Red, Orange and Green
It's great to finally have my own maker space which doubles as an office. A great place to do my work, without being distracted by my wife or kids. So I thought. It turns out that having an office next to the living room is the perfect invitation to invade my office any moment in time. Time to fix it with some electronics!
MusiCubes:
Touch Me Four Times
It’s been a few months since I’ve finished my MusiCubes Controller. And although most of the controller works perfect, there is one issue that is still bugging me: the false positives of the touch sensors. Time to fix this!
Connecting an ESP8266 to AWS IoT
During my day job I make a lot of use of Amazon Web Services. And because of this, I recently attended the AWS Summit in Amsterdam. Of course, a day like that can’t end without some tinkering …
MusiCubes:
The Finishing Touch
Starting a project isn’t difficult. Finishing is. Or as they say: the last 20% is always the hardest part. But no worries, today we’ll finish this project by working on the final details.
MusiCubes:
The Software
Two weeks ago I finished up the electronics of the MusiCubes controller. So now it’s time to discuss the software side of things. Buckle up, and get ready for the long ride!
MusiCubes:
Touch Me!
Now that the MusiCubes tray is assembled and the RFID-sensor and LEDs are working as expected, It’s time to add the last feature of the original concept: invisible capacitive touch sensors to control the volume of the music.
MusiCubes:
Assembling The Tray
After last week’s proof of concept it is time to assemble the MusiCubes tray. Just slap on some wood glue and you’re ready to go! What could go wrong, right?
MusiCubes:
Concept & Prototyping
Most of my projects start behind my desk, Tinkering. But every now and then, new ideas come to mind while I’m not geeking. Just as with my MagicMirror, those projects and ideas are usually the best. Today I start a new project which, just as with my MagicMirror, popped in my mind far away from my soldering iron and computer: A digital music controller in an analog form factor.
57.600 colorful pixels!
During one of my many AliExpress shopping sprees, I recently found a cute little 1.3" High Resolution 240x240 pixel IPS TFT display. Till now, I only used monochrome 128x64 OLED displays, so this little toy sparked my interest. Using it would be a matter of connecting it to the SPI bus … or so I thought!
Automatic Curtains:
Debugging my curtains.
Ever since I’ve finished the first prototype of my Automatic Curtain project one and a half years ago, the curtains have been running without any issues. Unfortunately, that came to an abrupt end this weekend.
Trying out a Barebone OLED display
If you you are a tinkerer that likes to play around with Arduino’s and electronics, you’ve probably played around with a 4 pin I2C OLED display more than once. To step up my game, I thought it would be fun to give myself a little challenge and try out a barebone OLED screen without the convenient breakout board.
Behind my computer ...
Most of my blogs are about my physical projects, my tools like my 3d printer, my Rigol power supply and scope and my beloved soldering iron. But, truth to be told, most of my time is spent behind my computer. Today I’m going to give you a rundown of tools and ingredients I use the most when working on my Mac.
The NeoDisplay
As most of the Arduino tinkering makers, I have some NeoPixels LEDs in my drawers. Especially the 8x8 NeoMatrix is a beautiful piece of illumination. But till now, I didn’t have any good use for it yet. Time to make it a bit more useful!
Automatic Curtains:
Shields Up!
With the help of my testing rig, I was finally able to work on the wireless connectivity of my Automatic Curtains.The electronics already had a communication line in place, so this should just be a walk in the park. Right?
HomeSensor:
Keep an eye on the door!
With the software side of my Home Sensor up and running, there is only one technical issue to solve: the door sensor. A perfect moment to play around with an OP-AMP and Comparator.
HomeSensor:
Connecting my house to MQTT.
With the new hardware ready, I continue to rebuild my Home Sensor system. Last week I replaced the Raspbery Pi for an ESP8266, this week I’ll be working on the new protocol my Home Sensor will be using.
HomeSensor:
New brains for my Alarm
A little over 2 years ago I worked on a project in which I connected my alarm’s sensors to the web using my first Raspberry Pi. And while it still didn’t help me to lower the crime rate in my peaceful village, it turned out to be a very handy toy. Unfortunately, the system had some minor flaws, so it’s time to work on an improved solution.
Automatic Curtains:
Project update #31415
Without a doubt my automatic curtain project is the project I underestimated most. While most of the mechanical challenges are solved, the electronics part also has it’s hurdles. Time to give you an update …
Automatic Curtains:
It’s all about communication
So, last week I worked on connecting my automatic curtain system motor unit to the control panel. Unfortunately, this wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. So after banging my head into the wall for a week, it is time do take a step back.
Building an ESP8266 flasher
As much as I love the ESP8266 programmable Wifi enabled microcontroller, it still has some annoying issues: they’re not breadboard friendly and require some special wiring to put them into flash mode. To solve these issues, I decided to make a dedicated ESP8266 flasher using a USB FTDI module and some perf board.
Annoying Dishwasher:
Reconnect the Dishwasher
Exactly one year ago, I started my Annoying Dishwasher™ Project. With this project, my main goal was to silence the annoying beast for once and for all. Today, one year later, I continue this project to make some improvements by applying the knowledge I gathered in the past year.
Annoying Dishwasher:
The Azure Dishwasher
After I discovered the awesome little ESP8266 Wifi module last week, I spent some extra time to check out how suitable this module is when I want to use it in an ‘Internet of Things’ environment. Or, to be more concrete: Could I use this module to connect my Annoying Dishwasher directly to the internet, without the use of the XBee & Raspbery system?
ESP8266: No strings attached!
In the past few months, the maker scene went totally crazy about the ESP8266: a 3 dollar wifi to serial module. I wanted to know what the fuzz was all about, and spent a whopping 10 dollars to order some of these cute little toys a few days ago. This weekend, the Chinese package arrived and resulted in me spending too much time behind my desk …