20190624
Haier HSU12 board schematic
20140826
Fix to "Please Install Apple Application Support".
So you found Apple Application support to be an unnecessary program and proceeded to uninstall it just to be greeted by this message the next time you tried to run QuickTime:
Now how do you install back that component?
If you tried "Repairing" the quicktime install you noticed that it didn't work.
Downloading the installer and trying to repair from there didn't work either.
What to do?
Decompress the installer and manually install the Apple Application Support.
- Open an archiver like 7-zip (download for free from www.7-zip.org).
- Find the quicktime installer then right click the file and choose >7-zip >Open Archive
On the archive, double click "AppleApplicationSupport.msi" to run the installer.
Click next, next, install, finish.
That should do it. Now the abortion of a player that is QuickTime should run.
Funny fact, You see the bars at the bottom right corner of the player that seem to move in rythm with the audio? Apple calls "Graphic Equalizer" to those bars that are evidently a spectrum analyzer.
Now how do you install back that component?
If you tried "Repairing" the quicktime install you noticed that it didn't work.
Downloading the installer and trying to repair from there didn't work either.
What to do?
Decompress the installer and manually install the Apple Application Support.
- Open an archiver like 7-zip (download for free from www.7-zip.org).
- Find the quicktime installer then right click the file and choose >7-zip >Open Archive
On the archive, double click "AppleApplicationSupport.msi" to run the installer.
Click next, next, install, finish.
That should do it. Now the abortion of a player that is QuickTime should run.
Funny fact, You see the bars at the bottom right corner of the player that seem to move in rythm with the audio? Apple calls "Graphic Equalizer" to those bars that are evidently a spectrum analyzer.
20140717
From DOS to Windows and more.
Computing has come a long way since the first time I touched a Personal Computer.
I can't remember if it was actually the first-first time but I surely know I was a kid, it was at the lab my dad worked at the time, and what I did was play Prince of Persia. Of course, from DOS.
c:\>cd prince
c:\prince\>prince
Having and using a computer needed a certain knowledge that surely limited the adoption by most people. Being greeted with a command line is not intuitive and after typing whatever and getting "Bad command or file name" time after time, most people will give up.
Fast forward to this time and age, anyone can buy a computer and with no knowledge at all they can get around with no problems. Point, click, done. The latest popular operating system is said to be the most intuitive, everything is on the screen, everything seems to be so easy... for someone who has not used a computer before.
For people who used a computer since 1994, got used to all variations of an operating system and partially accepted whatever new version came, as long as it shared some common design rules, the new version is horrible. Completely unusable.
I normally use one or two versions older software until it loses support and I get no other choice but to upgrade. I got into that trend since Windows XP came out, I always focused on performance because I get mad when the computer is stuck "thinking", I don't like waiting for no apparent reason. I was using Windows ME because it ran better on my old computer, then I switched to Windows 2000 professional. I didn't like the idiot-proof by default programming that XP had, I didn't like the eye-candy, it brought nothing new over Windows 2000. Not in security, not in features, not in hardware support. It's just Windows 2000 with "Window Blinds" (that fisher-price theme). It had new networking options that never worked like they should, they tried to hide networking from the user and the user always ended up with more trouble because for example, windows firewall was blocking networking. Old-style Win2k was always better and worked with minimal tweaks.
For Vista, bad timing was everything. They released an OS with a huge RAM footprint that couldn't run on most computers because it used up, by default, about 800MB on boot. It was being sold on new computers with just 1GB of RAM and some local assemblers even dared to put Vista on Celeron computers with 512MB.
The result? Boot, run your programs, be working for like 15 minutes and your computer will crawl because the hard drive will be swapping around all RAM contents.
The solution proposed by tech people: Max your RAM (2GB) or downgrade to XP.
Nowadays almost nobody remembers Vista because it was abandoned so quick. It didn't had a chance.
Then Vista got a refresh and came with a different name. If I had to make a comparison, I'll say Windows 98 is Vista and Windows ME is Windows 7. About the same thing but released on a time where computers could run the system comfortably, every computer came with 2GB of RAM stock so now swapping wasn't a problem. Performance-wise both systems are the same. They look similar.
Pocket PC and Windows CE tried to mock up windows and windows features on portable devices, encouraging adoption by making it look and feel like the software running on a desktop computer. The difference was, that it was not a desktop computer and you couldn't, of course, install desktop software on such devices because the hardware was completely different. The desktop computer could do way more than the Pocket PC.
Now things are changing but in a way where Desktop computers have to be limited so they resemble what a tablet can do.
I bought a new computer recently that came with 8 installed. I used it for 2 days and upgraded to 8.1. I'm not happy to say it's the same thing.
I gave it a chance, I really did but the annoyances quickly outweighed any of the new features or any benefit to having a system designed to do what you do not want it to do. The global gestures were the first annoyance, the charms popping up when you didn't want to, the weird "metro" programs playing with your files when you had another player installed and even stealing the file associations from time to time. The ability for any program to install another language in the system and switch your keyboard to another distribution.
It's a complete mess.
Again, the new system has under the hood, all the features and options that Windows 2000 had. But hidden away so you can't get there by mistake. Or by normal ways.
It's like a toddler playing, hiding and running around with your toolbox. You have absolutely no problem with it if you're goofing around but it's a pain in the nuts when you have to do actual work, like, deadline in 1 hour work.
Control panel? Completely functional and looks the same since Vista when they changed "Add/remove programs" to "Programs and stuff" or whatever it is called now, the difference is, you have to explicitly say to the computer that you have to go exactly there with "WIN+R, control". Try to get there from metro? No way, it's hidden.
Disable the global gestures to stop the stupid charms from popping up? No. You're forced to learn to avoid certain hot zones on your touchpad.
Disable the russian keyboard distribution that some pirated software installed? Good luck with that, it will come up again when you're not looking.
Check the link status of the network card? It's hidden deep inside the network option in the control panel. 15 seconds to get there. On Win2K? two clicks on the corner of the screen.
Usability was thrown down the toilet. Now Windows is just a idiot-proof platform designed to be annoying and it forces their users to adapt to stupid computing methods. And they even become as annoying as OSX users, creating folders and files without user consent on any removable media.
After every windows mess-up, I end up trying Linux. This happened since 2003.
After every clean-up I think why keep using this trash? It should be something better out there.
Second try in 2004, Debian. The desktop started, couldn't do anything.
Third try in 2005, OpenSuSe. First usable desktop. I actually enjoyed it a lot. Suddenly hardware like my scanner wasn't supported.
Another try in 2006, Mandriva. This actually worked quite good, most hardware was supported, I even installed the Lexmark and Samsung printers we had at work, I installed it on a couple computers and used it daily until some accounting program compatibility became a problem, tried to run it on a VM but lacked the time to test it. It was a great system and even my coworkers enjoyed the experience. It was about to become a big deployment given the cost of MS licenses, that we didn't had. Then Mandriva drifted off the Linux desktop map.
A few distros later and here I am, with Debian again. Stuff works.. Barely.
I can't remember if it was actually the first-first time but I surely know I was a kid, it was at the lab my dad worked at the time, and what I did was play Prince of Persia. Of course, from DOS.
c:\>cd prince
c:\prince\>prince
Having and using a computer needed a certain knowledge that surely limited the adoption by most people. Being greeted with a command line is not intuitive and after typing whatever and getting "Bad command or file name" time after time, most people will give up.
