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This is my first Arduino POV project. POV – Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision

Put simply; it’s a programmable sign. You can have it display any message or picture you set. We are basically flashing the 5 LED lights in sequence while a motor turns the lights around. Because the arm is moving at speed you are seeing the lights 20 times per a second in differing sequences tricking the eye into seeing it as a banner.

Displaying the Message "MICROED"

Aim of the Project

Put simply, its a programmable sign. You can have it display any message or picture you set. We are basically flashing the 5 LED lights in sequence while a motor turns the lights around. Because the arm is moving at speed you are seeing the lights 20 times per a second in differing sequences tricking the eye into seeing it as a banner.

Parts List

1 x Arduino Compatible Processor (I used a KitTen from freetronics only $26.95 AUD http://www.freetronics.com/products/kitten)
5 x SMD LEDs or 5 x LED
5 x 1K Resistor
1 x 8 pin 90-degree locking header

Battery, LEDs and Arduino Mounted on the propeller ready for testing

1 x 40 pin terminal strip
1 x 9v Battery Clip
1 x 2.1mm dc power line female connector
Connecting Wire (I used an old IDE Cable)
2 x Small PCB Board
1 x Ruler or suitable board for arm
1 x Small DC Motor (used Tape Player motor)
1 x 9v Battery
1 x dead 9v Battery for counterweight
Suitable Base (old CDROM)

Tools

Soldering Iron
Hot Glue Gun (my best friend)

Technical Background Required

Some basic understanding of electronics and Programming can be handy but not necessary.

Assembly

Take an old IDE cable and split off 6 wires.

Mount your LED’s on one of the small PCB boards. If you use SMD tape then you can simply cut the strip up and stick them on the board.

Solder a piece of cable across the negative side of all the LED’s and then the other connecting leads for the positive sides of the LEDs.

Solder the other end of the cable to the 90 degree locking header.

Now take the other PCB board and solder the 90 degree header on one end of the PCB and the terminal strip to the other end of the PCB board.

Solder the Terminal Strip to the other side and other end of the board.
Solder the individual resistors.

Solder your 9V battery clip to the DC power line connector.

The Base and Arm

Hot Glue a suitable DC motor to the CDROM unit (or any suitable heavy base).

Hot glue your battery, Arduino board and LED’s to your ruler/arm.

Hot Glue the arm to your DC Motor.

You may need to counterweight one side of the ruler/arm to prevent vibration; an old 9v battery is suitable. To check you have counterweighted the arm correctly turn the project on its side and the arm should balance out parallel to base. If one side falls then you need to adjust your counterweight.

Testing

Connect your LEDs to your Arduino using your newly created LED interface board, Plug the interface board in so that the terminal strip connects from pin 2 on the interface board.

Use the LED_Test code to test that the LED’s are firing correctly. LED_Test.pde

The LED_Test program simply cycles through each inpidual LED so that you can check that everything is working correctly.

Displaying a Message

If the above test has been successful then you are ready to display your first message.

Try loading the POV_Banners.pde sketch into your Arduino.

I made use of the character generator by DanielJA (nice simple concept)

Improvements to be made…

The addition of a hall sensor would allow me to steady the text and control the scrolling and prevent it scrolling backwards but unfortunately that is going to have to wait for another rainy weekend.

Many of these infections disguise themselves as genuine AntiVirus programs such as Microsoft Security Centre which in some cases makes it very difficult for the user to identify.

The ultimate goal of these attacks are to do you out of money. Many people unknowingly provide their Credit Credit details only to find that this doesn’t remove the infection and in some cases makes it worse and they are then coaxed into upgrading to the “Pro” version which costs even more.

AntiVirus companies are working frantically to protect people from this infection but there are so many variants are being released that they are typically one step behind the attackers.

