Wednesday | December 26, 2007

We Changed Our URL!

Hello,

below is a short overview of important hacks and info we collected in the past:

Mic Do-It-Yourself Tutorials:
http://touchmods.blog.com/2417006/
http://touchmods.blog.com/2420619/
http://touchmods.blog.com/2435157/

logos for the SIP-VoIP Application:
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/2007/12/25/logo-designers-thank-you/
skins:
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/skins/
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/skins-v11/
Sip-Settings:
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/sip-settings/
FAQ:
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/sip-voip-faq/
Walmart Mic Hack (ack:Uphi)
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/2007/12/26/the-tricj-with-the-walmart-ivoice-iii/

A little bluetooth hack for the iPod Touch:
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/a-little-more-magic/

The details for doing it yourself are in comment 13 and 32 here
http://touchmods.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/a-little-more-magic/

and finally the place of the Touchmods SIP-VoIP App is here:
http://touchmods.net

we decided to move to another blog, as our webside "touchmods.blog.com" was offline for the whole day of 25.December. From now on you can ALWAYS find us at Our new URL:

http://touchmods.net

Pls update your Bookmarks and tell everyone that from now on only touchmods.net leads to touchmods.net ;)

Regards,
The Touchmods Team
marian, eok, samuel
Posted by mrn at 02:05:09 | Permanent Link | Comments (10) |

Tuesday | December 25, 2007

The last Icons and Logos

'This is the last logo update. Now all logos should be online. Either in the previous post from Dec20, or below.

TOMORROW the best 5-10 logos will be chosen by our team and reposted in a new post. As we like most of the logos, these will be some hard-to-decide ones that we all would like to see on the Touch. Afterwards a voting will be started. And it wil be you who can choose the winner one. Hopefully everybody agrees with this option.

.. so pls find the latest logos below:


   

   

   

    

      


Regards!
the TouchMods Team

Posted by mrn at 00:24:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

Monday | December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!


Dear All,

we have prepared a little xmas gift for you today :-)

playfile recfile

the 2 command-line apps for recording and playback of wave files, that will be used as Audio basics for the future. Two files exclusively written for the Touch. They do not work on the iPhone. They support multiple audio sampling rates, just try them. There is no GUI yet, but if anybody is interested to use the code and to make a nice Audio Recorder, Player, Editor (that could play back while recording!!!) is welcome to contact us!

UPDATE : 9:12 PM CET

there is also a simultaneous playback-record function available, you can test it by downloading the executable, and invoking it by

./playrecfile existing.wav new.wav

"What is it good for?" you are asking. Imagine playing back a Metronome stream, while recording the drums. Then playing back the drums, while recording your piano, bass, guitar, flute. Imagine having the basics for a multitrack recorder. Imagine a studio in your pocket with 16GB flash storage!!! Yess, we are looking for GUI developers. And we are willing to do the cables and guitar preamps ;)

We would also like to emphasize that from a technical point-of-view it proves our ability to reach full duplex audio while all other Apps (Nikotalkie/ Vnotes, etc) do not support it. That's a Milestone we just reached, folks!


First a little HowTo:
1. put the files inte the iPod's /Applications directory by using any scp tool
2. open a terminal on the iPod (if you do it through the PC you will need 
to ssh into your Touch) and do the following in the terminal:
   cd /Applications
chmod +x rec* play*

3. start the recording as shown:
./recfile test.wav
4. Check the file 
./playfile test.wav
5. try to transfer the wav back to your PC over scp and check its' quality. 
It is not too loud - we know- but it could be boosten in SW, 
as the quality must be ok!!! 

6. now you can also try to record while playback, existing.wav must exist!!
      ./playrecfile existing.wav new.wav
Ok, here is a recording sample to show you the sensitivity of the mic you build:


... and here it's amplified version (you can use Audacity -a free Audio Editor -
for example to do this amplification until we have it in the SW):


For the non-believers: the original wavefile recorded on the Touch 
and the amplified one. Pls note that there is almost no noise, meaning
that SW-based amplification is not a problem.


Ack: We would like to thank everybody for supporting us by donations, offering HW, SW and PR help and web-design! Thanks for your great work of making logos and your feedbacks on collecting the HW part numbers. Thanks for pushing us to the limits by showing your faith and exhortation!

Merry Christmas to everybody!!

The Touchmods Team:
Eok, Marian and Samuel
Posted by mrn at 14:48:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (14) |

Sunday | December 23, 2007

Headset - Brainstorming session nr.1

Hello!

we get mails everyday asking if a plug for a complete headset solution would be possible. Prabu, Jurgen, and at least 5 other guys keep pinging us about this idea. Well, I thought instead of replying all the mails regarding this topic .. maybe we can have our brainstorming session where the question comes from our (TouchMods) site and the answers and ideas are requested from your side.

