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Published: 15 Jun 12 15:04 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/41468/20120615/
A Swedish web magazine has released what it claims to be the best thing to happen to Swedish football in years: a scandalous and bikini-clad music video in support of Sweden at the Euro 2012 football championships.
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Panic broke out at a Gothenburg school on Friday evening as one man was wounded in a shooting which could be linked to a violent robbery that took place in the area on the same day. READ () »
A 15-year-old girl has admitted to setting up the Instagram account that caused hundreds of teenagers to riot in Gothenburg last year, but her 16-year-old friend has denied involvement. READ () »
Ice hockey World Championships co-hosts Sweden and Finland continue their long-standing rivalry on Saturday with a place in the gold medal match at stake. READ () »
The president of the Stockholm School of Economics, one of Sweden's most prestigious universities, has been forced out in response to a scandal over his hiring of a high-ranking official who'd been convicted of insider trading. READ () »
Sweden tops a list of countries that risk suffering a housing market crash, Germany's Commerzbank has warned, citing the slackening off of Swedish property prices as a harbinger of a potential downswing. READ () »
Sweden's once flourishing pharmaceutical testing industry has been decimated in recent years, suffering an 85-percent drop according to new figures that industry experts describe as "deeply troubling". READ () »
With Denmark tipped to win this year's Eurovision final, The Local's Patrick Reilly caught up with a few Danes who'd crossed the divide to be in Malmö for Saturday night's final. READ () »
Christopher O'Neill has asked Sweden not to grant him royal status, meaning Swedish Princess Madeleine's future spouse will technically become neither a prince nor a Swede. READ () »
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" I have recently become addicted to a website called Stockholms Källan. The site is an amazing treasure trove of historical images of Stockholm. You can search by names or locations to find old photos and documents relating to whatever you're interested in. This image is from a 1960's short film called "Ditt Stockholm" ("Your Stockholm"). It..." READ »


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1973 Dodge Challenger Pro Touring car. Extraordinary Cherry Red paint job looks great. Black custom interior with buckets and console with a floor... More
NICELY RESOTRED CHALLENGER RALLYE IN CEDAR RAPIDS IA 52404-4667 1973 Dodge Challenger Rallye. Powered by a strong running NOM 340 4 barrel with... More
This Challenger is of rare color option of Bright Red with a white full vinyl roof. The body paint is in great condition, showing... More
1973 Dodge Challenger in Excellent ConditionBlue Exterior PaintBlue and Red Leather Interior New 383 V8 Engine with 2200 Miles Automatic TransmissionRear Wheel Drive Power... More
E-bodies don't get much cooler than this 1973 Dodge Challenger. If you're more into driving and enjoying your Mopar muscle than debating the finer... More

subset: commoncrawl


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Research Spotlight
Imaging Hydrogen Evolution at Electrode Surfaces
JCAP scientists have developed a method to image the reaction kinetics of hydrogen evolution on an electrode surface. Using laser-scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy in conjunction with pH-sensitive fluorophores, the technique allows for quantitative imaging of pH gradients at electrode surfaces in water-splitting, solar-fuel generation systems. More
Predicting Photocorrosion Behavior
A method to determine the thermodynamic stability of compound semiconductors in aqueous solution has been developed by researchers in JCAP. Based on ab initio calculations, the approach allows for prediction of oxidative and reductive photocorrosion behavior in solar-fuel generation devices. More


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I specialize in economics enrichment for kids and love showing them how economics is fun and affects their daily lives! I am the author of a children's mystery book that teaches economics, and I am beginning a new position as an adjunct professor of economics for a four-year private college. In the past, I've taught in grades three through six. I'll be developing more products soon, so if there is a particular economic concept you need an activity for, please let me know!
Yet to be added
Yet to be added
I have earned an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a BA in English from Spring Hill College.


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Seven Bridges
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Contact Information
- 6 rooms.
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Hotel Details
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Jeroen Swart
If you want to show more output then blinking LED's, an LCD module is a good and usually affordable option. They come in different sizes, from 2 numeric-only digits to 40x4 alphanumeric dot-matrix modules. You can also get graphic LCD's, that range from modules with small resolutions (e.g. 122x32 or 240x128 pixels) to more professional LCD screens (e.g. 5" or 7"), but I will stick with alphanumeric LCD's for this post.
Most alphanumeric LCD modules are built around a HD44780 or compatible controller, so they all use the same interface. They are controlled using an 8-bit parallel port, some pins for handshaking (controlling the transfer of data over the parallel port), pins for controlling the contrast and backlight if available and of course pins for power and ground. The parallel port can also be used in 4-bits mode, sending the 8-bit data in two write actions. This saves I/O ports, but takes more time to update the LCD.
There is an excellent library available on codeplex (with a good introduction on the blog of the author) for controlling LCD modules. This library makes showing text on a display as easy as calling a Write method with the desired string. It uses a provider-pattern to allow for different connection scenarios, like direct on GPIO pins, using a shift-register or using an I2C expander. And if you want to use another scenario, you can add your own provider.
I have a 20x2 LCD module that I connected directly to the GPIO pins of my Netduino using the parallel port in 4-bit mode. The connections are made on a breadboard, because this makes it a little easier to put all the wires together. Below is an image of the result. The sample code provided with the library contains a link to a very helpful schematic on the Arduino website. Remember to connect the power on the LCD module to the 5V of the Netduino. 3.3V is not enough and will leave the LCD blank.
The library contains a simple example of how to use the library. It initializes the LCD, shows the obligatory "Hello world" and then enters a loop that shows the milliseconds since reset. Since I use the GPIO pins directly, I changed the provider in the example. The code I used is shown below.
public class Program { public static void Main() { // create the transfer provider, use direct GPIO provider // Initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins // Use wiring shown here http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/Tutorial/lcd_schem.png var lcdProvider = new GpioLcdTransferProvider(Pins.GPIO_PIN_D12, // RS Pins.GPIO_PIN_D11, // ENABLE Pins.GPIO_PIN_D5, // D4 Pins.GPIO_PIN_D4, // D5 Pins.GPIO_PIN_D3, // D6 Pins.GPIO_PIN_D2); // D7 // create the LCD interface var lcd = new Lcd(lcdProvider); // set up the LCD's number of columns and rows: lcd.Begin(20, 2); // print a message to the LCD. lcd.Write("Hello world!"); while (true) { // set the cursor to the first column on the second line lcd.SetCursorPosition(0, 1); // print the number of milliseconds since reset: lcd.Write((Utility.GetMachineTime().Ticks / 10000).ToString()); Thread.Sleep(100); } } }
Tags: .NET, C#, Micro .NET, Netduino, NETMF
Micro .NET | Netduino
In my previous post, I explained how I used the Adafruit motorshield to control a steppermotor. Since this shield uses a shift register, it needs a lot of I/O-actions. To control the steppermotor without a shift register, I put together part of the motorshield schematic on a breadboard. What remains is a single L293D with a few supporting parts, as shown in the schematic below.
You can put the schematic together on a small breadboard. Connect D0, D1, D2 and D3 to the corresponding ports on the Netduino. Connect all grounds to the ground on the Netduino, all the VCC to the Netduino 3.3V and the Vin to the Vin of the Netduino. The power of the adapter will be on Vin, powering the motor. The image below shows my result.
I changed the library for the motorshield, used in my previous post, to work with the schematic above. You can download it here. The library only supports steppermotors and it only provides support for single, double and interleave step-types. Pins D0 - D3 are used by default, but you can use any of the digital I/O pins by providing them to the constructor of the Stepper class.
The sample program that comes with the library download does the same as the sample program in my previous post: it initializes a stepper motor with 200 steps per revolution (or 1.8 degrees per step) and then repeats a few forward and reverse 360 degree rotations for each supported step-type. An example of initializing the motor and moving it forward is shown below.
Stepper stepper = new Stepper(StepperPorts.M3_M4, 200); stepper.Step(200, MotorDirection.Forward, StepType.Single);
But… does it increase the speed of the motor? Well, yes and no. For one motor it does, and for another it doesn't. The first motor I tested (200 steps per rotation; the one in the image above) runs at 1.36 rotations per second using the shield and at 2.46 rotations per second without the shield, so using the direct control almost doubles the speed. The second motor (a small one with 48 steps per rotation) runs at 5.68 rotations per second with the shield and at 4.04 rotations per second without it, so slowing the motor down by almost 30%.
Of course, the measurements are hardly scientific, and I only tested two motors. I ran each motor for 10 full rotations and recorded the time that took. I did this 10 times for each step-type and calculated the averages.
However, there are some issues with this approach at the moment. Running the step-loop at the highest speed doesn't move either motor one bit or they just shake somewhat. I had to put in a minimum wait-time of 1 msec after each step to get the motors to rotate. Another problem is the decrease in torque. I need to take a good look at the pulses that come out of the output-pins. Each part of the H-bridge is now controlled one after the other, instead of all at the same time (by setting up all the right output levels first, then providing them to the H-bridge all at once). I want to have a look at this, as soon as I can get my hands on an oscilloscope :-).