Fast forward to this time and age, anyone can buy a computer and with no knowledge at all they can get around with no problems. Point, click, done. The latest popular operating system is said to be the most intuitive, everything is on the screen, everything seems to be so easy... for someone who has not used a computer before.
For people who used a computer since 1994, got used to all variations of an operating system and partially accepted whatever new version came, as long as it shared some common design rules, the new version is horrible. Completely unusable.
I normally use one or two versions older software until it loses support and I get no other choice but to upgrade. I got into that trend since Windows XP came out, I always focused on performance because I get mad when the computer is stuck "thinking", I don't like waiting for no apparent reason. I was using Windows ME because it ran better on my old computer, then I switched to Windows 2000 professional. I didn't like the idiot-proof by default programming that XP had, I didn't like the eye-candy, it brought nothing new over Windows 2000. Not in security, not in features, not in hardware support. It's just Windows 2000 with "Window Blinds" (that fisher-price theme). It had new networking options that never worked like they should, they tried to hide networking from the user and the user always ended up with more trouble because for example, windows firewall was blocking networking. Old-style Win2k was always better and worked with minimal tweaks.
Then it came Vista.
It is often compared with Windows ME. I hold ME dear because it didn't give me much more problems than W98/98SE. It was just an update with new icons, themes and candy, nothing new apart from Media Player 7 which nobody liked and a huge support for new USB devices, like scanners and cameras and the best one, mass storage. That meant connecting that new flash drive without using any driver. I liked WME. Vista was a completely different animal.For Vista, bad timing was everything. They released an OS with a huge RAM footprint that couldn't run on most computers because it used up, by default, about 800MB on boot. It was being sold on new computers with just 1GB of RAM and some local assemblers even dared to put Vista on Celeron computers with 512MB.
The result? Boot, run your programs, be working for like 15 minutes and your computer will crawl because the hard drive will be swapping around all RAM contents.
The solution proposed by tech people: Max your RAM (2GB) or downgrade to XP.
Nowadays almost nobody remembers Vista because it was abandoned so quick. It didn't had a chance.
Then Vista got a refresh and came with a different name. If I had to make a comparison, I'll say Windows 98 is Vista and Windows ME is Windows 7. About the same thing but released on a time where computers could run the system comfortably, every computer came with 2GB of RAM stock so now swapping wasn't a problem. Performance-wise both systems are the same. They look similar.
And the paradigm changed with Windows 8.
MS wants now to compete on the tablet market with a system that resembles what they tried to do with PocketPC.Pocket PC and Windows CE tried to mock up windows and windows features on portable devices, encouraging adoption by making it look and feel like the software running on a desktop computer. The difference was, that it was not a desktop computer and you couldn't, of course, install desktop software on such devices because the hardware was completely different. The desktop computer could do way more than the Pocket PC.
Now things are changing but in a way where Desktop computers have to be limited so they resemble what a tablet can do.
Welcome to Metro.
Basically, trying to take away what computers did since forever. Multitasking.I bought a new computer recently that came with 8 installed. I used it for 2 days and upgraded to 8.1. I'm not happy to say it's the same thing.
I gave it a chance, I really did but the annoyances quickly outweighed any of the new features or any benefit to having a system designed to do what you do not want it to do. The global gestures were the first annoyance, the charms popping up when you didn't want to, the weird "metro" programs playing with your files when you had another player installed and even stealing the file associations from time to time. The ability for any program to install another language in the system and switch your keyboard to another distribution.
It's a complete mess.
Again, the new system has under the hood, all the features and options that Windows 2000 had. But hidden away so you can't get there by mistake. Or by normal ways.
It's like a toddler playing, hiding and running around with your toolbox. You have absolutely no problem with it if you're goofing around but it's a pain in the nuts when you have to do actual work, like, deadline in 1 hour work.
Control panel? Completely functional and looks the same since Vista when they changed "Add/remove programs" to "Programs and stuff" or whatever it is called now, the difference is, you have to explicitly say to the computer that you have to go exactly there with "WIN+R, control". Try to get there from metro? No way, it's hidden.
Disable the global gestures to stop the stupid charms from popping up? No. You're forced to learn to avoid certain hot zones on your touchpad.
Disable the russian keyboard distribution that some pirated software installed? Good luck with that, it will come up again when you're not looking.
Check the link status of the network card? It's hidden deep inside the network option in the control panel. 15 seconds to get there. On Win2K? two clicks on the corner of the screen.
Usability was thrown down the toilet. Now Windows is just a idiot-proof platform designed to be annoying and it forces their users to adapt to stupid computing methods. And they even become as annoying as OSX users, creating folders and files without user consent on any removable media.
After every windows mess-up, I end up trying Linux. This happened since 2003.
After every clean-up I think why keep using this trash? It should be something better out there.
What about Linux?
First try in 2003, red hat. Couldn't get the desktop to run.Second try in 2004, Debian. The desktop started, couldn't do anything.
Third try in 2005, OpenSuSe. First usable desktop. I actually enjoyed it a lot. Suddenly hardware like my scanner wasn't supported.
Another try in 2006, Mandriva. This actually worked quite good, most hardware was supported, I even installed the Lexmark and Samsung printers we had at work, I installed it on a couple computers and used it daily until some accounting program compatibility became a problem, tried to run it on a VM but lacked the time to test it. It was a great system and even my coworkers enjoyed the experience. It was about to become a big deployment given the cost of MS licenses, that we didn't had. Then Mandriva drifted off the Linux desktop map.
A few distros later and here I am, with Debian again. Stuff works.. Barely.
20140713
Installing Debian and Stepmania on a Pump It Up arcade.
If you got fed up and bored with the game that your machine comes with, NX2 in my case, and you want to add new songs, charts and stuff to your personal arcade, follow this guide.
This is still work in progress so the guide needs polishing. This will come as I work on it.
Now to the guide:
Pumpy setup by Zim_256.
This guide is based on Debian 7.5.0 32bit (i386) and Stepmania 5 Beta 1a (then upgraded to SM5 Beta 3).
Download the Debian disc named "debian-7.5.0-i386-DVD-1.iso" otherwise you'll get another install experience or another software kit and the steps in this guide will become invalid. Linux is about the same animal altogether but things change from time to time or from one distro version to another. Burn that thing to a DVD, R flavor is up to you, if you use RW, make sure the disc is new and clean.
Get a new hard drive for the PIU machine, remove the key and the Andamiro drive from the machine, be careful with it, store it away safely. Don't mess with it and most important, DON'T FUCK WITH THE SYSTEM WITH THE ORIGINAL ANDAMIRO HDD CONNECTED. ONE BAD MOVE AND YOU'LL CLEAR THE ENTIRE DRIVE. REMOVE THE ANDAMIRO DRIVE AND KEY BEFORE DOING ANY WORK ON THE MACHINE. Get any drive that your system may support, IDE, SATA, doesn't matter as long as it works on the motherboard. MK9 supports any kind of drive.
Wanna get a cheap 1TB drive? Buy a Verbatim external USB 3.0 HDD, open the case and rip the drive out, it's a standard laptop hard drive.
Now, connect a DVD player on the machine, pop in your Debian disc, power it up, press F12 on boot, choose to boot from the CDROM (USB CDROM if you're using an USB drive) and let the setup begin.
Install the base system, make sure there is no network connectivity because it will fuck things up. Remove the ethernet cable from the PC (if any).
