Week of 25 October 2010

I've finally figured out how to get the Freerunner to support an external USB device AND charge at the same time. Right now I'm using a clunky setup with a USB Y-cable (2 USB A male to 1 usb mini male) and a powered hub to supply power to the Freerunner and the USB-Ethernet adapter. Here is how it is conneted:

USB hub plugged into AC power

Freerunner Configuration

1) Toggle USB mode to USB host

echo host > /sys/devices/platform/s3c-ohci/usb_mode

2) Turn off power out from Freerunner:

echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/s3c2440-i2c/i2c-adapter:i2c-0/i2c-dev:i2c-0/device/i2c-adapter:i2c-0/0-0073/neo1973-pm-host.0/hostmode

Y-Cable Connections
1) Black (data and power) USB A male connection into USB hub upstream port using USB A to USB mini adapter

2) Red (power only) connected to one of the downstream ports of the USB hub

3) USB to Ethernet adapter plugged into one of the downstream ports of the USB hub

Once everything is connected you can configure your interfaces. I have the following interface configuration:

On the Freerunner:

USB0: 192.168.1.202 (I'm currently using the 192.168.0.200 subnet for the second FR

which is connected to a USB port on my Netbook)

Eth0: 192.168.1.203

On netbook:

Eth0: 192.168.1.200

I've changed the IP address setup to avoid interference with the Freerunner's default subnet (192.168.0.202)

Now I'm using the 10.0.0.0 subnet as follows:

Netbook: Eth0: 10.0.0.1

Fortress1: Aux: 10.0.0.2

Fortress2: Aux:10.0.0.3

Freerunner: Eth0: 10.0.0.4 (I've taken to disabling USB0 when not in use)

I was able to ping across both ways. Tomorrow I will try to run TangoGPS on the laptop and obtain the IP data from the Openmoko as originally planned.

Future work:

Try a separate power source. The main issue with the current y-cable is that the downstream connecter is a USB-mini male. To connect the USB-ethernet adapter to the downstream side I would need a converter from USB-mini male to USB-A female. I'm not sure that one exists, may possibly require a custom made cable or two adapters.

Run TangoGPS on the laptop and obtain the IP data from the Openmoko as originally planned.

That's all for now.