It's not really the result I was hoping for. I'm looking for a speed of about 50 rotations per second. I'm planning to use NEMA 34 motors, which can do that easily. I'm not yet sure what's causing the issues, but I do know that controlling the pulses directly with the microcontroller will not get me the high speed I'm looking for. One solution could be the use of an L297 chip. This is a steppermotor controller that turns two signals, a clock pulse (e.g. generated with PWM) and a direction signal, into the correct pulses for the H-bridge.
Next: working with LCD.
Working with steppermotors is a bit more complex then working with regular DC motors. Apply a voltage to a DC motor and it will rotate. With stepper motors, you need to apply that voltage in a specific pattern.
Instead of using a single coil, as in a DC motor, most steppermotors use two coils. The number of steps is determined by the number of magnetic poles on the rotor. Two common types of steppermotors are unipolar and bipolar steppermotors.
Bipolar & unipolar
A bipolar steppermotor is controlled by reversing the polarity of each coil in the right order. A more detailed description of how a bipolar steppermotor works can be found here.
In a unipolar steppermotor the two coils each have a wire connected to their center. It is controlled by providing power between the center and one of the ends. The center of the coils is always connected to ground. Applying a positive voltage to one or the other end of a coil has the same effect as reversing the voltage on a coil in a bipolar motor. A more detailed description of unipolar steppermotors can be found here.
Wikipedia provides a nice article on steppermotors, which also shows an animation of a steppermotor.
The picture below shows some steppermotors. These are all unipolar. The left and right motors are the same type.
Below are two more pictures of the insides of the steppermotor.
Since it takes some power to control motors, microcontrollers normally can't control motors directly. Transistors are up for this job, as I explained before. To be able to provide some extra power, darlington transistors are often used with motors instead of single transistors. A darlington transistor is a set of two transistors that function as one, but can provide a much higher current gain than each transistor by themselves. The image below shows the symbol of a darlington transistor. You can read more information about them on Wikipedia.
Steppermotors are controlled by applying voltage to the ends of each coil (the center taps of a unipolar steppermotor are connected to ground), so you'll need four (darlington) transistors. Such a set of transistors is called an H-bridge. You can make an H-bridge yourself or you can use an H-bridge chip. There are a lot of H-bridge chips available, like the L293D (handles 600mA), the L298 (handles up to 4A) or the ULN2004 (handles 500mA) to name a few.
Of course, you can also pick one of the motor shields available from stores like Adafruit or Sparkfun. I started with the motorshield from Adafruit. It consists of two L293D's and can control 2 steppermotors (or 4 DC motors). It uses a serial/parallel shift register (74HC595N) to control the L293D's with the least amount of I/O pins from the microcontroller. This is a nifty trick, although it makes the software a little bit more complex. It also takes more time to control the L293D's. Each bit of the shift register (8 in total) must be set on a single data-pin and each data-bit is moved into the shift register using a pulse from a clock-pin; finally the result is made available on the parallel outputs of the register using a latch-pin, resulting in a total of 25 I/O-actions. This does not have to be a bad thing, but it does take more time and therefore limits the maximum speed of the motor.
The image below shows the motorshield, stacked on a Netduino, with a stepper motor connected. Since the USB connection can't provide the power, I'm using an external power adapter.
Adafruit provides an Arduino library for the motorshield. I found a Micro .NET port of this library on the Netduino forums, but it wasn't working properly. You can download my version here. The microstep step-type (see below) still isn't working, my motor just wiggles. I don't think I'll need microstepping myself, so I'm not really in a hurry to get it working :-). If you do need it, let me know and I'll be glad to help. I also haven't tested the DC motor part of the library.
The library provides four types of step-behavior: single, double, interleave and microstep. The single step-type activates a single coil at a time; this is also referred to as 'wave drive'. The double step-type activates both coils at the same time; also referred to as 'full step drive'. Double stepping uses twice the power and provides more torque, although not twice the torque. The interleave step-type combines both the single and the double step-type, activating one coil, then two coils, then one coil again and so on; this is also referred to as 'half stepping'. Since each activation only makes a half step, this step-type requires twice the amount of steps to make the same rotation as the single or double step-type. The microstep step-type uses PWM (explained here) to have a finer control over the power supplied to the coils. Instead of simply switching a coil on or off, microstepping provides a sine waveform to each coil. This provides smoother rotation, but reduces the accuracy of the steps. As I mentioned, it's currently not working in the library.
The sample program in the solution initializes a stepper motor with 200 steps per revolution (or 1.8 degrees per step) and then repeats a few forward and reverse 360 degree rotations for each (working) step-type. Below is a short example of how to initialize a motor and move it forward.
I feel the shift register is limiting the speed of the steppermotor too much. So next, I will try to control the H-bridge directly, without the shift register.
Next: working with steppermotors, without the shield.
At work, we use a Kerio mailserver. To Windows Mobile and Windows Phone devices it looks like an Exchange Server, so you can add your account as an Outlook/Exchange account. Well, in theory. I tried this before, but wasn't able to add the account. I could create a POP3 account, but that left me with e-mail only, not my calendar.
Yesterday I tried again. With a colleague looking at the Kerio logging (thanks Sander!), we found why creating the Outlook/Exchange account on the phone was not working.
When creating the account you need to provide several settings, amongst which is the Domain. I simply assumed this should be the domain of the account (as in domain\username), like when connecting to a real Exchange server. Not so with Kerio. You need to provide the full domain of your e-mail address. So in the case of email@example.com, the Domain setting should be domain.com.
Tags: Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
I2C is a serial communication protocol, used for communication between IC's. It uses two wires: one for data (SDA) and one for a clock signal (SCL). For more details on this protocol, check this Wikipedia article.
The Netduino has one I2C port which is available on pin A4 (SDA) and A5 (SCL). The I2C protocol works as a bus, so you can connect more than one slave devices to the one I2C port of the Netduino. For the I2C bus to work properly, you need to add two pull-up resistors to pins A4 and A5, regardless of the number of devices connected to the bus.
For experimenting with I2C, I'm using two 'plugs' that I got from JeeLabs a while ago. A plug is a small board that is easily plugged into a JeeNode (an Arduino-compatible board). There are several plugs available, like an Analog Plug, a DC Motor Plug or a Gravity Plug. I have an I/O Expander Plug and a RTC Plug, which I will use in the code below. Most plugs only contain a single I2C chip and a few supporting components. So putting one (or more) I2C chips on a breadboard should be pretty easy.
For the examples, I created some classes that represent the I2C plugs: a I2CPlug base-class, an ExpanderPlug class and a RTCPlug class. All three classes are shown below. Add them to your project to be able to use the examples that follow.
public class I2CPlug { private const int DefaultClockRate = 400; private const int TransactionTimeout = 1000; private I2CDevice.Configuration i2cConfig; private I2CDevice i2cDevice; public byte Address { get; private set; } public I2CPlug(byte address, int clockRateKhz) { this.Address = address; this.i2cConfig = new I2CDevice.Configuration(this.Address, clockRateKhz); this.i2cDevice = new I2CDevice(this.i2cConfig); } public I2CPlug(byte address) : this(address, DefaultClockRate) { } private void Write(byte[] writeBuffer) { // create a write transaction containing the bytes to be written to the device I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[] writeTransaction = new I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[] { I2CDevice.CreateWriteTransaction(writeBuffer) }; // write the data to the device int written = this.i2cDevice.Execute(writeTransaction, TransactionTimeout); while (written < writeBuffer.Length) { byte[] newBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length - written]; Array.Copy(writeBuffer, written, newBuffer, 0, newBuffer.Length); writeTransaction = new I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[] { I2CDevice.CreateWriteTransaction(newBuffer) }; written += this.i2cDevice.Execute(writeTransaction, TransactionTimeout); } // make sure the data was sent if (written != writeBuffer.Length) { throw new Exception("Could not write to device."); } } private void Read(byte[] readBuffer) { // create a read transaction I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[] readTransaction = new I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[] { I2CDevice.CreateReadTransaction(readBuffer) }; // read data from the device int read = this.i2cDevice.Execute(readTransaction, TransactionTimeout); // make sure the data was read if (read != readBuffer.Length) { throw new Exception("Could not read from device."); } } protected void WriteToRegister(byte register, byte value) { this.Write(new byte[] { register, value }); } protected void WriteToRegister(byte register, byte[] values) { // create a single buffer, so register and values can be send in a single transaction byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[values.Length + 1]; writeBuffer[0] = register; Array.Copy(values, 0, writeBuffer, 1, values.Length); this.Write(writeBuffer); } protected void ReadFromRegister(byte register, byte[] readBuffer) { this.Write(new byte[] { register }); this.Read(readBuffer); } }
public class ExpanderPlug : I2CPlug { private const int ExpanderPlugAddress = 0x20; public enum Registers { IODIR, IPOL, GPINTEN, DEFVAL, INTCON, IOCON, GPPU, INTF, INTCAP, GPIO, OLAT }; public ExpanderPlug() : base(ExpanderPlugAddress) { } public ExpanderPlug(byte directions) : base(ExpanderPlugAddress) { SetDirections(directions); } public void SetDirections(byte directions) { this.WriteToRegister((byte)Registers.IODIR, directions); } public void Write(byte values) { this.WriteToRegister((byte)Registers.GPIO, values); } public byte Read() { byte[] values = new byte[1] { 0}; this.ReadFromRegister((byte)Registers.GPIO, values); return values[0]; } }
public class RtcPlug : I2CPlug { private const int RtcClockPlugAddress = 0x68; public RtcPlug() : base(RtcClockPlugAddress) { } public void Write(DateTime value) { byte[] dateBuffer = new byte[] { ConvertBinaryToBCD(value.Second), ConvertBinaryToBCD(value.Minute), ConvertBinaryToBCD(value.Hour), ConvertBinaryToBCD(0), ConvertBinaryToBCD(value.Day), ConvertBinaryToBCD(value.Month), ConvertBinaryToBCD(value.Year - 2000) }; this.WriteToRegister(0, dateBuffer); } public DateTime Read() { byte[] dateBuffer = new byte[7]; this.ReadFromRegister(0, dateBuffer); return new DateTime(ConvertBCDToBinary(dateBuffer[6]) + 2000, ConvertBCDToBinary(dateBuffer[5]), ConvertBCDToBinary(dateBuffer[4]), ConvertBCDToBinary(dateBuffer[2]), ConvertBCDToBinary(dateBuffer[1]), ConvertBCDToBinary(dateBuffer[0])); } private static byte ConvertBinaryToBCD(int value) { return (byte)(value + 6 * (value / 10)); } private static int ConvertBCDToBinary(byte value) { return value - 6 * (value >> 4); } }
As a first example, we'll toggle all the pins of the expander plug like the blink example.