What we want at the end is: "a headphone combination with 2.5mm plug..." - because there is also Mic and Speaker pins available..." This is used on a lot of mobile phones and you can buy the mic-headphone combination. The only thing you need is a amplifier and the 2.5mm receptable." MAYBE YES; MAYBE NOT!

What we
already know (almost for sure):
1) There is a little problem: the audio level on the Line-Out pins of the Touch is most probably not SW- adjustable, ie, it would need either the 3.5 mm JAck to be used for the headphones so that we can adjust the volume, or we will need a cable with a mechanical volume control that connects to the forementioned Line-Out pins. Even if it is doable:
2) we know that the LineOut pins are meant to be connected to an Amplifier input (with an imput impedance of (10k-100k)Ohm and not to a tiny speaker that has around (30-100)Ohms and therefore sucks much more current.

That lead us considering to use the 3.5mm Headphone out directly as speaker out, and the dock connector with a preamp as the place to plug in the wires of a headset- mic in case we use a headset.. But then we need a solution for the 2.5mm Mic/speaker Jack reduction for VoIP.. as two 3.5 mm jacks (the classial green and pink  - you know) and an extra Dock Conn would look a little strange...

Ok, here you go, we have the problem, we know what we want at the end, we just need to discuss how to make it. In case you come up with good ideas, you can be sure we will build the prototypes and publish a nice howTo soon.

Cheers, Marian

Posted by mrn at 23:46:21 | Permanent Link | Comments (38) |

The Touchmods Repository


Ladies and Gentleman, we have our repository online! Just open the Installer, Click Sources, then Edit, and add this below:

http://touchmods.net/rep.xml

You will then see a new Dir in the Categories list under the Install button called Touchmods, and an App inside. You can already pre-download this "Dummy Application" which prepares the place for the future SIP-VoIP App on your iPod Touch. This app has also just a temporary logo, which will be replaced by the winner logo soon.

On Silvester (New Years eve) at Midnight the only thing to do is then just to click on "Update" in Installer in order to get the FIRST FREE-SIP-VOIP Application for the iPod Touch.

Nice weekend!
The touchmods team.

Posted by mrn at 01:07:23 | Permanent Link | Comments (21) |

Saturday | December 22, 2007

What We Own You

... is these 12 pieces of Microphones. They will be sent to the guys who took the project seriously. They are exactly the same as the ones Eok and Samuel is using. Made acc. to the Do-It-Yourself Tutorial. Prabu, Chris and the others, you will get them soon. Thanks for your faith!




Further believers who want to support the Project may click on the "Donate" button at touchmods.net. Thnx.
Nice weekend to everyone. Mails will be not answered during the next days.

Regards, Marian

Posted by mrn at 10:00:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (10) |

Friday | December 21, 2007

Mic for the First Adopters


Dear All,

Thank you for your responses and tons of icons we received during the last night!! Let me emphasize once more that the intention of this whole project was not to make gainful money, but instead, to develop the knowledge base by exchanging ideas through an open-source HW/SW concept.

We recently learned that all our good intention has given wrong directions to some people for making money. We are putting huge efforts daily to keep the blog updated and to answer every of your questions, and the only thing we needed was a help to provide our SW developer with a device for testing and not to establish commercial advantage.

We should thank to all our donators for believing in this project and supporting us, however, we are unfortunately still very far from even to COMPENSATE the price of the extra Touch for our SW developer. But still we would like to KEEP OUR PROMISE and commitment for those who contributed ideas and financial support.

Therefore for those who did believe in this open-source TouchMod Mic project from the beginning and CAN NOT FOLLOW THE TUTORIAL to build the microphones by themselves, we decided to offer reliable and professionally manufactured Microphone samples at a fair price. These Microphones will be SMD -based on the basis of the 9812 IC. We would like to stress again that this idea is NOT to make money, but to protect the believers from unreliable sources of Microphones.

The plan is to construct 500 Microphones for the FIRST 500 requests received. By clicking here

RESERVE 1 from 500

you can easily get to the list of people wanting a Mic. Registration is simple, it just requires a valid email address.

If this target number is not reached before the deadline to release the VoIP SW, we could be forced to postpone the release of the SW. Pls understand that we need to make this step because others can JeoparDize all our efforts. Our intention is not to sell Microphones based on order, this 500 is meant for serious VoIP testers, as a HW basis simply needed.

We still would be happy if there are multiple Mic providers around the Globe, but until we are sure about their quality and the project is successfully launched, we do not want to take any risk.



Ack: Andreas .. the SMD constructor (nobody even try to use the jpeg for your product!)

PS1: When doing the "pre-ordering" thing, pls. give the title "1 from 500" to your email.
UPDATE: We have a simpler method: just click here: RESERVE 1 from 500
(Everybody who did register theough a email before is kept on the list - so you do NOT need to click again here. Thnx!)
PS2: Target price: 25-30 Eu based on your location.
PS3: Logo winner to be announced on 24.Dec.



