It’s also happy to work with several accounts and I can even choose to sync Calender, Address Book or email on each account – in this area, it does exactly what I want.

Staying with Google, it also has a chat client for the google talk, this is slightly less flexible, being linked to your first email account, but still working well out of the box with no need for an extra app to be installed.

As my phone is on the Three Network, it also has a Skype app, that gives access to Three’s Free Skype calling, this used the internet to set up the calls, but the calls themselves are made over the regular mobile channels – and after hours and hours of talking to people on skype using the Galaxy Portal, I’d keep the phone just for that.

Three do limit the Skype use to calls between other Skype users, so none of the Skype to Landline or Landline to Skype services will work, but you can’t blame them for protecting their core business.

Things I don’t Like so much, include…

Not Having a Keyboard, I’m getting used to the onscreen keyboard, but it still isn’t accurate enough for me, I still have a Nokia E63 on another account, for texting, and couldn’t think of sending too many texts or typing emails using the on screen keys. When used horizontally,  things are much better, but I still have a problem of accidentally touching the screen between keys – probably a a because I’m still using an E63 with its keyboard for some things. My next Android Phone is definitely going to have a keyboard.

Not Having a visible Alert – I’ve been spoiled by the flashing keyboard led on the Nokia E63! A glance at that phone will tell me if I’ve missed a call, or a text/email has arrived. Not this phone, if i miss an Audible Alert, I’m not going to know about it until I’ve woken the screen up to check.

I’m Getting used to the shorter battery life (compared to the Nokia E63), and this phone seems better than most – with my use, lots of email checking and a few calls each day, I can often go a couple of days without recharging.

Overall, given that my main uses for the device are phone, email, text and skype calling, it scores big on the skype and email handling, but i really miss a keyboard.

www.site247.co.uk is a live demo of a work in progress.

Players can create accounts, log in, and chat with each other.

So far, not much else, but it is a work in progress.  An OpenFire Jabber server handles all comms between the players and the back end game server.

Both the web interface and the server are written in Java.

Players will have to accept the security certificate – self signed – before the game will run.

The ‘Advanced Task Manager’ app from ReChild in the Android Market, is great for this, but what I didn’t have, until a few days ago, was something to help me monitor the state of the battery at a glance.

BatteryLife from www.curvefish.com – and available in the Android Market, is the answer to this problem. it gives you a widget for your screen that shows the remaining batter life as a percentage, and when charging, will show how thats going too.

Using these two apps, I’ve been able to go longer between charges, the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy Portal I’m using, will never be close to that of the Nokia E63 that I’ve been used to, but the features of the Android system are worth more frequent visits to the mains socket!

My New Android Phone

My new mobile phone is a Samsung Galaxy Portal.  I chose the Galaxy Portal because at the time, it was the cheapest Android phone I could get on contract with three – It was possible to get the phone for just a few pounds more than I was already paying.

Since then, there is now a cheaper Android phone from ZTE I could have had that without any increase, so I’m interested to see how it compares to my Galaxy.

I’m happy with the Samsung, even though its costing me a little more.  One of the first things I tried with it was the Skype Client.  I Use Skype quite a lot, and on three, the free Skype calls appear to be routed through their voice network – incoming calls appear as a regular call – but even so, on the Nokia E63 I was using, skype calls didn’t quite have the same quality as regular mobile calls or pc based skype calls.  On the Galaxy, the skype calls have much better quality audio.

The Next thing I noticed (possibly because I was doing so much Skype Calling was that battery life on the Galaxy is much shorter than on the Nokia – but I have been used to the  E63′s long battery life.

Searching around, I read that leaving programs running can draw more from the battery, I’m guessing that the processor is slowed down by the Android system when its not needed.  What I couldn’t find in the Android software, was a way of seeing what was actually still running.

To the rescue came ‘Task Manager’ from Rhythm Software, it can be installed free (add supported) using Google Market.

Task Manager will Show you all of the apps and running in your phone and let you shut them off all at once – you can mark apps you want to keep running, and these wont be listed next time you use Task Manager.

Another App I picked up from Google Market is ‘IM+ Lite’ its Instant Messaging Software, but importantly for me, it will talk to any Jabber/XMPP chat server, as well as Google, Live, Yahoo etc.. Using it, I can send commands to my Router-Hardware controller that uses a php chat client to listen for commands – more on that here.

After being used to having the qwerty keyboard on the Nokia E63, it takes me a bit of getting used to the touch screen on the Galaxy Portal.  My fingers seem to be the wrong shape and size

In the Android system however, you are not stuck with the keyboard software that comes with the phone.  I tried several different keyboard apps from the market before finding ThickButtons.  ThickButtons  cleverly watches as you type and after each key, makes the buttons it thinks you might be going to use next bigger!  This works very well – for me, so far, and I’m pleased, because before I found it, I was starting to  wonder just how long I would go before having to get a Android Phone with a ‘propper’ keyboard.

Even if your fingers are the right shape and size,  you might want to check out the ThickButtons app to see if it increases your typing rate.

Both the hardware I’m using and the Internet Services available.

When I first looked at using the sweex router for hardware control, access to the router from the Internet meant opening a port on your router, and running a web server.

But today, it is possible to use a chat server somewhere on the Internet to make the link between you and your devices – or your devices and each other!

There is also Openfire a Java Chat / Jabber server that will run on just about any server you can install a Java SDK on.  Run this at one site (opening the necessary firewall ports), and you can have two way communication with hardware at any other net connected site.