public class Program { public static void Main() { // initialize the expander plug, setting all pins as output ExpanderPlug expanderPlug = new ExpanderPlug(0x00); // do forever... while (true) { expanderPlug.Write(0xff); // turn all the pins on Thread.Sleep(250); // make the pins stay on for 250 ms expanderPlug.Write(0x00); // turn all the pins off Thread.Sleep(250); // make the pins stay off for 250 ms } } }
You can use a LED (with a resistor in series) to test the level of each port as shown below.
Next, we'll configure all pins as input. You can connect any pin to 3.3V using a resistor and see how the value changes. For the most stable results, connect all the input pins to ground if not connected to 3.3V.
public class Program { public static void Main() { // initialize the expander plug, setting all pins as input ExpanderPlug expanderPlug = new ExpanderPlug(0xff); // do forever... while (true) { byte value = expanderPlug.Read(); // get the values of all the pins Debug.Print("value: " + value.ToString()); Thread.Sleep(250); } } }
For the final example I connected the RTC plug. A date is first written, then continouosly retrieved to show that the clock is running.
public class Program { public static void Main() { // initialize the RTC plug RtcPlug rtcPlug = new RtcPlug(); // write the current date/time to the clock DateTime now = new DateTime(2011, 7, 31, 15, 58, 0); rtcPlug.Write(now); Debug.Print("now: " + now.ToString()); // do forever... while (true) { // read the current date/time from the clock DateTime value = rtcPlug.Read(); Debug.Print("value: " + value.ToString()); Thread.Sleep(250); } } }
The Micro .NET Framework does have an internal clock and DateTime.Now does work, but it is reset to '01-01-2009 00:00:00' every time you restart the device. Since the Netduino doesn't have an on-board RTC, it doesn't know the actual date/time. You could use an RTC as shown above and change the current date/time by calling Utility.SetLocalTime once during the initialization of your program. If you really want to get the actual date/time (from an RTC) when calling DateTime.Now, you'll need to update the firmware.
Next: working with steppermotors.
A common communication protocol is RS232. This is a serial protocol, which uses two wires to transmit data in both directions one bit at a time. A port using this protocol is usually simply called a serial port, because it's one of the most commonly used protocols for serial communication.
Connecting two devices using RS232 can be as simple as connecting 3 wires between them: transmitted data (TxD), received data (RxD) and ground. It is also possible to connect up to 6 more wires, which handle the handshake part of the RS232 protocol. Handshaking is used to synchronize the communication between the devices: e.g. to let the other device know data was sent or it's ready to receive data. With 3 wires, and no handshaking, both sides must agree upon the details of the communication: the speed and the number of data-, start- and stop-bits.
What makes using the RS232 protocol difficult in standard digital electronics, is that the protocol uses different voltage levels. Instead of using 0V for a low level or '0' and using the supply voltage (3.3V or 5V) for a high level or '1', the RS232 protocol uses +3V to +15V to signal a '0' and -3V to -15V to signal a '1'.
The conversion of RS232 signals and voltage levels is such a common task, that special chips (like the MAX232 or MAX3232) are available to handle this. They even make -12V and +12V out of a 5V or 3.3V power supply. Another option is to use a USB to RS232 converter, like the FT232 chip. This chip presents itself (at its USB side) as a USB serial port to your PC, which is recognized by Windows and a driver is automatically installed. You then have a virtual serial port (usually COM3 or higher) which you can use as if it was a regular RS232 serial port. Whatever you send to this virtual serial port will be present on the RS232 side of the FT232 chip, in logical 0's and 1's, and vice versa.
When connecting two microcontroller devices (e.g. two Netduino's or a Netduino with an Arduino), there is no need to translate the signals. The appropriate ports of each microcontroller can simply be connected directly, or through any type of connector.
Another important thing to know is that the protocol was originally designed for computers and device communication. In this configuration the computer transmits over the TxD line and the device listens to the same line. When connecting two computers, or microcontrollers, to communicate with RS232, both are transmitting over the TxD line and listening on the RxD line. Therefore the lines must be connected across: TxD to RxD and RxD to TxD. When using the 'real' RS232 protocol, you can use a special null modem cable, where the TxD and RxD lines are crossed inside. When connecting without such a cable, e.g. between microcontrollers, just remember to connect TxD on one to RxD on the other.
If you want to know more about RS232, check out this Wikipedia article.
The microcontroller on the Netduino has 2 serial ports and both are available through the Netduino headers. Because my laptop has no serial port, I'm using a 'USB BUB' board. It's nothing more than a simple board with a RL232 chip and some supporting components. It's made by Modern Device, but I ordered mine from JeeLabs, together with some JeeNodes (an Arduino-compatible board).
To setup the hardware part of the example, connect the USB BUB to a PC with a USB cable. It will automatically install the necessary driver and show up as a USB Serial Port in the device manager as shown below.
The 'LOGIC LVL' jumper on the USB BUB should be in the 3.3V position, since that's what the Netduino is working with, but 5V will also work. Connecting the Netduino to the USB BUB takes 3 wires as shown in the picture below. The black wire connects the ground of both boards. The green wire connects the RxD of the Netduino (D0) to the TxD of the USB BUB. The white wire connects the TxD of the Netduino (D1) to the RxD of the USB BUB.
The D0 (RxD) & D1 (TxD) pins of the Netduino headers are connected to the first serial port of the microcontroller, or COM1 for Micro .NET as we will see in code. The second serial port, or COM2, is connected to D2 (RxD) and D3 (TxD) of the Netduino. The first serial port doesn't provide handshaking. The second serial port does provides handshaking (using CTS & RTS only), but you're not required to use it.
Below is the code for the Netduino. It sets up a serial port to use COM1 and adds an event handler for when data is received. When data is received, a single byte is read and send back as long as there is data in the buffer to read. You need to add a using statement for the System.IO.Ports namespace. If you want to use COM2 instead, connect the USB BUB to D2 & D3 instead of D0 & D1 and change SerialPorts.COM1 in the code below to SerialPorts.COM2.
public class Program { static SerialPort serial; public static void Main() { // initialize the serial port for COM1 (using D0 & D1) serial = new SerialPort(SerialPorts.COM1, 9600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One); // open the serial-port, so we can send & receive data serial.Open(); // add an event-handler for handling incoming data serial.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(serial_DataReceived); // wait forever... Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite); } static void serial_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e) { // create a single byte array byte[] bytes = new byte[1]; // as long as there is data waiting to be read while (serial.BytesToRead > 0) { // read a single byte serial.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length); // send the same byte back serial.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length); } } }
Next is the code for a simple console application. It uses COM3 which you might need to change depending on what your USB BUB is connected as; check your device manager. The application lets you type a string and sends it out. When data is received, it is shown. As with the Netduino code, you need to add a using statement for the System.IO.Ports namespace.
class Program { static SerialPort serial; static void Main(string[] args) { // provide some usage information System.Console.WriteLine("enter some text and hit ENTER."); System.Console.WriteLine("enter 'x' and hit ENTER to exit."); System.Console.WriteLine(); // initialize the serial port for COM3 (could be other port, depends on system) serial = new SerialPort("COM3", 9600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One); // open the serial-port, so we can send & receive data serial.Open(); // add an event-handler for handling incoming data serial.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(serial_DataReceived); // this will hold each line entered string line = string.Empty; // as long as an x is not entered while (line.ToLowerInvariant() != "x") { // read a single line from the console line = System.Console.ReadLine(); // convert the line to bytes byte[] utf8Bytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(line); // send the bytes over the serial-port serial.Write(utf8Bytes, 0, utf8Bytes.Length); } } static void serial_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e) { // wait a little for the buffer to fill System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100); // create an array for the incoming bytes byte[] bytes = new byte[serial.BytesToRead]; // read the bytes serial.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length); // convert the bytes into a string string line = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes); // write the received bytes, as a string, to the console System.Console.WriteLine("echo: " + line); System.Console.WriteLine(); } }
Notice how the code for initializing the serial port, sending & receiving data and even for converting of bytes to a string and back, is exactly the same for both platforms! How cool is that.
