Monday, February 16, 2015

Getting Line 6 POD Studio UX2 to work on Linux

I was blessed to have a friend who lent me their recording gear. Here's what I did with it =P

Seek and you shall find

Luckily, someone (Markus Grabner) wrote a driver for Line 6 devices on Linux here:
http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/4031
Their website is here: http://www.tanzband-scream.at/line6/
Note the link to the source code on that webpage is old - the latest should be v0.9.1beta not v0.8.1

Getting the latest version

Using svn to checkout the repo and make didn't work (I got a bunch of errors, possibly due to using svn to clone the repo causing the make command to create a bad revision.h file. I also got errors from driver.c

To get around the errors, I tried downloading the zip from sourceforge here:
http://sourceforge.net/p/line6linux/code/HEAD/tree/
(Click "Download Snapshot"). 

After that, just unzip, go to the "drivers" folder, "trunk" branch then $make and #make install inside that directory. Btw, for dependences, you need gcc, make, your kernel's headers (e.g. linux-headers-generic), and alsamixergui + pavucontrol (for later).

Here's a nice article about ./configure, make and #make install. http://www.codecoffee.com/tipsforlinux/articles/27.html

Plugging it in

Now for the harder part, thanks to bkmfs2 on the line6.com forums in the 1st link of this post we have:
#Then you have to find your soundcard with:
cat /proc/asound/cards
#This tells you how your Line 6 device viewed by the computer ('hw:' number).
#Replace 'hw:1' with whatever shows up for your sound card when you type:
alsamixergui -D hw:1
#You HAVE TO turn the 'monitor' slider all the way down or things will crash (unless the 'svn' site has a newer version that fixes this).
#Just so you know, the thing is a little volitile but I was able to use my Line 6 UX2 with jack-audio with (so far) dependable success.
#Just F.Y.I., I bought a M-Audio MobilePre the other day and it works right out of the box.

I didn't have to get alsamixergui to select the device to control - I use Audacity and it allows you to switch between devices.
My favourite audio setup/control tool on linux has to be pavucontrol although I couldn't use it for audio in and I could use Audacity to select the hw2:0 device for recording, letting me record.

By using the monitor turned up to 100% in the alsamixergui, I was able to hear the input from my mic, albeit quite distorted. It obviously was more clipped when I turned up the "phones" dial and/or turned up the monitor signal from aslamixergui. This is mentioned in 4.3.5 of the driver doc manual PDF (from Markus Grabner's Tanzband-scream.net website), but I haven't been able to fix it yet. The PCM audio works phone though, using the computer to play to the phones without clipping.

I decided to get the full experience dual-booting into Windows and using POD farm (didn't want to set up WINE/VM as I was short on time and didn't want to troubleshoot any errors that would come up). However, I didn't have time to do that either (only effectively had one afternoon) so I just stuck with recording in Audacity on Linux.

Yes, this means you might get to see some art/annihilation related projects released soon showcasing the results.




This week in space & tech

http://www.space.com/28539-spacex-earth-space-rocket-photos.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/02/12/this-new-tesla-battery-will-power-your-home-and-maybe-the-electric-grid-too/

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/hiro-drone/

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0209/NASA-names-crew-members-for-2016-space-station-missions-video

http://ideas.ted.com/18-companies-driving-the-new-space-age/

http://www.charitywater.org/blog/wanna-build-your-own-sensor/

http://scottkerman.imgur.com/

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150128-space-2020-what-happens-next

http://tass.ru/en/non-political/776758

http://spacenews.com/earth-pelted-by-more-than-600-large-debris-items-in-2014-nasa-reports/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2948421/Why-sun-sad-Giant-filament-turns-solar-surface-giant-sad-face-emoji.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/ohio-energy-inc/2015/02/drones-seen-as-boon-to-monitoring-energy.html

http://gizmodo.com/this-camera-is-going-to-hell-and-will-send-us-pictures-1685227698

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/11/successful-test-for-europes-mini-shuttle-prototype/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/science/on-third-try-deep-space-climate-observatory-launches.html

My personal live launch watching pics:
































http://www.space.com/28515-orbital-atk-merger-private-spaceflight.html

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/02/ohio_wesleyan_university_profe.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-virgin-galactic-long-beach-20150212-story.html


Sunday, January 4, 2015

This week in space & tech - linkdump; AND SPACE JOBS IN AUSTRALIA WOO!!

