On LinkedIn a while ago Glen one of the reps at Würth Elektronik offered free PCB fidget spinners. I asked nicely if MiniBoyGeek could have one, and as such one was delivered, I am glad I opened the bag before giving it to him. A fun little build of 9 […]
Geeky
318 posts
A while ago I managed to get Libvert running on OS X. Sometime last year, things were changed in the Brew.io version of LibVert that caused you to no longer be able to open the information screen on VMs that you are running. The problem seems to be that the […]
On Facebook a friend of mine put out the following request: Calling all 3D printer friends. Can you print up some visors for the doctors and nurses. There’s a plan somewhere of how to do it using a 2l bottle as the visor and the 3D printer bit as the […]
Every so often I update my CV, I am not a huge fan of Microsoft Word, or other Word Processors. Texmaker is a free open source LaTeX editor that works cross platform, on my Mac it makes generating my CV simpler. My CV is now stored in my GitHub account […]
This work from home thing means that I am working in the home office. Time to finish typing it up. And getting all the small things put into the right boxes etc.
I have got my PCB rule business card PCBs back from JLCPCB, so now to check everything works and build one up
The Mystery of Mc vs. Mac This page will attempt to solve the mystery of Mc versus Mac, the alphabetization of Mc, as well as the mystery of the raised c often used in Mc. Historically, Mac was a surname prefix for Irish or Scottish sons. Many people believe that […]
It has been a while since I have tried getting CARLA to run. After doing fair amount of poking, and prodding including trying to compile Unreal Engine for use on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano; I was unable to get Unreal Engine running on the ARM® A57 architecture. Since then I […]
I downloaded Notability to give it a try, back to back with Goodnotes, both are about the same price from the App and iPhone/iPad stores, I bought both the Desktop and the iPad app to test on my iPad mini, with my apple pencil, and the desktop app to test […]
One of the things I use my iPad mini and Apple Pencil is taking notes on components from the data sheets. I also have a iPad keyboard case that allows me to use my iPad as a very small laptop, or have the screen propped up for use as a […]
I have spoken to Pycom support about the problems I was having updating the expansion board, and it turns out its a known issue with Mac OS 10.15 due to the security settings in the new version of Mac OS. However the expansion board should have come from the retailer […]
One of the problems I have when designing PCBs, or working in CAD with a view to 3D printing it is easy to loose sight of how big things on the screen are in real life. A lot of the time when you move away from working with through hole […]
Like the bearing size code, resister values for LEDs is something that I keep needing to work out, or just go back to my nominal somewhere between 200 Ω and 1 kΩ rule of thumb. While I could work it out every time I need it using and then chose […]
Since I got Pycom working on my Mac, I can now update the firmware on my expansion board, the DFU updater is available in Brew, which we should have installed in the last post. From the Updating Firmware page we can download the correct firmware file; I have the Expansion […]
I have bought a Pycom makr WiPy to have a play with Micro Python, the recommended IDE is atom with Pymakr Atom Package, however it doesn’t work out the box as designed due to an issue with Atom and Pymakr. After you have installed Atom from atom.io, you can open […]
On Saturday Tamarisk, MiniBoyGeek, Thinkl33t and I went to The MAD Museum in Stoke-on-Trent with Emily and Glen. We also found a nice little vegan coffee shop called Plantarium. Emily made Tamarisk and I a Flappity Bat for Christmas: Go look at her shop!
tl;dr; I have not yet managed it… but if you read on you will see where I am currently up to, and where I think I can go. I am reading the University of Toronto’s “Self-Driving Cars Specialisation“, one of the tutors is Paul Newman from Oxbotica: Be at the […]
If you do any amount of design with 3D printers, sooner or later you will find your self using bearings between two bits to help them move; normally you will reach for a “skateboard bearing” or a 608ZZ, however if you need a size that is not a 608ZZ the […]
I just realised that in Part 1 and Part 2 that I didnt discuse how to go from Datasheet to Fusion 360, While I am not going to cover how to do the drawing in great detail, there are plenty of sites which tell you how to make drawings in […]
Following on from From Datasheet to KiCad Component – Part One, I had got as far as making the footprint in KiCad the Footprint Editor, The layers I have built it out of look like this: Now we have the footprint finished for Type C (I also did Type A […]
Recently the BBC wrote an article online with the headline “Does 5G pose health risks?”, the first section was: The 5G mobile network has been switched on in some UK cities and has led to questions about whether the new technology poses health risks. So what are the concerns, and […]
One of the simpler inputs to add to a microcontroller is a switch, I have chosen to use the ones I have added to KiCad for my Swarmbot. Most people who add microswitches normaly use something like the following circuit on a Digital in Pin. When the Switch is open […]
I found some cheap small microswitches on AliExpress, working backwards I found the same switch part numbers, and subsequently found a Switch Data sheet for the same size part. I use a mix of Fusion 360 and KiCAD for design, so I CADDed up the three flavours of microswitches, using […]
This is version one of a set of Left-hand Switches made for MiniBoyGeek’s Duplo Railway Yes there is already a version two waiting to print, with additional check rails and re-designed mechanism: You can find it on ThingiVerse here
I found the ‘Picktor’ Pick and Place head for retrofitting on a 3D printer on Thingiverse (GitHub) As designed it uses a Nema 17 stepper motor, however I suspect that will be too big for my design. I got 3 x Nema 14 stepper motors from an old RepRap Huxley, […]
I have started designing assembles in Fusion 360 using T-Slot, a lot of head scratching on how to make use of it at arbitrary lengths in my designs… I started by making a 20mm length of T-Slot as its own model in Fusion 360; This is model has all of […]
Using a LED and a 560 Ω in most breadboard projects means that you end up with four pins connected for two components, soldering them up like this makes them much easer to handle.
In the UK if you want to place some thing on the market you need to ensure that it has a CE mark and has a DoC (Declaration of Conformity), there are a number of things that need to be done. Looking through the list, we have CE, RoHS, WEEE, […]
…and other lies adults who should know better spread! On Facebook a friend of mine has joined the crazy Electrosmog people; I was first made aware of it when she posted outrage at an article in a small paper with the headline “Glastonbury Festival 2019 to be first ever music […]
We went to Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, to be fair it is badly named… its got far too well signposted; the entire place is a maze or exhibit rooms, and displays showing an over view of life during its time as a bunker.