Shortwave Radio Educational Kiosk

Hardware Requirements

This software was written to run on a ThinkNIC computer. Here are the specifications for this computer:

Cyrix PR266 processor (Intel Pentium compatible)

64MB RAM

4MB Flash Memory Disk

24x CD-ROM Drive

56K Modem

10/100 base T Ethernet

2 USB Ports

Keyboard/Mouse

Speakers

This software may work on other systems, but it hasn't been tested on them. It does not use many of the features of the ThinkNIC computer (such as Flash, modem, ethernet, mouse).

Software Requirements

Operating System - this software was written to run on the Linux operating system. It was tested on Linux kernel 2.4.17 but should run on other versions.

Other Software

XFree86 X Server

GTK+ 1.2.10 development kit

libtiff library

A C compiler like GCC

All development was done on a RedHat 7.1 system.

Building the Software

If you have all of the above libraries installed properly, you should be able to type make and it will build the software.

Running the Software

This program requires one command line argument. You need to pass the serial device name where your RX-320 radio is attached. For example, if your radio is connected to the /dev/ttyS0 device, the commandline would be:

shrek /dev/ttyS0

The software needs one TIFF image file to run. This image file is the image that will be drawn on the screen for the user interface. The TIFF file must be 800x600 at 32bit color. The location and name of this file is hardcoded in the shrek.h file. Change the name and location of this file as necessary.

This distribution includes one image file named generic.tif. It is in the image directory. The web site for this application should have other files. They weren't all included in this distribution because the files are very big. Here is the list of what you can download if you like:

wonderlab.tif	This software was written for use at the Wonderlab children's museum in Bloomington, IN. This image has their logo in the file.
generic.tif	This image looks similar to the above file, but does not include a logo or a place for a logo.
no-logo.tif	This image looks like the wonderlab image, but does not include a logo. You can put your own logo in this file.
no-logo.psd	This is a Photoshop 6 image that you can work with if you have the Photoshop 6 software.

You aren't required to use these images for your software. You can make it look anyway you would like. I encourage you to come up with new images. It would also be great if you could share them with others. Send your images to me and I'll include them on the web site for this software. If your fields for frequency, band, description, volume or spectrum aren't in the same location, you'll need to modify the SHREK.H file for the new locations. If you needed to modify that file, please send the modified file with your image.

This should get you started. If you have problems, I will do my best to help. If you stray from the above hardware and software requirements, I might not be able to help much. This is my first GTK+ application, so I'm not an expert. The RX-320 routines were written by A. Matland Bottoms. I want to thank him for writing them and letting me use them in my application.