VSCode for everything

Atmel Microchip Studio 1 1/2 years ago now I have finally abandoned Microchip (Atmel) Studio for programming AVR microcontrollers. I have been using Atmel Studio from the very first day I have been programming AVR microcontrollers and I have been following it through the version 4 to 7. But already a couple of years ago… Continue reading VSCode for everything

The TIAN MA A2C00096100 LCD

The electronics distributor https://www.pollin.de/ is often selling surplus displays, but normally these are not very well documented. The TIAN MA A2C00096100  LCD module is a 90 mm x 20 mm character display with on-board chip-on-glass controller. It has 20 alphanumeric character positions, actually 18+2 since there is a vertical 1-pixel wide bar separating the last… Continue reading The TIAN MA A2C00096100 LCD

Temperature measurements with an NTC thermistor

Following a discussion on Facebook I put here an online tool to calculate the output of a voltage divider consisting of a fixed resistor and an NTC thermistor following a first order Steinhart–Hart equation. The calculations are based on a voltage divider where either the voltage over the NTC or over the pass resistor is… Continue reading Temperature measurements with an NTC thermistor

Some Toner-Transfer PCB Highlights

0.5 mm pitch FPC breakout board - soldered

Some recent highlights from my home-made circuit boards using the toner-transfer method. 0.5 mm FPC breakout board Yes, I have been told that I am crazy before… Designed in KiCAD   TQFP32 controller board (student project) This one is actually not my design and it was drawn in Altium.   433 MHz wireless sensor node… Continue reading Some Toner-Transfer PCB Highlights

A tiny watchdog

In a recent quick-and-dirty project with a Wemos D1 mini clone I had some problems with the reliability of the code. The ESP8266 contains two watchdogs which have the sole purpose to reset the chip if the firmware ever should get stuck. Previously I experienced these watchdogs to be too aggressive, but this was not… Continue reading A tiny watchdog

Hacking IKEA trådfri lighting automation

IKEA TRÅDFRI Zigbee module on a breadboard.

I recently visited IKEA again and got interested in their affordable line of home automation/LED lighting products called TRÅDFRI (meaing wireless in a play-with-words kind of Swedish). Of course there was already an internet community active in hacking these devices and I joined in. Getting started I installed the gateway and after pairing devices to… Continue reading Hacking IKEA trådfri lighting automation

project update: a TTL/CMOS computer

Exactly one month later – our electronics course at Uppsala University just approaches its end – and I got the next shipment for my new project: 1.1 km of equipment wire.