#“Ah c’mon, is this not the cutest @raspberry_pi setup of all time?” I splashed out a little on my main dev Raspberry Pi and finally got it a PiBow case. I’ve loved that design for so long, I had to succumb. Coincidentally the same company now has a brilliant new USB hub specifically for the RPi called the PiHUB. Not only is it in that hilarious shape, but it also comes with a 3A PSU. »
#“Arduino and Raspberry Pi communicating over 2.4GHz with cheap nRF24L01+ modules” I’ve had a lot of fun over the past year messing with wireless comms. The 433Mhz/434MHz dirt-cheap modules are fantastic for Arduino, particularly when used with the VirtualWire library which makes them trivial to setup. I’ve been able to send sensor data and RC car commands using them with just a few lines of code. However, there isn’t a version of VirtualWire for RaspberryPi and I don’t have the time/skills to port the Arduino one. »
#“Another big brain dump of interesting tech bits over the past few weeks” Thrilled to find that Bluetooth on this Play Edition ROM for SGS4 works perfectly. I've gone from 20% success rate auto-connecting to my Lidl car stereo to 100%, Finally! Nodeconf Europe is on in Waterford Mon-Wed. Incredible line-up of speakers. Superb IoT sessions set for Monday. A conference driven by expertise, not bullshit-artists hyping vapourware. Ordered an Espruino - run JS on an MCU This --------> <-------- close to ordering a Tessel - moar JS on an MCU, this time with NPM support Waiting to order an Arduino Yun= Arduino + Wifi machine + bridge libraries Of course I had to back this Pressy button for my Android phone. »
#“Tech brain-dump round-up” Over a month without a blogpost. Possibly a 12 year record. Busy. Good busy. All of these were supposed to be standalone posts but that’ll never happen, so here’s some stuff that caught my eye in the past few weeks. Weather Signal - Crowd Sourced weather using the sensors in your phone. I have it installed on my SGS4 already. Android 4.3 "Play Edition" for Samsung Galaxy S4 without all the TouchWiz crap. »
#“It’s official - Throne of Rolls is the greatest Instructable of all time” A Game of Thrones themed toilet roll holderyou can make yourself. »
#“A year of falling back in love with Making/Electronics on Raspberry Pi and Arduino” The 80s As I have mentioned many many times, my adventure with computers began properly in late 1982 with my parents getting me a ZX Spectrum. I went from BASIC to Forth to Z80 Assembler over a few years and loved it all. Ok, to be fair, 90% of that time was spent playing Jet Set Willy. »
#“OK, I cannot deny it, Foursquare Time Machine is just bloody brilliant” So we start with Ireland’s first Foursquare check-in, courtesy of yours truly. An then they gave me an animation of all my check-ins, followed by Time Machine giving me a Personal Infographic that actually tells me something useful. »
#“My first stab at silicone mould making to cast an RC car suspension part” Regular readers will know that I’m a huge fan of the Dagu Arexx i-racer RC car. It’s cheap, light, fast, uses Bluetooth, has a removable shell and is perfect for n00b families like us who have never really done the RC thing properly. Unfortunately after some over-exhuberant use recently, we broke a part of the suspension on one of the front wheels. »
#“What does this inside of a dead Fitbit One look like? This:” After my Fitbit One took a swim in a full washing machine cycle, it died. Many attempts with rice and pampers and warm air over a few days failed to bring it back. The utterly fantastic customer support people in Fitbit then offered me a free replacement! The only tiny downside is that they don’t deliver to Ireland so I needed to use a Parcel Motel address. »
#“Is the \u008010 Lidl Soldering Iron worth it? I think so.” I grabbed one of the Lidl Soldering Iron Kits yesterday in Dungarvan. Video below with my thoughts. Apologies for some of the stuff being off camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQyGAgDACo Overall, at 10 it is totally worth a punt if you don’t have an iron already. Regarding the non-standard tips, it turns out there are compatible replacements out there. This seller on eBay has some. »