Next: working with I2C.
The Netduino Plus has an on-board SD-card slot. It is connected to one of the SPI ports of the microcontroller. Fortunately, you don't need to write code to control the SPI port yourself. The firmware handles this for you, so all you need to do is work with the classes from the System.IO namespace. Do remember that this is the Micro .NET framework and it is not as rich as the full .NET framework, but it does provide enough implementation for working with the SD card.
The root of the file system on the SD card is '\SD'. So, to get all the files in the root directory, you could do the following:
string[] fileNames = Directory.GetFiles(@"\SD");
And anything else is just as simple as that. Below is an example that shows all folders and files on the card. You'll need to add a using statement for the System.IO namespace to your code and a reference to the System.IO.dll to your project.
public class Program { public static void Main() { DirectoryInfo rootDirectory = new DirectoryInfo(@"\SD\"); RecurseFolders(rootDirectory); } private static void RecurseFolders(DirectoryInfo directory) { if (directory.Exists) { Debug.Print(directory.FullName); foreach (FileInfo file in directory.GetFiles()) { Debug.Print(file.FullName); } foreach (DirectoryInfo subDirectory in directory.GetDirectories()) { RecurseFolders(subDirectory); } } } }
If there is no card in the SD slot, the \'SD' directory will not exist. So check the Exist property before using the rest of the DirectoryInfo object. Using the object (other than the Exist property) if the directory it represents does not exist will throw an expection. If a DirectoryInfo object was already created, for an existing directory, and then the SD card is removed, an exception is thrown when accessing the object. Since removing a card is easy, you should write code that handles that possibility.
Oh, and do remember that the maximum SD card size the Netduino Plus can handle is 2GB. It is clearly mentioned on the Netduino Plus specifications page, but I overlooked it at first myself. When using a larger SD card, it will look as if no card has been inserted at all.
Next: communicate using RS232.
The Netduino contains several ports (A0 - A5) that are capable of reading an analog signal and changing it into a digital representation of that signal. These ports can be used for digital I/O as well, but can individually be configured to use an internal ADC (Analog to Digital Converter).
The analog signal at the ADC port can come from different sources. It can come from a sensor, e.g. for measuring light or temperature, or it is simply taken from a variable resistor, that is changed by a user to select some value (e.g. the desired intensity of a dimmed light). The analog signal is a voltage between 0V and 3.3V. The ADC converts this voltage to a number between 0 and 1023, since the Netduino has 10-bits ADC's. The number 0 represents 0V and 1023 represents Aref. The voltage level at any ADC port can be determined as follows:
float analogValue = (float)digitalValue * (3.3f/ 1023f)
In theory, you should divide by 1024, because there are that many steps. The maximum digital value of 1023 in that case represents a voltage between 3.2967 and 3.3V, but the formula would result in the lower value. In practice it is easier to divide by 1023, so a digital value of 1023 represents the full scale of 3,3V. And with ADC precision-errors and a Vref that's probably not exactly 3.3V, the result is pretty accurate.
The example uses port A0 and continuously reads the digital value and converts it to the actual voltage at the port using the previously mentioned formula. For this example connect a variable resistor to port A0 as shown below.
public class Program { private const int MaximumValue = 1023; private const float AnalogReference = 3.3f; public static void Main() { // initialize one of the analog pins AnalogInput adcPort = new AnalogInput(Pins.GPIO_PIN_A0); // do forever... while (true) { // read a digital value from the ADC int digitalValue = adcPort.Read(); // convert digital value to analog voltage value float analogValue = (float)digitalValue / MaximumValue * AnalogReference; // show the analog value in the output-window Debug.Print(analogValue.ToString()); } } }
If the default Aref value of 3.3V is not convenient, you can provide your own Aref at the corresponding pin of the Netduino headers. It must however be between 2.6V and 3.3V. To let the Netduino actually use the external Aref, you need to switch port 56 (on the board, but not available on the headers) to low:
OutputPort arefSelect = new OutputPort((Cpu.Pin)56, false);
To use the 3.3V again, switch port 56 to high:
OutputPort arefSelect = new OutputPort((Cpu.Pin)56, true);
Another way to convert the digital value of the ADC port to some meaningful value in code, is by using the SetRange method of the AnalogInput class. It allows you to set the minimum and maximum value returned by the Read method of the AnalogInput class. The conversion of the actual value to the range you have set is then done for you. In the example above we could have added the following line after the declaration of adcPort:
adcPort.SetRange(0, 3300);
The digitalValue can then be used as is, or divided by 100 to get the exact analog value:
float analogValue = (float)digitaValue / 100;
Since Aref can't be higher than 3.3V, no analog signal higher than 3.3V can be measured by a port directly. Any signal above Aref is read as 1023 and, if considerably higher, may damage the port. To solve this, use a voltage divider using two resistors as shown below. The voltage at the port is Ain x R6 / (R5 + R6). The values of the resistors in the schematic allow for a 5V input to be measured as 3V by the port (5V * 18k / 30k = 3V). You can change the resistor values to accommodate any input voltage, e.g. change R2 to 120k to measure up to 23V. Note however that, when the input value is increased in this way, the accuracy of the value read from the ADC does decrease accordingly. Instead of 1024 steps of roughly 0.003V to reach 3.3V full scale, the ADC will do 1024 steps of roughly 0.022V to reach 23V full scale.
Another trick shown here is the use of a zener diode to protect a port. A zener diode will not allow a higher voltage to pass then the voltage that it was designed for. I won't go into the detailed workings of a zener diode, but effectively it protects the port from any voltage higher than the zener voltage.
Next: using the SD card.
Tags: .NET, Netduino, NETMF, Micro .NET, C#
PWM (or Pulse Width Modulation) is a technique that basically allows digital circuits to control analog circuits. One of the applications for this is to control the speed of a motor or, as I will show you in a second, the brightness of a LED.
A digital port is either on or off. This is very logical, but not very helpful when controlling an analog device like a motor. The speed of a motor is usually controlled by varying the voltage: if you set the voltage higher, more current will flow and the speed of the motor will increase.
With PWM, the digital port is switched on and off really fast. The effective voltage for analog (DC) use is the average of the on and off levels and depends on how fast the port is switched. The time the port has been switched both on and off is called the period, the time the port is on is called the pulse and the time the port is on, relative to the period, is called the duty-cycle and is expressed in percentage. By controlling the width of the pulse, you control the effective voltage on the output. Luckily, most microcontrollers have one or more PWM ports. You only need to set the period, pulse and/or duty-cycle, and the microcontroller takes care of the rest.
This image shows a PWM signal with a 50% duty-cycle. With a supply voltage of 3.3V, like on the Netduino, this will result in an average output of 1.65V.
This image shows a PWM signal with a 25% duty-cycle. This will result in an average output of 0.825V when using a supply voltage of 3.3V.
The Netduino has 4 ports that are capable of producing PWM signals: D5, D6, D9 and D10. The PWM class is used to control one of these ports. It provides two methods to configure the port. With the SetDutyCycle method, the duty-cycle is simply set as a percentage. Passing 0 sets the port off all the time, resulting in an effective 0V output. Passing 100 sets the port on all the time, resulting in an effective 3.3V output. Passing 50 results in an pulse that's on during 50% of the period, resulting in a 1.65V output. The SetPulse method allows a little more control. The first argument is the length of the period and the second argument is the duration of the pulse, both in microseconds. So calling SetPulse(1000, 250), results in a pulse that starts every 1ms and lasts 0.25ms; the duty-cycle in this case is 25%.
