Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Long-time remote shooting with Canon EOS 400D

Problem: Shooting with exposure times 30 and more is required and this process must be automated.
Solve: using soldering iron, common chips and bash script in Linux, it is possible to make PC-driven remote control device.

What we have

We have Canon EOS 400D, Debian-powered notebook and necessity of shooting pictures with exposure longer than 30 seconds. There is good scheme proposed by Michael A. Covington here. Anyway, mirroring it here:

Nsaved as serialcableopto.jpg

Pretty good scheme, but it doesn’t work for Canon EOS 400D - shutter will lift up bot not down.

Scheme for Canon EOS 400D

After some fruitless trying, I am with my colleague Alexey Ropyanoi, found out why proposed scheme not work and propose new one:


And it works! Our laboratory Canon EOS 400D begin open and close shutter by computer command.

Necessary electric components
To do the same remote shooting wire, you need 4-wire cable (from audio devices or from telephone cable), 2.5mm jack (or 3/32 inch jack), mentioned in scheme chips, 9-pin COM-port and USB-COM adapter (for using this remote shooting wire on novel computers).

The best USB-COM adapter is on Profilic 2303 chip - it is the most common chip and it works in Linux, like practically all, “out of the box”.

Software

For remote control of camera, little program on C is needed. It is setSerialSignal and it source code is placed here. It can be compiled with GCC, which is part of any UNIX-like OS distribution.

gcc -o setSerialSignal setSerialSignal.c

Works on Debian GNU/Linux v4.0 r.0 “Etch”, gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21).

This is the code:

/*
* setSerialSignal v0.1 9/13/01
* www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com
*
*
* The original location of this source is
* http://www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com/chapters/06/setSerialSignal.c
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
* License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
* WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Library General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
* License along with this program; if not, write to the
* Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
* 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/
/* setSerialSignal
* setSerialSignal sets the DTR and RTS serial port control signals.
* This program queries the serial port status then sets or clears
* the DTR or RTS bits based on user supplied command line setting.
*
* setSerialSignal clears the HUPCL bit. With the HUPCL bit set,
* when you close the serial port, the Linux serial port driver
* will drop DTR (assertion level 1, negative RS-232 voltage). By
* clearing the HUPCL bit, the serial port driver leaves the
* assertion level of DTR alone when the port is closed.
*/

/*
gcc -o setSerialSignal setSerialSignal.c
*/

#include
#include
#include

/* we need a termios structure to clear the HUPCL bit */
struct termios tio;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int fd;
int status;

if (argc != 4)
{
printf("Usage: setSerialSignal port DTR RTSn");
printf("Usage: setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0|/dev/ttyS1 0|1 0|1n");
exit( 1 );
}

if ((fd = open(argv[1],O_RDWR))

Sending signals
Compiling program and making it executable, and below listed signals which will open and close shutter:

DTR
setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 1 0

Clear DTR
setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 0 0

RTS
setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 0 1


Clear RTS
setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 1 1

Shutter opens at DTR and closes at RTS.

Shell script for remote shooting
Next, it is comfortable to use bash script by Eugeni Romas aka BrainBug, but for Canon 400D script was edited and here it is:

#!/bin/bash

for i in `seq $3`; do
{
setSerialSignal /dev/ttyUSB0 0 0 &&
sleep $1 && setSerialSignal /dev/ttyUSB0 0 1 &&
sleep 0.3 && setSerialSignal /dev/ttyUSB0 0 0 &&
sleep $2 && setSerialSignal /dev/ttyUSB0 1 1 && echo “One more image captured!” &&
sleep $4;

}
done

echo “Done!”

Script parameters:
1: shutter opening delay
2: exposure time in seconds
3: amount of shots
4: delay between shots

Example:

make_captures 4 60 30 2

Script is written to work with USB-COM adaptor, and you need to edit it if you have different port.

How it works

Remote shooting wire is ready, inserting USB-COM adapter with wire and next:

  • Turn on camera, setting BULB mode, setting aperture size and ISO speed.
  • Inserting jack into the camera, another and in COM-USB adapter and then in USB-port.
  • Looking at logs: kernel must recognize chip and write something like this:

usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for pl2303
pl2303 2-1:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
usb 2-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usbcore: registered new interface driver pl2303
drivers/usb/serial/pl2303.c: Prolific PL2303 USB to serial adaptor driver

  • Now shoot:

    make_capture 1 5 2 3

Here we make 2 images with 5 second exposure, delay between shots is 3 seconds, delay for shutter lifting 1 second.

Original post HERE

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to:

  • Michael A. Covington for his original article “Building a Cable Release and Serial-Port Cable for the Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel”.
  • Eugeni Romas aka BrainBug for link to original post and discussion.
  • Anton aka NTRNO for searching key posts at Astrophorum.
  • Alexey Ropjanoi, who experimentally found out problem and eliminated it, proposing new shceme for shooting.

And I deeply thankful to my colleagues for Solid State physic department of Moscow Engineer Physics Institute.



Linux Serial Communications

The Project Trailblazer engineers found three documents specifically addressing Linux asynchronous serial communications:

Using Linux梠r, more properly, POSIX梥erial communications terminology, they searched for code examples that access the serial port's universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) control signals and send and receive buffers. They discovered that accessing the UART's control signals was straightforward and easy to understand. Manipulating the send and receive buffers requires a more in-depth understanding of the Linux serial device driver capabilities. This device driver contains numerous options, beyond basic UART configuration, for control and processing of modem and terminal communications. Most of these options don't apply for Project Trailblazer. The engineers considered writing their own simplified serial communications driver for UART control, but they decided against that after finding C code examples that resemble the required functionality of setSerialSignal, getSerialSignal, and querySerial.

Linux device files provide access to hardware serial ports. The file open command returns a file descriptor that is used for serial port configuration, control, reading, and writing. The following sections demonstrate this through development of the setSerialSignal, getSerialSignal, and querySerial programs.

Setting the Serial Port Control Signals with setSerialSignal

The Project Trailblazer lift access point receives RFID tag information, performs authentication, and displays a permission signal (that is, a red or green light) permitting or denying guest access to the lift. For the sake of simplicity, the engineers decided to use an RS-232 serial port control signal as the permission signal. There's no need to involve another hardware input/output (I/O) port, such as a parallel port, when the access point serial communications between the target and the RFID reader or display don't use hardware flow control or a DTR signal. The serial port signals RTS or DTR provide this single bit of output, to drive the red light/green light permission signal.

The Linux serial driver provides functionality for modem control through the serial port control signals DTR and RTS. DTR controls the on-hook/off-hook modem status, and RTS controls serial data flow control. In most modem communications applications, the program opens a serial port, makes a dialup connection, performs a task, hangs up the connection, and exits. The Linux serial port driver contains code to handle improperly written or terminated serial communication programs by automatically hanging up the phone line when the port is closed: That is, it "drops DTR." DTR becomes 1, asserted, or an RS-232 negative voltage. This poses an electrical limitation on the lift access point hardware design. Opening and closing the serial port can change the permission signal that is going to the access point梩he red light or the green light. Fortunately, the serial driver has an option to disable this automatic hangup activity at port closure. It is settable through changes to the serial ports configuration's c_cflag. The source code in Listing 6.1 disables the automatic hangup activity at port close and sets the serial port's control signals. The setSerialSignal code is shown in Listing 6.1.

