Archive for June, 2009
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Widget running on the smell of a single AA
For the next version of the widget, I’m planning to have an on board boost regulator. This design will allows the widget to run from just about any voltage source as low as 0.7v (so NiMh will be fine) and up to 5.5v, this boost regulator in conjunction with a standard LDO regulator will give [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Arduino, Embedded, Wirelesswidget by Stephen Eaton
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Widget Development Updates
Just thought I’d post an update on what’s happening in the widget development world.
Limited Production Run
I have a very limited number of widget kits available for purchase. This limited batch of widget kits also include a bare prototype personality at no cost with each widget to get you started in your wireless applications.
Introductory price [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Wirelesswidget by Stephen Eaton
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Simple Low Pass Noise Filter
The other day while playing around with the ADC on the widget I had some problems with noise causing the reading to bounce around, It needed some form filtering to remove the noise. Normally almost everyone seems to take a number of readings and then average the result, unfortunately this takes time.
I came across this [...]
No Comments » - Posted in AVR, Arduino, C, Embedded, Software by Stephen Eaton
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Widget Sensor Housings
I want to deploy widgets around the home, both inside and out, so I needed to find something that would allow some protection from the environment to the electronics, cheaply and easily.
On the weekend while doing some shopping I found the solution in the kitchen area of the local discount store, at $1.50 a [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Wirelesswidget by Stephen Eaton
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Reading Widget Battery Voltage
In my previous blog entry I described adding a solar cell to the widget and how I could measure the voltage produced by the Solar Cell, however I still need to monitor actual battery voltage easily, and preferably with not a lot of additional hardware.
Problems reading ones own voltage.
Measuring ones own voltage has a [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in AVR, Arduino, Embedded, Wirelesswidget by Stephen Eaton
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Solar Powered Widget
One of the tasks I want to use the widget boards for is a Wireless Sensor Network around the house for measuring environmental values. The sensors that I want to live outdoors will need to be self sufficient in terms of power, so I wanted to see if I could charge the batteries via solar, [...]
