From the beginning of the snowflake project, I tried to create photos or videos which capture the actual beauty of the decoration. Here are the two more recent videos I created: Differences to the Real Impression I am not happy with the videos and photos so far, because the effect looks dull and flat compared…
Category: Projects
This category contains all projects.
HAL LCD Demo
I added more modules to the HAL layer. The Hitachi LCD driver is now in a stable state. It uses a MCP23008 chip-based backend to reduce the number of wires required to access the display. Video Parts This demo uses a number of Adafruit boards and components: Adafruit Feather M0 (any type) Adafruit I2C /…
A New Modular CMake Based Toolchain for Feather M0 HAL
In the past months, I developed firmware for a few Adafruit Feather M0 based projects. The reason why I use the Adafruit Feather platform, instead of using an MCU directly, is for modularity. By using a board on sockets, it can be replaced at any later time with a more powerful one – or by…
Tiny Particle Sensor Node with Decorative Case
This article is about a small sensor node with a decorative case. It is based on the Raspberry Pi Zero W board with a custom sensor shield on top. I publish all hardware files for a simple version of the sensor, so you should be able to build this kind of sensor nodes and use…
Snowflake Project Documentation
I wrote a short page about the snow flake project from end of 2017. On the page you will find a summary of the project and the link to the repository with all the required files. Everything is open source, including the design files for the hardware and a base version of the firmware for…
Testing the TPS61092 Boost Converter
For my current project I searched for a good boost power converter which is able to deliver continuous 400mA power for various sensors. There are an endless number of good boost converters around, but not many can be hand soldered to a board. I would really like to see some like the TPS61092 with SOIC…
Snowflake Power Converter
I designed a very simple power converter for the snow flake decoration. The snow flake boards require 3.3V, a voltage which is not commonly available in a household. Therefore the power converter takes 5V USB power and convert it into the required 3.3V. There is no fancy circuit inside of this box, lazily I simple…
Snowflake Component Side
Today I show you a little bit longer video about the assembly of the component side of the snow flake panel. Compared with the very small 0402 LEDs (1mm x 0.5mm) on the front side, the component side contains just regular 0805 resistors and capacitors. The first part of the video shows how I apply…
Perfect Prototype Boards from Eurocircuits
Today prototype boards from Eurocircuits arrived. The quality of this boards is outstanding. I do not know any other board house which delivers this incredible quality of boards. They really thrive for perfection.
Cat Feeder in Action
Recently I finished a small cat feeding device. Meanwhile I added some minor missing parts, like an USB port which can be used to charge the device. I also added a larger battery to keep the device running for months without charging. Here a short video demonstration of the project: Read more about the project…