Listing 6.1 The setSerialSignal Program
/*
* setSerialSignal v0.1 9/13/01
* www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com
*
*
* The original location of this source is
* http://www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com/chapters/06/setSerialSignal.c
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
* License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
* WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Library General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
* License along with this program; if not, write to the
* Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
* 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/
/* setSerialSignal
* setSerialSignal sets the DTR and RTS serial port control signals.
* This program queries the serial port status then sets or clears
* the DTR or RTS bits based on user supplied command line setting.
*
* setSerialSignal clears the HUPCL bit. With the HUPCL bit set,
* when you close the serial port, the Linux serial port driver
* will drop DTR (assertion level 1, negative RS-232 voltage). By
* clearing the HUPCL bit, the serial port driver leaves the
* assertion level of DTR alone when the port is closed.
*/

/*
gcc -o setSerialSignal setSerialSignal.c
*/


#include
#include
#include

/* we need a termios structure to clear the HUPCL bit */
struct termios tio;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int fd;
int status;

if (argc != 4)
{
printf("Usage: setSerialSignal port DTR RTS\n");
printf("Usage: setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0|/dev/ttyS1 0|1 0|1\n");
exit( 1 );
}

if ((fd = open(argv[1],O_RDWR)) < 0)
{
printf("Couldn't open %s\n",argv[1]);
exit(1);
}
tcgetattr(fd, &tio); /* get the termio information */
tio.c_cflag &= ~HUPCL; /* clear the HUPCL bit */
tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &tio); /* set the termio information */

ioctl(fd, TIOCMGET, &status); /* get the serial port status */

if ( argv[2][0] == '1' ) /* set the DTR line */
status &= ~TIOCM_DTR;
else
status |= TIOCM_DTR;

if ( argv[3][0] == '1' ) /* set the RTS line */
status &= ~TIOCM_RTS;
else
status |= TIOCM_RTS;

ioctl(fd, TIOCMSET, &status); /* set the serial port status */

close(fd); /* close the device file */
}

The setSerialSignal program requires three command-line parameters: the serial port to use (/dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1), the assertion level of DTR (1 or 0), and the assertion level of RTS (1 or 0). Here are the steps to compile and test setSerialSignal:

  1. Compile setSerialSignal.c:

    root@tbdev1[505]: gcc -o setSerialSignal setSerialSignal.c
  2. Connect a voltmeter to ground and to the DTR signal on serial port 0 (ttyS0). DTR is your PC's COM1 DB-9 connector pin 4.

    TIP

    DB-9 connectors have tiny numbers printed in the connector plastic next to the pins.

  3. Run setSerialSignal to set DTR:

    root@tbdev1[506]: ./setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 1 0
  4. Your voltmeter should read a negative voltage between ?V and ?5V. Setting DTR, using 1 as a command-line parameter, results in a negative RS-232 voltage on the actual DTR pin.

    TIP

    An RS-232 breakout box simplifies debugging serial communication programs.6 However, using a RS-232 breakout box with LEDs could lower your signal's voltage. Many RS-232 driver chips can't source enough current to drive the LEDs in the breakout box. If you're experiencing problems, you might want to use a wire to make the DB-9 connections instead of a breakout box.

  5. Run setSerialSignal to clear DTR:

    root@tbdev1[507]: ./setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 0 0
  6. Your voltmeter should read a positive voltage between +3V and +15V. Clearing DTR, using 0 as a command-line parameter, results in a positive RS-232 voltage on the actual DTR pin.

  7. Connect a voltmeter to ground and to the RTS signal on serial port 0 (ttyS0). RTS is your PC's COM1 DB-9 connector pin 7.

  8. Run setSerialSignal to set RTS:

    root@tbdev1[508]: ./setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 0 1
  9. Your voltmeter should read a negative voltage between ?V and ?5V. Setting RTS, using 1 as a command-line parameter, results in a negative RS-232 voltage on the actual RTS pin.

  10. Run setSerialSignal to clear RTS:

    root@tbdev1[509]: ./setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 0 0
  11. Your voltmeter should read a positive voltage between +3V and +15V. Clearing RTS, using 0 as a command-line parameter, results in a positive RS-232 voltage on the actual RTS pin.

Reading the Serial Port Control Signals with getSerialSignal

The getSerialSignal program returns the state, asserted (1) or not asserted (0), of any RS-232 serial port control input signal: DSR, CTS, Data Carrier Detect (DCD), or Ring (RI). getSerialSignal opens a specified serial port, which is supplied as a command-line parameter, and then uses the system call ioctl to determine the serial port control line status and returns an individual signal state, which is also supplied as a command-line parameter. Listing 6.2 shows the getSerialSignal source code.

Listing 6.2 The getSerialSignal Program
/*
* getSerialSignal v0.1 9/13/01
* www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com
*
* The original location of this source is
* http://www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com/chapters/06/getSerialSignal.c
*
*
* Copyright (C) 2001 by Craig Hollabaugh
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
* License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
* WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Library General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
* License along with this program; if not, write to the
* Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
* 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/

/* getSerialSignal
* getSerialSignal queries the serial port's UART and returns
* the state of the input control lines. The program requires
* two command line parameters: which port and the input control
* line (one of the following: DSR, CTS, DCD, or RI).
* ioctl is used to get the current status of the serial port's
* control signals. A simple hash function converts the control
* command line parameter into an integer.
*/

/*
gcc -o getSerialSignal getSerialSignal.c
*/
#include
#include

/* These are the hash definitions */
#define DSR 'D'+'S'+'R'
#define CTS 'C'+'T'+'S'
#define DCD 'D'+'C'+'D'
#define RI 'R'+'I'

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int fd;
int status;
unsigned int whichSignal;

if (argc != 3)
{
printf("Usage: getSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0|/dev/ttyS1 DSR|CTS|DCD|RI \n");
exit( 1 );
}

/* open the serial port device file */
if ((fd = open(argv[1],O_RDONLY)) < 0) {
printf("Couldn't open %s\n",argv[1]);
exit(1);
}

/* get the serial port's status */
ioctl(fd, TIOCMGET, &status);

/* compute which serial port signal the user asked for
* using a simple adding hash function
*/
whichSignal = argv[2][0] + argv[2][1] + argv[2][2];

/* Here we AND the status with a bitmask to get the signal's state
* These ioctl bitmasks are defined in /usr/include/bits/ioctl-types.h*/
switch (whichSignal) {
case DSR:
status&TIOCM_DSR ? printf("0"):printf("1");
break;
case CTS:
status&TIOCM_CTS ? printf("0"):printf("1");
break;
case DCD:
status&TIOCM_CAR ? printf("0"):printf("1");
break;
case RI:
status&TIOCM_RNG ? printf("0"):printf("1");
break;
default:
printf("signal %s unknown, use DSR, CTS, DCD or RI",argv[2]);
break;
}
printf("\n");

/* close the device file */
close(fd);
}

The getSerialSignal program requires two command-line parameters: the serial port to use (/dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1) and the control signal (DSR, CTS, DCD, or RI). Here are the steps to compile and test getSerialSignal:

  1. Compile getSerialSignal.c:

    root@tbdev1[510]: gcc -o getSerialSignal getSerialSignal.c
  2. Use the serial port's DTR signal to drive the RI signal. Connect DTR, DB-9 pin 4, to RI, DB-9 pin 9.

  3. Measure the DTR signal voltage; it should be between +3V and +15V. This is assertion level 0.

    TIP

    You might get an open file error if the device file permissions aren't set for read/write access by everyone. Check the file permissions and give everyone read and write access by using the chmod command:

    chmod a+w+r /dev/ttyS0
  4. Use getSerialSignal to query the assertion level of the RI signal:

    root@tbdev1[512]: ./getSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 RI
    0

    getSerialSignal returns 0, which is correct for a positive voltage on the RI line.

  5. Now use the serial port's TX signal to drive the RI signal. Connect TX DB-9 pin 3 to RI DB-9 pin 9.

  6. Measure the TX signal voltage; it should be between ?V and ?5V. This is assertion level 1.

  7. Use getSerialSignal to query the assertion level of the RI signal:

    root@tbdev1[513]: ./getSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 RI
    1

    getSerialSignal returns 1, which is correct for a negative voltage on the RI line.

