232 Shifter.  This converts RS-232 to TTL.
I also needed something to store the files on, so I picked up a MicroSD shield for the Arduino.

Now, for the software.  Luckily, someone already wrote a TPDD emulator called DLPlus which works under Linux and you can get the source code for.

The hardware hooked up easily and it didn't take me too long to get the communication working. After about 1/2 a day, I was able to send a TPDD command from my 102 to the Arduino and have the Arduino parse the command and validate the checksum.

Then I soldered up the MicroSD shield, set up a SD card, and started to get that part working on the Arduino.

Problems.  I knew that this was going too smoothly.

To make a long story short, the problem was the SD library for the Arduino uses up A LOT of stack space on the Arduino (we only have 2K of it).  So while the program itself was well under the 32K limit, adding the SD card code hit the stack space limit when the program ran.

Dead end.

I have a Arduino Mega on order from Adafruit.  That has 8K of stack space.   We'll see what happens when it arrives and I get it working.

Deep Dark Chocolate Mint Cookies - Gluten-free

8 oz Semi-sweet chocolate - broken into 1/2 oz pieces
4 oz Unsweetened chocolate - broken into 1/2 oz pieces

1 1/2 cup Organic Rice Flour (white)
1/2 cup Unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt

1 1/2 cup Tightly packed light brown sugar
12 tbl Unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 lb Mint chips

Start melting semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate in double boiler.

Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside.

Cream butter with brown sugar, then add eggs and vanilla to this mixture. Add the melted chocolate next and after that is completely mixed, add the dry ingredients. Mix well and add the mint chips.

Chill the dough.

I've found that using a #50 disher (a small ice cream scoop with the number 50 on the "paddle" inside it) makes a very nice sized cookie.  Not too big and not too small.  Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper to prevent sticking.

If you don't want to use the disher, just use a heaping tablespoon to measure each cookie.  Or if you are really lazy... er... pressed for time, just put the batter in a 10x15 pan and bake them like brownies.

Bake 18-22 minutes in preheated 325F oven.

Notes:
Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder also works better for a more chocolately flavor.

I love spammers/scammers/phishers. They humor me.

So I got this in my spam bucket today:

Unfortunately your data was leaked in the recent hacking of the Patreon web site and I now have your information. I have your tax id, tax forms, SSN, DOB, Name, Address, Credit card details and more sensitive data. Now, I can go ahead and leak your details online which would damage your credit score like hell and would create a lot of problems for you. 

If you would like to prevent me from doing this then you need to send 1 bitcoin to the following BTC address. 

Bitcoin Address: 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

You can buy bitcoins using online exchanges easily. The bitcoin address is unique to you. Sending bitcoin takes take, so you better get started right now, you have 48 hours in total.

Well, "Natalie"  (with a from aol.com, but a reply to juno.com - which is why it ended up in my spam bucket), seeing how the only thing you got from Paetron was my email address - since I never provided my tax id, tax forms, SSN, DOB, name and address (BTW, you didn't get my credit card information), you can go take a leak.

It's amazing that you think that I'm so dumb as to fall for your scam.

Jerk.

Cinnmon Chip Cookies

Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Gluten Free

1 ¾ cup gluten free oat flour

½ cup coconut flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbl cinnamon

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)

¼ cup sugar

1 ¼ cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups cinnamon chips

Hardware:

Ice cream scooper (#50 disher, to be exact)

Parchment paper

Baking sheets

Mixer

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift together the flours, salt, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside.

Cream the butter, and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Mix in the flour mixture. Stir in the cinnamon chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 14 minutes.

Cool completely, then frost with cinnamon frosting.

Cinnamon Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbl cinnamon

½ cup Crisco

¼ cup milk (or dairy-free milk)

Mix until even and spread on cooled cookies.

Notes:

• Since the flavor from these comes from the cinnamon, use the best you can get. Like the Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey's Spices.
• Nuts.com sells the cinnamon chips.

