Image courtesy of Microchip Inc. Many MCU-based battery powered applications spend most of the time doing nothing productive. This is especially true for IoT applications like remote sensors, which periodically monitor a variable and react to it's value, performing some local work or transmiting it elsewhere. For these types of...more
This is the final part of a six-part post: Part 1: System design and planning Part 2: Circuit and PCB design Part 3: Mechanical design Part 4: Firmware Part 5: Installation and external power Part 6: Conclusion, problems and screwups With the project complete, I decided to look back on...more
This part five of a six-part post: Part 1: System design and planning Part 2: Circuit and PCB design Part 3: Mechanical design Part 4: Firmware Part 5: Installation and external power Part 6: Conclusion, problems and screwups Installation Sometimes the hard work is already done for you In one...more
This is the fourth part of a six-part post: Part 1: System design and planning Part 2: Circuit and PCB design Part 3: Mechanical design Part 4: Firmware Part 5: Installation and external power Part 6: Conclusion, problems and screwups Basic architecture Incoming events trigger external interrupts. The handlers post...more
This is the third part of a six-part post: Part 1: System design and planning Part 2: Circuit and PCB design Part 3: Mechanical design Part 4: Firmware Part 5: Installation and external power Part 6: Conclusion, problems and screwups Mechanical design The most difficult aspects of the design are...more
This is the second part of a six-part post: Part 1: System design and planning Part 2: Circuit and PCB design Part 3: Mechanical design Part 4: Firmware Part 5: Installation and external power Part 6: Conclusion, problems and screwups Circuit design and prototyping The prior post already detailed the...more
This is the first part of a six-part post: Part 1: System design and planning Part 2: Circuit and PCB design Part 3: Mechanical design Part 4: Firmware Part 5: Installation and external power Part 6: Conclusion, problems and screwups My latest project is a cat-themed Bluetooth audio player to...more
Navigating the full range of STM32 microcontrollers and understanding which models offer which features can be somewhat challenging. This is not helped by the ST website, which has all the information required, but spread out over large areas of the site. Below is an attempt to put all of this...more
It was a long journey, but the pool construction project is officially complete :). All regulatory approvals have been given and there is no more construction work to do. The full list of posts can be found here Design vs. reality...more
A well designed lighting setup can dramatically increase the subjective comfort of a space, while a poor design might just as easily turn a naturally inviting area into one where you really don't want to spend any time at all. For interior, night-time, residential lighting, it's easy to go overboard....more
A key objective of the original design was to ensure that the pool and deck were integrated with the home, rather than being a separate element, fenced off and visibly independent. To this end, the design extends the current wooden deck along the full width of the house and up...more
Not content to labor myself with only a pool, deck, stairs, fence, etc., my initial design calls for a wooden seat and storage cupboard at one end of the pool deck. Computer render of original design for the seat and cupboard area Tormenting myself even further, I decided that the...more
Regulations in these parts are quite strict with respect to pool fencing. Anything containing - or able to contain - 300mm of water or more must be fenced in accordance with a set of strict, but unfortunately somewhat ambiguous, standards. Even during construction, we had to ensure everything was fenced...more
The process of excavating for the pool generated a lot of dirt. Having it removed would be extremely costly so we decided to use it to partially level the yard below the pool. This area is around 25 meters wide and 10 meters deep. The elevation difference from one side...more
Per the tiling post, the pool deck is being paved with the same ivory travertine used for the pool coping and the rear wall. The pattern will be quite different though. From Versaille to the pool deck We're using a 4-tile repeating pattern commonly referred to as the French pattern...more