I have been soldering circuits for twenty-six years. Well, except for the last 6 weeks. I have had a Weller Zero Smog EL fume extraction unit in my lab. It has changed the way I solder. When I first used it, I thought “yes, this is nice. But not a necessity.” Then the other day I didn’t feel like moving the extractor to my secondary workbench. I was immediately irritated with myself for being lazy. The smoke was so annoying. I don’t know what else changed me so quickly.
Continuing the DIY Arduino tutorial series, this AddOhms episode shows how to create a PCB in KiCad. I make a joke that the original design was a rectangle, which I found boring and pointless. So instead, I designed a triangle to give the board 3 points. Get it? Puns! I am calling it the Pryamiduino. To be honest, I found not having a constraint to be a problem. By forcing a specific board size and shape, many decisions were more manageable.
First design – Boring!
In the end, the video ended up more edited than I planned. KiCad is just so finicky and crashy that I could not make a coherent start to finish tutorial. At least, I could not work with a board at this level of complexity. Something simple like a 555 flasher would be easier to show from start to finish. I am planning some immediate follow-ups with quick tips on using KiCad. It is a frustrating suite of applications, but the results can be quite nice.
My recent SONOFF WiFi Switch experience reminded me of something from high school. I attended an off-site electronics class with my best friend. As teenage boys, we were prone to doing stupid things. One of our favorite games was to see who could handle the highest voltage. Our bench had a variable AC supply that went from 0 to 120 volts. So we would grab the alligator clips while the other person slowly turned the knob up. John once made it to 50 volts. I seem to recall my tolerance around 30 volts. First, DO NOT do this. It was stupid. Second, I think this game is why handling AC makes me so uncomfortable.
While I am not an electrician, I do know the basics about wiring mains AC circuits. So when one of my studio lights needed a new switch, I was okay to replace it. Mains AC does not scare me when it is off. I did not have a mechanical switch available. Instead, I opted for a SONOFF WiFi Switch. I did not intend to connect WiFi, at least not yet. I just wanted to control the light with the manual push button.
The clever solution seemed to be clever, at least for a few minutes. Suddenly the light turned off. I thought maybe there was a timeout for the manual button. Annoying, but workable. The lamp remained off for about another 2 minutes when I started to smell that unmistakeable burning plastic odor. Touching the case of the SONOFF identified the culprit immediately.
Great. So I have an AC mains switch that isn’t working, but I do not want to go poking my multimeter into it. What do I do?
Turns out, that SONOFF module was defective. I wanted to debug it, but I did not want to measure anything while connected to AC. Here’s how I used a thermal camera to debug my SONOFF.
What is a SONOFF?
See the ESP8266 and Antenna?
The SONOFF WiFi switch is an inexpensive AC relay. Internally it has an ESP12 chip, which became popular with the ESP8266. There is even an unpopulatd serial header which can be used to reflash the firmware. Among hackers, these modules are a popular way to get an AC relay that is easily programmed.
Back in 2013, a Kickstarter ran for a project to put a python interpreter on a microcontroller. At the time I could not see the benefit. Cool project, but I asked myself: “why?” On my last Adafruit order, I received a free Circuit Playground Express. The board comes with CircuitPython pre-installed. After playing with Circuit Python, or CP, I finally “get it.”
For Valentine’s Day, I made an animated LED heart for a new love in my life, Circuit Python. Well, love is a bit of a strong word. The past couple of weeks I have been learning Circuit Python, and I am excited by what it offers.
What is Circuit Python?
It is a Python implementation that runs on microcontrollers. The code exists on the microcontroller as text. The interpreter runs the code from that text file. Circuit Python is built on, or based on, MicroPython. Adafruit is designing it to teach programming. It is easy to get started, just open up the code.py file from the auto-mounted drive and start typing. When you hit save, the code runs. That’s it.
