The best way to learn something is to do it. To do something you need a goal in mind. So what's something very simple yet very cool that we can try make? I have an idea... it involves a Linksys WRT-54G Wireless Router, OpenWRT custom firmware, and, let's see, how about GPS....
The WRT-54GL is one of several wireless routers on the market that runs Linux. Since Linux is licensed under the GPL, Linksys was obligated to release much of the source code in order to legally sell their routers. This opened the door for hackers (fine by Linksys, they're selling more routers!) to customize these great little machines. With a 200MHz CPU, 16 MB of RAM, 4 MB of flash, wireless and effectively 5 ethernet network interfaces, the possibilities are endless.
Included on the WRT54G are two serial ports. They're not normally used and don't usually have a way to connect to them, but they're there and waiting to be used! There's a million things that use serial connections, so that opens a bunch of possibilities! Let's pick one and run with it. Actually, since you're not typing, just I get to pick, so we're going to make our wireless router GPS enabled, or Location Aware. That way, we're not just nerds, but also hip and cutting edge.
Why do we want to do this? How about wardriving? We've got a computer that's "wirelessly enabled" and with the addition of GPS it could log the location of all the networks it finds! No need to drag your clunky old laptop along, just a sleek little wireless router is all you need! They run on 12V, so we should be able to run it off a cigarette lighter! Because of all the electrical motors, solenoids, alternator, etc, in a vehicle, the power at a cigarette lighter is very dirty and contains lots of nasty voltage spikes that could kill our unsuspecting router. But that's no problem, we'll learn how to make a simple circuit board that can solve that for us!
Or, for those not inclined to activities containing war in their name, how about time? One of the by-products of GPS is knowing exactly what time it is - down to the millionth of a second or so anyways. We could run a time server on the router that all the computers in the house or office can sync their clock to! Actually, I just found one you can buy for $380 USD. Our costs will be less than that and we'll be way cooler at the same time!
Posted by Boone at March 1, 2006 10:21 PM