I’m finishing up the docs for NanoKeys, a small BLE Nano (and probably any mbed BLE API supported devices) library that gives you an easy way to create a bluetooth low energy keyboard that you can pair with using any mobile device. The project page, code and documentation will be up shortly (in the projects…

Read more

Just got my hands on RedBear Lab‘s Duo—what promises to be a great little BLE/WiFi combo—and got some preliminary testing done.  By the end of the seven straightforward steps detailed here, you’ll know all the basics about the Duo and have your own “Arduino” code running on the device, too.  Other than my own ramblings,…

Read more

So it’s the middle of the night and I find myself in a jam… hm, a lot of my stories seem to start that way.  Anyhow, it’s the middle of the night and I’m badly stuck: I need to talk with a two-wire chip I have on a breakout, but the I²C communication lines need…

Read more

A few hints about squeezing maximum performance out of Raphaël. When you want to generate dynamic SVG images using Javascript, either on a website or within a Cordova-type project on mobile devices, the Raphaël library is pretty sweet.  Raphaël has a nice, clean, API and lets you do pretty much anything graphics-related and it sticks…

Read more

This is a quick post to share a technique I recently invented (or, more likely, re-invented) that can be of great help when you’re trying to layout a circuit but are overloaded by possibilities: the handicraft router. In this specific case, I was trying to get the outputs from a bunch of digital potentiometers to…

Read more

Needing a modular power supply that could handle a few amps and both AC and DC input, I recently designed a circuit to perform the task.  Here I’ll go over the main points and a few lessons learned.

So you’re programming for a platform with a built-in RTC… cool.  Now what? Most (all?) XMEGA‘s have an on-board real-time clock, some can even be backed-up by a distinct battery (like the xmega256a3bu, shown below) which can be a real time saver (oh, the pun-anity!). The question then becomes how to best use it. I’ve…

Read more

I just finished a project for which I we needed to connect a raspberry pi to a distant server, over a 3G connection.  The module was to be autonomous–it would be powered on demand and needed to reboot into a consistently usable state to perform its duties. Creating a shield (or “HAT” in Pi terminology)…

Read more

I love the Arduino platform, especially for prototyping, and have been playing with the Atmel ATmega chips for a long while.  Once you’ve designed your project, some of the smaller derivatives (like the Ardweeny I’ve mentioned before) are cheap enough to leave embedded everywhere and, in any case, you can always move from an Arduino…

Read more

I’m pleased to announce that the first set of pages for the Bluetooth Smart/Low Energy Tutorial series have been published.  Within, you’ll find a BLE crash course, a DIY BLE module breakout board (including an Eagle library so you can use it in your circuits) and a complete universal bluetooth low energy client program– with…

Read more