While the buzzword “IoT “is relatively new, there has been a long time “internet of things” in operation. Those devices are called the far less sexy term “M2M” or machine-to-machine. These devices, around since the 90s, contain a microprocessor, some sensors, sometimes electromechanical hardware, and a cellular radio. These M2M devices were (and still are!) the early “Internet of Things.” Thanks to Hologram.io, you can join this new/old trend for free.
This post is not going to be a tidy tutorial. Instead, it is all the steps (and notes) I went through. I will cover:
Hardware pieces I am using
How to verify SIM808 (FONA) module is connected through Hologram via Serial Commands
How to send HTTP/POST requests (including SSL) with the SIM808 (FONA)
My (brute force) changes to the Adafruit FONA Library
Code for sending MQTT payload (GPS Coords) to a dafruit.io dashboard
When done, you will be able to build something like a battery powered GPS Tracker, that updates over cellular. If you are in a rush, grab all the code from the FONA GPS Tracker Github Project.
Signetics started as an IC manufacturer. In 1975 they were bought by Philips Semiconductors, which is now NXP. Interestingly the address in the datasheet, I think, was the original site. Today, it’s home to a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store. According to this Wikipedia article, it was created by John “Jack” Curtis. Apparently, it was included in a real Signetics catalog as a joke! Imagine that happening today. Additional information about the joke is available on sigwom.com. (Which may be written by Jack himself, not entirely sure.)
When it is time to move away from delay(), it’s time to learn how to properly use millis(). If you’ve had trouble following my millis() examples, maybe a live tutorial will help.
In this AddOhms Livestream, I go through 4 code examples:
1. Blink, the one with delay(), as a starting point.
2. Blink Without Delay, line by line, what is it doing
3. PWM Fading without delay() (and with buttons)
4. Binary counter that uses buttons to speed up and slow down.
Four days ago, I found out I needed to make a piece of a costume. The idea was to combine a TFT LCD with a microcontroller and Bluetooth Low Energy. I checked my microcontroller bin and found some Adafruit Feather Boards. In this post, I will introduce the feather family and provide a decision chart for choosing the right one for your project.
The Feather board have a standard footprint and pinout. Most(All?) have a USB connector, a microcontroller, two rows of pins, and a battery charger. They measure 50.80 by 22.86 mm, which is 2.0 by 0.9 inches.
One of the last significant steps in a project is designing the custom PCB. This stage means creating a DIY Arduino board that is custom to the application. Two examples of my past projects are BinBoo, a Binary Clock, and Open Vapors, my reflow oven controller.
While working on a project for a friend, I got to thinking; it would be nice to have a checklist for circuit elements to include on a DIY Arduino board. In the early days, I forgot to add a filter cap to AREF, for example.
These tips are based on an 8-bit AVR design, like the ATmega328p chip. You could apply these tips to other 8-bit AVRs. Until now, I have not designed a custom board around a 32-Bit/ARM board. Though at only $16, I would be tempted to just solder the Teensy module directly to my finished board.
Below is a written list of items for a DIY Arduino checklist. If you’d like to see me design this board in KiCad, check out this AddOhms Tutorial.
The next AddOhms Tutorial is how to design a DIY Arduino board. What are the elements you need to include in your own circuit design? While editing the video, I ended up on this frame. It looked to me like I was praying. (At one point I was having serious technical issues with my equipment. But it is unrelated to that frame!) On Twitter, my friend Philip had a different take.
Question: What caption comes to mind when you see this picture? Leave a comment with yours. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Op-Amp Question
If you can’t think of a caption, maybe you can help with a different question. What your favorite LM741 op amp alternative? I’ve been working on some tutorials and videos on op-amps. I’d like to incorporate something other than the old stand-by.
Signetics started as an IC manufacturer. In 1975 they were bought by Philips Semiconductors, which is now NXP. Interestingly the address in the datasheet, I think, was the original site. Today, it’s home to a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store. According to this Wikipedia article, it was created by John “Jack” Curtis. Apparently, it was included in a real Signetics catalog as a joke! Imagine that happening today. Additional information about the joke is available on sigwom.com. (Which may be written by Jack himself, not entirely sure.)
Download Signetics 25120 WOM Datasheet