Fake AnitVirus 2011

Our advice is:

• Make sure you are protected by a paid and well known AntiVirus subscription such as ESET or Trend
• Surf Smart – stick to well-known sites
• Don’t click on advertising links or anything that looks gimmicky
• If you see an AntiVirus alert that appears to be fake then simply click on the X in the top right hand corner of the browser. Don’t respond to any of the prompts on the screen
• If you appear to be infected then seek professional advice

Further reading:
http://www.zdnetasia.com/lizamoon-continues-to-plague-sites-62208229.htm
http://community.websense.com/blogs/securitylabs/archive/2011/03/31/update-on-lizamoon-mass-injection.aspx?loc=interstitialskip

The automated evacuation recommendation came through about 11am by SMS and we started to move out but all roads north,south,east and west were closed so we decided to sit it out until the water went down far enough to leave through a backroad.

Flooded Caboolture-Morayfield Road Video

Last week the Northern Times ran the following article on the SCAM

If you are contacted by scammers then we advise shutting down your machine and seeking advice.

To report an incident please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Tech Support SCAM - Northern Times Jan 7 2011.

Sphinx later changed names to OzTech before finally merging with MicroEd.

MicroEd recently turned 27 making it one of the longer standing IT companies in Qld.

• CPU:
  • Intel Atom N455 Processor (1.66GHz, 512KB Cache)

• Chipset:
  • Intel NM10 Express chipset

• Memory:
  • 1GB DDR3 667 MHz

• Display:
  • 10.1” LED Multi-Touch Panel (1024 x 576)

• Integrated Graphics:
  • UMA

• Storage:
  • 32GB Solid State Drive

• Audio:
  • 2.1 Channel Speakers
  • Azalia Codec Support
  • Built-in Microphone

• Connectivity:
  • 10/100Mbps LAN
  • WIFI b/g
  • Bluetooth

• Camera:
  • Built-in Web Camera

• G-Sensor:
  • Orientation Direction
  • Screen Rotation

• Light Sensor:
  • Ambient Light Sensor for Auto Adjustment of LCD Backlight

• Operating System:
  • Windows 7 Home Premium

• I/O Ports:
  • 1 x Line Output
  • 2 x USB 2.0
  • 1 x DC-In
  • 1 x Combo HDMI Connector for VGA and RJ45 Adaptor Port
  • 1 x Micro SD Card Reader

• Battery:
  • Internal 3 Cell
  • 4.5 hours Battery Life

• Case:
  • Full Aluminium Alloy

• Dimensions:
  • 267 x 173 x 8~17mm (L x W x H)

• Weight:
  • <900g

In Store Now!

Once the scammer has remote access to the computer they can basically do anything to the machine including the installation of key logging and identity theft scripts which can pass on personal information including bank and credit card details.

The scammers generally then show the customer the so called “infections” and offer to fix the problem for a fee of approx $49 AUD. The scammers generally then take payment and run a cleanup script which covers there tracks including wiping the event logs and browser history. There is no infection for them to clean up because the system was never infected in the first place.

Microsoft will NEVER , EVER initiate a telephone call or e-mail to anyone indicating their computer is infected.

If you are a victim of this scam then I suggest you disconnect your computer from the internet and contact your local computer technician. I recommend having your data backed up and the whole system wiped. The scripts they install to steal your information aren’t necessarily seen by Internet Security as a threat. They function as legitimate programs and without attention these programs will continue to send private information.

UPDATE: 06/10/10
Today we had another 2 customers called by the so-called Microsoft Support team in relation to a virus on their machine.

It appears that the Scammers get their legitimacy by taking the customer to the command prompt CMD and then type ASSOC. This will list the file associations on your computer. They then read you the last digits from this association.

.zfsendtotarget=CLSID{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062}  which is the same on everybody’s machine.

When this is read out the customer is lead to believe that this is legitimate and they begin to trust the scammer.

A Government warning has now been issued in relation to this scam: http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/792165

UPDATE: 20/12/10
We are now getting almost 2 cases reported a week.

Here is a Microsoft warning about the scam. http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/msname.aspx

My Advice to any victim of this attack: Have the data on your machine backed up. Contact a technician and have the system wiped. There is no telling what has been done to the machine and its not worth the risk.