Setting up the pcDuinoV2 -- Wireless and xWindows

I spent some more time working on the basic setup of the pcDuinoV2 that Pete from the Milwaukee Makerspace asked me to play with.

First of all, the board was booting up into xWindows on startup.  I thought I disabled that feature using the configuration program that is in the OS but apparantly not.  I managed to get xWindows to stop loading by creating a file named lightdm.override in the /etc/init folder.  The only line it had was one word: 'manual'.  

Now, the device boots to a text-based screen but the resolution looks like it is 1024x768.  In order to fix that, I had to run the configuration program from the command line by typing 

sudo board-config.sh

 and then setting the screen resolution back to 1152x864-75.  Rebooted.   The screen still came up in the lower resolution.  Maybe there is a permanent fix for this but I don't have time to research it.  It is pretty easy to set the screen resolution after bootup.

Next, I worked on the wireless network card.  There are some pretty good instructions about enabling a wireless NIC in Ubuntu at this website: http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/374514-control-wireless-on-the-linux-desktop-with-these-tools

First, I created a file named wpa_supplicant.conf in the /etc folder.  It had these lines in it:

network={    ssid="MilwaukeeMaker"    psk="secretPassword"}

Next, I put these commands in /etc/network/interfaces

auto wlan3iface wlan3 inet dhcp    pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan3 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf    post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

That's it.  The initial setup of the pcDuino is done.  

• it boots to the command line
• can connect to it at pcDuinoV2.local on any network because of Avahi
• all upgrades are done (updates still don't seem to work)
• wireless networking works

The next phase in this project is to build the robot base and control it with the

pcDuino.  In order to keep things moving, I ordered a Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino v2 Kit from Adafruit.  

Since the pcDuino has Arduino compatible pins on it, shields made for the Arduino will work with the pcDuino.  I can use the motor shield to learn how to control motors with the pcDuino.  That should take a few weeks.  In the meantime, I will try to find parts for the base.  I'd like to find or make as many parts as possible at the Makerspace.  

Finally, I think I would like to make a robot that looks like Wall-E.  This means, I will need treads instead of wheels.  I did a bit of research into treads and they are not cheap.  Maybe I can 3D print something.