Equipment List  

• HP NetBook PC
  • Parani SD1000 on USB serial port
  • Hyperterm 115200,8n1
  • Audacity
  • USB cable for USB drive for uploading data (USB-A to mini).
• McSTAR
  • Magnet on 'white spot' turns off the 5v supply
  • Keep magnet away from harddisk area (near white spot)
    

McStar Startup 

• Step 1 - connect USB serial and Bluetooth dongle to HP Netbook
• Step 2 - power up HP Netbook and login
  • Bluetooth dongle should toggle 'connect' LED
• Step 3 - Start Hyperterm.  Programs  --> Accessories  --> Communications  --> Hyperterm  --> McStar USBser 115200
  • 115200, 8n1, no flow, COM5
• Step 4 - remove magnet from McSTAR 'white spot'
  • If no activity, hit ENTER a couple of times and put magnet on white spot and remove.
  • Should see a boot screen, do not hit a key to stop autoboot
    

McSTAR Functional Test   

• Step 1 - in Hyperterm, after McSTAR has booted, login with by entering 'root'
  • JFFS2 message is harmless, but if login not seen due to JFFS2 message, hit ENTER a couple of times.
• Step 2 - cd /media/sda1 (USB harddisk connected to McStar)
  • List (ls) should show app dir
• Step 3 - 'cd /media/sda1/app/scripts'
• Step 4 - type 'date', then type 'date -s "Tue Mar 09 10:54:30 PST 2010"'
• Step 4 - start the McSTAR app './run_mcstar.sh'
  • Allow it to run until the first recording message comes out.   Say stuff, whistle, whisper, etc. every 10 seconds or so (data blocks vary from 2 to 20 minutes; typically 5 minutes).
  • After the first recording data message, hit Ctrl-c (terminate McSTAR data collection).
  • "Writing a new audio file D000000..." 

Verification

• Step 1 - after terminating run_mcstar.sh   In Hyperterm, change directories to the data directory.
  • cd /media/sda1/data
  • cd to the latest directory, then cd to R00000
• Find the file and transfer
  • In Hyperterm, Transfer  --> Receive File, use Zmodem (no crash recovery). Close
  • In hyperterm, tell McSTAR to transfer the file you recorded
• sz D00000
• On the HP Netbook, start Audacity

On Windows

• Project  --> Import Raw Data
  • Accept the defaults, and change 44100 to 48000

On a Mac

• File  --> Import  --> Raw Data...
• select file
• open file and accept default settings except Sample Rate - change from default value of 44100 Hz to 48000 Hz (sampling rate of McSTAR).
  

Hi Thom: I added a few things to the user manual, and tweeked the Wiki markup. Bill Posted by methane at Mar 10, 2010 11:54