The Tale of the Marquis de Inateck (4-Port USB 3.0 card)
Update: The replacement card has also disappeared from the PCI bus, both in Windows and when booted into Linux. So much for Inateck / Fresco Logic. I’m extremely disappointed. In […]
Electronics
New Project: Interfacing to and/or Driving a FlipDot Display
For my next trick, I’ll be learning the intricacies of running a FlipDot (aka flip-disc) display made by ANNAX: The image above is from the FlipDotBlog site that the ebay […]
Whither the Arduino STAR Otto?
From what I’ve gathered (e.g., from the forums as well as the complete lack of information since May) it seems the Arduino STAR Otto is no more.
Arduino Star OTTO (Light): Updating the onboard ESP8266’s firmware
“An ESP8266? That’s easy! Feel free to follow along with my simple step by step instructions. I make codeloading FUN!!” (with apologies to Strong Bad) Beware: There be dragons here! While […]
Arduino Star OTTO (Light): Unboxing and first look!
[Updates at the end of this article] At today’s Bay Area Maker Faire I was hopeful that I’d hear some news on the Arduino Star OTTO… I walked away with not […]
A spotter’s guide to WS2812B LEDs – distinguishing good from garbage!
In the course of my investigation of LEDs claiming to be WS2812Bs, I created a review on Amazon for Mokungit’s 93 LED ring device – because unlike other devices from […]
USB serial devices and the unexpected side-effects of serial enumeration (BSOD, with solutions!)
I got a WDF_VIOLATION BSOD (0x0000010D) in Windows 7 (x64) when I connected a dev board via USB serial today. It was an alarming error I’ve never seen before… … […]
MingHe buck/boost converters – handy, if you’re careful!
The following information seems to generalize to any of MingHe’s buck/boost converter designs with the 8x2pin daughter board with display and buttons). There’s a good writeup about this device submitted by a […]
A quick guide to running a Raspberry Pi from a hard drive
The Raspberry Pi is a fun if limited little single-board computer (were that it had more than one core). That said, running off an SD card is not exactly optimal, with write speeds […]
Of Memes and Memory and Moore’s Law
A post has been making the rounds on Reddit and Facebook, graphically demonstrating the 1000-fold increase in (flash) memory density over the last decade. The question is, will this scale indefinitely, […]
Trying out my new Colorduino v2.0 – first impressions and tips
After my recent experiments with the Logos RGB backpack I stumbled upon the Colorduino (a cousin if not a descendant of the Rainbowduino), which is a very interesting little device! It not […]
Learning by Hacking: Modding the Logos RGB LED Matrix Backpack
As mentioned in a previous post, I recently bought an RGB LED Matrix “backpack” (with 8×8 RGB LED display) created by Logos Electromechanical. It’s an open design, and you can […]
On the proper use of the I2C bus in general and with the Logos RGB Matrix Backpack
Note: In the course of all this I created an improved Arduino I2C bus scanner. Check it out! First, a thank-you to Pierce from Logos Electromechanical who clued me in […]
Ah, Maker Faire! BeagleBone, HexBright, etc.
I had a great time at Maker Faire this weekend! I picked up a few items which I’ll quickly summarize here: First, I snagged a BeagleBone Black kit. I haven’t […]