Mazda Miata MX-5 Rear LED Strip Console Controller
Who wants one? Saddle over to this page for more info on how to get your hands on a flavour of this. May 2022 Phase IV: Just finished what I hope to be the final iteration of this project. I've been searching for a wider colour IPS display and found one that will do (for now :-). Ideally, I'd like to fill the full area below in order to properly display the seatbeat and airbag…
WeatherCloud – IoT
So, my son's been bugging me to get him some of those LED strips for his room. You know the ones that you see on Amazon with the remote controls. I couldn't just go with status quo, so instead with a little grit and some free time I got on the LED cloud bandwagon and built him something a big puffy cloud with lights - what every teen wants right? ;-) What is it? It's…
COVID-19 Daily Stats on a Nextion HMI using ESP8266
While Covid-19 picks a fight with humanity, keeping busy and your mind clear is important for all of us. In addition to getting out on hikes and biking with the family, what better way to pass the time than to built IoT stuff! Since I had a new 7" Nextion HMI screen sitting around just waiting for a project, and had some vacation time, I decided to buffer up my skills and get to work.…
Review: LED Ring Magnifier PCB Bench Vise with Helping Hands
3rd hand tools are a must-have when working with soldering. You need something to hold the PCB, the solder, and the soldering iron. Basically any project where you need a (wait for ) 3rd hand! A magnifying glass is also helpful for those with aging eyes. My friends at sent my this to check out and I have to say I'm impressed. Read Before receiving this, I had made my own with a combination of…
USB Dial
This is another one of those "did it because I can" projects. It's a USB dial that uses a Teensy Arduino unit at it's core and allows me to emulate my mouse. I use TinkerCAD avidly to design my 3D printed models. I wanted to have both this and my mouse at the same time. The mouse would be used for some activities ( object selection/rotation/editing) while the dial would fill in to perform rotate/zoom in/out…
WIoT-2 Weather and Home Automation – Nextion with ESP8266/ESP32
This is a continuation from my first iteration of WIoT weather station. What is WIoT-2? I use it as a cloud-connected (IoT) info center of sorts. It is a culmination of information my wife or I often look for either on our way out of the house, or when we come home. It displays current/forecast weather, temp/humidity from outside the house (this), date, time, our local waste collection schedule, currency rates, the status of our garage…
DIY & Hobby Projects: Parts, Components & Tools Must Have’s
Most people who visit to this site are either DIY'ers, Makers, Hackers, or Robotics / RC enthusiast. For the most part, we all do the same thing - we build or mod stuff for our projects or hobbies. Over the years, experience and repetition has given we wisdom as to what works, what doesn't, and key components that I want to have on hand. I wanted to share a list of parts/components I have found useful for…
LulzBot Mini: LED Lighting Controller
Update: Check out the more recent mod - camera mount and better lighting. So, I just got my LulzBot Mini this week and have to say I love this thing. It's my 2nd 3D printer (I Kickstarted the M3D - but it was not a reliable machine). Anyway, like any guy with a new toy, I had to do something to make it my own! ..and why not print some parts for it! The…
Configuring Lost Model Alarm – Flip 32 and Cleanflight
Earlier, I created an enhanced lost model alarm using an ATTiny85 and some Arduino code. I wanted to have different alarm modes that could be triggered depending on the position of the pitch trim pot. I've since ditched that config for simplicity. The hardware and Arduino Sketch are still valid, so you can use those if you want to build one. These instructions will show how to connect the hardware to a Flip32+ and…
HC-06 Bluetooth Module – Getting this sucker into AT Command Mode
After spending nearly 3 hours scouring the Web trying to find a way to configure my HC-06 Bluetooth module. There are a lot of great tutorials out there. Many of them refer to setting the key pin HIGH, or a combination of LOW then HIGH while powering on the module. However, none of these approaches worked for the unit I have. Read on to see how it can be done. Oddly, I found the answer in…