Page 838 – Electronics-Lab.com

Your laundry is done!

Posted on 1 August, 20161 August, 2016 by mixos

Tinkerman @ tinkerman.cat tipped us with his latest project. It’s a laundry notification system that will message you when it’s finished.

I often forget my wet clothing in the washer and after a day they really smell… so I thought about monitoring my washer and get a notification in my phone when the laundry is done. An ESP8266 based Sonoff by ITead, current monitoring circuitry, a DHT22 (the washer is in the cellar) and a custom case. MQTT for messaging, Node-RED to manage messages and monitor activity and Pushover service to get a “Your laundry is done” message on my phone 🙂

Your laundry is done! – [Link]

Thunderboard React – A New BT 4.2 IoT Kit From Silicon Labs

Posted on 1 August, 2016 by Yahya Tawil

Silicon Labs recently introduced a new platform that enables users to develop their own sensor driven IoT application, this platform is called Thunderboard React and it’s for 29$.

Thunderboard contains Silicon Labs’ BGM111 bluetooth smart module connected with punch of sensors which are: Silicon Labs’ Si7021 relative humidity and temperature sensor, Silicon Labs’ Si1133 ambient light and UV sensor, Silicon Labs’ Si7201 omni-polar, hall-effect sensor and Invensense’s MPU-6500 6-axis motion sensor.

Silicon Labs also provides a mobile app for Android implanted in native code, and an iOS app implemented in Swift. The app streams sensors’ data to the cloud.

Firmware can be developed using Simplicity Studio v3 and C-SDK software stack from Silicon Labs.

[Product Page] [ThunderBoard-React User’s Guide]

RTL8710 Is a New ESP8266 Competitor

Posted on 1 August, 2016 by Yahya Tawil

In the last two years, ESP8266 was the Wifi Chip/Module which dominated the market of hobbyists, even a lot of commercial products use ESP8266, due to the low price, ease of use and large community around ESP8266.

RTL8710 is a Wifi network solution from the Taiwanese Company Realtek. It can operate independently, or as a slave to another MCU host. The same way of ESP8266.
RTL8710 has a built-in ARM Cortex M3 MCU at 166 MHz, 1MB flash and peripherals like UART, PWM, I2C, GPIO and PCM, a more detailed comparison is shown in the table bellow:

If you like to have a quick hands on RTL8710, then you can order a development board for RTL8710.

Via: cnx-software

IEEE Ranking for Programming Languages – 2016

Posted on 1 August, 2016 by Yahya Tawil

Are you an embedded system programmer? Checkout the rank of your favorite programming language according to IEEE Spectrum ranking. C language is in the first place for programming devices controllers, followed by C++, Arduino, then Assembly.

IEEE Spectrum has special methods to figure these ranks, for example they “measure the number of hits for each language by using Google’s API to search for the template (X programming)”, the page states, also using some statistical data from GitHub.

You can review The results in a dynamic way either using the overall ranking by IEEE Spectrum, or by making your own.

TFoC: FPGA & Forth = VGA

Posted on 1 August, 2016 by mixos

Here is a fun project, created from start to finish by Matthias Koch:

In itself, this is no big deal. The generated pattern is a 16×16 expanded pixel image, and 640×480 displays are pretty basic by now – although they’re fine for presenting text-mode information and retro games.

TFoC: FPGA & Forth = VGA – [Link]

Opto-isolated laser controller build

Posted on 1 August, 20161 August, 2016 by mixos

Scott Harden built his own opto-isolated laser controller and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly:

My goal was to utilize a free hardware output line to signal to a device that I build to modulate the laser in a special way. This way there would be no modification to any existing equipment, and no software to install. Further, since this hardware isn’t mine, I don’t like the idea of permanently modifying it (or even risking breaking it by designing something which could damage it by connecting to it). The specific goal is to allow the existing software to cause the laser to fire 20 ms pulses at 15 Hz for a few dozen cycles of 5s on, 5s off. It’s also important to have some flexibility to reprogram this firing protocol in the future if a change is desired.

Opto-isolated laser controller build – [Link]

App note: Solid-State Relays

Posted on 1 August, 20161 August, 2016 by mixos

Solid-state relays introduction from Vishay, (PDF)

MOSFET SSRs feature an optocoupler construction, but have a pair of MOSFETs on the output instead of a phototransistor. A pair of source-coupled MOSFETs emulate an electromechanical relay by providing bidirectional switch capability and a linear contact. No output power supply is required.

App note: Solid-State Relays – [Link]

MAX232: The classic IC lives on since 1988

Posted on 1 August, 20161 August, 2016 by mixos

by Len Sherman @ edn.com:

The June 23, 1988 issue of EDN included a Maxim Design News insert where we asked “Who in their right mind would choose a computer interface standard that uses ±12V supplies, requires expensive connectors, works over a limited distance, is error prone, difficult to network, and has no current loop isolation?” Yet, here we are 28 years later and the classic interface lives on, particularly in industrial applications and applications that need to connect just one peripheral to a host computer.

MAX232: The classic IC lives on since 1988 – [Link]

FARMBOT Open-source CNC Farming Machine

Posted on 29 July, 2016 by Yahya Tawil

FarmBot is an open-source CNC farming machine designed for small-scale precision food production. Similar to any CNC milling machine, FarmBot hardware employs linear guides in the X, Y and Z directions for tooling. FarmBot tools include: seeder, watering nozzle, camera, weeder and soil sensor.

FarmBot is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3, Arduino Mega 2560 and RAMPS 1.4 shield. All of FarmBot’s plastic components are designed to be 3D printed. FarmBot team have made a very detailed step-by-step assembly instructions, bill of materials and technical specifications for every part.

FarmBot is controlled and configured using the FarmBot web application, which looks like a game!.

[FramBot] [Documentation] [Github]

Mumai – Control Anything Using your Muscles

Posted on 29 July, 2016 by Yahya Tawil

Alvaro Villoslada designed an open-source muscle-machine to control any kind of electronic device through the myoelectric (EMG) signals. The name of this project is Mumai and it is published on hackaday.io.

“The Professional EMG systems are very expensive, cumbersome and complex” Alvaro said. And that is the problem which Alvaro tries to solve in this project. He aims to develop an affordable and open-source wearable wireless network of EMG sensors, that can be placed on any muscle to control devices, ranging from computers or smartphones to robots, using EMG signals.

Alvaro wants to equip each EMG sensor with an ESP8266 module to get the digitized signals and to send them wirelessly, forming what he called a Mumai node.

You can get all source files from github repository, including the PCB and schematic files. Alvaro uploaded an Arduino sketch file of an application for his project, which is a bruxism detector.

Finally, for more in depth information, “The EMG sensor used in this project is based on my MSc thesis, where more information regarding the design and operation of the circuit can be found” Alvaro said.

[Project Page]