I own a decorative light for the winter which I controlled using a simple time switch in the past. The time of dusk is continually shifting, so I had to adjust the turn-on time multiple times each year. This year,...

I wrote a short page about the snow flake project from end of 2017. On the page you will find a summary of the project and the link to the repository with all the required files. Everything is open source,...

Recently I received boards for a sensor array from PCBWay. This boards were made in a very good quality considering the low price level. I really like the green solder mask they use, it creates a nice optical effect shifting...

Sadly there is a ton of badly written code out in the wild. Hardware related code, seem to suffer more in this regards. I imagine, many developer in this segment are unwillingly to invest time in quality or are just...

Flags play an important role in embedded software development. Microcontrollers and chips are using registers where single bits or combinations of bits play a big role in the configuration. All the bits and their role are described in the specification,...

For my current project I searched for a good boost power converter which is able to deliver continuous 400mA power for various sensors. There are an endless number of good boost converters around, but not many can be hand soldered...

Last week the new PCBite Kit 2.0 from Sensepeek arrived. The new kit comes with the great PCBite holder from the previous version, which are very useful to fasten a PCB for soldering, rework or analysis. New to this kit...

For a current project I need a step-up converter to get 5 volts from 2.5V-5.5V input. The output of this converter is used to power sensors which drive motors and small heat elements from this source. The average consumed current...

Today I got the PCB coaster from Adafruit. They look so much better in real than on the photos in the shop. The coasters are made from 2.4mm FR4 PCB material. There is a transparent solder mask on the top to...

SeedStudio offered me a coupon to evaluate their PCB service “Fusion“. I am currently working on a new project, so I gave this service a try. I used the following options ordering the two boards: PCB Dimensions 68mm*108mm Impedance Control...

I designed a very simple power converter for the snow flake decoration. The snow flake boards require 3.3V, a voltage which is commonly available in a household. Therefore the power converter takes 5V USB power and convert it into the...

Today I show you a little bit longer video about the assembly of the component side of the snow flake panel. Compared with the very small 0402 LEDs (1mm x 0.5mm) on the front side, the component side contains just...

Here a quick video of the snow flake assembly. It shows the assembly of the LED side of the panel using hot air. The assembly went without big problems, except there was a little bit excess solder on the pads....

Eurocircuits delivered some perfect panels for the snow flake board. Each panel has five snow flake boards on it. This was an impressive good job from from Eurocircuits. There are a quite number of challenges to produce panels in this...

Recently, the boards for a small power converter arrived from PCBWay. This board house provides a fast and reliable service. In the following image you can get a own impression of the produced boards: I especially like the wide range...

Today prototype boards from Eurocircuits arrived. The quality of this boards is outstanding. I do not know any other board house which delivers this incredible quality of boards. They really thrive for perfection. The lines on the front side of...

Recently I finished a small cat feeding device. Meanwhile I added some minor missing parts, like an USB port which can be used to charge the device. I also added a larger battery to keep the device running for months...

I finished a very simple and quick project recently. It is a programmable cat feeder device. The device is just made for one single portion, but it uses this slide which produces the distinctive sound if the pellets hit the...

There was a long delay with no update about my projects. The reason for this is, I focused on other non electronic related projects. I promised to publish all files and information about the plant watering sensor project in August,...

This is the sixth part of the meta-tutorial, where I talk about designing a cheap plant watering sensor. If you did not already read the first, second, third, fourth and fifth part please do it now. These parts contain a lot information which lead to this point of...

Using the new method of measurement, described in this post, I could successfully collect some meaningful data. This time, the read values are the exact values of the final sensor without a different kind of oscillator. I watered the plant...

I started a second take on the long term tests for the plant watering sensor. This tests are required to be sure, the measurements follow the expected cycles. After watering the sensor, the frequency should go down and while the...

Currently I am working on the coating for the foot part of the plant watering sensor. Here I already tried a wide range of techniques and materials. At the moment, epoxy seems the perfect material choice – so I am...

I received the foot parts of the plant watering sensor from Eurocircuits. As you can see, they have the same great quality as the head parts. Eurocircuits removes any bridges from the boards in a very clean way, so you...

The first long term measurement I made, to test the behaviour of the sensor over a longer time range was a failure. After the five days with the device introduced in this post, the readings made absolute no sense. The...