How the File open System Call Affects DTR and RTS Signals

While they were debugging, the engineers noticed a peculiar serial driver behavior that required further research. The Linux serial port driver contains functionality for modem control, using the DTR and RTS signals. The serial driver file open system call either asserts or de-asserts both DTR and RTS. You can see this by scanning /usr/src/linux/drivers/char/serial.c for the DTR and modem control register (MCR). In particular, these lines in the startup function define what gets written to the MCR:

info->MCR = 0;
if (info->tty->termios->c_cflag & CBAUD)
info->MCR = UART_MCR_DTR | UART_MCR_RTS;

Why is this important? Obtaining a serial port file descriptor by using the open command results in DTR and RTS either being set or cleared, depending on whether a baud rate is set. The startup function doesn't query the MCR to preserve the DTR or RTS status.

Use of DTR and RTS modem control signals allows for two single-bit outputs. Clearing the HUPCL bit in the serial port's c_cflags register preserves the individual state of DTR and RTS at file closure. However, the serial port file open system call in serial.c either clears or sets both DTR and RTS. This doesn't preserve the state of DTR or RTS. Applications that require DTR and RTS to operate completely individually should query and set the MCR directly (that is, they should not do so by using the serial port driver) or you can modify serial.c to suit your requirements. Regardless of direct MCR communication or use of the serial port driver, serial communication using the driver requires a file open system call that could change DTR and/or RTS without your knowledge.

This limitation does not affect the Project Trailblazer hardware design for using DTR or RTS control signals to drive the lift access point permission signal. The access point displays a stop indication the majority of the time, and it displays a go indication only momentarily, upon authentication. Using the DTR output signal and clearing the HUPCL bit from serial port's c_cflags variable results in a 0 DTR output state (that is, a positive voltage) across multiple openings and closings of the serial port.

Providing Serial Communication for bash Scripts, Using querySerial

The querySerial program provides serial communication functionality for bash scripts. Project Trailblazer uses querySerial to communicate with the lift access point input and output hardware梩he RFID tag reader and the message display. The querySerial command line requires the port, the baud rate, the timeout, and a command to be sent. querySerial performs the following procedures:

  1. It opens the requested port.

  2. It sets the baud rate.

  3. It configures the input buffer.

  4. It sets noncanonical mode.

  5. It sets the timeout.

  6. It sends the user supplied command.

  7. It awaits a timeout.

  8. It returns the received characters.

  9. It exits.

These operations are similar to those for polled serial communications, except for the noncanonical mode setting. As previously mentioned, the Linux serial driver contains code for modem control and terminal operation. To optimize communications over slow serial links, this driver has a mode called canonical that performs various character translations, echoing, command-line processing, and other manipulations. Project Trailblazer doesn't require any serial communications processing. Therefore, the serial port should be configured in noncanonical mode.

querySerial is loosely based on the "Serial Programming HOWTO."4 It is not optimized for high-performance/low-latency communications, but merely shows the simplest way to send a serial command and await a response. The "Serial Programming HOWTO" clearly explains four noncanonical configurations that use VMIN and VTIME. Use of VMIN and VTIME may reduce timeout conditions of a serial communication application. Sweet's "Serial Programming Guide for POSIX Operating Systems"5 is another excellent document that explains serial communications, port configuration, modem communication, and I/O control. Listing 6.3 shows the querySerial program.

Listing 6.3 The querySerial Program
/*
* querySerial v0.1 9/17/01
* www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com
*
* The original location of this source is
* http://www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com/chapters/06/querySerial.c
*
*
* Copyright (C) 2001 by Craig Hollabaugh
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
* License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
* WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Library General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
* License along with this program; if not, write to the
* Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
* 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/

/* querySerial
* querySerial provides bash scripts with serial communications. This
* program sends a query out a serial port and waits a specific amount
* of time then returns all the characters received. The command line
* parameters allow the user to select the serial port, select the
* baud rate, select the timeout and the serial command to send.
* A simple hash function converts the baud rate
* command line parameter into an integer. */

/*
gcc -o querySerial querySerial.c
*/


#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

/* These are the hash definitions */
#define USERBAUD1200 '1'+'2'
#define USERBAUD2400 '2'+'4'
#define USERBAUD9600 '9'+'6'
#define USERBAUD1920 '1'+'9'
#define USERBAUD3840 '3'+'8'

struct termios tio;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int fd, status, whichBaud, result;
long baud;
char buffer[255];

if (argc != 5)
{
printf("Usage: querySerial port speed timeout(mS) command\n");
exit( 1 );
}

/* compute which baud rate the user wants using a simple adding
* hash function
*/
whichBaud = argv[2][0] + argv[2][1];

switch (whichBaud) {
case USERBAUD1200:
baud = B1200;
break;
case USERBAUD2400:
baud = B2400;
break;
case USERBAUD9600:
baud = B9600;
break;
case USERBAUD1920:
baud = B19200;
break;
case USERBAUD3840:
baud = B38400;
break;
default:
printf("Baud rate %s is not supported, ");
printf("use 1200, 2400, 9600, 19200 or 38400.\n", argv[2]);
exit(1);
break;
}

/* open the serial port device file
* O_NDELAY - tells port to operate and ignore the DCD line
* O_NOCTTY - this process is not to become the controlling
* process for the port. The driver will not send
* this process signals due to keyboard aborts, etc.
*/
if ((fd = open(argv[1],O_RDWR | O_NDELAY | O_NOCTTY)) < 0)
{
printf("Couldn't open %s\n",argv[1]);
exit(1);
}

/* we are not concerned about preserving the old serial port configuration
* CS8, 8 data bits
* CREAD, receiver enabled
* CLOCAL, don't change the port's owner
*/
tio.c_cflag = baud | CS8 | CREAD | CLOCAL;

tio.c_cflag &= ~HUPCL; /* clear the HUPCL bit, close doesn't change DTR */

tio.c_lflag = 0; /* set input flag noncanonical, no processing */

tio.c_iflag = IGNPAR; /* ignore parity errors */

tio.c_oflag = 0; /* set output flag noncanonical, no processing */

tio.c_cc[VTIME] = 0; /* no time delay */
tio.c_cc[VMIN] = 0; /* no char delay */

tcflush(fd, TCIFLUSH); /* flush the buffer */
tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &tio); /* set the attributes */

/* Set up for no delay, ie nonblocking reads will occur.
When we read, we'll get what's in the input buffer or nothing */
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, FNDELAY);

/* write the users command out the serial port */
result = write(fd, argv[4], strlen(argv[4]));
if (result < 0)
{
fputs("write failed\n", stderr);
close(fd);
exit(1);
}

/* wait for awhile, based on the user's timeout value in mS*/
usleep(atoi(argv[3]) * 1000);

/* read the input buffer and print it */
result = read(fd,buffer,255);
buffer[result] = 0; // zero terminate so printf works
printf("%s\n",buffer);

/* close the device file */
close(fd);
}

The querySerial program requires four command-line parameters: the serial port to use (/dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1), the baud rate (1200, 2400, 9600, 19200, or 38400), a timeout value in milliseconds, and the command to be sent. querySerial sends the command at the baud rate selected, waits the specified amount of time, and returns all the characters received on the serial port. You can test querySerial directly on tbdev1, without using a target board. Here are the steps to compile and test querySerial:

  1. Compile querySerial.c:

    root@tbdev1[510]: gcc -o querySerial querySerial.c
  2. Physically connect tbdev1's serial ports together, using a null modem adapter and minicom.

  3. In one console window, run minicom and configure it by typing CTRL-a and then o. Then select Serial Port Setup. Set SERIAL DEVICE to /dev/ttyS0 and the Bps/Par/Bits to 1200 8N1.

  4. In another console window, run querySerial to send a command out ttyS1 to ttyS0, which then shows up in the minicom window. To do this, issue the following command:

    root@tbdev1[517]: querySerial /dev/ttyS1 1200 5000 "this is a test"

    The string "this is a test" should show in the minicom window. The querySerial timeout, which is set to 5000 milliseconds, gives you 5 seconds to type a reply.

