Xmas decoration
"Winter drawers on", as they say. Xmas is almost upon us.In the light of my recent carpentry failure, I turned my attention to improving the electronics for my NeoPixel project. Nothing fancy here,...
View ArticleMultiplexing high frequency digital signals using a Parallax Propeller
While contemplating the Counter features of the Propeller chip, an interesting idea occurred to me. Since each "Cog" has it's own CTRA and CTRB counters, and given that they run at the system clock...
View ArticleFinished XMas tree decoration code
A few weeks back I finished the ATTiny85 code for driving a 16 NeoPixel Ring and all over the Xmas break it shone like a majestic beacon of festive cheer atop the Xmas tree. It looks lovely.Get the...
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New Project: Wind Tunnel
To my eternal shame I do not possess my own personal aerodynamics test laboratory. Remiss of me I know. But instead of frittering away several million quid on buying one I have decided to build one for...
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Wind Tunnel Project: Welding drinking straws
For the wind tunnel I need to bunch together hundreds of 2" sections of drinking straws to form the flow guides that will hopefully force the air flow to become approximately laminar. I thought about...
View ArticlePropeller Hacking: WAITPEQ timeout
Random thought of the day:If you're using either the WAITPE (or WAITPNE) instructions on the Parallax Propeller (P8X32A) chip then you can add a high resolution configurable timeout to it in the...
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Lighting rig for Photographing Paintings
My old man's a dustman an artist. He's rather good, and I suggested that we record his paintings for posterity in digital format.This poses a problem - how does one go about providing favourable...
View ArticleHome-brew Milling Machine Tacho
For my Clarke CMD10 milling machine I wanted to add a tachometer so that I could better judge the appropriate cutting speeds for various materials, rather than doing the whole thing by ear...
View ArticleAdding LM741 model to LTSpice
I find myself coming back to this page every so often when I'm playing with opamp models in LTSpice.http://jeastham.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/adding-lm741-op-amp-model-to-ltspice.htmlAnnoying how LTSpice...
View ArticleNew Hardware Project - "2048"
Many annoying things have occurred at once. My internet went a bit crap for a few weeks. My laptop decided that it would go on strike - permanently. Some other stuff that I won't talk about......
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2048 PCB layout begins
The schematic is pretty much done now, here's an early screenshot of the rough article...As you can see, there are a few 3D packages missing (the 4 tactile switches and the 16 neopixels). No...
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2048 game -- ergonomic rethink
A friend of mine pointed out that the large electrolytic capacitors on the 2048 game PCB design would interfere with the ergonomics when used by left-handed players. After some thought I figured I...
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2048 game -- Layout so far
Had a fun few hours playing with the routing of the game board. Top layer has all important signals and also contains the ground plane. Bottomside will be power plane and connections for the USB...
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2048 -- Nearly there!
Finished the routing for the most part. Still need to ensure my DRC is compatible with the OSH Park preferred settings. All that is left is to add some embellishments to the rear silkscreen. I'll...
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2048 -- Sketchup Pro nails it
It's great when things just work unexpectedly.Just now I threw together a rounded corner version of the board outline I want to use for the 2048 game in Sketchup Pro. That went without a...
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"2049" game PCB goes out for manufacture!
https://oshpark.com/The 2049 game (as I've now decided to call it) is the 3rd PCB job that I've sent to OSHPark.6 boards for less than £16 with free international shipping. In the past the boards have...
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Rocket Surgery!
I am a late-comer to Kerbal Space Program. For shame.Been playing it for a week or two now and just now I managed to successfully dock two hand-built vessels in LKO (low Kerbin orbit).To those...
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Knocking it out of the (osh) park!
www.oshpark.comMy "2049" game PCBs have arrived, a mere 17 days after I submitted the Gerber files!As usual they look awesome. The quality is top-notch and the gold plated copper on dark purple with...
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2049 Hardware Complete!
This is the finished board running the firmware that I originally wrote as an Xmas tree decoration...Looks better in real life than this photo would suggest :)
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Electric Imp - Weather Display
Found a much better use for the 2049 board - a simple, cheap weather forecast display...This picture shows an Electric Imp device delivering a 4x4 pixel image to the 2049 board from a server on the...
View ArticlePropeller - high frequency output using CTRA
Here's a quick example of how to provide a high frequency output on a Propeller's GPIO pin.Frequencies far above the actual CPU's clock speed can be generated with excellent resolution. In experiments...
View ArticleCasio 4723 (WVQ-550) wrist watch takes a CR1616 battery
Casio 4723 model watches (Wave Ceptor WVQ-550) require a CR1616 Lithium 3V coin cell.As that information seemed to be entirely absent from the internet I have secreted it here for all eternity.Get one...
View Article[Ada Example #1] Statically linking C code into an Ada program
The following is intended to be a simple "hello world" style example of how to call a C function from Ada code. I am using Linux (Debian Jessie, with the latest and greatest GCC v4.9.3 / Gnat v4.9.2...
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Homebrew VHF Band Pass Filter
I've recently resumed my interest in radio technology after seeing the "SDRPlay RSP" device featured on a popular electronics website. I bought one and then proceeded to be puzzled by the black magic...
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SDR on Android with DVB adaptor
SDR on an Android 5.1.1 phone (OnePlus 2) using an "ezcap DVB-TFM DAB" dongle.The app is called "RFAnalyzer" by Dennis Mantz, and is available for less than £1 (at time of writing) on the Google Play...
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