One of the most frustrating things for me is when a new version of a software is released with a fix, feature, or otherwise useful addition I’d like to use, but the package maintainers for my Linux distro haven’t caught up yet. Some of the packages are so far behind it’s silly. I recently decided that for software I use regularly, and is updated regularly, I was going to start using a Docker container to build it and keep my…
If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know I love to build, tinker, and hack at stuff. Antenna-building is something I’ve not made a foray into, until recently. I have a dual-band handheld radio for the 2m and 70cm bands. The so-called rubber-duck antenna that comes with it performs ok but it isn’t ideal. I could get into my local repeaters which are about 10mi away with enough power to break the squelch, but my audio was weak…
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about using the FTDI FT232R as a cheap JTAG debugger. I’ve been using it for a bit now to play with my Raspberry Pi 3B, and now that my code size has grown, the FT232R is just too slow to cut it. Here’s a breakdown: on the FT232R, the max speed I can set the adapter to is 3MHz. This has given me a transfer speed (loading via GDB) of around…
JTAG 101 What is it? JTAG stands for the Joint Test Action Group, and the TAP or Test Access Port this group defined is one of the most (if not the most) common way to program and debug embedded devices and computers of all flavors. For the professional, JTAG devices are bountiful and usually not too much of a strain on the commercial budget. But for the hobbyist, things aren’t so peachy. A Segger J-Link EDU can be had for…
Motivation I recently stumbled upon HypriotOS while looking for Docker-ready distributions for my Raspberry Pi 3B+. I flashed this onto and SD card and started playing around with it. It works incredibly well, but I noticed that it was built for armv7l which is a 32-bit implementation. Since the Raspberry Pi 3B+ has a 4x core Cortex-A53 which is 64 bit, I wanted to make use of the 64 bit processor! I’ve worked with Yocto before (in fact, my day…
Genesis of a Project In our new house, we had a hallways closet that was massive. It was very deep, and fairly wide, but had low overhead, due to the stairs passing above it. My wife had the brilliant idea to turn this into a dropzone for shoes, parcels, mail, etc. She took to Pinterest to gather ideas, and I turned it into a weekend project. The Project Plan Regrettably, I didn’t capture all the “design” pieces, and only have…
The parts have arrived! It’s time for assembly. PCB and Parts are here! The printed boards from OSHPARK arrived recently and so did the components. Below is a list of the components I selected for this board. Item Mfg Qty Description Enclosure Hammond 1 Aluminum enclosure for stompbox Resistors Elegoo 1 525 pack of assorted resistors from 0-1M Diodes MclgclM 1 100 pack of assorted diodes DC Barrel Jack ThreeBulls 1 12 pack of 5.5mm x 2.1mm Op-amp Fairchild 10…
I’ve always wanted to build a guitar pedal from scratch. Why not start with the easiest of all: a clean signal booster In this series, I will detail how I have built my own clean boost guitar pedal. I will detail the schematic, what parts are chosen, the circuit stages, and how they operate, as well as following through to the finished product. The Beginning A clean boost guitar pedal should accomplish a few things: Take an AC signal…