  5. In the minicom window, type "got it". If you do this within 5 seconds, you should see this at the bash prompt:

    root@tbdev1[518]: querySerial /dev/ttyS0 1200 5000 "this is a test"
    got it
    root@tbdev1[519]:

    If you don't finish typing got it within 5 seconds, querySerial returns what you did type in 5 seconds.

Bookmark and Share
posted by u2r2h at Wednesday, April 29, 2009 0 comments

Monday, April 27, 2009

NGF Eye Drops recipy - long life

From a home lab to the Italian Senate, by way of nerve growth factor — Rita Levi-Montalcini is a scientist like no other. Alison Abbott meets the first Nobel prizewinner set to reach her hundredth birthday.


Tiny though she is, Rita Levi-Montalcini tends to command attention. And on the morning of 18 November 2006, she had the attention of the entire Italian government. A senator for life, Levi-Montalcini held the deciding vote on a budget backed by the government of Romano Prodi, which held a parliamentary majority of just one.

A few days earlier, Levi-Montalcini had said she would withdraw her support for the budget unless the government reversed a last-minute decision to sacrifice science funds. It was Levi-Montalcini versus Prodi — and Levi-Montalcini won. On the morning of the vote, immaculately turned out as always, she walked regally on the arm of an usher to her seat in the Italian senate and cast her vote. At one stroke, she secured the budget, won a battle for Italian science and snubbed Francesco Storace, leader of the Right party and part of the opposition coalition. A few weeks earlier, Storace had caused a national scandal by announcing his intention to send crutches to Levi-Montalcini's home — symbolic of her both being a crutch to an ailing government, he said, and her age, which he considered too old to be allowed to vote.

Levi-Montalcini didn't consider herself too old then, when she was 97 years old, and she certainly doesn't now when, on 22 April, she will become the first Nobel laureate to reach the age of 100. Italy — and quite possibly the world — has never seen a scientist quite like her.

Growing up, Levi-Montalcini fought her father to be able to attend medical school.Growing up, Levi-Montalcini fought her father to be able to attend medical school.SPL

Born into a well-to-do Jewish family in Turin in 1909, Levi-Montalcini fought hard for her career from the beginning. First there was her domineering father, who didn't believe in higher education for women. Then there were Benito Mussolini's race laws, which ejected Jews from universities and forced her into hiding. And after that there was the scientific establishment, which refused to believe in the existence of nerve growth factor (NGF), the discovery of which eventually won Levi-Montalcini a share of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with her colleague Stanley Cohen. "That discovery was huge — it opened up a whole field in understanding how cells talk and listen to each other," says neuroscientist Bill Mobley of Stanford University in California, an admirer for more than 30 years. Hundreds of growth factors are now known to exist and they affect almost all facets of biology.

Despite her age, Levi-Montalcini still works every day, exquisitely dressed, hair stylishly coiffured, hands perfectly manicured. In the mornings she shows up at her namesake European Brain Research Institute (EBRI)–Rita Levi-Montalcini, on the outskirts of Rome. In the afternoons she goes downtown to the offices of an educational foundation for African women that she created in 1992.

Turning 100 is no reason to stop fighting. "It's not enough what I did in the past — there is also the future," Levi-Montalcini says. She has never hesitated to use her Senate position to push for better scientific prospects in the country. And today she has something even closer to her heart to fight for — the survival of the EBRI, which she created in 2002 and which is now in financial straits.

Levi-Montalcini spent a large part of her research career in the United States. But her early, and late, scientific life has been based in Italy. Three years after leaving high school, she finally persuaded her father to allow her to study medicine, and in 1930 she enrolled at the University of Turin. Her first mentor was Giuseppe Levi, a prominent neurohistologist. In her autobiography In Praise of Imperfection, Levi-Montalcini refers to him as "the Master" — he was an outspoken antifascist, renowned for his alarming fits of rage. But he was also the man who introduced her to her first passion: the developing nervous system. Under Levi's attentive eye, she mastered a technique that would be key to her own successes, that of silver-staining nerve cells. Developed by Camillo Golgi in the late nineteenth century and later refined by the Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the technique allowed individual nerves to be seen under the microscope with perfect clarity.

Levi-Montalcini's independent research started when Mussolini's race laws were passed in 1938, and all Jews were expelled from universities and other public institutions (Levi, too, was thrown out). Inspired by the story of Cajal, who had worked alone in a makeshift lab in out-of-the-way Valencia, she set up a bedroom laboratory at her family home. When Levi returned to Turin some time later, he joined her at her bedroom bench.

She had already identified her research challenge: to work out how nerves emerging from the embryo's developing spinal cord find their way to the budding limbs they will eventually innervate. She had recently come across an exciting paper1 published a few years earlier by embryologist Viktor Hamburger at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. Hamburger had removed the growing limbs of chick embryos and found that doing so reduced the size of the ganglia, tiny structures that cluster together the nerve fibres emerging from the spinal cord and direct them on to their final destinations. He put this atrophy down to the absence of what he called an inductive factor released by the tissue to be innervated and, he proposed, necessary to make precursor cells proliferate and then differentiate into neurons.

Detailed dissections

Hamburger, though, could not see the nerve fibres in great detail using the light microscope. So Levi-Montalcini decided to repeat the experiment with the silver-staining method. Like Cajal, she reasoned she would need little more than an incubator and a microscope — and a regular supply of fertilized hen's eggs. Using tiny scalpels and spatulas fashioned out of sewing needles to do her dissections, she saw that the ganglia did not, in fact, wither immediately. The neurons actually proliferated, differentiated and started to grow towards their targets. It was just that they died before reaching them. She concluded that the problem was not the lack of an inductive factor, but of a growth-promoting one that would normally be released by the budding limbs2.

Towards the end of 1942, bombing forced the Levi-Montalcini family to move into the countryside, where she continued her research undaunted, cycling to farms to buy fertilized eggs. She stopped only when Italy switched allegiance to the Allies in 1943, and Hitler's troops invaded northern Italy.

After the war, Levi-Montalcini returned to Turin as Levi's assistant. But at 36, the role no longer suited her — after all, he had been an occasional assistant to her in the days of her bedroom lab. She found her way out when Hamburger, who had read the papers she had published with Levi during the war, invited her to St Louis for a semester to repeat and extend her experiments.

Levi-Montalcini worked at Washington University through the 1950s (left) and 1960s (middle). In 1986, she and Stanley Cohen (seated either side of table) were awarded a Nobel prize.Levi-Montalcini worked at Washington University through the 1950s (left) and 1960s (middle). In 1986, she and Stanley Cohen (seated either side of table) were awarded a Nobel prize.BECKER MEDICAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON UNIV. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Just as she was doing those experiments, something happened that extended her stay in St Louis from one semester to 26 years. One of Hamburger's graduate students, Elmer Bueker, was trying to see if any piece of fast-growing tissue could attract nerve fibres in the same way that fast-growing developing limbs do. He grafted a lump of proliferating mouse sarcoma tumour onto a chick embryo and found that nerve fibres grew and invaded the tumour mass more abundantly than the limb bud. He postulated that the greater surface area of the tumour allowed more nerves to grow up to it.

Levi-Montalcini is renowned for her exceptional intuition, and Bueker's experiment made her antennae vibrate. To her eye, the invasion did not look quite right. Although nerves grow into developing limbs in an orderly way, their growth into the tumour was massive and wild, with the fibres branching randomly. She became convinced that the transplanted tumour tissue was releasing the same sort of factor she claimed the developing limbs released, a factor able to diffuse to the ganglia and stimulate the growth of nerve fibres.

