Slashdot Mirror

Adafruit makes something like this -- https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

It's basically a power strip with relay that's controlled by an optoisolated pair of wires. AFAIK, it's not UL approved, but it's "CPI Tested", for whatever that's worth. One outlet is always-on, one is normally-on, two are normally-off.

I'll stick to C++ on Ardunio myself but programming Arduinos with Python, toolchain-free, is now a thing thanks to small onboard flash storage, complex but hidden bootloaders, and more powerful microcontroller chips such as the Cortex M4.

https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython/what-is-circuitpython

How is a modular keyboard better than a bluetooth one: https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

They'd be better off sending him one of these, although I'm not sure why this particular kit costs as much as it does and not $45.

https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

Is the OLPC project still active? Haven't heard anything about them in ages.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

Adafruit and Sparkfun are two companies that design and sell electronics components for makers, hardware hackers, and developers. Want to tinker with an arduino and some servos? Need a breakout board for some tiny surface-mount component? Want to augment your clothes with LEDs and sensors? Heard about this Raspberry Pi thing, but don't know the first thing about Linux? These the places to go not only for the easy-to-connect hardware, but also a large amount of information to help you figure it out.

Both companies are committed to open hardware - publishing their designs for all to see and understand. They often publish software libraries for this or that component, too. Most every kit they publish has an introductory video or tutorial to go along with it. Both companies are based in the U.S. ( lot of Adafruit's boards are fabricated and populated at their NYC headquarters.)

buy an ESP8266 module for $10 and DoS their network with 802.11deauthorization frames until they put a password on it. They'll learn eventually, or move!

Check it: Intel Edison w/ Mini Breakout board at https://www.adafruit.com/produ...: $75!

Sure, it's got a dual-core, dual-threaded Atom, a gig of RAM, Wifi, and Bluetooth, but it's too expensive to just say "Sure, I'll grab one and play around with weekend."

You can grab the Starter Pack at https://www.adafruit.com/produ... for only $65, and look at all the components you get! And a ton of components, including LEDs, power supply, etc.

Technically, it competes with the Raspberry Pi, not the Arduino, but it's got a weird Linux distro (to which the forums are hard to find and use the terrible mailman interface) and a hell of a lot less example projects and much higher power consumption.

I don't understand the difference between the Galileo, Edison, and Joule (and you can't get the Joule on adafruit anyway), which speaks toward poor technical documentation.

In short, too expensive and not enough examples for hobbyists, and professionals are going for lower-power consumption, better software, and something cheaper.

Check it: Intel Edison w/ Mini Breakout board at https://www.adafruit.com/produ...: $75!

Sure, it's got a dual-core, dual-threaded Atom, a gig of RAM, Wifi, and Bluetooth, but it's too expensive to just say "Sure, I'll grab one and play around with weekend."

You can grab the Starter Pack at https://www.adafruit.com/produ... for only $65, and look at all the components you get! And a ton of components, including LEDs, power supply, etc.

Technically, it competes with the Raspberry Pi, not the Arduino, but it's got a weird Linux distro (to which the forums are hard to find and use the terrible mailman interface) and a hell of a lot less example projects and much higher power consumption.

I don't understand the difference between the Galileo, Edison, and Joule (and you can't get the Joule on adafruit anyway), which speaks toward poor technical documentation.

In short, too expensive and not enough examples for hobbyists, and professionals are going for lower-power consumption, better software, and something cheaper.

Leaker could have had built one of theseand went about leakers daily business for weeks with it in his breast pocket, raising no suspicions whatsoever.

"what's that thing?"
"Fitness tracker"

Here you go. Build it yourself.

https://learn.adafruit.com/pip...

True, that is why we don't put documents through washing and drying cycles.

I once gave a check to friend because I owed him money. He left the check in his jean pocket, put it through the washer and dryer. The check was fine except that the ink was completely washed out.

I don't see your point.

I was thinking wearable electronics. Sprayed on memory is a natural fit (pun intended). The problem with wearable electronics is the washer and dryer cycles.

Erm they also stocked the last version of the Kickstarter product... https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

From the page I linked:

The lowest level concept in GATT transactions is the Characteristic, which encapsulates a single data point
[...]
each service distinguishes itself from other services by means of a unique numeric ID called a UUID, which can be either 16-bit (for officially adopted BLE Services) or 128-bit (for custom services).
[...]
you're free to use the standard characteristics defined by the Bluetooth SIG (which ensures interoperability across and BLE-enabled HW/SW) or define your own custom characteristics which only your peripheral and SW understands.

