#Arduino

ESP8266 & Apple HomeKit – WS2812B LED Control

Leave a Comment / ESP / By Rafal

Today I have for you another material in the series about the integration of ESP8266 modules with Apple HomeKit. This time I’ll talk about how to connect and control the popular WS2812B programmable RGB LEDs.

ESP8266 & Apple HomeKit – Let’s get started

Leave a Comment / ESP / By Rafal

There are quite a few different types of smart home systems, also known as smart home. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and choosing the right system really depends on the individual user’s preferences. One such system is HomeKit from Apple. In this and subsequent materials in this series, I would like to tell you a little about how to integrate HomeKit and the well-known ESP8266 modules. I will show you how to configure such a module so that its operation can be controlled from an iPhone, MacBook or Apple Watch. In addition, we will connect to the outputs of our microcontroller various peripheral modules, the operation of which will be controlled by ESP.

Lightning sensor for Arduino

Leave a Comment / Arduino / By Rafal

I’m sure that in the mind of anyone who has worked with Arduino boards, the idea to build your own weather station has appeared at some point. Such projects are most often based on the simplest sensors for temperature, humidity possibly pressure. Sometimes a module is also added to measure wind speed. However, practically no project is equipped with a sensor capable of detecting lightning. This is a rather strange state of affairs, given that it is very simple to run this type of module in the Arduino environment.

HPDL-1414 display operation

Leave a Comment / Arduino / By Rafal

There are a great many different kinds of displays on the market – LCD, LED, OLED, etc. We encounter most of them on a daily basis, but there are also some more classic designs, such as the HPDL-1414.

Barcode and QR code reader on Arduino

Leave a Comment / Arduino / By Rafal

Practically every day we encounter bar codes of various kinds. Although we don’t usually pay attention to them, they play a very important role in today’s world – the identification of products in the store, the flow of packages in logistics centers or the proper distribution of components in production processes. Barcodes are used in each of these areas, thanks in part to their simplicity. The small size of the code can be easily scanned by an automatic scanner or an operator equipped with the appropriate equipment.

STM32 Ethernet – the first launch
Recently I had the opportunity to work on some project using STM32 microcontroller and Ethernet interface. Probably like other people undertaking this topic, I encountered a problem - the lack of “simple” tutorials. In most of the available sources, connecting the Ethernet interface and STM32 chips is described quite confusingly, and in my opinion, there is a lack of instructions describing how to configure this functionality in the simplest possible way, without unnecessary exploration of network aspects. That's why I decided to prepare this and related materials covering the topic of Ethernet on STM32. As a first step, I will show you how to perform the initial configuration so that the microcontroller is visible on the network.
The display that turned out to be more
Browsing popular auction sites, I once came across an offer for a display similar to those manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s. It was described as our indigenous CEMI design, although the “NN” logo, denoting National Semiconductor, was visible on the board. Of course, this type of design was produced in communist Poland, although not on a large scale, it is much more common to find displays from Czechoslovakia, where production volumes were larger. So, I think one can forgive the seller's marketing gaffe of labeling the element as a CEMI production, although this is also some misrepresentation. Nevertheless, the price of the item was quite low, so I decided to order it, and in this article I will tell you about its construction and the adventures of trying to get it to work.
DCE Q816 – first processor in FPGA
My first FPGA soft processor project.
A forgotten type of integrated circuits
Inside one of my retro treats, the Soviet calculator Электроника МК-52, about which I have already prepared an article“Электроника МК-52 - Soviet calculator in orbit”, as well as in some respects its twin design Электроника МК-61, one can find rather mysterious-looking integrated circuits.
Dark current and transistors without a case
If one Internet trivia site is to be believed, the most manufactured thing in the world is a transistor. This may be true, but the authors of this information must have also taken into account those placed inside silicon cores, although they are not single elements. After all, in discrete circuits there are at least two resistors per single transistor, also the Internet fact can be questioned quite easily. However, whatever one may say, transistors in one form or another are quite common in electronics. It is thanks to them that a whole branch of digital and logic circuits was created, which, along with increasing computerization, have become the building blocks of the modern world.