Inspired insight

She repeated the experiment, ingeniously placing the tumour outside the sac containing the embryo. This area, although physically separate, shares the embryo's blood supply. It was a killer experiment. Nerves sprouted and grew wildly, supporting her theory that the tumour was releasing a factor that diffused into the blood and travelled to the embryo3. "She realized there was another way to interpret the data, and she knew what had to be done," says Lloyd Greene, who studies neuronal differentiation at Columbia University in New York, and has known Levi-Montalcini since he was a student.

But to really prove her point, Levi-Montalcini needed a system that was more reliable and flexible than the fertilized egg, and one that would allow her to quantify the responses she was measuring. She wanted to learn how to culture isolated chick-embryo ganglia, and knew of only one laboratory that could do so. So she put two live, tumour-riddled white mice into her handbag and boarded a plane for Rio de Janeiro, where another of Levi's former students was running a big tissue-culture facility.

Halo effect: Levi-Montalcini found that a growth factor causes nerves to sprout from chick ganglia.Halo effect: Levi-Montalcini found that a growth factor causes nerves to sprout from chick ganglia.R. LEVI-MONTALCINI

In Rio she learned to culture isolated ganglia and she grew them close to pieces of mouse sarcoma. After 24 hours of culture, she was thrilled to see haloes of nerve fibres growing from the ganglia like suns, with their highest density facing the tumour. Her many letters to Hamburger include beautiful drawings of the haloes. Levi-Montalcini's strong artistic bent is also evident in her research papers, which she illustrated by hand, and in the clothes that she designs for herself.

By the time she returned from Rio, Cohen had joined the Hamburger group. The pair worked together for six years trying to identify the factor released by the tumour. Both were determined to provide the sceptical scientific community with solid chemical evidence that the nerve-promoting factor was a reality. But scepticism only increased when Cohen and Levi-Montalcini proposed that snake venom and extracts of mouse salivary glands, both of which also promoted profuse nerve growth, were abundant sources of the factor they were seeking.

For many scientists, it required too great a leap of the imagination to believe in this unlikely soluble factor, which was supposed to diffuse from one tissue and then potently affect specific processes in nerves. "You have to remember that such a mode of biological action was not accepted in those days," recalls Ralph Bradshaw, who joined Washington University in 1969 as its first protein chemist and is now at the University of California, San Francisco. "And Rita was saying it was in tumours, snake venom, as well as many normal tissues — well, people just didn't believe it was serious biology."

More people started to believe when Cohen discovered another, related factor that was later called epidermal growth factor4. Then, in 1959, Levi-Montalcini developed with him an antiserum to purified NGF. The antiserum abolished the in vitro halo, and wiped out the relevant part of the nervous system when injected into newborn mice5. The last remaining pockets of scepticism in the scientific community dissolved when Bradshaw, together with Ruth Hogue Angeletti, the only PhD student Levi-Montalcini ever had, determined the structure of the protein in 1971 using one of the first automated protein sequencers6. "Rita didn't put her name on the paper as we would have expected someone in her position to do," says Bradshaw. "A typical Rita gesture."

Although Levi-Montalcini loved the scientific atmosphere in the United States, she was always homesick for Italy and for her family. In the early 1960s, she began to split her time between St Louis and Rome, where the CNR, Italy's major research organization, created a laboratory for her. Her working style was relentless, demanding and passionate. In the decades in which her research was most intense, she would call her co-workers before seven in the morning as well as last thing at night to discuss experiments. Angeletti refers to the regime as inspiring rather than brutal. "Even as a highly motivated young American I had never before observed this kind of dedication," she says. "I realize how lucky I was to work with someone so brilliant, expansive and generous of spirit."

Levi-Montalcini has published 21 popular books and continues to work at her namesake brain research institute in Italy (right).Levi-Montalcini has published 21 popular books and continues to work at her namesake brain research institute in Italy (right).C. CABROL/KIPA/CORBIS

When the study of growth factors finally became respectable and other scientists flooded into the area, rather than being gratified, Levi-Montalcini was annoyed by the invasion of what she saw as her territory. "She fell out with most people in the NGF field at one time or another — including myself," recalls Bradshaw. At meetings, she had a tendency to educate audiences on the order in which discoveries had been made, recalls Greene. After one of his own talks, hers was the first hand raised. "It was not a question, but a long statement about NGF and its history," he says. "As she spoke, she little-by-little made her way to the stage and the podium, and the next thing I knew, she was next to me at the microphone still asking her 'question'." Under the circumstances, he says, he could do no more than "step aside, cede the microphone to her, raise my eyebrows and let her finish".

Peacemaker

In the early 1980s, Levi-Montalcini started to bury the hatchet with everyone in the field, says Bradshaw. Their own quarrel — over a paper he had published without showing her first — was patched up when she took him aside for a chat at a meeting. "It ended what had been a strained and difficult time for me," says Bradshaw. "But Rita had to endure a great deal of scepticism in the early days and there were times when she was justifiably defensive." Her later discoveries faced no such scepticism. She showed, for example, that NGF had major effects on the immune system, yet another unexpected finding that became a major turning point in biology7.

By the time she and Cohen were awarded the Nobel prize, considerable peace had been achieved. But controversy picked up again in the wake of the award. Some were upset by what they saw as her failure to acknowledge her debt to others, such as Levi and Hamburger. Hamburger, who lived to be 100, claimed that their friendship suffered after she explained publicly why he should not have shared the prize with her as some had thought appropriate.

But such criticism gained no traction in Italy, where Levi-Montalcini had by now settled permanently. Many viewed her as a national treasure for her achievements, outsize personality, energy and eloquence. Her CNR institute became one of the largest biological research centres in the country. She also took it on herself to work at all levels to improve the state of Italian science. A socialist by lifelong conviction, she became good friends with Prodi, who had been prime minister in two centre-left governments. After she was made senator for life in 2001, she showed up for every parliamentary vote to support Prodi's fragile coalitions.

“If I die tomorrow or in a year, it is the same — it is the message you leave behind you that counts.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini

She also champions social issues related to research, such as ethics and women in science. The Rita Levi Montalcini Foundation has supported education for more than 6,000 African women — "to improve their chances of becoming scientists", she says. A keen writer, she has published 21 popular books. As a young bookworm, her favourite among the classics was Emily Brontë's tale of dark passion, Wuthering Heights. Such romantic inclinations remained literary though — despite a brief engagement while at medical school, she never had any long-term romances. In a 1988 interview with Omni magazine she said, tellingly, that even in a marriage of two brilliant people, "one might resent the other being more successful".

One of her remaining desires has been to leave as a legacy a well-run research institute of international significance in her country, where underfunding, inefficiency and bureaucracy have crippled much of the state research system. The Santa Lucia Institute in Rome, keen to expand its own research activities, offered rent-free premises for the first ten years of her neuroscience institute. But the EBRI is now looking shaky. Levi-Montalcini expected the government to make funds available for running the institute, but in the event the Prodi government provided only a one-off donation of €3 million (US$4 million) just before its demise one year ago — and no other major donor was found. The right-wing government of Silvio Berlusconi has shown little interest in research and the name Levi-Montalcini cuts no ice with it.

The EBRI, which now has a staff of 28, runs with an annual deficit of €200,000. Earlier this year, University of Turin neuroscientist Piergiorgio Strata took over as scientific director with a mandate to turn things around. "We need maybe €3 million per year to survive," says Strata, who is confident that he'll be successful. The ever-determined Levi-Montalcini puts her trust in him. "I'm an optimist," she says. "I still hope we can find a way to carry on."

Levi-Montalcini is now hard of hearing and sees poorly, but her mind is sharp. At the EBRI she runs a research project to see how far back NGF goes in evolution. Several young scientists are helping by trying to find out whether the factor exists in a series of invertebrates. They are gratified to be able to speak with her most days. "She is an inspiration for us," says Francesca Paoletti, one of the postdocs working there.