In the simple example below, the LED is dimmed to a specific level. Since the on-board LED is not connected to a port that allows PWM, we need to connect a LED ourselves. This example will work with a LED & resistor connected directly as shown here, or using a transistor as shown here. The only difference is that you need to use one of the PWM ports. The code below is using port D5. Please note that for controlling anything other than a LED, you will need a transistor to provide a decent amount of current.
public class Program { public static void Main() { // initialize one of the digital pins (that support PWM!) for PWM PWM pwm = new PWM(Pins.GPIO_PIN_D5); // set the duty-cycle to a specific value pwm.SetDutyCycle(50); // wait forever... Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite); } }
In the example below, the LED is dimmed repeatedly from totally off to totally on and back again. It uses the same port and components as in the previous example.
public class Program { public static void Main() { // initialize one of the digital pins (that support PWM!) for PWM PWM pwm = new PWM(Pins.GPIO_PIN_D5); // we start with the LED off int dutyCycle = 0; // we start with making the LED brighter bool up = true; // do forever... while (true) { // if making the LED more bright if (up) { // increase duty-cycle dutyCycle++; // if we're at 100%, start making the LED less bright if (dutyCycle >= 100) { up = false; } } else { // decrease duty-cycle dutyCycle--; // if we're at 0%, start making the LED more bright if (dutyCycle
Another application for PWM is controlling servos, as are used in remote controlled cars and small robots. In this case the duration of the pulse controls the angle of the servo. The period is 20ms and a pulse of 1.5ms (duty-cycle 7.5%) puts the servo in the center or zero position. A pulse of 1ms (duty-cycle 5%) turns the servo completely to one side and a pulse of 2ms (duty-cycle 10%) turns the servo completely to the other side.
Next: using the ADC.
Controlling a LED directly using a port is fine in most cases, because a LED only requires a small current that can be supplied by the Netduino. But when controlling components that require more current (like high-power LED's, motors, relays, etc.) a transistor is needed. The transistor is controlled by a small current from the MCU and the transistor controls the heavy load. While transistors actually work as amplifiers, they can also be used as switches.
Transistors exist in a few main types, like bipolar (either NPN or PNP) or FET. For our purpose almost any popular bipolar transistor will work. For each main type, there are many different types to select from. Examples for NPN types are: BC547, BC548 or 2N222. Examples for PNP are: BC557, BC558 or 2N2907. I picked the BC547, a NPN type, and will use it in my example which will simply control a LED. You can use the source code from the blink example in the Netduino Getting Started document.
The schematic shows a LED, again with a resistor to restrict the current through the LED. They are connected to the collector of the transistor, while the emitter is connected to ground (or common or 0V). When the transistor is switched on, current will flow through the transistor from the collector to the emitter. This current will also flow through the resistor and LED, so the LED lights up. When the transistor is switched off, no current will flow and the LED remains off. Switching the transistor is controlled by a current through the base. The base is connected to a NetDuino port through a resistor. And yes, the resistor is there to restrict the current. Since the current is only needed to switch the transistor and not to light up the LED a small current will suffice. A high level (true) on the NetDuino port will cause a current at the base, which will switch the transistor on and the LED will light up.
The above is of course a simple (but working) example. Each specific transistor type (BC547, BC548, etc.) has its own specifications, although many can be used in a similar way or even as a replacement in a situation as simple as this.
Since the Netduino ports are at 3.3V, when set high and the base-emitter voltage is 0.7V (which is the case for most transistors), the voltage-span over the resistor is 2.6V. This gives a 0.5 mA current (I = V/R => 2.6V / 5.6KΩ = 0.46 mA) through the resistor and at the base.
A PNP transistor, like the BC557 below, can replace the BC547 in the schematic above. Although, because of the different behavior of the PNP transistor, the LED will be off when the port is high and the LED will be on when the port is low.
On a PNP transistor the collector is drawn with an arrow inwards. On a NPN transistor the arrow is outwards on the emitter.
Connecting the transistor
A transistor is almost always part of a larger circuit, as it is not much use by itself. The easiest way of putting such a circuit together with the Netduino is using a breadboard or a breadboard shield. If you want to know more about using a breadboard, there are lots of online breadboard tutorials.
To connect any transistor in the right way, you'll need to know which pin is which. The datasheet for the transistor of your choice will help you out. Just google/bing the type and 'datasheet'. Below is a part from the datasheet of the BC547.
Next: dimming a LED.
Tags: .NET, Micro .NET, NETMF, Netduino, C#
Theme by Codeblack
I'm a .NET Architect with Quintor in Groningen, The Netherlands. I work with .NET, C#, SQL Server, etcetera. I'm also involved in ALM using Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server.


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It's an organization billed as being no different from the Democratic National Committee. But its defenders say the group is seeking a bipartisan agenda, on behalf of the president. And it's going to raise a lot of money.
Welcome to the grey area inhabited by President Obama's post-election political organization, Organizing for Action. Its initials OFA are, of course, intended to harken back to the name given to the president's reelection outfit, Obama for America.
In response to questions about the president's upcoming speech to OFA donors and grass-roots supporters at a Washington, DC hotel Wednesday night, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the event is similar to an address to the various campaign arms of the Democratic Party.
"The president speaks to the DCCC, DNC, DSCC. He'll speak to outside organizations that have policy agendas and that's entirely appropriate," Carney said at the White House press briefing Monday. But Carney said the agenda the president is pursuing, is "inherently bipartisan"
Non-partisan government watchdogs groups have raised questions about OFA's purpose, noting previously published reports indicating donors who make large financial contributions to the group would have access to the president.
"I mean I would question whether donors of 50 dollars will have meetings with the president. I imagine they won't," said Lisa Rosenberg with the Sunlight Foundation, a D.C.-based watchdog organization.
"It's all these donors of 50,000 or 100,000 (dollars) or more that get invited to these meetings, so clearly it is not entirely the grass roots organization in reaching out to the public that the founders claim it is," Rosenberg added.
Recent public criticism of OFA's mission has drawn defenders from both inside and outside the gates of the White House.
Ben LaBolt, a former Obama campaign spokesman who is now advising OFA, told CNN the group's critics have "the wrong impression."
"Well the president isn't going to be doing one-on-one meetings with donors. He's not going to be sitting on the phone fundraising. His role with this organization is simply to speak to those grass-roots supporters who are organizing on behalf of his agenda," LaBolt said.


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As a senior at Bellevues Sammamish High School in 1980, Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna forecast his future. Go to the UW, join a frat, go to medical school. Enter politics, he wrote in a blurb for the student yearbook.
Not all that came true. McKenna never pledged to a fraternity, and opted for law school instead of medicine.
But McKenna did go on to be student body president at the University of Washington an early stop on his path to becoming the states most prominent Republican elected official and the partys best hope of capturing the governors mansion after a nearly three-decade drought.
His political career has come as no surprise to longtime friends and acquaintances. Even when he was a teenager, they saw the brainy Eagle Scout and student-government geek bound for big things.
Its really funny. We have always joked about him being president of the U.S. someday well get to go to the inaugural ball, said Julie Ellenhorn, a friend since McKennas high-school days.
Army officer's son
Robert Marion McKenna was born Oct. 1, 1962, in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, a latecomer son to a career Army officer father and schoolteacher mother. His two older sisters had been born more than a decade earlier.
As a military clan, the McKennas moved frequently. McKenna says he attended nine schools, including stints in Thailand and Germany, before the family arrived in Bellevue during his sophomore year in high school. They settled into a house just a few blocks from St. Louise Catholic Church, where McKenna later got married and attends to this day.
A skinny kid with neatly parted brown hair, McKenna found friends by joining the debate team and student government.
In 1980, he was elected senior class president. He hasnt lost an election since.
While friends said they dont recall McKenna ever bragging about someday running for governor or president, they always believed he had a bright political future.
He was a natural, said Lamont Langley, McKennas senior class vice president. It was an expectation like an athlete that is a superstar, you expect them to go on.
McKenna says he didnt have specific ambitions. He was attracted to student government, and later to politics, because I really liked being involved in the community. I didnt have a well-formed idea of what that meant.
While no athlete, McKenna hiked the mountains with the Boy Scouts and spent a summer clearing trails in the Wenatchee National Forest. He hung with a group of honors students who nicknamed themselves Space Cadets.
McKenna got his first job at age 16, working at McDonalds, a gig he brings up in his gubernatorial stump speech: Any job even flipping burgers is better than no job, he likes to say.
To earn his Eagle Scout status, McKenna organized crews of teenagers to clear out heavy debris and vegetation from the properties of elderly people. Just as he graduated from high school in 1980, tragedy struck.
His father, Robert E. McKenna, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, suffered a stroke and died within a few months. Entering the UW that fall on a Puget Sound Energy scholarship, McKenna abandoned the idea of joining a fraternity. Instead, he remained at home to help his mother, Bonnie McKenna, and commuted to class by bus or carpool.
Student government
Just as in high school, McKenna leapt into UW student government as a way to find a circle of friends at the big university.
By his junior year, McKenna was elected as a student body vice president. He ran for president the following year.
While student leaders had sometimes veered into protests of U.S. foreign policy and other hot-button issues, McKenna championed the basics.