Strawberry Jubilee - perfected

One of the issues I had with my Strawberry Jubilee cookies was the consistency.  It was way too dry.  Not smooth and silky like I wanted it.  So after fiddling with it, I have finally perfected the recipe.

Strawberry Jubilee

Gluten-free

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

2 3/4 cup Better Batter gluten-free baking mix

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cup chopped dried strawberries

Mix shortening, sugars and eggs thoroughly. Stir in yogurt and vanilla.

Mix flour, soda and salt. Blend in to sugar mixture. Mix in dried strawberries.

Chill dough.

Drop rounded tablespoons (a #50 disher works nice) of dough about 2" apart on greased baking sheet.

Bake at 375F about 13 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched lightly.

Cool. Spread with browned butter glaze. Canned frosting is too moist and won't stay on the cookies very well.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Browned Butter Glaze

1/2 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2-4 tbl hot water

Melt butter until golden brown. Blend in sugar and vanilla. Stir in hot water until icing spreads smoothly.

Maple Rice Krispie Treats

It's been a while since I experimented.  Too many other things going on in my life, like getting married.

I had a hankering for Maple Bacon Rice Krispie Treats.  They sounded good, but I found that the bacon only added extra work and mess and didn't add any flavor to the bars.  So I left it out in this next revision.

The bars turned out very good.  The chocolate/maple flavor is nice, but the maple comes back as an aftertaste as well.  So you get enjoyment eating and then still having that maple flavor in your mouth afterwards (calorie free extra taste!).

Maple Rice Krispie Treats

4 tbl butter

6 cups marshmallows

1 tbl pure maple syrup

1 tsp maple essence

6 cups Rice Krispie cereal

12 oz Dark chocolate chips

1 tsp sea salt

In a large sauce pan, melt butter and marshmallows over low heat. Stir until completely melted.

Remove from heat and add maple syrup, and maple essence. Stir until completely mixed.

Then add the Rice Krispie cereal. Mix until all is well incorporated.

Then pour the mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan or a cookie sheet and spread it evenly with a piece of waxed paper.

Place chocolate chips in a double boiler (or a glass bowl that fits snugly over your pot) filled with water.

Bring water to a simmer on medium heat. Once chocolate starts melting, stir constantly with a rubber spatula until all chocolate is melted and had a smooth consistency.

Remove from heat and pour the chocolate over the cooled Rice Krispies and spread evenly with the spatula.

Allow the chocolate to cool a bit, then sprinkle lightly with sea salt if desired.

Place treats back in fridge to set completely.

Once the chocolate has solidified, cut into squares and enjoy!

Experiments

I had a day off today.  That means I get to rest.  Ya, who am I kidding?  I finished up all the Christmas stuff and then made a large mess in the kitchen experimenting with some cookie ideas.

A friend suggest peanut butter and gum drop cookies.  They turned out well, but nothing special for me.  Chopping up those big gum drops was a pain, but everything went together without a problem.

My wife Dawn came up with an idea: Skor Bits Cookies, but take the Skor bits out (stay with me) and replace them with Red Hots.  Very good.

I got a bag of candy cane bits.  So I took a brownie mix and mixed the candy bits into it.  They basically just melted and sank to the bottom.  8(  Much less mint flavor than I expected.  So I topped the brownies with melted Andes mints.  That worked OK.

What I should have done is just baked the brownies and then made a frosting that was minty and put the candy cane pieces into it.

Then I made Rice Krispie Treats but put mini-chocolate chips and chopped dried cherries in them.  That worked very well.

Finally, I made a recipe for sugar cookie cake.  I de-dairy-ed it by using silken tofu instead of cream cheese.  And used browned butter icing on top.  It turned out OK.  But not as good as I hoped.

Turkey meatloaf with avocado

1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup onions
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 large egg
Salt and pepper
1 lb ground turkey breast
1-2 ripe avocados
8 oz tomato sauce

Mix the ketchup, breadcrumbs, onions, garlic, and basil.  Add turkey and egg.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Put 1/2 of the meat mixture into a bread pan (we use a disposable aluminum one), making a well down the middle.