And they, in turn, make her happy. "I am not afraid of death — I am privileged to have been able to work for so long," says Levi-Montalcini. "If I die tomorrow or in a year, it is the same — it is the message you leave behind you that counts, and the young scientists who carry on your work." And with that, clutching her micrographs of NGF in octopus tissue, she walks away on the arm of a friend, with a slow but stately gait. With her high heels and the swing of her tailored coat, she still looks as though she stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine.

  • References

    1. Hamburger, V. J. Exper. Zool. 68, 449–494 (1934). | Article |
    2. Levi-Montalcini, R. & Levi, G. Arch. Biol. Liège 54, 189–200 (1943).
    3. Levi-Montalcini, R. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 55, 330–343 (1952). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
    4. Cohen, S. J. Biol. Chem. 237, 1555–1562 (1962). | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
    5. Levi-Montalcini, R. & Booker, B. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 46, 384–391 (1960). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
    6. Angeletti, R. H. & Bradshaw, R. A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 68, 2417–2420 (1971). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
    7. Levi-Montalcini, R. et al. Progr. Neuroendocrinol. 3, 1–10 (1990).

NGF, the secret of Rita Levi Montalcini

Who knows if the secret of the extraordinary lucidity of Rita Levi Montalcini has its eye drops, on the basis of the growth factor of nerve cells (NGF) she discovered. If some jokingly calling his co-workers, knowing that knowing the answer is impossible. "Every day NGF takes the form of eye drops, but we do not know at all if this is his secret,"


Research Report

Nerve growth factor eye drop administrated on the ocular surface of rodents affects the nucleus basalis and septum: Biochemical and structural evidence


Alessandro Lambiaseb, Lucia Pagania, Veronica Di Faustoa, Valentina Sposatoa, Marco Coassinb, Stefano Boninib and Luigi Aloe

aInstitute of Neurobiology and Molecular Medicine, Department of Neurobiology, National Research Council (CNR), European Brain Research Institute, NGF section, Via Del Fosso di Fiorano 64, 00143, Rome, Italy

bDepartment of Ophthalmology, University Campus Bio-Medico, G. B. Bietti Eye Foundation, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Rome, Italy


Accepted 29 September 2006.
Available online 17 November 2006.

Abstract

It has been shown that conjunctivally applied NGF in rats can reach the retina and optic nerve. Whether topical eye NGF application reaches the central nervous system is not known. In the present study, we have addressed this question. It was found that topical eye NGF application affects brain cells. Time-course studies revealed that repeated NGF application leads to high concentration of this neurotrophins after 6 h and normal levels after 24 h. Our results also showed that topical eye application of NGF causes an enhanced expression of NGF receptors and ChAT immunoreactivity in forebrain cholinergic neurons, suggesting that ocular NGF application could have a functional role on damaged brain cells. The present findings suggest that eye NGF application can represent an alternative route to prevent degeneration of NGF-receptive neurons involved in disorders such as Alzheimer and Parkinson.

Keywords: NGF; Cornea; Alzheimer's disease; Parkinson's disease; Brain

Abbreviations: NGF, nerve growth factor; AD, Alzheimer's disease; PD, Parkinson's disease; ChAT, choline acetyltransferase; PS, physiological solution; HI, hippocampus; ON, optic nerve; ST, septum; FC, frontal cortex; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; BrdU, bromodeoxyuridine; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; RGC, retina ganglion cell; BN, basal nuclei; FBCN, forebrain cholinergic neuron

Clearing the Cornea with Nerve Growth Factor

In 1986 Rita Levi-Montalcini won, with Stanley Cohen, the Nobel prize for the discovery of nerve growth factor, a polypeptide they found to be integral to the growth and development of the nervous system. In her Nobel lecture reviewing 35 years of research on nerve growth factor, Levi-Montalcini stated, "The submerged areas of the NGF [nerve growth factor] iceberg loom very large."1 In this issue of the Journal, Lambiase et al. report the dramatic healing action of topically applied nerve growth factor in 12 patients (14 eyes) with neurotrophic corneal ulcers and bring into view yet another part of that

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/images/458564a-i2.0.jpg


notizie,curiosità nel panorama web-il ricavato della pubblicità su questo spazio sarà devoluto in beneficenza

mercoledì 22 aprile 2009

Ngf,la proprietà sospetta d'essere il segreto di Rita Levi Montalcini




Chissà se il segreto della straordinaria lucidità di Rita Levi Montalcini non sia nelle sue gocce per gli occhi, a base del fattore di crescita delle cellule nervose (Ngf) da lei scoperto. Se lo chiedono scherzando alcuni dei suoi collaboratori, sapendo che conoscere la risposta è impossibile. «Tutti i giorni prende Ngf sotto forma di gocce oculari, ma non sappiamo affatto se questo sia il suo segreto», ha detto Pietro Calissano, uno dei collaboratori storici, al fianco di Rita Levi Montalcini nella ricerca da 44 anni, a margine del convegno organizzato in Campidoglio per i 100 anni del Nobel. Di certo, invece, si sa che l'Ngf gioca un ruolo di primo piano nella plasticità del cervello. «All'inizio sembrava che questa molecola si limitasse ad agire sul sistema nervoso periferico, ma poi è emerso che svolge un ruolo importantissimo nel cervello», ha detto Calissano. «Contrariamente a quanto si credeva, il cervello non ha una struttura rigida ed è, anzi, in continuo movimento. L'Ngf - ha aggiunto - favorisce la sopravvivenza dei neuroni: non è poco, considerando che cominciamo a perderli a partire dall'età di 10-15 anni». L'augurio per la professoressa è «che stia con noi il più a lungo possibile - ha concluso Calissano - perché da lei riceviamo sempre un grandissimo stimolo a condurre bene il nostro lavoro».





Se fosse provato,la proprietà Ngf andrà a ruba!!!
Bookmark and Share
posted by u2r2h at Monday, April 27, 2009 0 comments

first photo of german standard plug for electric vehicle charging stations

http://static.rp-online.de/layout/fotos/DEU_Hannover_Messe_JHAN10749edc7db1c9c.jpg

Leading automotive and energy companies have reached agreement on a common "plug" to recharge electric cars, a spokeswoman for German energy company RWE said Sunday.

The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, is set to be unveiled Monday at the world's biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.

"A car must be able to be recharged in Italy in exactly the same way as in Denmark, Germany or France," an RWE spokeswoman, Caroline Reichert, was quoted as saying in an edition of Die Welt to appear Monday.

She gave no timeframe for the introduction of the plug, saying that talks between the companies were ongoing.

The agreement on a common standard for the plug comprises several major automakers, including Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Toyota and Mitsubishi.

Energy firms signed up to the accord include Eon, Vattenfall, EDF, Npower, Endesa and Enel.

Berlin hopes that one million electric cars will be on the road by 2020. RWE and Daimler launched a pilot project in Berlin in September.

The development of a common plug is a major step towards the mass production of electric cars!

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/mbformulazero1.jpg
Mercedes Benz Electric Vehicle

Connection with the future
By David Schraven 20th April 2009, 01:52 clock

At the Hanover trade fair, which starts today, a male presented with the electric cars in record time can be refueled - an invention that many companies are forced to adapt

On review of the performance of German industry, the Hanover Fair this year will be a relatively small object of attention. It is a seemingly simple plug. He is about palm size and not very visually appealing. And yet he has the best prospects, a symbol for the future road will be. Because the connector is a new standard for power cars set the standard for the electrical service stations in Europe.

According to information of the WORLD, the 20 largest energy companies and car manufacturers on the basic cornerstones of the plug in electric cars of the future agreement. Three phase, with an output of 400 volts and up to 63 amps, use the ports have enough power in batteries to be pumped to defeat electric cars in a few minutes to get back afloat. In a few days will also be the details of the new industry standard will be presented.

The message is crucial for the future development of current cars, such as Carolin Reichert explained. Reichert is head of the department for developing new business in the power group RWE. She says only if it is Europe-wide single connection for the current cars are, this could be built in volume. "A car must be fueled in Italy can be, as in Denmark, Germany or France." With problems such as razors or laptops in other countries would need for the passenger car sales in advance to be solved. The standards for each provider will be freely accessible.

