My new third hand

I recently brought from Banggood a support for having a third hand during soldering operations… the support is made by an aluminum base and three arms which end with a crocodile clamp with insulating sheath: The assembly is very simple, the arms must be screwed on the base: In general this support is very useful; the arms are very well…

WGX iBeacons

In a recent tutorial I explained how to detect the presence of an iBeacon with the esp32 chip. The iBeacon used to demonstrate the program is manufactured by a chinese Company, Wellcore, and sold by Banggood. The transmitter is enclosed in a plastic, non waterproof, case of 4x4cm size: The enclosure has a hole that allows you to hang the…

MegunoLink

In some blog post, I’ve already show how to receive data from Arduino and display them on a  chart using .Net applications, PHP or JavaScript scripts. Some friends wrote comments suggesting me to try MegunoLink tool and Phil was so kind to offer me a license for the PRO version so here’s my review!

Lipo Fuel Gauge

In my recent review about the Li-po Rider module, I wrote that a little problem was the absence of a chip that could monitor the state of charge (SoC) of the connected battery. You can find several IC for that function; I chose the MAX17043 by Maxim, for the following interesting features: [checklist] it doesn’t require an external sense resistor…

Li-po Rider

I’m working on a project that will be powered by a Li-Po battery, so I was looking for a power module that was able to charge the battery and to supply 5V to my circuit. Seeed Studio sells a very interesting module, named Li-po Rider; its main features are: [checklist] supports a single cell Lithium Polymer battery can charge the…

mbed NXP LPC11U24, review

Farnell kindly offered me to test and review the new microcontroller in mbed family, the NXP LPC11U24. mbed microcontrollers are designed for rapid prototyping: [checklist] run a microprocessor (ARM Cortex) with all the required components; connect to PC via USB for firmware uploading; have a breadboard friendly shape (DIP win 40 pins). [/checklist] Since a few weeks, the new…

Bluegiga WT11 – Review

Thanks to Farnell, I was able to test the Bluegiga WT11 bluetooth module. The module, which is Bluetooth 2.1 compliant, contains three main elements: [checklist] the tranceiver the chip antenna a complete Bluetooth stack (named iWrap) [/checklist] The power transmission – it’s a class 1 device – is 17dBm that corresponds to a range, in open air, of about 200m. Layout Module’s dimensions –…