Use the normal install, avoid the graphic one
- Tip: Don't install the system in the arcade machine if you have an old CRT monitor, the installer uses a weird refresh rate, not supported by the monitor and it will render the display useless. If you replaced the CRT monitor or yours is a multiscan, ignore this warning.
- If you ignored the warning and the monitor got scrambled output, restart the installer using CTRL + ALT + DEL and when the install menu appears, go to the help and type install vga=normal fb=off. This will be enough to let you install but things will get messy again when the system reboots.
- Let me suggest you one more time, DON'T install this system on the arcade. It's pointless. Get an LCD or a good multiscan CRT monitor until you get all things up and running. It will make your life easier.
Follow the setup and accept all default actions, partition as the installer says, don't change things. If it wants to connect to the network, choose "Do not setup the network at this time". Remember that having internet at this point will fuck things up.
At the last point when you need to select packages, choose the desktop environment and the default tools, remove printing, server and everything else.
Reboot the machine, if you're setting this up using the arcade's monitor it will start up with a scrambled screen, fix this BEFORE it gets to the graphical environment because if it starts at 1024x768@75Hz, your monitor will blow up. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL if you can't read the screen and wait until the system reboots.
Now, at the bootloader (Grub), go to rescue system, login as root then edit the file at /etc/default/grub (type "nano /etc/default/grub")
edit this line as this "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"" then remove the hash at the beggining of the lines "GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480" and "GRUB_TERMINAL=console". Press CTRL+O and CTRL+X.
Type "update-grub" then restart, you should be left at a gnarly 80x25 text console.
Now you should uninstall GNOME as it's the default window manager installed by the CD.
Login as root and type aptitude, browse the installed packages and find Gnome desktop environment, press -, now browse the not installed packages and find XFCE, press +, then press g. After everything is updated, press q to quit aptitude.
Reboot using ctrl+alt+del
Login as non-root
type startx, this will drop you on the desktop environment, it will probably run at the max resolution, find your way to lower this to 640x480@60Hz
Now go to the nvidia website (on another computer) and download the linux driver for your card. Place that file on a removable USB drive and rename it to nvidia.run.
Go to your linux box and copy that to your user folder (/home/[you]/)
Get ready, shit is about to get really nasty.
Log out of X, probably log out from the console and log in as root.
What you need to do now is install the nvidia driver, that thing is complicated because the driver requires some components already up and running on your computer that aren't installed by default. Those are developer components and at this point your linux box, the system installed and the nvidia driver thinks you're a linux whiz, which you are not.
I'm going to spoonfed you some commands and stuff, if anything doesn't work, research the net, this is coming from the top of my head and I'll probably update this text if I get the chance of doing this all again, this comes from trial and error mostly.
First things first, maybe you'll get lucky and can get the driver install without whining, try this:
cd /home/[you]
sh nvidia.run
The driver will try to install. If it succeeds, you're lucky and ignore a little bit of this guide. Chances are that it will not.
If it fails, welcome to the real world.
After you get kicked out of the installer, do this:
apt-get install gcc-4.6
GCC will get installed
now do this:
apt-get install make
then:
aptitude
now find inside aptitude, the kernel sources and install them. The sources are in non installed, kernel, main, linux-headers-3.2.0-4-686-pae. Push +, then g and g again. Enter when prompted then q to quit aptitude.
Install only the sources for your machine, don't install AMD64 or 486, just 686.
Now, there's another conflict. Your machine has 2 gcc versions installed and you cannot choose which one the nvidia installer is going to use. Unless you do this:
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 10
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.7 20
then
update-alternatives --config gcc
and choose 4.6
Now:
sh nvidia.run
and it will install happily, choose to let the installer modify your X settings and reboot, log in as you and type "startx". You'll be greeted by XFCE at full 1680x1050 (or whatever) resolution.
Now to the fun part. Connect the linux box to the network and make sure you have internet connectivity.
You do not have internet? Oh, great.
Where are you now? In xfce? get out of there and go to the console, type logout, then login as root.
type "nano /etc/network/interfaces"
You'll have now on the screen a text file that says something like this:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
Position your cursor at the end of loopback and press enter, type this:
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Now save with CTRL+O and exit with CTRL+X
Reboot.
Log in as root, start xfce, go to the globe that is on the dock on the bottom of the screen, that'll start IceWeasel, open any website to check if you have internet. If you do, download stepmania. Go to code.google.com/p/sm-ssc/downloads/list and download the linux version.
While you wait, go to a console and type "glxinfo | grep direct" and see if it says "Direct rendering: Yes". If it does, you're almost ready to go.
Extract the stepmania folder to any folder on your system.
Try to run it.
Nothing happens?
Try it from a console.
It probably whines about something not installed.
Go to the package manager (as root, don't try this as user otherwise XFCE will hang) and install ffmpeg, libmad, libpng15 (you need google for this one), then you should probably update libgc (again, google).
I found on another guide that this commands installs everything you'll need, use with caution and take into account any error that it might spit out, the command is for Mint, not debian so some packages may not be found, it's a big chunk so i put it between these lines:
----------Begin command ------------
apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libmad0-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libpng-dev \
libswscale-dev libavutil-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev \
libjpeg-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev xorg-dev libxrandr-dev libbz2-dev \
libglew1.5-dev automake1.10 build-essential curl g++
----------End command ------------
The complete list of dependencies listed in the stepmania website is as follows:
autoconf and automake
GCC and G++
OpenGL libraries and headers (The libraries should come with your graphics card driver; headers are Debian: mesa-common-dev)
GLU libraries and headers (Debian: libglu1-mesa-dev)
GLEW 1.5 or newer (Debian: depending on your OS version, libglew1.5-dev or libglew1.6-dev or liblgew1.7-dev and so on)
X11 libraries and headers
Especially: Xtst and Xrandr (Debian: libxtst-dev and libxrandr-dev respectively)
libpng (Debian: libpng12-dev)
libjpeg (Debian: libjpeg8-dev)
zlib (Debian: zlib1g-dev)
libBZ2 (Debian: libbz2-dev)
libogg and libvorbis (Debian: libogg-dev and libvorbis-dev respectively)
libpthread (Debian: part of libc6-dev)
yasm (for building ffmpeg)
Headers and libraries for one or more of: ALSA (Debian: libasound-dev), OSS (kernel headers actually), PulseAudio (Debian: libpulse-dev), and/or JACK (Debian: libjack-dev)
and of course, GNU make.
So all that needs to be installed and working.
Try to run SM again, if it works, configure the graphics to run on fullscreen, 640x480, 60Hz.
Quit the game and copy all your music, themes and stuff to the game folders.
Try if your stuff works.
After that, configure the desktop resolution to 640x480@60Hz, log out, shut down, put the linux box back into the arcade, connect everything, turn it on, make sure everything is working. You may need a keyboard at this point. Log in, play the game, exit the game and configure the system to auto-start, make a script to log you on automatically, make another to launch XFCE, then another to launch stepmania when XFCE is up.
That's it. You're done.
Oh, wait, no. You're not.
There's still fun shit to do so bear with me.
You probably noticed that nothing in the arcade works with that version of the game we just installed. That's ok if you want to play with your lame keyboard but since this is an arcade setup, we need to make the arcade part work.
Ditch that stepmania you downloaded and get the sources from github. We're going to... dum, dum, duuummm.... BUILD FROM SOURCES. Yeah, shit just got real.
