There's a new batch of Rascals at the assembler right now. When they're ready, I'll be putting new, better software on them. In the Rascal tradition of alphabetized ailments, the new release will be called "Beriberi." (The last release was "Anthrax." Up next is "Cooties.…

There are a lot of small bits of news since the last update a couple of weeks ago. 100 Rascals at the assembler Last week, I sent a large box of components and bare PCBs off to the assembler-- over 10 kg in all. I'll get the first two Rascals…

On Saturday, August 11th, I drove down to Providence, Rhode Island for this year's Maker Faire. It lasted from noon until pretty late into the evening. The last two years, it's been outside; last year I had a table in the sun, which would have proved grueling even if I…

The most frequent feature request for the Rascal is, "It should do wireless!" I've avoided putting a wireless transmitter on the Rascal so far because FCC-approved wireless modules cost more than Ethernet, and wireless can be fiddly to set up, especially if you're new to boards like the…

I put the most recent batch of 20 Rascals up for sale earlier this week. These Rascals were hardware version 1.2 and had the final Anthrax release of the Rascal software. The batch sold out approximately 9 minutes after the announcement went out to the mailing list. There were…

The next batch of hardware is ready for testing! The pictures below show the latest batch of Rascal 1.2's that will go up for sale soon. Finally got Ethernet jacks After many weeks of waiting, the Ethernet jacks I needed to finish this batch of Rascals finally arrived. The…

The first release candidate for Anthrax is now available for download. This is basically a new collection of software for the microSD card in your Rascal. (All Rascal software releases are named after infectious diseases.) Anthrax should be compatible with all existing Rascals, though this release candidate has only been…

New hardware The new Rascal 1.2 hardware, which fixes the exasperating memory bug that doomed Rascal 1.1, has been running solid for the last few weeks. A new batch of Rascals has arrived from the assembler; as soon as they get Ethernet jacks soldered in place (around June…

(This is a pretty technical post, so if that's not your bag, the summary is that there was a problem with the last round of boards, so I'm making a new version that works. Back to the story.) When I got two new Rascal prototypes back from the assembler last…

Last weekend, I traveled down to Washington, D. C. to visit family; while I was there, I went to an open hardware event put on by Public Knowledge on Friday afternoon. The event was organized by Michael Weinberg of Public Knowledge. Cat Johnson has a nice discussion with Michael explaining…