However, it will still take some time before the electric car to a genuine alternative to petrol and diesel will. Experts estimate that up to 20 years can take. According to Bernd Bohr, CEO of automotive supplier Bosch, especially prevent the high costs of electric drive and batteries rapid expansion of the drive. For the current memory, which has a range of 200 kilometers guarantee were due around 8000 euros - that you will get almost an entire gasoline car. Before the batteries are not a triple higher power density than today had was a detachment of the internal combustion engine "illusory," said Bohr.

http://img.worldcarfans.com/2008/12/medium/mercedes-concept-bluezero.jpg

Similarly, the development also RWE boss Reichert: "It is not that tomorrow every second car with power moves." The development time needed. But it was also clear in which direction the market would develop. The head of the energy utility E.on, Klaus-Dieter Maubach, agrees with her: "The question is not whether, but when." The manager wants its network to the introduction of electricity align cars. There are many problems. Because the network must be kept stable when the daytime or at night while tens of thousands of cars on or off. According to Maubach would the whole system of power change.

The trend for the electric car is also confirmed by an almost unified political will across Europe carried. Pioneer is still the UK, where the purchase of electric cars soon to be promoted directly. Already in 2011, each Briton, an environmentally friendly vehicle purchases, up to 5000 pounds (about 5700 euros) as grant received. In London, the city 25 000 Power to build gas stations. Here today, driving electric vehicles in 2000.

There are programs with which the British car to drive development. With Nissan and Jaguar have around 500 million pounds on the European Investment Bank to build a new production. The British hope that Nissan with the money his holding in Sunderland to Europe for a major work, together with Renault-developed electric car makes. From here, from 2010 onwards will have electricity to run trolleys from tape. First, these are shipped to the U.S., then from 2012, Europe will be supplied.

Also in Germany, the Federal Government to support programs. 500 million euros it has already provided. Of these, 115 million euros on the development of a network with power stations. In Berlin, the pilot utility Vattenfall and RWE together with Daimler and BMW started. Similar projects are already in Oldenburg, Germany, the Ruhr and Frankfurt in the permit phase.

The development has gained momentum while, but before they get going, it needs a major growth obstacles. The electricity need powerful batteries. And this is the agreement on the guiding plugs. The new standard must be at ease in the foreseeable future all battery developers submit if they are in current mobile market participate. And for them is urgent.

In Japan, close to the major car manufacturers with battery producers. Hando is cooperating with the specialists Yuasa. The Toyota Group has a partnership with the electrical market leader Panasonic. Nissan has teamed with NEC.

Also in Germany looking for the car companies competent partner. Volkswagen can supply batteries from Sanyo. And DaimlerChrysler is at 49 percent in the Saxon company Li-Tec recently.

The partner company will Kamenzer from 2011 car batteries in mass production, says marketing director Claudia Brasse. "We can then quickly up to 100 000 cars a year to equip." Today the plant produces in a novel pre batteries because of their technology, smaller, lighter and safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries were. "We assume that the price in mass production by 50 percent of press," says Claudia Brasse. The machinery and the know-how were there. Now, it is a question to the necessary volumes to come.

That it had not been too long, also show indications of the Federal Government. It is expected that already in 2020 more than a million cars stream in Germany will be underway. Some of the major hurdles on the way there have been overcome. The small connector is also included.

http://www2.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Daimler+RWE+Present+Electric+Car+9-bNOwV2E7Zl.jpg
e-mobility berlin
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel "betankt" mit Daimler-Chef Dieter Zetsche, RWE-Vorstand Jürgen Großmann und dem Präsidenten des Verbandes der Automobilindustrie Matthias Wissmann bei der Vorstellung des Elektroautoprojekts e-mobility Berlin von Daimler und RWE am 4. September 2008 einen Smart mit Elektroantrieb.

CNN

BERLIN (AFP)--Leading automotive and energy companies have reached agreement on a common "plug" to recharge electric cars, a spokeswoman for German energy company RWE AG (RWE.XE) said Sunday.

The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, is set to be unveiled Monday at the world's biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.

"A car must be able to be recharged in Italy in exactly the same way as in Denmark, Germany or France," an RWE spokeswoman, Caroline Reichert, was quoted as saying in an edition of Die Welt to appear Monday.

She gave no timeframe for the introduction of the plug, saying that talks between the companies were ongoing.

The agreement on a common standard for the plug comprises several major auto makers, including Volkswagen AG (VLKAY), BMW (BMW.XE), Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Corp. (GM), Fiat SpA (FIATY), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Mitsubishi (7211.TO).

Energy firms signed up to the accord include Eon, Vattenfall Group, EDF Energies Nouvelles SA (EEN.FR), Npower, Endesa SA (ELEZF) and Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) .

Berlin hopes that 1 million electric cars will be on the road by 2020. RWE and Daimler launched a pilot project in Berlin in September.

The development of a common plug is a major step towards the mass production of electric cars, Reichert told Die Welt.

money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200904191253DOWJONESDJONLINE000358_FORTUNE5.htm
Bookmark and Share
posted by u2r2h at Monday, April 27, 2009 0 comments

Windows 98 Shutdown problem

First, the AUTOLOGON problem....

THIS IS THE CORRECT INFO


To have Windows automatically logon at startup follow these steps:

1. Use the right mouse button to click Network Neighborhood, and then click Properties on the menu that appears.
2. On the Configuration tab, click Windows Logon in the Primary Network Logon box, and then click OK. [If you don't have a network client enabled, this will already be set to Windows Logon.]
3. If you are prompted to restart your computer at this point, click No.
4. In Control Panel, double-click Passwords.
5. Click the Change Passwords tab, click Change Windows Password, and then click OK.
6. In the Change Windows Password dialog box, type your current Windows password in the Old Password box. Leave the New Password and Confirm New Password boxes blank, click OK, and then click OK again. This will create a null password.
7. Restart your computer, a logon box will appear, enter a username if you wish to override the default presented, but otherwise you need only click on the OK button to continue. DO NOT enter a password and DO NOT click on CANCEL. If you do, you'll have to this stuff all over again.

Now comes the bad news.... sometimes none of the stuff we just told you about works! That's because Windows has several software bugs (Microsoft calls these "features") that can also cause the grayed out password problem or worse... the save password box can be checked, but it still does not remember your HiWAAY password. There are two work arounds you can try.... Work-around #1: Sometimes the Windows password file is damaged. Use the Windows file finderto locate and delete or rename your password list file. The file is named Username.pwl, where Username is the name you use to log on to Windows, and should be located in the Windows folder. After you delete or rename the file, restart.

Work-around #2: This involves editing the system registry. Whenever editing the system registry, potential exists for severely damaging your configuration so proceed with great care. Click on the "START" button and select "Run". Type in "REGEDIT" In the order below click on the following:

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
2. Software
3. Microsoft
4. Windows
5. CurrentVersion
6. Network
7. Real Mode Net

After clicking on "Real Mode Net" look for "autologon" with a value of 00 or 01. (The value doesn't matter.) Delete autologon and close the window and restart.

Once you have performed one or both sets of work around steps and restarted, you will have to create a user profile and logon. Just start over with this document to make sure your user logons are enabled and you have properly logged on to Windows

delete the PWL file! got through the password motions!!


the "YOU CAN NOW SAFELY TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER" - problem I fixed with

Uncheck START GUI AUTOMATICALLY...

batch file win.bat starts and inside it CALL WIN98.bat then at the end it runs ATXOFF

Re: Can't get autologon to work


Did you make sure all of these things were done first in order

for the tweakui to work im pretty sure these things have to be done first


Disabling Windows XP Logon screen:

There are four conditions necessary to disable the Windows Logon screen:

1 There must be only two accounts on the computer, the administrator and the guest account.
2 There must be no password for the administrator account.
3 The guest account must be turned off.
4 The welcome screen must be turned on.


