Mini Intervalometer

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I saw this intervalometer on Hackaday ages ago but never got very far with it. I ordered the PIC with a random RS components order, but without a PIC programmer, the components and the idea just lay around for a while. I dug them up the other day, and managed to locate a PICkit 2 at the university which I borrowed for the night.

How it’s supposed to look

I got the PICkit set up and programmed the chip hoping for the best. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my hands on any surface mount components, but built the kit out of through hole components. Also using two individual diodes (with a 0.5V forward voltage drop) instead of the combined dual Schottky diodes. I also used an 8 pin socket so as to not damage the PIC while soldering. Soldered them all together on a piece of protoboard and voila!

What mine looked like

So although it’s not as small as the surface mount version I’m quite happy. I must admit I was quite stoked when I plugged it in and it worked. It can be slightly finicky, but works well enough. Now I just need to find somewhere interesting I can safely leave my camera for a couple hours.

Kalahari MarketPlace

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I love the idea of Kalahari Marketplace. Even the way it’s integrated and run is great. The main problem I’ve found is a lack of people buying. Kalahari have been punting their Marketplace for quite a while, but it wasn’t till a few months ago, when I sat with a shelf full of textbooks I didn’t think I was going to use, and no easy way to sell them, that I decided to give it a go.

The system is fairly straightforward. You signup for R5, then you look through the stuff you want to sell and match it up to products on Kalahari.com(formerly net)’s website. You click a button saying you have one to sell, list the price you want to sell it for and how you’re willing to send it. Then it gets listed on the Kalahari’s website. No other costs, unless you make a sale, where 6% of the product’s sale value is charged. It is then up to you to go and post the product.6% is small enough that people are willing to let it slide, although it is a fairly large amount. And for Kalahari, it’s 6% on every sale, for doing pretty much nothing. In return you’re put in a fairly risk free position. Kalahari take the money straight from the seller, and you get it a while later. This is one issue, as you can wait two to three weeks after you ship the package before you get disbursed, but if you’re not in a hurry for the money it’s ok.

Kalahari appear to also be marketing this service to commercial companies, as there’s a mass upload tool available, and I have seen certain items listed with company names that one can buy from as opposed to private sales.

I’ve read several articles that claim Kalahari are making a good amount of money from the service, with large volumes of products being listed, and matched by good sales. Personally I’ve had a list of 12 text books up for the last 2 months, and I just made my first sale. A friend of mine has had products up for over 8 months, including DVDs and Text Books, and hasn’t made one sale, so it’s difficult to know.

I made sure that with each of my products I put up, there was a noticeable difference in price between my product and the new product, making sure that the profit still made it viable for me. So the lack of sales shouldn’t be price related, but more desirability of the products I’m selling, and more that people either don’t notice the products for sale, or for some reason feel it’s not a safe choice. Hopefully after my first sale now, I’ll have a rating to match the products.

Either way it looks like Kalahari is here to stay, and if you’re not in a hurry to sell seems like a safer method to sell certain products than a service like Gumtree.

Speed Camera POIs for Garmins

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EDIT: For info on community compiled data, scroll to the bottom of the article.

I bought a Garmin GPS a few years ago, and one of the first things I did was to load data relating to the position of speed cameras in South Africa. Recently I had someone ask where to get the data, and all that I could remember was that I got it from Garmin’s official website. Searching for such files proved fruitless until I came across the following site, which I believe I used originally.

The data is provided by Garmap, [EDIT – In July 2012 Garmin removed the free access to this data, it now needs to be purchased via Garmin Cyclops. A free trial is available], who release a file weekly with an updated listing of speed cameras and other hazards that they refer to as “Road Safety Data”. To download this data Garmap claim you must register your device with Garmap, a fairly straightforward process requiring you to install the Garmin Communicator Plugin (20MB Firefox Plugin). You will need your Unit ID, which can be found in the about page on your Garmin device and the serial number. But it appears that you can get the data without registering your device or installing the plugin.

There are two methods to load the data. There is a new method which allows you to download straight from the computer to the Garmin (this requires the plugin and is discussed later), or the old method which makes use of the Garmin POI Loader software. This can be downloaded from Garmin’s website here. Click the download link on the right hand side (install was 8.67MB).