Cut avocados into pieces and put into the well you made.

Top with the rest of the meat mixture and shape into loaf.

Pour tomato sauce over loaf.

Cover and cook in slow cooker on high for 3 hours.  The meatloaf is done when the internal temp reaches 165F.  (We usually let it go all day while at work.)

Allow meatloaf to rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Personal Sized Baked Oatmeal with Individual Toppings

Personal Sized Baked Oatmeal with Individual Toppings

Gluten-free

2 egg substitute

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups applesauce, unsweetened

½ cup banana, mashed (about 1 banana)

½ cup honey

5 cups Old Fashioned rolled oats { I used Bob’s Red Mill}

2 tbl coconut flour

1 tbl ground cinnamon

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 ¼ cups almond milk

Toppings: Dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries, butterscotch chips.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce, banana and honey together in a bowl.

Add in oats, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and mix well with wet ingredients.

Finally pour in milk and combine.

Spray a couple of muffin tins with cooking spray or use cupcake liners. Pour mixture evenly into muffin tin cups.

If using toppings add them onto the tops of muffins now. If using fresh or frozen fruit, drop it right into the batter.

Bake 30 minutes until a toothpick in center comes out clean.

Cool and enjoy or freeze them in gallon freezer bags.

Notes:

• About 150 calories per cup depending on the toppings.
• My attempts make about 22 normal-sized cakes.

The World's Best Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

So I started with the The World's Best Chocolate Oatmeal Cake and did an experiment with it.

I substituted oat flour and coconut flour for the regular flour.  Many times, when I de-gluten-ize a cake recipe, I have an issue with the center not cooking all the way while the outsides are done.  So I used my all-edges brownie pan instead of a standard 9x13 pan.

Then I ditched the boiled frosting and did a simple peanut butter topping.

The result was very good.  Structural integrity was high.  Taste was very good.  There is a slight coconut taste, but more of a "what's what I taste" more than anything.

The World's Best Chocolate Oatmeal Cake - De-gluten-ized

Original recipe from Pinch of Yum, recipe from Mimi’s Grandma

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten with fork
1 cup gluten-free oat flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1 3/4 cups boiling water
10 oz bag chocolate chips

1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
1/2 cup Margarine (1 stick)

Boil the water and add to oatmeal.  Let sit for 10 minutes while you do the rest of the mixing.

Preheat oven to 350.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and mix well.

Add flour, soda, salt and cocoa and mix until just incorporated. The batter will be very thick.

Add softened oats and water to the batter and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased or buttered rectangular 9×13 cake pan.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until the surface springs back lightly when touched and your house smells amazing. Do not overbake. Let cool completely.

For the frosting, melt the margarine and peanut butter chips over low heat, stirring frequently until melted.  Pour over cake.

Dawn's Tapioca Pudding

Dawn's Tapioca Pudding

This recipe calls for a rice cooker with "fuzzy logic".  Not the cheap rice cookers, but the more expensive ones like the Zojirushi 5-1/2-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker.

32 oz unsweetened almond milk
7 oz Reese large pearl tapioca
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs (divided)
1 pinch salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbl vanilla

Soak tapioca pearls as directed.

Place drained tapioca, almond milk, sugar, eggs YOLKS and salt in the rice cooker bowl.  It's probably a good idea to beat the egg yolks before putting them in.  Stir to combine.

Set rice cooker for Porridge mode and start.  Stir for a few seconds every 20 minutes.

When rice cooker goes into keep warm mode, take eggs WHITES and 1 tsp of sugar and whip until stiff peaks.

Add vanilla to tapioca mixture and stir.  Fold in whipped egg whites.

Let cool a bit, then eat warm.
Or pour into containers and serve cold.
It's good either way.

Calorie analysis:
Unsweetened almond milk: 120
Tapioca: 700
Sugar: 790
Eggs: 210

1820 calories per batch.

