Many makers are fond of Nextion displays, because they simplify the process of creating graphical touch interfaces for embedded systems, and are less expensive than other HMI (Human-Machine Interface) screens. They were not designed for games, so I decided I had to write one as a challenge!
Continue reading Programming Pong on a Standalone Nextion Display
This Chinese “8-Channel USB Relay Board” requires a 12V power supply, and it’s also supposed to plug into the PC for convenient software control. But there was nothing convenient about the software, and I wanted it to work directly with Arduino and other MCUs anyway. Here’s how I replaced the USB interface with a basic UART.
Continue reading Adding a UART Interface to a USB Relay Board
This is a small note for people who, like me, got confused about the correct pinout of Atmel’s PDI connector.
An Arduino equipped with a camera sounds like a great start for a wide variety of projects. Unfortunately, the Arduino’s hardware is really not up to the data volumes and rates required for meaningful image processing. This problem has a few partial solutions. In this post I will present one of them – a serial-connection camera with the VC0706 chip, and the dedicated code library by Adafruit.
No, this is not about their killer driver fiasco from a couple of weeks ago. In a sense, that was a success – at least the driver did what it was supposed to do! How about distributing a demo source code for a new product – probably the very first code a user will try to compile and run – that has obvious bugs which render it useless?
Recently, I was requested by a client to develop a certain control system using the VM800P35A. This “EVE development module” by FTDI Chip (EVE standing for Embedded Video Engine) is an interesting combination of an Arduino, a 3.5″ LCD display, and the FT800 Graphic Controller. In this “first impression” we’ll see what this module is all about, and what you can expect from it.
