ESCs usually contain a circuit named BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit), that is a circuit that outputs a regulated voltage of 5V, used for example to power the receiver. The circuit is defined “battery eliminator” because it allows to use the “main” battery – connected to the ESC – without the need of a dedicated battery.…
In the previous blog post, you learned how to send big files (html pages, images…) with your ENC28J60 shield. Today I’m going to show you a complete webserver! Description The user’s browser sends a request, through the network, to the ENC28J60 module. The request is analyzed by the sketch that is running on the Arduino, which also prepares the…
The kit I brought from RCTimer included 4 ESC running the SimonK firmware. This firmware allows to calibrate the minimum and maximum values for the PWM signal. First you must connect the ESC directly to the receiver (bypassing the Naza flight board) on channel 3: I also verified the motor direction of each motor, based on the diagram included in Naza manual. To…
In my previous post, I described the Turnigy 9x radio I chose for my quadricopter. The transmitter requires 8 AA batteries… looking for a more convenient solution to power it, I found on HobbyKing a suitable battery pack: This battery pack is built using LiFe or LiFePo4 (litium-ferrophosphate) cells. Those cells have a nominal value of 3.3V, different from the…
Today I needed to activate, using my KMS server running on Windows 2008 R2, some desktops and servers with Windows 8 and Windows 2012. First, you need to install an update, KB2885698, to make the KMS server compatible with the latest Microsoft OSes (Windows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2): Running slmgr.vbs /dlv you can verify the version of…
A colleague asked me to try to repair his tablet, an Inno-hit IHA C0707A. The tablet had a problem with the power switch, moreover the internal speaker wasn’t working. After having opened it, I noticed that the speaker’s wires were disconnected from the main board and the power switch was broken: First I tinned the wires…
With the new 7.x version of XenApp, Citrix made many changes to its infrastructure and to the way it works; hence Packt Publishing, that is the editor of my first book about XenApp, asked me for a new, updated edition: The book consists of four chapters and covers the following topics: [checklist] the new Flexcast Management Architecture (FMA): how…
FTDI are widely used in electronic devices, in particular for USB-serial adapters. In the past some blogs reported that on the market there were many counterfeit chips, that are chips labeled as FTDI but manufactured by other companies. A deep analysis shows several differences between the original and the fake chips. In the last few days on different forums (Arduino, EEVBlog, Hack’a’Day…)…
An italian company, Lemontech, kindly provided me a sample of their new Arduino shield, named BlueRelayShield: The yellow-colored shield has: [checklist] a Bluetooth HC-05 module two SRD-05VDC relays two 5mm 3 contacts screw terminals two status leds [/checklist] Using this shield you can switch on/off two loads (connected to the relays) sending commands via Bluetooth. HC-05 Module The included HC-05 module allows a Bluetooth device to talk with Arduino via…
I finally received from HobbyKing the radio to control my quadricopter: a Turnigy 9x mode2 that also includes an 8-channels receiver: As I wrote in the first blog post about the building of my quadricopter, Mode2 means that the left stick is the throttle. With some modifications, it it however possible to convert the radio from one Mode to the other,…