A little while ago, it struck me that I was getting tired of explaining what FPGAs are and how they work their magic to those of my chums who — thus far — have worked only with microcontrollers (MCUs), so I decided to write a three-part mini-series of articles to offer as an introduction. As […]
FPGAs For MCU Guys And Gals Continue Reading
Intel has developed a first-of-its-kind self-learning neuromorphic chip – codenamed Loihi. It mimics the animal brain functions by learning to operate based on various modes of feedback from the environment. Unlike convolutional neural network (CNN) and other deep learning processors, Intel’s Loihi uses an asynchronous spiking model to mimic neuron and synapse behavior in a much
Intel Introduces Loihi – A Self Learning Processor That Mimics Brain Functions Continue Reading
In Part 1 of this series, we have reviewed solar cell performance, how to select and size the supercapacitor, requirements of supercapacitor charging circuits and charging IC characteristics. We will now use two case studies to illustrate these properties in detail. Case Study 1: Using a small solar cell indoors at low light, 100 lux,
This is the first post of a 3-part series about reading out an SMA solar inverter over Bluetooth and displaying some readings every few seconds. Long-time readers may remember the Solar at last weblog post from several years ago and the SMA Relay, based on a JeeNode v6. The Bluetooth readout code was derived from Stuart Pittaway’s Nanode SMA
SMA Solar readout – part 1 Continue Reading
Castellated Edges Castellations are small plated edges, typically used for making circuit boards into small pcb modules. These are often seen on wireless modules, such as the ESP8266-12E. While we don’t offer full support for castellations, they can be fabricated if you don’t mind a few minutes of rework and verification of the PCBs. Design
Castellated PCB Edges Continue Reading
Description I started this project two years ago but lost interest last year after being stuck with the custom board. I since got it working, and will share my findings. The idea is to control an old broken kindle 3 eink display with a FPGA. I started looking at http://essentialscrap.com/eink/waveforms.html and http://spritesmods.com/?art=einkdisplay since eink constructor
Build A FPGA eink Controller Using Arduino Continue Reading
Everyone playing with electronics these days knows about LED strips made of dozens or hundreds of individually addressable RGB LEDs. I love them and make great use of them in the nootropic design Lumazoid music visualizer. But what about incandescent lamps? Old-school light bulbs with a filament have a soft warm glow that you just
Individually addressable incandescent lamps Continue Reading
3D Printing became an important process in prototyping, and sometimes in manufacturing. But till now, the filament types available in the market are limiting printing colors. Although there are many multi color printers, printing a design in full color is still a dream. XYZprinting has announced its da Vinci Color printer, the world’s first full color
Da Vinci Color, The First Full Color 3D Printer Continue Reading
In this project you’ll create a standalone web server with an ESP32 that can toggle two LEDs using the Arduino IDE programming environment. If you want to learn more about the ESP32 dev board, read my Getting Started Guide with ESP32. First, watch the video demonstration below Preparing the ESP32 board in Arduino IDE There’s an add-on
ESP32 Web Server – Arduino IDE Continue Reading
Description Radioactivity is invisible and can be harmful to life. The goal of this project is to provide a simple device that could prevent cases of radiation poisoning. Professional radiation meters can be very accurate, but are also expensive, complex and fragile (most use vacuum discharge tubes made of glass). However in many occasions we
Open Radiation Detector Continue Reading