As Soon as I get the time, I’ll be writing up how to flash the router from scratch with stock openwrt midge  and control its i/o ports using a Jabber / Chat client on an Android Phone.

After upgrading the RAM to 512Mb, I tried to get several versions of linux – including the latest Ubuntu – to install, each time, the X server failed to run and once booted, the Imac refused to access the built in cdrom leaving me to continue the install from an external usb drive.

Then I tried a debian iso from http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r5/powerpc/iso-cd/, I used :- http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r5/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-40r5-powerpc-xfce-CD-1.iso

Hopefully, the xfce environment will suit the lower power of the old G3 platform.

As the installer ran, it recognised and continued to use the internal cdrom – it also saw the firewire as a possible network – full marks!!

Since then, I’ve mostly been using it as a spare terminal to access the openvz server – with both ssh and vnc clients.  its quite up to the task although in terms of speed, even the eeepc beats it!

I also have the pulseaudio package on it – allowing it to become the sound output for any linux system – virtual or physical – that also runs the pulse audio system.

Its happy to play mp3 files stored locally on its hard drive using Rhythmbox.

It boots quite quickly, so I keep it to one side of the desk for those times when I need an extra terminal.

The I2C Remote Control refused to work.  Reading the analog pin on the PIC 16F876a seemed to work a couple of times after startup but failed after that.  It looked like the power to the 5v rail was still too low.

As I had allowed myself a slightly longer cable, it seemed reasonable that a combination of this and 78L05 were causing the problems.

I ditched both the 78L05s and wired in a 5v 2A PlugPack adaptor that used to run a Wifi Bridge – plenty of power!

Still the 16F876a processor refused to talk consistently to the I2C.  I checked that the bus was indeed working by plugging in the little i2c eeprom module I tested the original I/O bus with.  That worked no problems.

Looking at the I2C details on the www.sunspot.co.uk site and others, I wondered if the I2C pull ups were anything to do with the problem.  I was using 4k7 and I saw others using values as low as 2k2.

Substituting a pair of 2k2 resistors solved the problem, however, the 5v line dropped below the 5v mark.  Increasing them to 3k2 brought the 5v rail back to just under 5v and the PIC continued to talk to the I2C bus.

Lesson:  be prepared to tinker with the I2C pullups etc. when using different line lengths and slave devices.

When I tried to open the case, I found that the wires to the Scart Plug had melted themselves into the plastic base of the router!

Router Case After the Wires 'Moulded' Themselves to it.

I thought ‘perhaps I had drawn too much power through the wires’, but the marks at the top of the picture are from the wires to the LEDs.

I guess the problem is a result of a chemical reaction between the soft plastic of the base and the rubbery style insulation used on the black wires from the ‘cheap’ scart splitter.

I notice that the scart to scart leads with coloured wires inside seem to be made with a different insulating material.  I’ll have to re-wire, (using one of these) as when I pulled the wires from the base, several of them left a good portion of insulation behind.

The following program requires an update to the PIC I2C Slave software to set PORT B to output and the Remote Control On/Off lines connected to PORTB 0 and 1.  A 0v Line is also required between the two.  I continue to run the Mains Remote Control unit with its own 12v Battery although, the 12v supply to the router could also be used.

The following Blassic (Basic) program sets up the Router I2C software to talk to the PIC and then inputs “On or Off” from the console.  If the Response is On, PORT B0 is set high for a few seconds.  If it is ‘Off’, PORT B1 is used.

Here is the Program Listing

     10 REM Remote.bas
     11 REM Test The Mains Remote Control Via I2C
     12 REM Input On or Off then Switch the Plug On or Off
     14 REM Needs Update to PIC I2C software to Set Port B as Output
     20 REM
     30 REM I2C Control
     40 I2CAddress=34
     50 I2CData=35
     60 PIC16F876=46 : REM Address of Our Chip
     70 REM Commands
     75 PortB=1
     80 AnalogRead = 4
     90 PortA1Invert = 5 : REM Invert A1
    100 REM Begin
    105 INPUT "On or Off ",a$
    106 IF a$ = "On" THEN OnOff = 1
    107 IF a$ = "Off" THEN OnOff = 2
    110 POKE I2CAddress,PIC16F876 : REM Address the chip
    200 POKE I2CData,PortB : REM we are sending port be some data
    210 POKE I2CData,0 : REM ensure PortB All off
    220 POKE I2CData,PortB
    225 POKE I2CData,OnOff : REM Bit 0 = A1On, Bit 1 = A1Off
    230 GOSUB 800 : REM Delay long enough for the Remote Xmit
    240 POKE I2CData,PortB
    250 POKE I2CData,0 : REM and Stop Pressing Remote Buttons
    300 END
    800 FOR x=0 TO 4000: NEXT : RETURN
Ok

Update:
I was setting PORT B to 03 to turn off the power switch, ( B0 and B1 both HIGH) in error, the above code now only sets PORT B1 HIGH.

I also was getting random result trying to use a Blassic program to control the PIC 16F876a/Mains Remote from inside a shell script. That turned out to be a power problem, I’m only using a low power regulator for the 5v rail. This supplies both the USB Memory Stick, an LCD Display and the PIC Processor. When the USB Memory Stick is accessed, the power dips enough to reset the PIC Processor.

As the LCD Display was not needed for the Power Remote Control, I simply unplugged the display from the bus and the reduced power load allowed the rest of the systems to function.

I will now add a second 78L05 to the router and use that to power the bus.