After you install it, go to the Garmap website, click on the “Road Safety Data” button in the bottom left. Download the file you want from the “Advanced Users” box. Generally just the Road_Safety_Data_<date>.zip file.

Once downloaded, unzip the folder. Look through the files and delete those folders you don’t want added to your Garmin.The GPX folder is the one in question. Camera Hazards are fixed speed cameras. Mobile Hazards refer to places where cops have been known to regularly trap. Other hazards can be things such as high winds or dangerous areas.

Plug your GPS into the computer and wait for it to be ready. Open the POI Loader. Select Garmin Device and click next. The software should automatically find your device, if not click “Find Device”. If you still have no luck, make sure the GPS is connected and try again. Click Next, here you can choose to erase the previous POIs or if you just want the new ones added on top. It’s worthwhile to note that these POIs are only those added separately and does not include the lists of shops or favourite locations you added while making use of the Garmin.

Click Next. If you choose to delete the previous POIs, you have to finish and reload the program. Browse for the folder you extracted and select the GPX folder. One should select the express install here, else if manual is selected, you have to select options for each file in the folder.

You should now receive a message saying that the POIs have been successfully installed. Click Finish and Safely Remove your GPS from the computer and you should be ready to go.

later: If you choose the “Normal Users” option, you are required to have installed the Garmin Communicator Plugin for your browser. Plug in your device and browse to the Road Safety Data webpage. Select the hazards you would like added, and a “Detect GPS” button should appear. Click this button and if you’ve plugged your GPS in, it should appear in a drop down menu. Make sure it’s selected and click “Download Data”. The text should change to “Downloading” and a notification should appear when it’s complete.

You can check if the data has been loaded by going on your Garmin to “Where to?”, scrolling down to “Extras” and looking in the “Custom POIs” folder. Here you should see a lot of content relating to the POIs you’ve added.

If you ever have issues with the POIs they can be deleted fairly easily by browsing your Garmin from a computer. Search through the drives and you should come across a folder called POI. Depending how you loaded this data there will either be one or several files in the folder. Simply delete this files. Different models may store the data in different locations. Either on the external SD card memory, or the internal memory, just look around.

In my search I have also come across GPS Data Team. They have data covering a range of categories and countries. I have no idea how trustworthy their data is or how often it’s updated, but it’s located here for anyone interested.

Community Compiled Data
In the comments Ivan has given a link to a website run by POIEditor which supplies up to date Road Safety Information. It’s compiled by members of the community and specifically relates to South African RHD. He recommends it mentioning that it is better than the Cyclops generated data. I won’t be able to test it for a while, but give it a go and give feedback.
The data itself is compiled by users on the GPS-Users-Forum. Check them out at their new website, where amongst other things, you can download the data directly.

Hello Peter

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People like to complain, that’s not exactly true, but people complain far more often than what they compliment. And it’s understandable. When paying for a service, one expects a certain level. If one receives this, great, they did what they said they would, this was expected, why would I tell anyone about it. But when our expected level of service isn’t reached, we feel founded in complaining.

A while ago I was introduced to a web-service called Hello Peter. It’s a directory of hundreds of local and national companies in South Africa, where people can go list comments on their experiences with these companies. This gives people the opportunity to complain about companies, but it’s also a nice way to get an idea of a company’s reputation.

Companies are allowed to assign an employee to address complaints and compliments on the site. So if people go and make accusations, they have the opportunity to reply and one can hear from both sides.

As is human nature, most of the companies generally have a negative rating on the site, that is more complaints than compliments. But scanning over comments and reading replies one can get a feel for the company.

I’ve used the service on several occasions when wanting to use new companies. I find, that especially when it comes to online based companies, one never knows what kind of service to expect.

I’ve often restrained myself from making complaints on the website, ’cause I feel they may be frivolous, so instead I looked around at the ratings that companies I’ve used in the past have received, and decided to make my fist rating a positive to a company that I’ve had nothing but great service from, but that has received several complaints.

Human nature isn’t going to change any time soon, but people always appreciate a complimen,t even if it is just for doing what’s expected of them.