He vowed to fight for quality education and against years of budget cuts and tuition increases issues echoed in his current gubernatorial campaign.
The Daily, the UW student newspaper, described McKenna as a stereotypical business student: He dresses conservatively in suits and ties. He speaks in a very matter-of-fact way, never beating around the bush.
McKenna won the 1984 race, defeating three rivals, including current Port of Seattle Commissioner Tom Albro and another candidate who ran as Mr. Potato Head.
As student president, McKenna won praise for professionalism and for successfully fighting increases in parking fees and football ticket prices.
Several longtime friends and acquaintances said McKenna has always approached problems as a policy wonk not an ideologue.
Its never been about partisanship; its always been about ideas and concepts and what works best, said Ken Troske, an economics professor and associate dean at the University of Kentucky, who knew McKenna in high school, at the UW and at the University of Chicago, where McKenna attended law school.
Although his college years came amid Ronald Reagans presidency, McKenna wasnt a fan. He voted for Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984.
In a 1985 Seattle Times profile, McKenna said hed been troubled by Reagans record on civil rights and Latin American policy, as well as his mix of religion and right-wing politics.
In a recent interview, McKenna said he later came to admire Reagan after reading a biography of the president during law school. He says hes voted for every Republican president since.
From his UW days, McKenna took away a loyal group of friends and political supporters, including Randy Pepple, his gubernatorial campaign manager, and Craig Wright, who worked on both his campaigns for attorney general.
During his junior year, McKenna also met his future wife, Marilyn, a history major. He really is who he seems to be: that really nice Eagle Scout kind of guy, she said.
The two were married a few years later. They now have four children.
On to law school
McKenna graduated from the UW in 1985 with degrees in international studies and economics. He applied to be a Rhodes Scholar but missed the cut.
Graduating from the University of Chicago law school in 1988, McKenna passed the bar exam and moved back to Bellevue, taking a job with the law firm Perkins Coie.
While working and starting to raise a family, McKenna immersed himself in civic affairs and Eastside Republican politics. He chaired the 41st District Republicans and worked on campaigns to elect Jane Hague to the Bellevue City Council and Dan McDonald to the state Legislature.
His prominence grew as he led fundraising campaigns for local schools and helped found Advance Bellevue, a training organization for community leaders. Soon, McKenna was being eyed by Republican talent scouts.
In 1993 McKenna was tapped to serve on a citizen commission drawing new district boundaries for the Metropolitan King County Council. Two years later, he ran for the County Council seat vacated by retiring Republican Bruce Laing.
Running as an early critic of regional light rail and tolling plans, McKenna beat out a crowd of GOP rivals for the seat. He took office at age 33.


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May 16 2013
May 14 2013
Call For Papers
Women of Color Beyond Faith: Freethought, Feminism and Social Justice
Editors: Sikivu Hutchinson and Kimberly Veal
Historically, women of color have been more religious than white women. According to the Pew Research Survey, at 87% and 85% respectively, African American and Latino women represent the largest and most committed group of believers in the United States. Women of color have long used the church as a vehicle for political organizing, coalition-building, social uplift, and personal growth. For many women of color, faith plays a huge role in therapeutic healing and emotional restoration. Bucking male dominated patriarchal institutions such as the Black Church, the Catholic Church, and Latino Pentecostal denominations, women of color have assumed leadership roles in faith-based movements. Progressive religious traditions have informed women's resistance to and complicity with the dominant culture; often providing a means of redressing the effects of racism, white supremacy, segregation, and economic injustice. The absence of alternative secular spaces and sites of political agency in communities of color is directly related to race, class, income, wealth, and geographic inequities. Because of these factors, secular community organizing has not been an avenue that women of color could pursue in any significant numbers. Consequently, there is very little documentation of early women of color freethinkers, atheists or humanists in the U.S. What little scholarship has been done focuses narrowly on the Harlem Renaissance and, to a far lesser extent, the civil rights and Black Power movement eras. While the work of Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, and Alice Walker offer rich insight into the world view of African American humanist women writers, Larsen and Hurston have virtually no contemporaries in either academia or the literary world. Nonetheless, women of color have emerged as some of the strongest voices in American atheism. This anthology will offer an important corrective to this lacuna. Going beyond basic questions of the challenges women of color non-believers face, it will articulate a vision of humanist social and gender justice that is firmly situated in the politics of anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, and anti-imperialism. The essays in this collection will address some of the following questions:
1. How do feminist and humanist social thought converge?
2. What is the historical scope of women of color secularism?
3. What are the historical tensions between white/European American feminism and women of color feminism, especially as they pertain to humanism and secularism?
4. How do women of color secularists coalition-build across lines of race, gender, sexual orientation and religion?
5. What tensions exist between women of color feminism, the Black Church, the Catholic Church and other religious institutions?
6. How can humanism be made culturally relevant and what does humanist education look like in K-12?
7. How can secular and humanist pedagogies redress institutional heterosexism and hetero-normativity?
8. What role do freethought, humanism and/or atheism play in articulating lesbian/same gender loving and queer women of color subjectivities?
9. What role do humanism and secularism play in reproductive justice in communities of color?
10. How can a humanist stance inform struggles against economic injustice and racial segregation?
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: September 30, 2013
For more information contact: [email protected]
May 08 2013
Over the past several years, the Right has spun the fantasy of colorblind, post-racial, post-feminist American exceptionalism. This Orwellian narrative anchors the most blistering conservative assault on secularism, civil rights, and public education in the post-Vietnam War era. It is no accident that this assault has occurred in an era in which whites have over twenty times the wealth of African Americans. For many communities of color, victimized by a rabidly Religious Right, neo-liberal agenda, the American dream has never been more of a nightmare than it is now. Godless Americana is a radical humanist analysis of this climate. It provides a vision of secular social justice that challenges Eurocentric traditions of race, gender, and class-neutral secularism. For a small but growing number of non-believers of color, humanism and secularism are inextricably linked to the broader struggle against white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism, capitalism, economic injustice, and global imperialism. Godless Americana critiques these titanic rifts and the role white Christian nationalism plays in the demonization of urban communities of color.
May 02 2013
By Sikivu Hutchinson
High stakes test question: A female science student conducts an experiment with chemicals that explodes in a classroom, causes no damage and no injuries. Who gets to be the adventurous teenage genius mad scientist and who gets to be the criminal led away in handcuffs facing two felonies to juvenile hall? If you're a white girl check Box A, if you're an intellectually curious black girl with good grades check Box B. When 16 year-old Kiera Wilmot was arrested and expelled from Bartow high school in Florida for a science experiment gone awry it exemplified a long American-as-apple pie tradition of criminalizing black girls. In many American classrooms black children are treated like ticking time bomb savages, shoved into special education classes, disproportionately suspended and expelled then warehoused in opportunity schools, juvenile jails and adult prisons. Yet, while national discourse on the connection between school discipline and mass incarceration typically focuses on black males, black girls are suspended more than boys of every other ethnicity (except black males). At a Georgia elementary school in 2012 a six year-old African American girl was handcuffed by the police after throwing a tantrum in the principal's office.[i] Handcuffing disruptive black elementary school students is not uncommon. It is perhaps the most extreme example of black children's initiation into what has been characterized as the school-to-prison pipeline, or, more accurately, the cradle to grave pipeline. Stereotypes about dysfunctional violent black children ensure that the myth of white children's relative innocence is preserved.
Nationwide, black children spend more time in the dean's office, more time being opportunity transferred to other campuses and more time cycling in and out of juvenile detention facilities than children of other ethnicities. Conservatives love to attribute this to poverty, broken homes, and the kind of Bell Curve dysfunction that demonizes "welfare queens" who pop out too many babies. Yet there is no compelling evidence that socioeconomic differences play a decisive role in these disparities.[ii] The fact remains that black children are criminalized by racist discipline policies regardless of whether they're privileged "Cosby kids" or are in foster care or homeless shelters. According to Daniel Losen and Russell Skiba, authors of the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Suspended Education" report, "ethnic and racial disproportionately in discipline persists even when poverty and other demographic factors are controlled.[iii]
National research such as the Southern Poverty Law Center's study and the Indiana Education Policy Center's 2000 "The Color of Discipline" report has consistently shown that black students do not, in fact, "offend" at higher rates than their white and Latino counterparts.[iv] Middle class African American students in higher income schools are also disproportionately suspended. This implies that black students are perceived by adults as more viscerally threatening. "The Color of Discipline" report found that black students were more likely to be referred out of class for lower level offenses such as excessive noise, disrespect, loitering and "threat."[v] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, "race and gender disparities in suspension were due not to differences in administrative disposition but to differences in the rate of initial referral of black and white students."