I was referring to the maker of a GATT peripheral that chooses to create such "custom services" and "custom characteristics" for use only by that device and the proprietary native or web application that accompanies it.

I just re-read the article on El Reg to see if it says anything about disallowing custom (128-bit) services. Turns out it links to Google's page about the Web Bluetooth API, which states that custom services and characteristics are allowed:

If your Bluetooth GATT Service is not on the list of the standardized Bluetooth GATT services though, you may provide either the full Bluetooth UUID or a short 16- or 32-bit form.
[...]
If you use a custom Bluetooth GATT characteristic, you may provide either the full Bluetooth UUID or a short 16- or 32-bit form to service.getCharacteristic.

I'm specifically saying that the bluetooth devices will not be locked to a specific hardware, even without this js. That's all that matters.

That's fine, so long as the services and characteristics sent by the device are publicly documented services, particularly those meeting a publicly documented profile. Otherwise, if neither the application's source code nor the services and characteristics provided by the device are published, each user of an operating system not supported by the device maker will have to reverse-engineer the proprietary services and characteristics provided by the device in order to write an application from scratch that interprets the characteristics that the device is sending.

They already sell those https://www.adafruit.com/windo...

there is no network access, no hardware expansion port, and the 30 games cannot be changed.

If you can find one in stock, the ESP32 costs about $9, is the size of a quarter, and also runs a NES emulator and has wifi and bluetooth and a lot more.

I'm (sorta) joking, especially as you'll need more hardware like a screen, controllers, etc. but the video is still pretty cool.

Here, make your own!

https://learn.adafruit.com/pip...

As of the writing of this comment:
Adafruit has them, limit 1 per customer
https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

Took me less than a minute to find one. Learn to shop.

In stock
In stock
In stock

They are out of stock currently at PiSupply, but in general your question is about 6 months out of date.

I genuinely don't understand why I can't get a power reading from every single light AND socket in the house ... I understand it should cost more to do and it's more complicated but again, 2016!

There is nothing magic about 2016. Yes, I understand, "it's a modern world". But it will cost a lot more to do that, and it will require a lot of smarts to configure this all. How do you manage four things plugged into a power strip? Does each thing report its data, does each socket on the strip report, or do you just monitor the socket in the wall and say that's good enough? How do you tell how much that cable set-top-box is using vs. the TV plugged into the same strip? And then you turn on the lamp plugged into the same strip and ...

So, either you have fine-grained monitoring and a headache managing all the connections and data (which nobody is really going to want to do and nobody is going to want to pay for the ability to not bother doing). Or you monitor at the wall socket level with the headache of managing the data about what is plugged into each one. Or you monitor at the circuit level or house level, which is much easier.

I'm actually kind of glad I'm not well off enough to afford a house, because it would frustrate me to own my own place or build my own place and not be able to easily do that yet.

Oh, you can do it if you want to. You can put these or these all over the place and come up with a wireless mesh data collection network using $3 Arduino Nano knock-offs and a $2 wireless module connected to each. They're all plug-in devices, so you can even do it in the apartment you rent, or in the worst case, your parent's basement (kidding.)

And you are three years late, or one year late, with "it's 2016". Here's one from 2013, and one from 2015.

It will cost more and will be complicated, but yes, it's 2016 and it can be done if you want to do it.

Didn't we do this with stoplights at some point?

Didn't they have to pass laws banning normal people from having the devices that changed the lights?

I mean, how hard would it be to modify one of these to send out the camera-disabling signal?
https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

At The Pi Hut (UK), Pimoroni (UK), Adafruit (US) and in physical Micro Center stores (US). It says that right in the blog post.

Hi Tony, here you go:
https://learn.adafruit.com/ard...

Here's a bunch of different ones you can build. If it was me I'd just get a Raspberry Pi with a screen as that would be easiest.

Raspberry Pi Based:

  Pong Clock, GPIO Clock, another one, AlarmPi, some more examples

Arduino Based:
type 1 type 2

expert mode,another one, ye olde tux style

Here's a bunch of different ones you can build. If it was me I'd just get a Raspberry Pi with a screen as that would be easiest.

