Digistump is the company behind the Digispark and DigiX and now their latest Kickstarter the Digispark Pro! They are a family owned company based in Portland, Oregon. I backed the Digispark Pro with the Beta Edition as the reward. This has to be one of the fastest Kickstarters I have backed as it was funded May 11th, 2014 and I received the Beta Edition June 22nd, 2014. Here are some pictures of the Beta Edition. Bottom center Digispark Pro The Digispark Pro Beta Edition comes with an extra “shield”. This shield has an 8×8 LED Matrix, joystick, LDR(Light Sensor), MAX7219 with socket to drive the LED Matrix, and all of the needed passives. All you have to do is solder …
DP Free PCB: Bus Pirate v3.8
A few times a week Dangerous Prototypes hosts a free PCB giveaway on various social networks. They also give away coupon codes to those who submit completed PCBs (from the giveaway) to use on another free PCB. It’s really an awesome way to practice soldering. I was able to do this with the XT IDE Disk Controller. Some time ago (days, weeks, months?), I finally redeemed my coupon for a Bus Pirate v3.8 PCB. I already have an older version from Sparkfun but I thought this would be a fun project and a way to get a newer DP version with microUSB. Plus, it follows their SOB standard PCB sizes. Also, I haven’t had any experience with a PIC. Unlike …
Live Raspberry Pi Power Usage!
Since the release of the Raspberry Pi, I have had one on my desk powered up. It’s my go to Pi that is always available on the network. It’s mostly running Python stuff and eXtplorer. After all this time, I have always wondered what it really costs to keep a Pi powered up 24/7/365. Then one evening, it dawned on me, I have the USB Tester why not use that? Doh! One thing lead to another and I realized why not log the serial output to the Pi itself. Using my existing Python code for logging motion to CosmXiviely, in one night, I could easily set it up to log the RPi power usage to the cloud. Pretty freaking sweet, …