When it comes to black girls, the widespread perception that they are dangerous, hostile and ineducable is promoted and reinforced by mainstream media portrayals. Historically, black women have never been regarded as anybody's "fairer sex" because white women have always been the universal standard for femininity, humanity, and moral worth. On contemporary TV and in film, heroic white women abound as "new" models of bold, adventurous, breakthrough femininity. Writing on "women's" TV portrayals recently in the L.A. Times, Mary McNamara gushed about how the current crop of small screen female protagonists were complexly layered,
Apr 30 2013
by Frederick Sparks
"I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."
In case you hadn't heard, NBA journeyman center Jason Collins has declared to the world that he is a gay man. Collins entered the NBA twelve years ago, along with his twin Jarron, after the two played collegiate basketball at Stanford. He is being hailed as the first out active male athlete in a major professional team sport in the U.S. (though some may argue that late baseball player Glenn Burke was the first).
Collins says he was inspired to come out after his former college roommate, current Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy, marched in a Boston gay pride parade:
I'm seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy. I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn't even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator. If I'd been questioned, I would have concocted half truths. What a shame to have to lie at a celebration of pride. I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. I want to march for tolerance, acceptance and understanding. I want to take a stand and say, "Me, too."
The reaction across the twitter verse and blogsphere, with some exceptions, has been positive, with Kobe Bryant and other current and former players and coaches offering support. ESPN analyst Chris Broussard, apparently troubled by Collins' reference to his Christian upbringing and respect for Jesus Christ and how that fits into a viewpoint of tolerance and acceptance, stated (on a sports show) that Jason couldn't be a Christian and an "active" homosexual at the same time. Also, some seem to believe that the fact that Jason's twin Jarron is not gay means that homosexuality is a choice.
Collins is a free agent (meaning not under contract with any team), having done stints this season with both the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards. Now the question moves to whether his coming out will affect the decision making of team owners who would otherwise be interested in adding Collins to their rosters. Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who works for an openly gay team President, felt the need to point out that he is a Christian man with a sense of right and wrong before saying that Collins would be welcome on his team "if he had game. If he could help this team".
Beyond the reaction of people in the sports world, what intrigues (and annoys) me is the reaction of commentators who wonder why this is a big deal and throw out inane chestnuts about how straight people don't announce that they are straight. This is the blind spot of social privilege..not recognize that straight people quite often announce their sexuality in many ways (wearing wedding rings, referring to wives and husbands) that go unnoticed because it is the expected norm. It also smacks of the sentiment that the problem is not with bias, but with discussing bias, and with discussing issues of identity that are related to bias.
Apr 26 2013
By Sikivu Hutchinson
In all my years of "post-Jim Crow" public education no one ever handed me a book written by a black woman and said that what she wrote is universal truth. I was never told that so-called civilizations rose and fell on the power of her words, or that entire belief systems sprung from her ideas. I was never taught that the world's greatest intellectuals worked plantations, were herded onto reservations, or traveled everyday from barrios and "ghettoes" to keep white people's children. Intellectuals and philosophers—serious thinkers—were white men, with no need for a living wage job. They did not ride public buses or clean houses or go to schools where stop-and-frisk was a routine practice. They did not have to worry, like my students do, about being assigned to special education classes because they were chronic discipline "problems" or didn't speak "proper" English. They were never told that they would be more likely to drop-out and get pregnant than go on to a four-year college. These vaunted intellectuals and philosophers were certainly not seventeen year-old East L.A. girls like Paula Crisostomo, a Mexican-American Filipina activist who helped spearhead the Chicano student walkouts of 1968. As a student at Lincoln High School in East L.A. Crisostomo was influenced by social studies teacher Sal Castro, who recently passed away at the age of 79. Castro's fierce commitment to culturally relevant education inspired generations of youth social justice activism in the LAUSD. His guidance of Crisostomo and other youth leaders helped make the 1968 walkouts the largest high school student protests in this nation's history. Thousands of students boycotted their classes in protest over lack of college access, tracking policies, prohibition of Spanish in the classroom, and racist curricula.
I did not learn about the walkouts in high school. In the march of great Western liberal democratic traditions there were no textbook portrayals of the homegrown activism in our own communities or link between the apartheid legacy of the past and its echoes in the present. Instead, "social justice" history consisted of canned recitations of how Martin Luther King "led" the civil rights movement. Then, as now, many of us disengaged from these token classroom discussions because activism was framed as though it was a distant, hallowed phenomenon propelled by charismatic god-status heroes. Racism equaled the Klan, black people getting hosed down and spit at, black men being lynched, and the indignity of segregated water fountains. Racism wasn't the systematic sexual terrorism of black women in the Jim Crow South and the de facto segregationist North or the demonization of black women as welfare queen matriarchs. Then, as now, there was no room for analyses of sexism, racial apartheid, heterosexism, and patriarchy and how our lived experiences diverged from the corrupt pedagogy of the American dream.
Last year, Crisostomo came and spoke to a group of my students at Washington Prep High School in South Los Angeles. She drew parallels between the racism she'd encountered during the Vietnam War era and the de facto segregation of the Obama age.
Apr 22 2013
By Naima Washington
To be sure, many assumptions are made about atheists. Some of the assumptions about atheists are made by atheists, and African American atheists are among the easiest people to stereotype: we are all in the closet; and/or have one foot in the secular world and the other in a pew; and/or due to so many years of religious brain-washing, unlike white people, black people aren't authentic atheists. On March 28, 2013, I went to Austin, Texas for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the American Atheists. It is at secular meetings, large or small, where I try to meet every black person in attendance, and I was in for a secular surprise when I introduced myself to Laurie James, a beautiful, dreadlocked, fiery, unapologetic atheist. As a courageous truth-teller who defies all stereotypes, Laurie is both sensitive and uninhibited representing open-hearted, honest-to-goodness, Caribbean womanhood at its best!
Laurie studied and trained to be an evangelist, and no doubt evolved into a believer who apparently took no prisoners. Born in Jamaica, she arrived in NYC the divorced mother of four small children and recalls the loneliness of having no family members or friends in her newly-adopted country; she had no one but Jesus as most committed Christians would say. She recounted the endless time spent preparing her small children for the arduous journey to and from church, three times a week. Hurriedly making her way along the sidewalks, she'd push the double-stroller containing her two smallest children with one hand; and would pull along the other two children with her other hand. By the time she fought her way in and out of trains and subways stations, she'd finally arrive at church drop-dead exhausted only to have to reverse the process for the trip back home. This insane routine carried out three times a week clearly took a toll on all five of them, and although very much a believer, she continued making these treks until she just couldn't do it any longer.
Laurie's brand of theology also included faith healing. The majority of theists say that their gods can heal illness, yet at the first sign of a serious illness or injury, any praying that they do for healing takes place in their doctor's office! In Laurie's case, faith healing meant faith healing and there was to be no medical intervention. If someone was ill church members would 'gather in a circle around the person; pray, lay hands on the person' and plead to the gods for an intervention. If no church members were around, prayer for healing could take place over the phone. I've read stories about faith healing and all of them left me feeling depressed, but the unfortunate reality is that many people who practice faith healing coincidentally have little to no access to medical care. People with serious illnesses who don't receive medical treatment will experience tragic consequences regardless of their beliefs. Laurie nearly lost one of her children who had become seriously ill, and tragically members of her family died after receiving no medical treatment. Their deaths, extremely painful and probably preventable, have no doubt left her with horrific memories and permanent emotional scars.
Laurie abandoned both faith and faith healing less than three years ago, and her recollections struck me as both devastating and ironic because her tee shirt had the quote of one of her heroes, Madlyn Murray O'Hair: An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. But, some believers even at the moment they're
Apr 16 2013
"So much conversation regarding atheism and humanism gains no traction, and does little to push beyond areas of comfort and well worn arguments. Sikivu Hutchinson's work offers an important corrective to this. With clear and sharp insights, Hutchinson pushes readers to recognize and tackle the patterns of thought and action that limit any real ability to respond to issues of race, gender, and sexuality from a transformative and humanist perspective. Read her work, but fasten your seat belt first!"
– Anthony Pinn, author, African American Humanist Principles and The End of God Talk: An African American Humanist Theology
From Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels (forthcoming May 2013):
Christianity was one of the primary means by which African Americans learned the lexicon of becoming subjects through otherness. This is a uniquely American dialectic, borne of the soul-killing terrorism of slave ships, and, later, the plantation, a gulag awash in the new republic's corrupt gospel of individual liberty. When my students traveled to the California African American museum last year, they had a chance to see and imagine the terror of these spaces. They walked through galleries with floor-to-ceiling inscriptions chronicling the birth dates, family lineages, appearances, habits, and idiosyncracies of slaves. They marveled at the relevance and medievalism of the notorious Willie Lynch manifesto. Their blood ran cold at the military assemblage of black bodies in the slavers' hull. They stood mesmerized, contemplating the sheer number, weight, and scope of intertwined bodies, twinned in the endless sea voyage, hour after murderous hour. Enraged, many of them wondered how these obliterated ancestors made it out alive. How they resisted the gnashing white turbine of the sea and the urge to rise up against their savage captors.
Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs.
Olaudah Equiano, 1789
Later, in the classroom, we read Alice Walker on the spirituality of art-making. She wonders about the enslaved "genius" great-grandmothers denied the right to their own bodies. The space of the transcendent artist is that of the white male, the universal subject, the hero, the kingmaker, the muse chasing romantic. Their art hangs timelessly on museum walls funded by billionaires and corporations. Their art demands time, self-presence, self-possession, insularity, a privileged distance from the relentlessness of everyday life and the oppressive inconvenience of the body. The caricature of the masturbatory white male artist is one of the crazy booze swilling, dick swinging, T&A besotted libertine whose creativity is powered by testosterone and angst. Within the Western artistic canon, the woman exists to provide sex, inspiration, and succor, to be a pious sacrifice at the altar of male genius.
Mar 29 2013
WLP leaders on racism, feminism, school climate and media images of women of color in the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, "where TS writers talk with amazing women
scientists and skeptics about life, the universe, and everything. These three women are part of the Women's Leadership Project, a feminist service learning program in South Los Angeles. The WLP has been in operation since 2006, and helps encourage and guide young women of color in their own advocacy projects, including activism around race, gender, and LGBT equality. The WLP is sponsored by the L.A. County Human Relations Commission and the Gardena Healthy Start collaborative…http://teenskepchick.org/2013/03/28/teen-skepchick-interviews-jamion-janeth-eclasia/


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Multiple Lines of Evidence for an Old Universe
Astronomers have many different methods for measuring the age of various objects in the universe, and they all support ages of billions of years, not thousands. Even if the assumptions of one or two methods were faulty, it is highly unlikely that all of the methods would be affected.
Exploring Baby Galaxies with Charles Steidel
No one need ask: "Were you there?" Chuck Steidel has tapped into nature's own motion picture of past events, now showing in the present. Anyone who cares to view it can now see for himself what was and wasn't there, at various stages of the deep past.
Humanity as and in Creation
Christian theology asserts that humans are spiritual creatures, a unity of body and spirit or "soul," integrated, not reducible downwards to mere matter or upwards to mere spirit.
A Plea to My Shepherds
... I would exhort these, my fellow conservative evangelical shepherds and thinkers, to set aside all reticence and fear, emerge from anonymity, and storm the forum of discourse, engaging this most pressing matter with vigor, equanimity, and humility. In doing so, know upfront that there will be few handrails to guide; you will not be building upon an extensive precedence of published conservative thought.
Series: The Human Fossil Record
In this series, James Kidder provides an intriguing study on transitional fossils and the evolutionary history of modern humans. He begins by discussing the fossil record, explaining how new forms are classified. He then explains the physically distinguishing trait of humankind—bipedalism. From the discovery of Ardipithecus, the earliest known hominin, to the australopithecines, the most prolific hominin, Kidder focuses on the discovery, the anatomy, and the interpretation of these ancestral remains.
Series: It's an Old World After All
In our sixth BioLogos videocast, we take a look at the age of the Earth. We explain four methods scientists have used to determine that age: tree ring, lake varve, radiometric, and seafloor spread dating, and also offer some theological insight on how an old earth can fit with the first chapters of Genesis.
Willing to be Wrong
The debate is often not about evidence, but about making sure that others do not transgress our interpretive boundaries and insist that we're wrong. We've bitten from the tree of knowledge and we love its taste.
Series: Recent Discoveries in Astronomy
In this excerpt from the book Delight in Creation: Scientists Share Their Work with the Church, astronomer Deborah Haarsma shares her excitement about recent findings about our universe from a Christian perspective.
Series: Biblical and Scientific Shortcomings of Flood Geology
Gregg Davidson and Ken Wolgemuth seek to remove the stumbling block of the Genesis flood in this four part series. Though many believe in an ancient world-wide flood, the evidence given does not hold up to geological scrutiny, but points rather to something regional instead. It is their hope that Christians will not walk away from faith in Christ simply because a global flood is not supported by science. Looking at natural phenomena like the Grand Canyon, salt beds, and fossil deposits, they reveal reasons for these deposits and structures while showing that their origin did not stem from a violent flood that covered the planet.
Denisovans, Humans and the Chromosome 2 Fusion
The Denisovans, an extinct hominid group that interbred with modern humans, made the news again lately with the publication of a more detailed study of their genome. One of the many interesting findings was that the Denisovans share the same chromosome 2 fusion that modern humans have.
Being Human (Infographic)
The BioLogos Forum is pleased to present this infographic about the current anthropological understanding of human evolution, which takes into account research into both physiological and cultural developments among our ancient ancestors.
Hominids Lived Millions of Years Ago, but How Can We Tell? (Videocast)
This BioLogos videocast addresses the age of recently discovered hominid fossils and how scientists are able to obtain those dates.
Gracious Dialogue
Our desire to engage in gracious dialogue with fellow believers who reject biological evolution has been receiving increased attention in both the Christian and secular press. More importantly, we are being joined in this reconciling project by our brothers and sisters in Christ who have often been defined primarily as our "opponents".
Series: Science and the Bible: Concordism
In this series, Davis identifies core tenets or assumptions about the view of concordism, beginning with propositions about the Bible before concluding with a short historical commentary.
How Do We Know the Earth is Old? (Infographic)
The BioLogos Forum is pleased to present this infographic about the tools scientists use to determine the age of the Earth. The graphic, titled "How Do We Know the Earth is Old?", uses data compiled and summarized by geology professor Dr. Gregg Davidson.
The Questions Update: The Age of the Earth
We've recently been looking at the evidence for an old earth and the long history and vibrancy of this view among evangelical Christians. Today's post features a preview of the updated Question, "How are the ages of the Earth and universe calculated?" revised by Senior Web Consultant and Writer Deborah Haarsma.
What is the Higgs Boson?
At a press conference on July 4, 2012, and with 99.99994% confidence (5 sigma), CERN announced the discovery of a particle consistent with that of a Higgs boson (a.k.a. "the God particle"). This is very exciting for elementary particle physicists. But what is the Higgs particle, and what is its meaning?
Naming 'the God Particle'
The discovery of the Higgs boson would certainly be a breakthrough for particle physics and cosmology, but would such a finding also radically redefine theology's understanding of God or challenge the existence of such a deity? Is there actually any theological or religious significance in Higgs physics at all?
The Transit of Venus
Today we have a chance to witness a special moment in history as Venus transits across the disk of the Sun for people across the world to see. Not only is this process of discovery exciting for natural science, but it has profound theological ramifications as well.
Adam's Dream
While the specific "how" of our being made into the image of God will probably always remain a mystery, the Bible and creeds are clear on the "why" of our creation: we were made to worship the Lord, and be in relation with Him and each other.
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Dennis Rodman's ex wife has been granted a temporary restraining order after Dennis barged into her home demanding to see their 11 year old son...
The temporary order was granted after Michelle Rodman explained how Dennis came to her house at 2am, stinking drunk, demanding to see their son and then pushed her down after she refused.
Michelle says Dennis eventually left, but came back hours later asking to take their son out to breakfast. Michelle agreed, but tagged along and says Dennis proceeded to down 5 or 6 shots of Jägermeister and then began yelling about her new boyfriend,
"You're f**king this white guy!"
Back in March Michelle sued Dennis for $800,000 in back child support [click here if you missed that].


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7. | sweetheart | ||
a fella that acts soft That nicca is a sweetheart when his girl comes around.
1. | sweetheart | ||
Someone who's kind-hearted, nice, sweet, great person, personality, lovely to be around and just a great friend. "I like Joaquin, he's a real sweetheart."
2. | sweetheart | ||
Your lover, significant other, darling, or what ever pet name that you have for your sweetie.
A beloved person, be they family member, friend, or lover/life partner. Somebody who is very dear, sweet, and kind. Why should we be branded with a label because of our sexuality? We're lovers, sweethearts. "Sweethearts" was what we used among ourselves before "lesbian", "homosexuality", "queer", and "gay" really entered the picture. We didn't name it, we did it.
"Cara mia"- "my darling" "Mon cher"- " " "A ghaoil"- "O love" "A rúin"- " " "A leannain"- "Sweetheart" "Mo ghràdh"- "My love" "Cariad"- "Beloved" Etc etc. |
3. | sweetheart | ||
a completely adorable person that is always there to make you smile John Lewis is such a sweetheart ! i love him oh so much!
4. | Sweetheart | ||
the love of your life. sometimes someone who makes you smile. someone you kiss in a park I danced with my sweetheart on the rooftop.
5. | Sweetheart | ||
A line of sugared candies from the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) that are heart-shaped with short two or three word phrases, usually sentimental in nature, and are normally only available during the Valentine's Day season. The Sweetheart you gave me says, "Be Mine."
6. | sweetheart | ||
Youthful way of saying ignificant other "How long have you and Rebecca been together?"
"A long time. We were high school sweethearts." |