Raspberry Pi Based:

  Pong Clock, GPIO Clock, another one, AlarmPi, some more examples

Arduino Based:
type 1 type 2

expert mode,another one, ye olde tux style

My local Radio Shack store has Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Zero Starter kit in stock. It comes with the following:

Raspberry Pi Zero
8GB class 10 SD card
Wifi Dongle
Mini HDMI to HDMI adapter
USB OTG cable
USB console cable
Micro USB cable
Power supply
Male and Female headers
T-Cobbler Plus (breakout board and ribbon cable)

https://www.adafruit.com/products/2816

Now get up to the scale where my fingers can actually fit on a keyboard, physical keyboard wins hands down for speed and accuracy.

Bluetooth keyboards. They're easy enough to find.

I use one of these Bluetooth keyboards. It's nice to type on, but has got me some strange looks on the bus.

Anyone got a link to a known reliable vendor to buy these?

Try an Adafruit Huzzah. My favorite esp8266 breakout and beautifully supported by Adafruit, who go the extra mile to add value.

Anyone got a link to a known reliable vendor to buy these?

Not sure what you were searching for but Sparkfun was my number 2 google result for ESP8266. Adafruit is in the top 10 results as well

https://www.sparkfun.com/produ...
https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

I'm guessing the $3 price is in volume (10k or 100k+). There are a number of eBay listings under $3, but I wouldn't rely on eBay as a steady supply stream or for good documentation and support.

My preferred hobby vendors (because they've been supportive to me over the years; I'm not affiliated with them) are SparkFun and AdaFruit. SparkFun has them for $6.95, while AdaFruit has a hacker-friendly version for $9.95 and a surface-mount version for $6.95.

I'm guessing the $3 price is in volume (10k or 100k+). There are a number of eBay listings under $3, but I wouldn't rely on eBay as a steady supply stream or for good documentation and support.

My preferred hobby vendors (because they've been supportive to me over the years; I'm not affiliated with them) are SparkFun and AdaFruit. SparkFun has them for $6.95, while AdaFruit has a hacker-friendly version for $9.95 and a surface-mount version for $6.95.

From TFA:

Why then does the Raspberry Pi Zero exist? [Upton] also told Cnet, "We really hope this is going to get those last few people in the door and involved in computer programming."

Very good, but how well does the Zero support this goal or address their concerns?

The obvious point, directly inspired by the CEO of Google: it's cheap. Except it isn't. Adafruit is selling a Budget and a Starter Pack that cost $29.95 and $59.95, respectively.

Holy cow! $29.95 for the Budget Pack is absurdly NOT CHEAP! Just look at what you get for that exorbitant amount:

Raspberry Pi Zero - the type of low cost game-changing product Raspberry Pi's known for - a super light, super lean microcomputer
        Mini HDMI to HDMI Adapter - Will let you convert the little port on the Zero to a standard sized HDMI jack. You can get 1080P HDMI video + audio out of this little computer!
        USB OTG Cable - Lets you plug in a normal USB device such as WiFi dongle, USB hub, keyboard, mouse, etc into the Zero.
        8GB Class 10 SD Card - A SD card that's perfect for burning Raspbian Jessie for the Pi Zero
        5V 1A Power Supply & USB A/Micro B Cable OR 5V 2A Power Supply w/ Micro USB Cable - the best way to power up your Pi Zero with a stable 5V power supply that wont vary or sag.
        2x20 Male header strip - Solder this in to plug in Pi HATs, GPIO cables, etc as you would into a normal Pi. (We also have a 2x20 Female and 2x20 Female right-angle style for more exotic connecting)

So glad the author of the TFA has exposed this blatant display of price gouging greed.

http://www.adafruit.com/produc...

I was about to order one, but the shipping cost to Canada is more than twice the price of the RPiZ itself.

Feeling lucky? First result for bluetooth model m

http://www.adafruit.com/datash...

That's the cheapo GPS chip that makers are using. ~$40 on a breadboad module, but more like $5 as an OEM part. Calculates and stores "up to 3 days" of satellite position, then uses a lookup table. That is part of why new units still take a long time to get a cold fix; they're calculating satellite positions.

This has been a standard feature since around 10-15 years ago when they started advertising improved urban accuracy. If you're not predicting locations, you'd have to do a cold fix every time you walked past a building! It would be basically unusable downtown. Like in the old days! Back then it was also largely unusable in the forest; you'd have to find a clearing, or else remain stationary for a couple minutes, to get a fix on a cheap unit. That is why back then for serious outdoor use people were dropping $500 on dedicated GPS units that had the predictive routines, and regular GPS was intended mostly for highway auto use where the sky is usually visible.

