my recent reads..

LEAP#387 GPS Modules

This is the first time I’ve played around with a GPS module, so it was an interesting dive into NEMA standards. But at the end of the day, the TinyGPSPlus library makes it a piece of cake to get GPS readings. I log these to serial and display the main facts on an LCD. As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub hero_image


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LEAP#386 The Blue Pill

Popularly known as the Blue Pill, the STM32F103C8T6 Minimum System Development Board seems like an excellent gateway drug for getting into ARM Cortex-M3 development.

This is particularly true as it is possible to program it with the familar Arduino IDE.

It is my first look at one of these boards, so I have simple expectations - follow along some of the tutorials on the web/youtube and at least get a simple program running on the board. In the process I’ll learn a bit more about the board’s capabilities and quirks.

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub hero_image


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LEAP#385 BoldportClub Widlar Blinky

The µA723 voltage regulator is a classic from 1967, and was celebrated in the Boldport Club “Widlar” (Project #21). It is a bit boring to just regulate voltage, but since the µA723 contains an error amplifier and voltage reference … yes, it is possible to make an oscillator instead. My version of the Widlar glows an orange LED…

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub


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LEAP#379 AS3935 Lightning Sensor

I first heard about the AMS AS3935 Franklin Lightning Sensor in Arduino for Ham Radio. They are available as modules with built-in tuned antenna, but are relatively expensive/rare. I finally got my hands on one to experiment with.

Since we have between 171 and 186 lightning days on average a year here in Singapore, with each square kilometer being struck up to 16 times annually, I’m expecting to have some fun with this.

Here’s a first step - exploring the programming of the module with the standard Wire library. So far so good!

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub hero_image


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