The problem with the game from google code is that it refuses to work with the PIUIO board, we need to recompile the PIUIO support in the game and add a little kernel hack to linux to be able to use the pads and lights.
Since I don't want to reinvent the wheel I'll leave you guys this guide, this is not mine and I can't find the author, follow it and you should be good to go. Some parts regarding the linux installation have been hacked away. You don't need that, you probably have linux installed already.
-------------------------- Guide begin -------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This command will install ALL the dependencies needed to run StepMania 5.
$ sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libmad0-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libpng-dev \
libswscale-dev libavutil-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev \
libjpeg-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev xorg-dev libxrandr-dev libbz2-dev \
libglew1.5-dev automake1.10 build-essential curl g++
^^ Note: This command only works on Ubuntu and Debian-based OS'.
You will get prompted at some point for something that I believed is related to xorg.dev, press " y " and enter, and let the command finish its work. It should take another 5-10 minutes to finish. Sit back and jack off to BBW Girlfriends.
When the command has finished downloading the dependencies, run this command:
$ sudo apt-get install mercurial
This will be the tool needed to grab the SM5 source. When it finishes installing, you can download SM5:
$ hg clone https://code.google.com/p/sm-ssc/
This will take about 5-10 minutes, so go back to BBW Girlfriends and get busy.
After it is done grabbing SM5, you'll need to apply a small file swap which is a patch to make the lights work properly:
Download this file: http://www.mediafire.com/?zb7erwhry4ulslu
^^ I will be adding this file to either my Google drive and keeping a copy on web server. If you ever see this link die, please PM me and I will provide you the file with a fixed link.
Next, go to sm-ssc/src/arch/Lights and replace the file "LightsDriver_Linux_PIUIO.cpp" via the GUI because is quicker. After you confirm that the file was replaced by the new one, when you get to compileing, the executable and now the pads lights will be working as well when it is done.
Now, go to the sm-ssc directory:
$ cd ../../
$ ls
You should see a file called autogen.sh. Do this command to generate the build file:
$ ./autogen.sh
When that finishes, do this command:
$ ./Utils/build.sh
Once again, you're going to be sitting here for a while, about 15-20 minutes. So go buy a subscription to BBW Girlfriends and get back to work on your sex life.
If you a build error early on about a missing OpenGL library, run the massive apt-get command above that gets all the dependencies to make sure everything installed correctly.
If you get no error messages after it finished compiling, you should be able to go run SM5. Get a mouse or something and navigate to sm-ssc from the Home folder shortcut on the desktop. Find the executable file and double-click it, SM5 should boot up. If it does, you're done the hardest part, and now we can move onto the fun part, getting PIUIO to work.
Back in your terminal (Assuming you didn't close it, because if you did, you're a fucking retard) navigate to the folder where your zip file is.
$ cd /media/"pathtoyourpiuiozipfile"/
Unzip it:
$ unzip djpohly-piuio-48ae8ab.zip
Go into the directory:
$ cd djpohly-piuio-48ae8ab
$ ls
You should see a "mod" folder:
$ cd mod
$ ls
If you see a file called Makefile, type this in and hit enter:
$ make
This will generate a series of module files.
$ ls
Look for piuio.ko and do this.
$ sudo cp piuio.ko /lib/modules/your-kernel-version/updates
Note: This command might be different for you if you're not using the suggested OS linked above. Basically, you want to place this file in the same folder as your extra modules in your kernel version.
Next cd to the directory:
$ cd /lib/modules/your-kernel-version/updates
Run these two commands:
$ depmod -a
$ modprobe piuio
Then you'll need to add a command to a startup script so the PIUIO can be used outside of root-access:
$ cd /etc
$ sudo pluma rc.local
Note: pluma is a text editor built into Linux Mint 13, so if you're using a different operating system, you might use either gedit or vi.
You should get a text editor opened. In the line right above "exit 0", enter this in:
chmod a+wrx /dev/piuio0
Save the file, exit out of terminal and everything else. Go to your StepMania 5 build and start the game.
If you succeed, you should get the same result that I made a video of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ucFXfU_vI&feature=g-upl
Note: I gave credit to Shakesoda because I thought djpohly was an alias of him, when he's really a different person entirely, whose name is DJ Pohly. Alas, the credit goes to him for making this. Keep in mind this driver doesn't have lights completely working right but that might get fixed in a future update, and I'll post in this thread if I come across this update. Enjoy and ask your questions and comment here.
UPDATE: Please read this extra step!:
You will want to go into your Preferences.ini folder, and find these values:
PadStickSeconds=0.000000
InputDebounceTime=0.000000
ThreadedInput=1
UseDedicatedMenuButtons=1 (It might already be set to 0)
Change them to:
PadStickSeconds=0.050000
InputDebounceTime=0.050000
ThreadedInput=0
UseDedicatedMenuButtons=0
I noticed an issue with the panels occasionally double-firing both in the menus and in gameplay, giving me pad "Bad"'s. Both SonGohanX and BatteryShark pointed this stuff out to me and it fixed the issue, so props to them for this information.
Also, if you cannot find your Preferences.ini file, it is because you have not enabled hidden files and folders in your Linux settings. To change this, simply open your home folder, click "View" on the top row of menu options, and click "Show Hidden Files". This will make all the hidden content appear. After this is done, scroll down the directory listing and you'll see a folder called ".stepmania-5.0", double-click that folder, then double-click the "Save" folder, and then double-click the "Preferences.ini" file to edit whatever you wish.
As for the dedicated buttons, I would recommend setting that to "0" so you can use the pads for navigation as opposed to just a keyboard. If you have an official button board for a GX cabinet or if you have the buttons available because you personally own a FX/CX/TX cabinet, THE DRIVER FOR THE PIUIO WILL NOT MAKE YOUR BUTTON BOARD WORK! I've been asked this a few times and I'm just making it clear now that it is not compatible and it requires a separate driver. If I come across a driver for it, I'll update the guide for instructions to install it. If you find it, post it in this thread and I'll test it and if I confirm that it works, I'll append it to the guide.
-------------------------- Guide ends --------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is still work in progress so the guide needs polishing. This will come as I work on it.
Now to the guide:
Pumpy setup by Zim_256.
This guide is based on Debian 7.5.0 32bit (i386) and Stepmania 5 Beta 1a (then upgraded to SM5 Beta 3).
Download the Debian disc named "debian-7.5.0-i386-DVD-1.iso" otherwise you'll get another install experience or another software kit and the steps in this guide will become invalid. Linux is about the same animal altogether but things change from time to time or from one distro version to another. Burn that thing to a DVD, R flavor is up to you, if you use RW, make sure the disc is new and clean.
Get a new hard drive for the PIU machine, remove the key and the Andamiro drive from the machine, be careful with it, store it away safely. Don't mess with it and most important, DON'T FUCK WITH THE SYSTEM WITH THE ORIGINAL ANDAMIRO HDD CONNECTED. ONE BAD MOVE AND YOU'LL CLEAR THE ENTIRE DRIVE. REMOVE THE ANDAMIRO DRIVE AND KEY BEFORE DOING ANY WORK ON THE MACHINE. Get any drive that your system may support, IDE, SATA, doesn't matter as long as it works on the motherboard. MK9 supports any kind of drive.
Wanna get a cheap 1TB drive? Buy a Verbatim external USB 3.0 HDD, open the case and rip the drive out, it's a standard laptop hard drive.