Almost everything predictive uses Kalman filters. That is not a sign of low quality. It is a system of using predictions and expected error rates to overcome noise. If the result quality is low, it is not because of using a Kalman filter it is because of having a low quality prediction routine, or an inaccurate expected noise level. There is nothing about orbital mechanics or radio propagation that makes Kalman filters a poor fit; actually, it is nearly the ideal case for them; the noise will have a Gaussian distribution.

Was a fun little project. Based around a raspberrrypi and this https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

Next step if to get the sensors located in better positions. At the moment I just stick the box under the seat, which is too far away from the centre of mass so it gives really really odd readings for rotation front to back.

Yeah, I really need to check out those Raspberry Pi SBCs. I just haven't done it yet...

LOL, I'll bet that sensor being off-CG would make it like the bike was on some sort of "steering rod", like in an old-Skool Arcade game!

Was a fun little project. Based around a raspberrrypi and this https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

Next step if to get the sensors located in better positions. At the moment I just stick the box under the seat, which is too far away from the centre of mass so it gives really really odd readings for rotation front to back.

Also these, from Adafruit. Depending on the size, they only cost about $1 apiece. That's expensive for production but, if your time is worth anything to you, is well worth it for prototyping.

I've been using this one for a long time, and am completely satisfied with it: https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

Although, that will depend on your application, and what you want to use it for. I just needed a bunch of icons that I could click for controlling a robot. I didn't do any browsing or text editing.

>just how simple is this new device?

I reckon an Arduino-alike. Possibly something as simple as other low-end ATMega or ATTiny werables like Adafruit Trinket, Flora or even Adafruit Gemma, only with a 5x5 LED array and two switches built-in.

https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

In some respects, these things are even less powerful than the original BBC Model B; 8k of flash & 0.5k of RAM on the Trinket compared to 32k of RAM on the Beeb. In other respects, they're a little bit more powerful; 8MHz or 16MHz RISC on the Trinket compared to 2MHz 6502 on the Been (compare that to 900MHz quad-core RISC on the latest $35 Raspberry Pi).

Either way, they're not going to be running a graphical desktop and almost certainly will need to be programmed bare-metal (i.e. pre-compiled programs only, no interpreted languages, no operating system). You'll probably need another "proper" computer (such as a PC, Raspberry Pi or mid-range tablet) to program it with. TCP/IP stack (internet connection) is almost certainly out too, but a Bluetooth serial connection is a goer.

Really what we are talking about, in modern terms, is a microcontroller, not a computer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I'd guess the BBC Bit would have a retail value somewhere between five and ten quid (US$8-15).

I wrote a big post but slashdot is buggy and ate it. I didn't feel like writing it again. It was essentially keyfob + receiver + Rasp Pi or whatever. Should get range typical of a garage door opener.

I wrote a big post but slashdot is buggy and ate it. I didn't feel like writing it again. It was essentially keyfob + receiver + Rasp Pi or whatever. Should get range typical of a garage door opener.

You could have used a bluetooth or even a wired USB keyboard with it. Just so that you know. It'd work out of the box, even on iOS (through the camera connection kit). A coworker who uses a browser-based IDE on his Galaxy this-or-that has hooked up this monster to his tablet. Good that he's young and has good eyesight :) He plugs it in through a gender bender (adapter).

Here's an ARM Cortex-M0 in DIP.

While the NFC services would be restricted to Apple Pay, does this also mean that general NFC scanners won't be able to 'see' them? I use tags with this now https://www.adafruit.com/produ... but was hoping that the watch / phone would be visible too.

Tied to a video display, which would take much more sophisticated development, it might be easier. It's a fascinating idea for people like Stephen Hawking, or as a fall back device for people whose more sophisticated tools may need repair.

I hope that this youngster talks to Lady Ada, over at http://www.adafruit.com/, about publishing a do-it-yourself kit for this.

You mean, DON'T PANIC .

If you look at the pinout diagram from here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/#introducing-raspberry-pi-model-b-plus

You will notice GPIO_GEN0->6. Perhaps those are 7 hardware PWM's.

But if not then go grab a PWM breakout board such as http://www.adafruit.com/products/1455?gclid=CN6MjrTKxb8CFSwS7AodhDYAcw
I have used their 16 channel PWM breakout and it was a pleasure to use.

Yep, i had to super glue a SD-to-microSD adapter into the SD socket. After that i bought the half-length SD to micro SD adapters to avoid that issue. http://www.adafruit.com/produc...

you could add the Wolfson Audio Card to the Pi and get all the audio support you could need from a pi

http://www.adafruit.com/produc...