First step: is delete all user accounts except the administrator and guest accounts. Note: Windows XP requires that at least one account must be an administrative account; also you cannot delete the guest account. When you delete user accounts, their email and favorites will be lost, so you must export or back up this information if you wish to save it. Windows will give you the option of saving the user's desktop and "My Documents" to a new folder on your desktop under the deleted accounts name.

To delete accounts, logon as administrator then click start/ settings/ control panel and click user accounts. Then click "change an account" Click on the account you want to delete, then click delete account. Here is where you have the option to save that account's "My documents" folder and desktop. If you wish to keep these files click "Keep files", if not click "Delete files". Do this for all accounts except the administrator and the guest account.


Step two: is to remove the password from the administrator account. Note: You need only follow this step if you administrator account is password protected. To determine if your administrator account is password protected, simple look for the words, “Password protected" Under the accounts name. To do this follow the instructions in step one to reach user accounts in the control panel. Click on the administrator account and then click "Remove my password". You will be prompter to enter your password on the next screen. Enter your password then click, "Remove password"

Step three: Turning off the guest account. Navigate back to "User accounts" in the control panel. If the guest account is turned on click it then click on "Turn off the guest account"

Step four: Turning on the welcome screen. Navigate back to the "user account screen" as described above. Click "Change the way users log on or off" Then make sure there is a check mark next to "Use the welcome screen". Then click "Apply options". Note: Leaving "Use the welcome screen" unchecked will bring up the enter password screen during boot up, even though you have previously deleted the password from your account.

Thanks, Jayj24.

You got it, the problem was a third user account. QuickBooks Point of Sale makes it's own user account for some reason. When I deleted the QBPOS user account, the login worked fine. The next time I ran QBPOS, it made another account and auto login no longer works. I guess I've got a catch 22 here and we'll just have to live with it.

Thanks again,

knewitt


Re: Can't get autologon to work


When you use the control userpasswords2 are you selecting the orginal administrator account to autologin.

Cause even with two other user accounts on my PC that control userpasswords2 works for me to autologin.

Make sure that when you uncheck the user must enter a user name and password to use this computer. and then hit apply that the user is Administrator

Also make sure you enter in the password you set your administrator account too.


If you have not set one for the administrator account then you can by

right click mycomputer icon > manage > localusers and groups > users > right click on administrator account > set password >

set the password

Hope that works remember what ever you set your administrator password too use that when you have to enter in the password for the user controlpasswords2


Re: Can't get autologon to work
When you use the control userpasswords2 are you selecting the orginal administrator account to autologin.

Cause even with two other user accounts on my PC that control userpasswords2 works for me to autologin.

Make sure that when you uncheck the user must enter a user name and password to use this computer. and then hit apply that the user is Administrator

Also make sure you enter in the password you set your administrator account too.


If you have not set one for the administrator account then you can by

right click mycomputer icon > manage > localusers and groups > users > right click on administrator account > set password >

set the password

Hope that works remember what ever you set your administrator password too use that when you have to enter in the password for the user controlpasswords2


==========================


Yes, the Win98 logon "feature" is a pain. It is activated when you install any network drivers or dial-up networking. I couldn't get it to go away using TweakUI either.

I found a solution in Windows 98 Annoyances (David Karp, O'Reilly Press) under the heading "Get Rid of the Logon Screen". They suggest trying any of the following:

Choose Windows Logon as the Primary Network Logon in the Network control panel, reboot.

and/or

Open the Password control panel, and click change windows password. Enter your password (if you have one), and leave the new password blank).

If neither of these work, you can try the following (I had to), but be warned: this solution requires you to edit the registry. I've tried very hard to not make a typo below, but editing the registry is inherently dangerous.

Open the Registry Editor (start menu, run, regedit).
Find and open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon.

If it's not already present (it wasn't in mine), create a new value called (ignore all quotes - I've just included them for clarity here) "Process Logon Script" (select "New" then "Binary Value" from the "Edit" menu). Double-click on this newly-created entry (or on an existing one) and change it's data value from 00 00 00 00 to 01 00 00 00. Save the entry and reboot. I did this *and* set my Primary Network Logon to Windows Logon (see above) and, finally, never saw that annoying "feature" again...

Good luck, and be careful in the registry...


Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana....

discussions.hardwarecentral.com/showthread.php%3Fp%3D543343

http://www.google.com/search?q=tweakui+autologon+"win+98


Bookmark and Share
posted by u2r2h at Monday, April 27, 2009 0 comments

Sunday, April 19, 2009

artificial knock up news

A baby or your cash back

By LEIGH VAN DER STOEP - Sunday Star Times

Last updated 05:00 19/04/2009

PHOTO Frozen embryos in an IVF lab.

An innovative fertility treatment programme that promises a baby or your money back brings new hope for would-be parents anxious about the soaring costs of repeated IVF cycles.

The new payment scheme from Fertility Associates, a group of leading fertility clinics, is an Australasian first and offers patients three cycles of in-vitro fertilisation for a fixed price and if the treatment is not successful patients receive a 70% refund.

Infertility affects about one in five New Zealand couples a statistic that has steadily crept up over the past three decades as women wait until later in life to start their families.

A single cycle of private in-vitro fertilisation can cost between $10,000 and $15,000, with around half the patients successfully conceiving.

Fertility Associates' new pricing system, called "Fertility Cover", offers a three-cycle package for eligible women under 39 at a fixed cost of between $24,000 and $30,000, depending on age.

That means if you still don't have a baby after three failed courses which could have cost you up to $45,000 under Fertility Cover you would instead be out of pocket only $7200-$9000.

Clinic medical director Andrew Murray says more than 80% of the clinics' patients have a baby after three cycles. Some couples qualify for up to two publicly funded IVF cycles but waiting lists can be long, with couples in some areas waiting more than 20 months, according to reports published last year. Fertility New Zealand has been lobbying for three publicly funded cycles.

Certain criteria, measured on a points system, need to be met for public funding. For example, couples with childlessness, severe infertility, or more than five years of failed attempts at conception will score higher and are more likely to receive public funding. About 2500 IVF treatments are carried out in New Zealand each year, publicly and privately.

Fertility Associates' new package eliminates the stress of not knowing the ultimate cost until treatments succeed, or worse, carrying the financial burden if treatment fails, says Murray.

"One of the biggest barriers for couples starting IVF when they know they need it is the risk associated with it... There's no absolute guarantee that they will get what they want most, which is a baby."

A 38-year-old IVF patient who asked not to be named told the Sunday Star-Times she and her husband would have considered taking up the package if it had been available when she started her first cycle. She is in the early stages of her first cycle, which has already cost $10,000. "You wonder how much more do you put in," she says.

"I think it's stressful enough going to IVF without having the added financial pressure. The one benefit with this product is you know how much you're going to invest upfront."

She says trying for a baby takes its toll on couples "physically and emotionally" and a package such as this would help them feel more like they're "in a partnership".

But Family Life International spokesman Brendan Malone is concerned that under the scheme babies become commodities people can buy with a money-back guarantee if they don't get what they want, rather than a gift of love.

As the money for the Fertility Cover package is paid upfront, couples who fall pregnant in their first round will effectively subsidise those who have the full three rounds. There is the option to switch to a pay-as-you-go plan for a partial refund.

Murray says the package will be available at his Wellington clinic from tomorrow and, based on its uptake and success, will extend to Auckland and Hamilton.

IVF is expensive because it includes a variety of high-cost processes such as freezing embryos and storing them.

The costs also include medications, blood tests, ultrasounds, thawed embryo replacement, early pregnancy monitoring and counselling.

www.fertilityassociates.co.nz

Bookmark and Share
posted by u2r2h at Sunday, April 19, 2009 0 comments