Now, connect a DVD player on the machine, pop in your Debian disc, power it up, press F12 on boot, choose to boot from the CDROM (USB CDROM if you're using an USB drive) and let the setup begin.
Install the base system, make sure there is no network connectivity because it will fuck things up. Remove the ethernet cable from the PC (if any).
Use the normal install, avoid the graphic one
- Tip: Don't install the system in the arcade machine if you have an old CRT monitor, the installer uses a weird refresh rate, not supported by the monitor and it will render the display useless. If you replaced the CRT monitor or yours is a multiscan, ignore this warning.
- If you ignored the warning and the monitor got scrambled output, restart the installer using CTRL + ALT + DEL and when the install menu appears, go to the help and type install vga=normal fb=off. This will be enough to let you install but things will get messy again when the system reboots.
- Let me suggest you one more time, DON'T install this system on the arcade. It's pointless. Get an LCD or a good multiscan CRT monitor until you get all things up and running. It will make your life easier.
Follow the setup and accept all default actions, partition as the installer says, don't change things. If it wants to connect to the network, choose "Do not setup the network at this time". Remember that having internet at this point will fuck things up.
At the last point when you need to select packages, choose the desktop environment and the default tools, remove printing, server and everything else.
Reboot the machine, if you're setting this up using the arcade's monitor it will start up with a scrambled screen, fix this BEFORE it gets to the graphical environment because if it starts at 1024x768@75Hz, your monitor will blow up. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL if you can't read the screen and wait until the system reboots.
Now, at the bootloader (Grub), go to rescue system, login as root then edit the file at /etc/default/grub (type "nano /etc/default/grub")
edit this line as this "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"" then remove the hash at the beggining of the lines "GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480" and "GRUB_TERMINAL=console". Press CTRL+O and CTRL+X.
Type "update-grub" then restart, you should be left at a gnarly 80x25 text console.
Now you should uninstall GNOME as it's the default window manager installed by the CD.
Login as root and type aptitude, browse the installed packages and find Gnome desktop environment, press -, now browse the not installed packages and find XFCE, press +, then press g. After everything is updated, press q to quit aptitude.
Reboot using ctrl+alt+del
Login as non-root
type startx, this will drop you on the desktop environment, it will probably run at the max resolution, find your way to lower this to 640x480@60Hz
Now go to the nvidia website (on another computer) and download the linux driver for your card. Place that file on a removable USB drive and rename it to nvidia.run.
Go to your linux box and copy that to your user folder (/home/[you]/)
Get ready, shit is about to get really nasty.
Log out of X, probably log out from the console and log in as root.
What you need to do now is install the nvidia driver, that thing is complicated because the driver requires some components already up and running on your computer that aren't installed by default. Those are developer components and at this point your linux box, the system installed and the nvidia driver thinks you're a linux whiz, which you are not.
I'm going to spoonfed you some commands and stuff, if anything doesn't work, research the net, this is coming from the top of my head and I'll probably update this text if I get the chance of doing this all again, this comes from trial and error mostly.
First things first, maybe you'll get lucky and can get the driver install without whining, try this:
cd /home/[you]
sh nvidia.run
The driver will try to install. If it succeeds, you're lucky and ignore a little bit of this guide. Chances are that it will not.
If it fails, welcome to the real world.
After you get kicked out of the installer, do this:
apt-get install gcc-4.6
GCC will get installed
now do this:
apt-get install make
then:
aptitude
now find inside aptitude, the kernel sources and install them. The sources are in non installed, kernel, main, linux-headers-3.2.0-4-686-pae. Push +, then g and g again. Enter when prompted then q to quit aptitude.
Install only the sources for your machine, don't install AMD64 or 486, just 686.
Now, there's another conflict. Your machine has 2 gcc versions installed and you cannot choose which one the nvidia installer is going to use. Unless you do this:
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 10
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.7 20
then
update-alternatives --config gcc
and choose 4.6
Now:
sh nvidia.run
and it will install happily, choose to let the installer modify your X settings and reboot, log in as you and type "startx". You'll be greeted by XFCE at full 1680x1050 (or whatever) resolution.
Now to the fun part. Connect the linux box to the network and make sure you have internet connectivity.
You do not have internet? Oh, great.
Where are you now? In xfce? get out of there and go to the console, type logout, then login as root.
type "nano /etc/network/interfaces"
You'll have now on the screen a text file that says something like this:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
Position your cursor at the end of loopback and press enter, type this:
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Now save with CTRL+O and exit with CTRL+X
Reboot.
Log in as root, start xfce, go to the globe that is on the dock on the bottom of the screen, that'll start IceWeasel, open any website to check if you have internet. If you do, download stepmania. Go to code.google.com/p/sm-ssc/downloads/list and download the linux version.
While you wait, go to a console and type "glxinfo | grep direct" and see if it says "Direct rendering: Yes". If it does, you're almost ready to go.
Extract the stepmania folder to any folder on your system.
Try to run it.
Nothing happens?
Try it from a console.
It probably whines about something not installed.
Go to the package manager (as root, don't try this as user otherwise XFCE will hang) and install ffmpeg, libmad, libpng15 (you need google for this one), then you should probably update libgc (again, google).
I found on another guide that this commands installs everything you'll need, use with caution and take into account any error that it might spit out, the command is for Mint, not debian so some packages may not be found, it's a big chunk so i put it between these lines:
----------Begin command ------------
apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libmad0-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libpng-dev \
libswscale-dev libavutil-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev \
libjpeg-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev xorg-dev libxrandr-dev libbz2-dev \
libglew1.5-dev automake1.10 build-essential curl g++
----------End command ------------
The complete list of dependencies listed in the stepmania website is as follows:
autoconf and automake
GCC and G++
OpenGL libraries and headers (The libraries should come with your graphics card driver; headers are Debian: mesa-common-dev)
GLU libraries and headers (Debian: libglu1-mesa-dev)
GLEW 1.5 or newer (Debian: depending on your OS version, libglew1.5-dev or libglew1.6-dev or liblgew1.7-dev and so on)
X11 libraries and headers
Especially: Xtst and Xrandr (Debian: libxtst-dev and libxrandr-dev respectively)
libpng (Debian: libpng12-dev)
libjpeg (Debian: libjpeg8-dev)
zlib (Debian: zlib1g-dev)
libBZ2 (Debian: libbz2-dev)
libogg and libvorbis (Debian: libogg-dev and libvorbis-dev respectively)
libpthread (Debian: part of libc6-dev)
yasm (for building ffmpeg)
Headers and libraries for one or more of: ALSA (Debian: libasound-dev), OSS (kernel headers actually), PulseAudio (Debian: libpulse-dev), and/or JACK (Debian: libjack-dev)
and of course, GNU make.
So all that needs to be installed and working.
Try to run SM again, if it works, configure the graphics to run on fullscreen, 640x480, 60Hz.
Quit the game and copy all your music, themes and stuff to the game folders.
Try if your stuff works.
After that, configure the desktop resolution to 640x480@60Hz, log out, shut down, put the linux box back into the arcade, connect everything, turn it on, make sure everything is working. You may need a keyboard at this point. Log in, play the game, exit the game and configure the system to auto-start, make a script to log you on automatically, make another to launch XFCE, then another to launch stepmania when XFCE is up.
That's it. You're done.
Oh, wait, no. You're not.
There's still fun shit to do so bear with me.
