Friends at Cytron Technologies are going to launch an Arduino compatible Maker UNO board at KickStarter. They send me an early production board for review. So here are my two cents worth. (This is NOT a paid review) This article from Wikipedia gives us a very comprehensive list of Arduino UNO compatible boards from "known" … Continue reading Arduino Redesigned – Maker UNO Review
Is ESP8266 I/O really 5V tolerant?
Recently there are some discussion regarding whether ESP8266 I/Os are 5V tolerant. The most active one being the article on Hackaday. The same article was shared on ESP8266 Facebook group and Espressif CEO Mr Teo Swee Ann commented that "i can reply officially here: it is 5V tolerant at the IO. while the supply voltage … Continue reading Is ESP8266 I/O really 5V tolerant?
First sight into ESP32
So I am one of the 200 lucky bastards who receive the Espressif ESP32 beta units. It arrives in a nicely printed packaging which resembles very much like a jewel box. And the item inside is really a piece of jewelry. Appearantly the breakout board, "ESP_Module_Testboard", is little bit too wide for breadboard use, (leaving … Continue reading First sight into ESP32
ESP8266 MQTT client on RTOS
In the recent Maker Faire I demonstrated an ESP8266 MQTT VFD clock. Some readers had wrote to ask for the soure code. Because the project was builtup within only 2 days, the actual source code is more or less of spaghette type. However the underlying MQTT client may be useful to someone who likes the … Continue reading ESP8266 MQTT client on RTOS
Maker Faire, Yearly Review, and Rant
Well I've been bit lapse. This post is supposed to written in July. Another year, another Maker Faire. Yes! for this year it is nolonger "Mini Maker Faire", we've just upgraded to the full fledged "Maker Faire" event. As Singapore Maker Faire has grown 10 times compare to 3 year ago, I am not able to … Continue reading Maker Faire, Yearly Review, and Rant
TrueSTUDIO STM32 project to GCC Makefile converter
Since I wrote the STM32CubeMX to Makefile converter, a lot of people have been helping to improve the project. Thanks! Meanwhile I also heard a lot of complaints about the quality of STM32Cube codes, for example, the thread here. Although I believe STM32Cube's quality will eventually improve, at the moment there are still applications for the good … Continue reading TrueSTUDIO STM32 project to GCC Makefile converter
STM32CubeMX GCC Makefile project
Writing peripheral initialization code is probably the most tedious work in embedded development. It always successfully stops me from starting a new project. I believe engineers at STMicroelectronics share the same pain. Therefore they created STM32Cube firmware and STM32CubeMX graphical configuration tool, which turns numerous key strokes and page flips into just a few mouse clicks. STM32CubeMX is free software, … Continue reading STM32CubeMX GCC Makefile project
ESP8266 breadboard adapter and I’m on Tindie
The rise of the ESP8266 WiFi chip was almost overnight with Espressif's open approach and pushing from Hackaday. While no ground-breaking product has yet emerged, the development on the chip are phenomenon. However due to an unknown reason the ESP8266 modules manufacture seems to prefer non-standard 2.0mm pitch connector, which gives a lot of headache … Continue reading ESP8266 breadboard adapter and I’m on Tindie
Macbook Bluetooth upgrade for LightBlue Bean
During last year's blackfriday sale I was introduced to the epic Lightblue Bean "Cheaper than a turkey" promotion. I grabbed two beans during a group buy spree. A week later's The AmpHour interview with Colin Karpfinger justifies that my purchase is not purely impulsive. However I did make a mistake. I was under the impression that a Mac … Continue reading Macbook Bluetooth upgrade for LightBlue Bean
Happy New Year from ESP8266
Happy New Year! http://youtu.be/h-lI6ucDg8M The application is made with ESP8266 RTOS SDK. SSD1306 based OLED panel is connected on GPIO4/5 using software emulated I2C. I rushed this out last night and the code is in a mess now.To prevent bad influence I'll release the code after I reorganize them.