Best Regards and nice holidays!
The Touch Mods Team

Posted by mrn at 22:32:05 | Permanent Link | Comments (32) |

NewS

Dear All,

We would like to inform you about the news regarding VoIP on the iPod Touch:

You can find a new Count-Down counter on our blog (www.touchmods.net), timed to the NewYear which is also the planned date of the SIP-VoIP SW RELEASE.

Soon there will be also a Repository published, which could be added directly into the "Installer". From that people can already pre-download a "Dummy Application" which prepares the place for the future SIP-VoIP App.

On Silvester (New Years eve) at Midnight the only thing to do is then just to click on "Update" in Installer in order to get the FIRST FREE-SIP-VOIP Application for the iPod Touch.
Then everybody can test VoIP-calling by plugging in the Mic and entering the ID provided by any SIP-Provider.

Best Regards,
The TouchMods Team: Eok,Marian and Samuel


Posted by mrn at 10:52:56 | Permanent Link | Comments (11) |

Thursday | December 20, 2007

Call for a Logo

Hello,

We are looking for a nice logo for our VoIP Applications for the Touch.
Pls send us your designs, ideas, proposals to the mail address below.


IMPORTANT: we are accepting only your own design.
Do not copy or reuse other logos, as we all can get into trouble.
You are responsible for the logo you send us.

You can also send us flicker, photobuck, etc links by clicking on "Comment" below.
The good-looking ones will be published on this page and then you can vote for them.
The vinner one not only will be used as the official Logo of the Touchmods VoIP App,
but its author will also get a free Mic".
We have 10 more days left

Pls, use images below the size of 100x100 pixels.
Also it would be nice if the logo would somehow contain "TouchMods" :)

Thank you very much!!
Cheers,
Marian


And the logos:

 

 














   









   
 



 





Thanks for everybody!! In case anybody's logo is missing, pls send a mail again.

Thnx, Marian
Posted by mrn at 12:32:29 | Permanent Link | Comments (15) |

Wednesday | December 19, 2007

iPod Touch Mic DMD : Do-It-Yourself : Part 2


This is the 2nd part of the Do-It-Yourself tutorial on building the external Mic for the iPod Touch.

Last time we finished the circuitry, and now as you check the Mic and see the one millimeter distance between its legs, you are saying: "noooo- waaaaay, I am rather adding a 3.5mm plug for (external mics and a headset)?"

Yess, ok, just check the photo below. What do you think the weight ratio between the Mic preamp and that big external cable is?


Roughly 1:10? And how heavy it is going to be when you plug in your headset plug? Not to mention when you start to pull that 0.5kg cable? You do not wanna destroy the Dock Plug of your brand new Touch, do you?! So, now that you know there is (almost) no other way but to add that beautiful tiny mic you anyway ordered, let's do it then!

12. Let's start by approving the fitting of the construction you made up to now. Try fitting it into the metal housing of the dock connector. (the image was made before the capacitor was added as we check it several times during the construction).




13. Fits? Well done. We are going first to connect the 3rd leg of the IC to that 15k resistor on the bottom. Then the next step is to connect the 6k8 resistor to the end of the capacitor (yellow on the image). And finally to connect the GND of the IC (leg 4) to the GND of the Dock (PIN 30 or 29).





14. Trick nr1 today: we are reusing one pin of the Dock Connector you removed as the future Gnd line of the Mic. Pls note the pin is shaped into an L-shape that exactly reaches the GND of the mic, but also does reach out behind the edge of the mic cylinder around 0.5 mm. This will not let the Mic fall out, even in hot situations. Add also a 10 mm wire to the "line-out" pin of the mic.



15. So Let's add the Mic! Connect the black wire of the mic to the Cap where it meets the 6k8 (4k7 or a little lower value) resistor.


16. Since the whole construction is going to be placed into a metal housing that is directly connected to the ground (remember), we need to protect the parts we connected up to now by plastic self-adhesive folia strips (from your paper-shops).


17. Ready? Close the whole metal housing, by keeping the mic wire between the bottom metal part (the bigger one) and the folia strips covering pin 4 of the IC. The mic should reach out just so-so!!!



18. Add the bottom plastic cover (there is a label inside saying "Bottom"), and the two plastic buttons as depicted on the image. Left and Right are the same.

19. Push the Mic GENTLY into his final position by keeping it away from the folia-covered IC legs. Now fix the mic GND leg with another folia strip. Good! We are close :)



20. Close the plastic box first without a glue, then glue the four corners and the edges next to the mic, and push it together. Here we go. After the glue part is done, check if the plastic buttons still work. If not, push them gently until the glue release them.

21. Plug in your mic, load VNotes that was sitting on your Touch since the first day you got it, and enjoy its Voice functions!!!



Ok, now, please, Donate a little, if you liked this tutorial, or you are thinking about supporting our Project. You may click on the "Donate" link at touchmods.net. Thnx.

Cheers, Marian
Posted by mrn at 01:41:44 | Permanent Link | Comments (33) |
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