You probably noticed that nothing in the arcade works with that version of the game we just installed. That's ok if you want to play with your lame keyboard but since this is an arcade setup, we need to make the arcade part work.
Ditch that stepmania you downloaded and get the sources from github. We're going to... dum, dum, duuummm.... BUILD FROM SOURCES. Yeah, shit just got real.
The problem with the game from google code is that it refuses to work with the PIUIO board, we need to recompile the PIUIO support in the game and add a little kernel hack to linux to be able to use the pads and lights.
Since I don't want to reinvent the wheel I'll leave you guys this guide, this is not mine and I can't find the author, follow it and you should be good to go. Some parts regarding the linux installation have been hacked away. You don't need that, you probably have linux installed already.
-------------------------- Guide begin -------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This command will install ALL the dependencies needed to run StepMania 5.
$ sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libmad0-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libpng-dev \
libswscale-dev libavutil-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev \
libjpeg-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev xorg-dev libxrandr-dev libbz2-dev \
libglew1.5-dev automake1.10 build-essential curl g++
^^ Note: This command only works on Ubuntu and Debian-based OS'.
You will get prompted at some point for something that I believed is related to xorg.dev, press " y " and enter, and let the command finish its work. It should take another 5-10 minutes to finish. Sit back and jack off to BBW Girlfriends.
When the command has finished downloading the dependencies, run this command:
$ sudo apt-get install mercurial
This will be the tool needed to grab the SM5 source. When it finishes installing, you can download SM5:
$ hg clone https://code.google.com/p/sm-ssc/
This will take about 5-10 minutes, so go back to BBW Girlfriends and get busy.
After it is done grabbing SM5, you'll need to apply a small file swap which is a patch to make the lights work properly:
Download this file: http://www.mediafire.com/?zb7erwhry4ulslu
^^ I will be adding this file to either my Google drive and keeping a copy on web server. If you ever see this link die, please PM me and I will provide you the file with a fixed link.
Next, go to sm-ssc/src/arch/Lights and replace the file "LightsDriver_Linux_PIUIO.cpp" via the GUI because is quicker. After you confirm that the file was replaced by the new one, when you get to compileing, the executable and now the pads lights will be working as well when it is done.
Now, go to the sm-ssc directory:
$ cd ../../
$ ls
You should see a file called autogen.sh. Do this command to generate the build file:
$ ./autogen.sh
When that finishes, do this command:
$ ./Utils/build.sh
Once again, you're going to be sitting here for a while, about 15-20 minutes. So go buy a subscription to BBW Girlfriends and get back to work on your sex life.
If you a build error early on about a missing OpenGL library, run the massive apt-get command above that gets all the dependencies to make sure everything installed correctly.
If you get no error messages after it finished compiling, you should be able to go run SM5. Get a mouse or something and navigate to sm-ssc from the Home folder shortcut on the desktop. Find the executable file and double-click it, SM5 should boot up. If it does, you're done the hardest part, and now we can move onto the fun part, getting PIUIO to work.
Back in your terminal (Assuming you didn't close it, because if you did, you're a fucking retard) navigate to the folder where your zip file is.
$ cd /media/"pathtoyourpiuiozipfile"/
Unzip it:
$ unzip djpohly-piuio-48ae8ab.zip
Go into the directory:
$ cd djpohly-piuio-48ae8ab
$ ls
You should see a "mod" folder:
$ cd mod
$ ls
If you see a file called Makefile, type this in and hit enter:
$ make
This will generate a series of module files.
$ ls
Look for piuio.ko and do this.
$ sudo cp piuio.ko /lib/modules/your-kernel-version/updates
Note: This command might be different for you if you're not using the suggested OS linked above. Basically, you want to place this file in the same folder as your extra modules in your kernel version.
Next cd to the directory:
$ cd /lib/modules/your-kernel-version/updates
Run these two commands:
$ depmod -a
$ modprobe piuio
Then you'll need to add a command to a startup script so the PIUIO can be used outside of root-access:
$ cd /etc
$ sudo pluma rc.local
Note: pluma is a text editor built into Linux Mint 13, so if you're using a different operating system, you might use either gedit or vi.
You should get a text editor opened. In the line right above "exit 0", enter this in:
chmod a+wrx /dev/piuio0
Save the file, exit out of terminal and everything else. Go to your StepMania 5 build and start the game.
If you succeed, you should get the same result that I made a video of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ucFXfU_vI&feature=g-upl
Note: I gave credit to Shakesoda because I thought djpohly was an alias of him, when he's really a different person entirely, whose name is DJ Pohly. Alas, the credit goes to him for making this. Keep in mind this driver doesn't have lights completely working right but that might get fixed in a future update, and I'll post in this thread if I come across this update. Enjoy and ask your questions and comment here.
UPDATE: Please read this extra step!:
You will want to go into your Preferences.ini folder, and find these values:
PadStickSeconds=0.000000
InputDebounceTime=0.000000
ThreadedInput=1
UseDedicatedMenuButtons=1 (It might already be set to 0)
Change them to:
PadStickSeconds=0.050000
InputDebounceTime=0.050000
ThreadedInput=0
UseDedicatedMenuButtons=0
I noticed an issue with the panels occasionally double-firing both in the menus and in gameplay, giving me pad "Bad"'s. Both SonGohanX and BatteryShark pointed this stuff out to me and it fixed the issue, so props to them for this information.
Also, if you cannot find your Preferences.ini file, it is because you have not enabled hidden files and folders in your Linux settings. To change this, simply open your home folder, click "View" on the top row of menu options, and click "Show Hidden Files". This will make all the hidden content appear. After this is done, scroll down the directory listing and you'll see a folder called ".stepmania-5.0", double-click that folder, then double-click the "Save" folder, and then double-click the "Preferences.ini" file to edit whatever you wish.
As for the dedicated buttons, I would recommend setting that to "0" so you can use the pads for navigation as opposed to just a keyboard. If you have an official button board for a GX cabinet or if you have the buttons available because you personally own a FX/CX/TX cabinet, THE DRIVER FOR THE PIUIO WILL NOT MAKE YOUR BUTTON BOARD WORK! I've been asked this a few times and I'm just making it clear now that it is not compatible and it requires a separate driver. If I come across a driver for it, I'll update the guide for instructions to install it. If you find it, post it in this thread and I'll test it and if I confirm that it works, I'll append it to the guide.
-------------------------- Guide ends --------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
20140707
Cuidado con los discos rígidos de Mercadolibre
-Placeholder-
Discos Hitachi vendidos como nuevos tienen más de 3 años de uso, 30000 horas encendidos.
Evidentemente son discos de server.
Discos Hitachi vendidos como nuevos tienen más de 3 años de uso, 30000 horas encendidos.
Evidentemente son discos de server.
20140702
How to remove the folder "System volume information" from USB storage
Windows 8 has this stupid new feature that tries to index all mass storage devices that you connect to your computer.
The same way OSX does it, it creates a hidden folder on memory cards, USB drives, Hard drives and any mass storage devices, without user intervention and with no easy way to remove it or files inside it using Windows Explorer since the files get flagged with system properties so it won't allow any user to delete them.
To remove that folder, start a command window (WIN+R, cmd, ENTER) as administrator and type the following commands, assuming the drive letter for the card reader or USB storage is "F:", replace that letter with the one assigned to the drive in your system.
f:
cd system~1
del *.*
(Hit Y when asked to delete)
cd..
rm system~1
The location of the "~" symbol depends on the distribution or language of your keyboard, on EN keyboards, it is at the left of the number 1 on top of the Q, use with SHIFT. The ES keyboard doesn't have that symbol and on the LA distribution, it's 2 keys to the right of the P, use with ALT.