I'd say there were 6 nice-sized servings (it was quite filling), so that's only 300 calories per serving.

Gingerbread Truffles

Gingerbread Truffles

Gluten-free

1 ¼ cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

2 tbl vinegar

5 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 to 3 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

Covering:

12 oz dark chocolate

1/2 cup shortening

Cream shortening and sugar. Beat in molasses and vinegar. Add dry ingredients and mix together. Roll into 1” balls (I find that a #50 disher will scoop out a nice-sized amount). Freeze for 1 hour.

Melt dark chocolate and shortening until liquid. Dip frozen gingerbread balls in the chocolate and place on parchment paper. Chill until chocolate hardens.

Makes about 56

Notes:

• Any flour can be used. I used gluten-free oat flour to make them gluten-free.
• I used 1 bag of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips.

Blueberry Pie

After trying a couple of experiments, and checking out a couple of web site recipes, I put together a nice recipe for blueberry pie - and made it gluten free.

It's basically my grandma's recipe for "cookie crust" coupled with this recipe for blueberry pie.

This isn't the picture of what I created.  It didn't last long enough to get a picture.

Blueberry pie

Crust:
1 cup gluten-free oat flour
4 tbl powered sugar
8 tbl soft margarine

Mix flour and powered sugar together. Add the margarine. Pat mixture into slightly greased pie pan. Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes.

Filling:
2/3 cup granulated Sugar
7 Tablespoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon (optional)
3 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
3 to 4 cups of Blueberries

Combine sugar, and corn starch in a bowl and mix well.  Some people like cinnamon mixed in, but if you don't...

Add the lemon juice, and water and stir it up.

Add the blueberries to the pie crust.  Just pour them in!  There's lots of air space and it will cook down, so don't worry if they mound up about an inch above the edge of the plate.

Just pour the mixture of sugar, juice, etc. into the pie all over the blueberries. If it is a gloppy liquid, don’t worry, just pour it somewhat evenly over the top. But it doesn't take perfection; it will smooth itself out in the oven.

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine

Mix together in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the pie.

Cook the pie at 375 F for 1 hour.

Let cool before cutting.

Mousse frosted cupcakes

But not just regular mousse, avocado chocolate mousse.

Since this was just an experiment, I went the easy way this time.  I started with 1 boxed cake recipe made according to the directions for 24 cup cakes.  Bake.  Then cool (yes, that's important).

While the cupcakes were baking, I make the Avocado Chocolate Mousse recipe from The Kitchn.  Then I put the mousse in the fridge. You must chill the mousse or it will be too runny.

Note that the avocados that I bought were very large, so I did adjust the amounts in the recipe to account for that.

I took my cooled cupcakes and poked a hole in the middle (to make room for extra mousse 8-)).  Then I took the chilled mousse and put into a frosting "gun" and frosted each cupcake (first filling the hole I made, of course).

Using 4 large avocados let me "frost" 23 cupcakes with a generous amount.  There was enough mousse left to make a sloppy looking cupcake - which was sacrificed to the taster gods to verify that they were good enough to serve.

You probably want to keep these chilled until served.  The mousse doesn't get really runny, but it will loosen up when warm.

I wouldn't say they are healthy from a calorie point of view.  But they do have significantly less sugar.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

New experiment.

1 Bob Red's Mill Gluten Free Pizza Dough mix
200 grams grilled chicken
Some BBQ sauce (about 1/4-1/2 cup - we didn't measure it)
1 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup chopped red onion

We made the pizza dough according to the instruction.  We divided it into 4 parts, putting each part into a 9" pan and patting down flat (we didn't want a bready pizza dough - we wanted a crackery crust).

Topped with about 1/2 of the BBQ sauce, then spinach, then chicken, then the rest of the BBQ sauce.

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes.

Notes:

• We added minced garlic, but the BBQ sauce overpowered it, so it didn't make any impact.
• The BBQ sauce was very overpowering.  Next time we will water it down a bit.