Personal updates:
Read Scrum & XP from the trenches - nice practical examples in a 'book'.
Read it as study for my exam - I can see CIG has implemented the manual acceptance testing as the PTU with testers not part of the team =)


http://www.space.com/28110-christmas-in-space-astronauts-celebrate.html

http://www.space.com/28117-james-webb-space-telescope-assembly-practice.html
-prototyping implementation in practice

http://aviationweek.com/blog/list-long-your-arm

http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/missing-aircraft-flight-tracking-data-streaming-back-agenda

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ceres-dawn-nasa-spacecraft-dwarf-planet-asteroid-20141230-story.html

http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/30/7470743/nasa-mars-opportunity-memory-loss

http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/30/7424343/nasa-kepler-telescope-rescue-mission-search-for-planets

https://www.deutschland.de/en/news/theory-of-relativity-under-test

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1671257/motion-detector-could-help-discover-microscopic-life-forms-distant

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20150101000065&cid=1204&MainCatID=12

http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/31/tesla-hints-at-automatic-wall-charger/
solid snake "For realz" xP

Russia launches 38 times to deliver 80 satellites, being the country with the most launches in 2014. More (not so up-to-date) info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_in_spaceflight
Also, SpaceX scrubs the planned year for future launches in their manifest: http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php (since they don't usually fulfil the planned # of flights for the current year).

http://qz.com/281619/what-it-took-for-elon-musks-spacex-to-disrupt-boeing-leapfrog-nasa-and-become-a-serious-space-company/
old but nice history lesson =P They're hoping to add the 1st people ever to land a reusable 1st stage on a floating platform soon (this year, as close as this next launch) =)

http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/the-elon-musk-interview-on-mars/ More Elon Musk 

Lastly, how SpaceX can disrupt the industry when they demonstrate a landing of their 1st stage (obviously)!
http://qz.com/320177/2015-will-be-the-year-of-spacexs-reusable-rocket/



And WOW! YES! I think I just found the 1st space related job in software/electronics that I'm really interested in, in Australia! Too bad I ain't graduated yet. >.> Still, makes me psyched for work and motivated to learn/work hard seeing there are these opportunities in Australia!
Albeit a academic job/employer ... See: http://hr.unsw.adfa.edu.au/_form/index.php

Here's some quotes just in case they pull the job postings off that webpage in the future.
Professional posting:
School of Engineering and Information Technology

Flight Software Engineer – Spacecraft R&D

Ref: SEIT 30626
Salary:
  • Level 6: $75,373 - $80,406pa (+17% super)
  • Level 7: $82,672 - $89,477pa (+17% super)
As a member of the UNSW Canberra spacecraft team, the Flight Software Engineer will lead and manage the development and participate in the software-and-hardware-in-the-loop testing of the on-board flight software and ground control software for single and multiple spacecraft cubesat-class flight missions.
For additional information about this position, please contact Russell Boyce on (02) 6268 8056 or email R.Boyce@adfa.edu.au.
Downloads:
(5 year - Fixed term)
Applications Close: 9:00 am on 12 January 2015
Important: Before you apply, please have ready your Application (addressing the Selection Criteria) and your Resume, combined into a single DOC, DOCX or PDF file no greater than 5MB, as this will be required for uploading when you have completed the online application form.


And another professional posting:
School of Engineering and Information Technology

Spacecraft Project Lead

Ref: SEIT 30627
Salary:
  • Level 8: $92,416 - $104,126pa (+17% super)
  • Level 9: $107,408 - $113,971pa (+17% super)
As the lead of the UNSW Canberra spacecraft flight team, the Spacecraft Project Lead will provide the overall systems engineering and technical leadership and management for the design, development, acquisition, integration, testing, launch, operation and decommissioning of cubesat-class satellites and satellite formations. This is NOT a broad banded position, please see the PD for more details.
For additional information about this position, please contact Russell Boyce on (02) 6268 8056 or email R.Boyce@adfa.edu.au.
Downloads:
(5 year - Fixed term)
Applications Close: 9:00 am on 12 January 2015
Important: Before you apply, please have ready your Application (addressing the Selection Criteria) and your Resume, combined into a single DOC, DOCX or PDF file no greater than 5MB, as this will be required for uploading when you have completed the online application form.

And the academic position:
School of Engineering and Information Technology

Research Associate - Space Surveillance

Ref: RA SEIT(SS)
Salary:
  • Level A: $66,311 - $88,415 pa (+ 17% super)
As part of significant investment in a flagship research initiative, UNSW Canberra is developing the in-house capability to underpin innovative, routine and affordable in-orbit space research. This capability will focus on launches of cubesat-class spacecraft, initially single satellites but quickly moving to the development of distributed, networked experiments and sensors across formations or assemblies of such spacecraft. Please see the Information Sheet and Position Description for more details.
For additional information about this position, please contact Russell Boyce on (02) 6268 8056 or email R.Boyce@adfa.edu.au.
Downloads:
(5 year - Fixed term)
Applications Close: 9:00 am on 12 January 2015
Important: Before you apply, please have ready your Application (addressing the Selection Criteria) and your Resume, combined into a single DOC, DOCX or PDF file no greater than 5MB, as this will be required for uploading when you have completed the online application form.