Or you can input the symbol using ALT+126.
The same way OSX does it, it creates a hidden folder on memory cards, USB drives, Hard drives and any mass storage devices, without user intervention and with no easy way to remove it or files inside it using Windows Explorer since the files get flagged with system properties so it won't allow any user to delete them.
To remove that folder, start a command window (WIN+R, cmd, ENTER) as administrator and type the following commands, assuming the drive letter for the card reader or USB storage is "F:", replace that letter with the one assigned to the drive in your system.
f:
cd system~1
del *.*
(Hit Y when asked to delete)
cd..
rm system~1
The location of the "~" symbol depends on the distribution or language of your keyboard, on EN keyboards, it is at the left of the number 1 on top of the Q, use with SHIFT. The ES keyboard doesn't have that symbol and on the LA distribution, it's 2 keys to the right of the P, use with ALT.
Or you can input the symbol using ALT+126.
20131019
Calidad de los parlantes NogaNET
Participando en una subasta, gané una buena cantidad de parlantes NogaNet, un modelo muy conocido y que vende bastante porque son baratos. Son parlantes que cuestan alrededor de AR$ 80~150.
Me llamó la atención una notable diferencia de peso y calidad de sonido entre parlantes supuestamente del mismo modelo y características por lo que procedí a hacer una comparación más detallada y abrirlos uno por uno.
Comencé por el de color blanco, que supuse era el modelo más antiguo, los periféricos de PC comenzaron a venir de color negro después.
Adentro hay un transformador porque este modelo se conecta a 220V AC directo, un woofer y una placa con un amplificador de 3 canales.
Aquí se puede ver el detalle del parlante, 4Ω, 5 Watt, con protección magnética.
Y el transformador, 220V, 50Hz/9V, 600mA.
Detalle de la placa, IC TDA2822 para satélites y TEA2025 para el woofer.
La placa por debajo
El juego de parlantes blanco parece bastante bien ensamblado y la calidad de audio es buena. La placa del amplificador viene con opción de usar un TDA2822 en configuración BTL o un TEA2025 para amplificador del woofer, en este caso usaron el TEA2025 que provee mayor potencia (aprox. 5W@8Ω con 9V en modo BTL), aparentemente tiene las mejores opciones instaladas por lo que será el parlante de referencia. También es el que tiene mayor peso.
Veamos ahora el siguiente parlante, en orden de peso este es el que le sigue al blanco en orden descendiente.
Por dentro, a primera vista, se nota distinto al anterior.
El parlante es de formato y calidad distinta, juzgando el sonido, no reproduce gamas bajas con la intensidad del anterior, es un parlante mas "duro" por lo que no mueve suficiente aire para considerarse un buen woofer. La especificación parece concordar, 4Ω, 5 Watt.
El transformador es más pequeño, el primario sigue siendo 220V, 50Hz pero el secundario en este caso es 9V, 400mA. 100mA menor que el parlante anterior.
La placa presenta sólo diferencias de modelo, en este caso se quitó la opción de usar un TDA2822 para el woofer, seguramente es el modelo de otro fabricante. Las características técnicas parecen conservarse. TDA2822 para satélites y TEA2025 en el woofer.
La misma placa vista por debajo.
El siguiente no es marca Noganet sino Omega, es el mismo producto pero con otra marca.
La primera diferencia a la vista es que no tiene transformador, se alimenta por un conector USB.
El parlante es muy similar al segundo Noganet analizado, en este caso 8Ω, 5 Watt.
La placa de circuito impreso tiene características iguales al anterior aunque faltan los componentes encargados de rectificar AC, no necesarios en este equipo al alimentarse por USB.
La placa tiene un corte de panelizado, seguramente se fabricaba junto con otro circuito.
El siguiente es el mas interesante de todos
.
Adentro se ve que es el de menor calidad del lote. No es el mas liviano porque tiene un transformador adentro, el de marca Omega es más liviano que este porque se alimenta por USB y carece de transformador.
El parlante no tiene protección magnética, es de dudosos 4Ω, 5 Watt.
Este trae el transformador mas chico del lote, siendo de 9V, 300mA.
La placa tiene sólo un amplificador TEA2025 en puente.... Y eso es algo curioso que van a confirmar viendo la foto. Es un amplificador de un sólo canal, el sistema de sonido completo es monoaural. El potenciómetro de volumen no es doble, es simple. A pesar de tener opción para que el amplificador sea estéreo, el fabricante decidió no instalar los otros dos canales de audio en la placa de circuito.
La placa por abajo.
Además de esos parlantes 2.1 Noganet, en la misma subasta se incluían algunos parlantes comunes para PC.
Común a todos los parlantes es el sonido horrendo que tienen, en uno de los 3, no es problema del circuito amplificador sino del parlante de juguete que usa, en los otros dos, el problema es el parlante Y el amplificador. A continuación van a ver por qué.
Este es el parlante de juguete. Los 3 usan lo mismo. 8Ω, 0.5W, plástico y cartón duro.
En esta foto se puede ver algo común a los 3 juegos de parlantes, son monoaurales a pesar de que tienen una ficha estéreo.
Acá el amplificador del primero, en este el mal sonido se debe a que es mono y a los parlantes de juguete.
Este es el segundo, mono, parlantes de juguete y amplificador de 3 transistores. Si les interesa saber, los transistores son 1xC945 y 2xS8550. Tiene circuito para usar un IC TDA2822 pero no están las perforaciones.
Este es el tercero, igual que el anterior, 3 transistores, mono, juguete, suena como lata pero este por lo menos tiene perforado el lugar para un TDA2822. Igualmente no se puede soldar el IC y los componentes porque no está abierta la máscara de soldadura por debajo.
En resumen, alguien claramente está importando lo más barato que puede conseguir en China. Se evidencia por la caída de calidad de los productos. De un woofer apropiado y correctamente construído aunque de baja calidad (Noga Blanco) comenzaron a quitar componentes, quitar características, reducir la calidad de los drivers, ¡incluso quitar canales de audio!. Si en china un parlante sale $5 y de repente sale alguien vendiendo lo mismo a $3, evidentemente le falta algo, no existe la misma calidad a menos dinero en un mercado competitivo como china. Acá comenzaron comprando e importando el de $5 hasta que le ofrecieron algo que se veía igual (todos los parlantes son físicamente iguales) a $4, después a $3 y luego a $2. En lugar de seguir con el mismo proveedor, fueron cambiando al más barato y así decantó la calidad.
Los parlantes comunes de pc, los no-2.1, son simplemente basura, no tienen valor, si los regalaran en la calle terminarían en la basura. Pagar AR$10 por eso es tirar dinero, lo que me recuerda a una vez cuando estaba con un amigo comprando su PC, tenía que armar lo mejor con un presupuesto acotado. Una vez comprado todo, faltaban los parlantes, conseguimos unos parecidos a estos a AR$20 en ese momento cuando un parlante "bueno" estaba a AR$60. Le preguntamos al vendedor cómo sonaban y nos dijo "y,... suenan como $20", Jajaja!!. Desde ese momento supe que $20 suenan horrible pero por lo menos eran estéreo.
