How to transfer things to a computer when the only connection you have is serial console ?

I was reading something and suddenly got a flashback to when I was playing with an old IBM RS6000/320 I got many years ago. Getting it up and running was a fun exercise in patience, installing AIX 3.2.5 (I think) from tapes. It took a couple of hours. And I had to do it twice if I remember correctly as the HD I had was too small.

Anyway, when AIX was up and running the next problem was getting a bit of basic software into it like gcc and ssh. That should be easy, right ? Just use scp.. oh wait, AIX 3.2.5, that is kinda old. Even at the time (2000), very, very old (AIX 3.2 was release in 1992). So no nice tools to use. And I didn't have suitable network cabling for it at home at the time either, so no use of any primitive networking tools. The only connection I had was the slow serial console.

The simple answer: uuencode and uudecode


And that reminds me, need to check if it still runs after all these years.

CAN bus, chips and usb adapter

I got my CAN bus chip, a couple of MCP2515 controllers and and MCP2551 transceivers and also the required boilerplate components or whatever you call them in the hardware world :)

MCP2515 and MCP2551

Also I'm waiting for a USB2CAN dongle by 8devices (ordered from EXP Tech), it should arrive today if DHL does its thing on time.

The MCP2515 and MCP2551 seem to be the most common chips used by DYI/Arduino/etc users, not that surprising as there aren't that many breadboard friendly CAN chips available. For example the is a new controller available by Microchip, the MCP25625 with integrated CAN bus tranceiver, but it is not trough hole friendly as it is only available in SSOP-28L and 6x6 QFN-28L. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone will offer breakoutboards soon.

But one new chip is quite nice for users of 3.3V systems, for example the Arduino Due that has 2 CAN busses included in the Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU but no transceiver. The MCP2562 transceiver, it has separate voltages for the IO and CAN bus part, so you can plug it directly into any low-voltage device without the need of any level converters. I need to get myself some of those for my Due as I would prefer as little extra components as possible.

Y-Radio problems

Well, YLE did the stupidest thing ever around 1 of May. They removed their shoutcast streams and now offer only RTSP and HLS streams. Using AAC. And guess what Y-Radio uses? That is right, the shoutcast streams.

And the RTSP streams, that work perfectly fine on desktop, fail on Jolla as various gstreamer modules are missing won't play the streams properly.

And you are not allowed to add gstreamer modules for harbour releases.

Sigh...

I'm trying to figure out something, but for now Y-Radio is broken. Sorry about that.