Archive for May, 2009
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
Recovering from Incorrect Fuse Settings on the Strobit
The other day when playing around with different fuse settings on the Widget Board, I incorrectly wrote the wrong values, oops one bricked board However all is not lost.
With a second working Widget Board and a simple Arduino sketch , I used the following procedure to recover from my mishap.
First I installed the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in AVR, Arduino, Embedded, Projects, Strobit Triggr, Wirelesswidget by Stephen Eaton
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Progress
Version 1.0 of the boards is progressing to the point where I’ll be starting work on v1.1, integrating user feedback and any issues on the tracker, I’ve put a few up there so please check them out, comment or add your own. Issue Tracker.
I’m extremely happy to say that everything has progressed really well, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Arduino, Embedded, Projects, Strobit Triggr by Stephen Eaton
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Build Documentation
I’ve started to document the Wireless Widget Board in the wiki, documentation is currently all over the place, but slowly getting there. Currently I’m working on the build instructions so those of you that I’ve sent PCBS to can at least have a parts list.
I’ve also put up an initial bill of materials. But [...]
No Comments » - Posted in EbayTrigger, Projects, Strobit Triggr, Wirelesswidget by Stephen Eaton
Friday, May 15th, 2009
Strobit Wireless Widget Photos
I had a chance to grab a few photos of the progress so far, also helps that most of my components that I had on order arrived today so the boards has been kitted out with all the headers. Now I can plug the prototype personality in, still waiting on my crystals, switches, and diodes.
This [...]
No Comments » - Posted in AVR, Arduino, EbayTrigger, Embedded, Projects, Strobit Triggr, rfm12, strobist by Stephen Eaton
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Preliminary RF Tests
Today I did some testing on the RF side of things, nothing scientific, just walking around the house seeing if it would dropout or report bad checksums, I’m happy to reports all is working as expected (using the 915Mhz RFM12B module)
The tests are done by using the RFM12B Example sketch found in the JeeLab [...]
No Comments » - Posted in AVR, EbayTrigger, Embedded, rfm12, strobist by Stephen Eaton
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
And they multiply…
Today I constructed another 2 boards, very easy to do all done in around 30 minutes. This now brings the total to 3.
Applying the boards with solder paste by hand, manually placing the components, bake them in the toaster oven together. This time I got the LEDs the right way around and the right amount [...]
No Comments » - Posted in AVR, Embedded, Projects, Strobit Triggr, rfm12 by Stephen Eaton
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
It Lives!!!
Today I got a chance to do some testing on the boards.
State of play so far:
Checked for shorts on power – OK
Did a board level continuity test – everything as per schematic.
Power at the correct levels and at the right places.
Found that my USBASP programmer needs sw2 set and now all working, I can [...]
No Comments » - Posted in AVR, Arduino, Embedded, Projects, Strobit Triggr, rfm12 by Stephen Eaton
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
PCB Arrived and Hot out of the Oven
The PCBs arrived last week, unfortunately not in time for the long weekend so I haven’t really had a change to do anything until today and from my initial observations I’m happy with the results.
RFM12B PCB
2.4GHz MRF24J40MA PCB
Prototype PCB
As I mentioned on the Strobit-general Google List and the SPOT-development Google list, they seem to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Embedded, Projects, Strobit Triggr, rfm12 by Stephen Eaton
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
RFM12 and RFM12B Differences
Jean-Claude over at JeeLabs has been playing with the RFM12 and has noted some differences between the RFM12B and the RFM12.
http://jeelab.equi4.com/2009/05/06/rfm12-vs-rfm12b-revisited/