Si quieren disfrutar el sonido de 20 pesos, vean este video:
Para cerrar, ya fué suficiente de parlantes malos. La gente me pregunta,
Augusto, ¿Qué parlantes buenos me podés recomendar para PC o Notebook?.
Lo mejor en cuanto a precio, características y calidad que encontré en parlantes para PC son los Genius SP-U115.
Son unos parlantes alimentados por USB que tienen luz de encendido (es azul, horrible para mi gusto) y control de volumen lateral. Vienen unos parlantes similares de la misma marca pero sin control de volumen ni luz de encendido, no los recomiendo para PC.
La calidad de sonido es sorprendente para el tamaño de los mismos y tienen una muy buena respuesta de bajos. El sonido no distorsiona incluso al máximo volumen.
Si tienen oportunidad, pruébenlos, los van a sorprender. En calidad de audio, sobrepasan a modelos anteriores de Genius de precio similar, suenan mejor que los SP-U110 o los SP-S110 que fueron modelos anteriores bastante vendidos también.
El amplificador que usan es un nuevo IC, no es un TDA2822 como en otros.
Acá una prueba de sonido de los mismos.
Me llamó la atención una notable diferencia de peso y calidad de sonido entre parlantes supuestamente del mismo modelo y características por lo que procedí a hacer una comparación más detallada y abrirlos uno por uno.
Comencé por el de color blanco, que supuse era el modelo más antiguo, los periféricos de PC comenzaron a venir de color negro después.
Adentro hay un transformador porque este modelo se conecta a 220V AC directo, un woofer y una placa con un amplificador de 3 canales.
Aquí se puede ver el detalle del parlante, 4Ω, 5 Watt, con protección magnética.
Y el transformador, 220V, 50Hz/9V, 600mA.
Veamos ahora el siguiente parlante, en orden de peso este es el que le sigue al blanco en orden descendiente.
Por dentro, a primera vista, se nota distinto al anterior.
El transformador es más pequeño, el primario sigue siendo 220V, 50Hz pero el secundario en este caso es 9V, 400mA. 100mA menor que el parlante anterior.
La placa presenta sólo diferencias de modelo, en este caso se quitó la opción de usar un TDA2822 para el woofer, seguramente es el modelo de otro fabricante. Las características técnicas parecen conservarse. TDA2822 para satélites y TEA2025 en el woofer.
La misma placa vista por debajo.
El siguiente no es marca Noganet sino Omega, es el mismo producto pero con otra marca.
La primera diferencia a la vista es que no tiene transformador, se alimenta por un conector USB.
El parlante es muy similar al segundo Noganet analizado, en este caso 8Ω, 5 Watt.
La placa de circuito impreso tiene características iguales al anterior aunque faltan los componentes encargados de rectificar AC, no necesarios en este equipo al alimentarse por USB.
La placa tiene un corte de panelizado, seguramente se fabricaba junto con otro circuito.
El siguiente es el mas interesante de todos
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Adentro se ve que es el de menor calidad del lote. No es el mas liviano porque tiene un transformador adentro, el de marca Omega es más liviano que este porque se alimenta por USB y carece de transformador.
El parlante no tiene protección magnética, es de dudosos 4Ω, 5 Watt.
Este trae el transformador mas chico del lote, siendo de 9V, 300mA.
La placa tiene sólo un amplificador TEA2025 en puente.... Y eso es algo curioso que van a confirmar viendo la foto. Es un amplificador de un sólo canal, el sistema de sonido completo es monoaural. El potenciómetro de volumen no es doble, es simple. A pesar de tener opción para que el amplificador sea estéreo, el fabricante decidió no instalar los otros dos canales de audio en la placa de circuito.
La placa por abajo.
Además de esos parlantes 2.1 Noganet, en la misma subasta se incluían algunos parlantes comunes para PC.
Común a todos los parlantes es el sonido horrendo que tienen, en uno de los 3, no es problema del circuito amplificador sino del parlante de juguete que usa, en los otros dos, el problema es el parlante Y el amplificador. A continuación van a ver por qué.
Este es el parlante de juguete. Los 3 usan lo mismo. 8Ω, 0.5W, plástico y cartón duro.
En esta foto se puede ver algo común a los 3 juegos de parlantes, son monoaurales a pesar de que tienen una ficha estéreo.
Acá el amplificador del primero, en este el mal sonido se debe a que es mono y a los parlantes de juguete.
Este es el segundo, mono, parlantes de juguete y amplificador de 3 transistores. Si les interesa saber, los transistores son 1xC945 y 2xS8550. Tiene circuito para usar un IC TDA2822 pero no están las perforaciones.
Este es el tercero, igual que el anterior, 3 transistores, mono, juguete, suena como lata pero este por lo menos tiene perforado el lugar para un TDA2822. Igualmente no se puede soldar el IC y los componentes porque no está abierta la máscara de soldadura por debajo.
En resumen, alguien claramente está importando lo más barato que puede conseguir en China. Se evidencia por la caída de calidad de los productos. De un woofer apropiado y correctamente construído aunque de baja calidad (Noga Blanco) comenzaron a quitar componentes, quitar características, reducir la calidad de los drivers, ¡incluso quitar canales de audio!. Si en china un parlante sale $5 y de repente sale alguien vendiendo lo mismo a $3, evidentemente le falta algo, no existe la misma calidad a menos dinero en un mercado competitivo como china. Acá comenzaron comprando e importando el de $5 hasta que le ofrecieron algo que se veía igual (todos los parlantes son físicamente iguales) a $4, después a $3 y luego a $2. En lugar de seguir con el mismo proveedor, fueron cambiando al más barato y así decantó la calidad.
Los parlantes comunes de pc, los no-2.1, son simplemente basura, no tienen valor, si los regalaran en la calle terminarían en la basura. Pagar AR$10 por eso es tirar dinero, lo que me recuerda a una vez cuando estaba con un amigo comprando su PC, tenía que armar lo mejor con un presupuesto acotado. Una vez comprado todo, faltaban los parlantes, conseguimos unos parecidos a estos a AR$20 en ese momento cuando un parlante "bueno" estaba a AR$60. Le preguntamos al vendedor cómo sonaban y nos dijo "y,... suenan como $20", Jajaja!!. Desde ese momento supe que $20 suenan horrible pero por lo menos eran estéreo.
Si quieren disfrutar el sonido de 20 pesos, vean este video:
Para cerrar, ya fué suficiente de parlantes malos. La gente me pregunta,
Augusto, ¿Qué parlantes buenos me podés recomendar para PC o Notebook?.
Lo mejor en cuanto a precio, características y calidad que encontré en parlantes para PC son los Genius SP-U115.
Son unos parlantes alimentados por USB que tienen luz de encendido (es azul, horrible para mi gusto) y control de volumen lateral. Vienen unos parlantes similares de la misma marca pero sin control de volumen ni luz de encendido, no los recomiendo para PC.
La calidad de sonido es sorprendente para el tamaño de los mismos y tienen una muy buena respuesta de bajos. El sonido no distorsiona incluso al máximo volumen.
Si tienen oportunidad, pruébenlos, los van a sorprender. En calidad de audio, sobrepasan a modelos anteriores de Genius de precio similar, suenan mejor que los SP-U110 o los SP-S110 que fueron modelos anteriores bastante vendidos también.
El amplificador que usan es un nuevo IC, no es un TDA2822 como en otros.
Acá una prueba de sonido de los mismos.
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