The Atmel Studio IDE is a useful tool thanks to the comprehensive debugging support and management of project drivers via the Atmel Software Framework (ASF) – coming from a hardcore Vim advocate. One thing I dislike about IDEs is the fact they hide the make process from the user making it difficult to break a … Continue reading Building Atmel Studio ASF Project using External Makefile
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Simulink Embedded Coder offers an ARM Cortex-M support toolbox, which includes code optimisation for the MCU and QEMU emulation but lacks any S-Block drivers for the device. The lack of drivers limits the Simulink development to merely number crunching. You can create cevel blocks that execute external C functions but this requires separate source files … Continue reading Developing Simulink Device Drivers for ARM Cortex
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Continuing on from my Ambient Noise Level Indicator, I wanted to create an enclosure and make it stand-alone – not requiring a computer to do the processing. I ended up with a little device that converts noise amplitude to the light spectrum: Noise Crayon. The Ambient Noise Level Indicator used the MCU serial host Processing … Continue reading Noise Crayon – Noise Amplitude to Light Spectrum Converter
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The Raspberry Pi lacks a DAC but using the I2C bus, one can easily add a device like the 12bit MCP4725. The GPIO library wiringPi provides support for I2C devices, however, getting the MCP4725 working with it isn’t a simple as one might hope. The device is 12bit but the I2C protocol works on bytes … Continue reading Raspberry Pi DAC – MCP4725 with wiringPi
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PiJig Draft
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My laser cut binary clock, Wooden Bits, originally had no means to set the clock, other than at compile time. I later added a tactile button and ISR to provide this function (increment the time until the correct time is shown) but I wanted a way to tap into the extra features of the DS3231 … Continue reading Setting Wooden Bits via BLE and ESP8266
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Following on from adding support to wiringPi for the MCP4725 DAC, I wanted to add driver blocks to Simulink such that one could use them to create graphical models for the Raspberry Pi that could interface with the real-world – a workable alternative to expensive real-time targets. Using the S-Function Builder and some other user created blocks (which … Continue reading Simulink Raspberry Pi Driver Blocks
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I frequently find myself navigating ’round on my bike, juggling Google Maps precariously in one hand. I don’t appreciate the bulky handlebar phone mounts about so thought I’d make something to neatly integrate with the Garmin Quarter Turn mount… qt-iphone-stl
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Having recently bought a house, project time has been a bit thin on the ground. As a standard terrace house, the consumer unit and electricity meter were in the entrance hallway, exposed and looking a bit naff. I liked the look of the meter so I quickly created a box that allowed the meter to … Continue reading Nixie Tube Energy Meter
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My dad was impressed by my nixie tube energy meter project and expressed interest in his own. Unfortunately, the power inlet for his house was under the stairs and out of view, unlike mine in the corridor. Undeterred and with his birthday coming, I revised the design to be stand-alone with a remote sensor unit. … Continue reading Remote Nixie Energy Meter
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The Whitterm-220 (WT-220) is my latest project. It’s a clever terminal, in the sense that it aims to emulate the dumb terminals of the 80s but with the versatility of something produced now. The name comes from my inspiration for the project: failure to win a VT-220 on eBay. I decided it would be fun … Continue reading Whitterm-220 Clever Serial Terminal
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We needed a coffee table for our new house but had yet to find the right thing. I found this tired black circular table outside a neighbour’s house and was inspired to create a nice top for it.
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A need popped up at work for a data logger for various lab tasks. Quickly looking at the market, I failed to identify a lab tool for data logging (cheap, easy but powerful setup, remote access); something for researchers and scientists. I decided a Raspberry Pi with some input buffering would be ideal for the … Continue reading Raspberry Pi Data Logger with InfluxDB and Grafana
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Nixie Pipe is my interpretation of a modern day Nixie Tube – the cold-cathode vacuum gas-filled tubes from the 1960s. The project came about when I decided to make a clock for my kitchen, with specific requirement for an egg timer function! I’ve always wanted to make a Nixie Tube clock but having completed a … Continue reading Nixie Pipe – Modern Day LED Nixie Tube
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Considering my next project, I wanted to make an electromechanical display using magnets. I turned to the internet for inspiration and quickly came across Flip-dot displays; solenoid driven pixels. A good starting point for what I wanted to do, I looked further. I found a 900mm, 56×7 display on eBay from a bus salvager (who … Continue reading Adventures with Flippy the Flip-dot Display
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I had some of my Nixie Pipe displays showing air pollution data collected by the council, using a Python web scraper at an art trail and people seemed very interested and unaware of the data. I considered how good it would be to have live displays at the air monitoring sites for people to see, … Continue reading Is Bristol Choking – Air Pollution Web App
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