Another crowd sourced campaign completed! This one, from Indiegogo is called Nextion HMI, Human Machine Interface. This display offloads the UI elements, processing, and design away from your microcontroller. Nextion has an editor that you design your UI with drag n’ drop elements. Then your microcontroller just interacts with the display over serial to retrieve button press and other events. I believe this is similar to 4D systems but affordable. Sweet! Nextion in action. Image from Indiegogo. Here are some of the specs for the 2.4in. For details check Indiegogo or their site http://imall.itead.cc/display/nextion.html. 320 x 240 Resolution RGB 65K true to life colors TFT Screen with integrated 4-wire Resistive Touch Panel Easy 4 pin interface to any TTL Serial …
openHAB and Colorific
After my initial adventures in exploring openHAB, I wanted something I can control. The only thing around at the time was my Colorific RGB bulb I was playing around with in the Jamrific project. Even though openHAB doesn’t support this bulb directly, I can still make it work since it is so flexible. One of the available bindings is the EXEC which can call a system command or shell script. Perfect! First thing was to update the Python script to control the bulb so that it will feedback to openHAB. As before, you will need Bluez for BT 4.0 support. You can use the same directions I initially used for Jamrific from Adafruit. This could work for other BT RGB bulbs as …
Adventures in openHAB
When I was originally researching open source home automation servers, I had looked at openHAB but then dismissed it due to the iPhone looking interface and lack of admin UI. At that time I settled on DomotiGA, as you may have noticed in my previous blog posts. The problem with DomotiGA is the difficulty in adding custom devices without having to edit/compile the source code which is in Gamba3. For now I have just lived with it since it has a nice desktop UI to use and supports JeeNodes. Some other issues is the lack of an official built-in web interface and mobile apps, ease of remote access, plus, it’s Linux only, which isn’t that big of an issue but …
Home Automation: Egg Minder
As I was looking for some Z-Wave stuff on Amazon, I saw an awesome deal on the Quirky Egg Minder. It was selling at a reduced price for only fifteen bucks – so total impulse buy! Also, my reasoning to buy just about any gadget is for future blogging. Makes sense, right? I ordered via Amazon Prime on a Friday and received on Sunday. Pretty, sweet! Upon opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised by the nice modern packaging. The Egg Minder is a WiFi cloud enabled device to manage your eggs. You know, the of farm-fresh variety. No more are the days of counting your eggs. Not only does it keep count, but it keeps track of freshness by …
Blast from the Past: Tandy 1000TL/2
A little over two years ago I was finishing building the XTIDE Adapter with the Dangerous Prototypes free PCB. Using their Bus Pirate I was able to flash the CPULD, but you need a computer to flash the BIOS. Upon pulling my Tandy 1000TL/2 (my first computer were I learned the basis of everything I do today) out of the closet, I realized after trying a standard keyboard that it requires an XT keyboard. Drat! When my wife and I moved first moved to Monterey, I had gotten rid of a bunch of stuff. I couldn’t remember if the Tandy keyboard was one of them. I know I got rid of the monitor(s) and dot matrix printer. Either way, I still …
VA Tester and our Giant Star
Once upon a time on a bright and sunny afternoon, I decided to interact with some photons from that big burst of energy we revolve around. I had ordered a 6V 3.5W solar panel from Amazon awhile back but I never got around to trying it. I also had an Adafruit Solar LiPo Charger that I hadn’t used. Part of this is research of using solar with home automation nodes that are near a window. Currently, I use AA batteries but I see them as wasteful since eventually you have to replace them. Of course you can get rechargeable AA batteries but they usually put out a tad less voltage, 1.2V vs 1.5V and still uses energy from an outlet …
The Proto Buildbar
This summer, we had the pleasure of attending a beautiful wedding near Dayton, Ohio. Since many of MobileWill’s family members were also there, we decided to prolong our visit to about a week. One of the things we always like to do before visiting an area is to look up local eateries, coffee shops, museums, and such. A few places stuck out (which is always a plus, especially in the mid-west!), specifically the National Museum of the United States Air Force and a couple of new dining experiences. Yes, we’ve been dreaming about biscuits from Bob Evans. But we must admit, besides those things and just spending time with family, there wasn’t much else to do. That is, until MobileWill’s …
Arduino Zero Has Arrived!
The long awaited Arduino Zero has arrived! This is the version from CC not SRL. Looks like some retailers such as Adafruit has/had the SRL version already. Wonder if they will switch, perhaps since they began manufacturing for Arduino in the U.S.? Shipping via USPS with regular mail was painstakingly slow, especially since they are rolling out phase two of their plan. It arrived five days later than scheduled, but alas, that is my error for not choosing USPS priority mail. I could go on and on about their delivery times and dealings, but it would mean writing another post about it. Anyway, now that rant is out of the way, I can rant about the poor packaging. This is …
STM32 Nucleo and DFU USB Bootloading
Over the last few months I have been playing with the Nucleo development boards from STMicroelectronics. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they are fast, mbed and Arduino (headers) compatible. This makes it easy like an Arduino to program and use. What sets them apart is that they are 32bit and have, depending on the model, tons of memory and flash. The Nucleo boards maintain the Arduino footprint but also have headers for the extra pins which gives this board plenty of GPIO for your projects. In turn, you end up with multiple buses such as SPI, I2C, and UARTs for your consumption. They are priced very well and come in different flavors based on your needs. Each flavor is based …
Maker Faire, Bay Area 2015
This year the Bay Area Maker Faire celebrated ten years. William and I could not believe it! We’ve attended BAMF (as we cheekily call it), for the past eight years. Wow! It feels like only yesterday that we were frantically searching for parking, trying to stand in line before the gates opened. Oh wait, that happens each year. Ha! This year was just as eye opening as ever. It has grown in popularity for sure, but more so it has also grown into a lot more than just garage hacking. From the new 3D Printer tent, to the Start-up area, the BAMF has become a fair that now encompasses so much more and will surely continue to morph. We feel …