Category: Embedded Development

CAN eXtended, Message Format

Modern CAN uses two formats referred to as CAN 2.0A and CAN 2.0B. These again can use at least two wired solutions. The one we discuss here is the high speed version using twisted pairs. Two newer relatives to CAN that require either a logic circuit or MCU with special port support are CAN FD…

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Raspberry PI Zero

Wow – I actually managed to order a Raspberry Pi Zero for 3.33 GBP. I have wanted one for months for testing, but declined to pay 50.- GBP or more on ebay. This was through one of the official distributors. 1 Raspberry Pi Zero – Max 1 Pi Zero Per Customer!Pi Zero only 1 £3.33…

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3D Printer

I purchased a Prusa i3 DIY kit from Hong Kong some time back. I assembled it and got it working, but have not used the printer much. The first issue I had with it was that the board shorted and burned some lanes. I managed to fix that and even bought a spare control system…

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Smart SPI Logic

BasicPI Hat’s uses SPI in a full network with up to 8 Hat’s per Raspberry PI. Communication with a STM32 will clock at ca 15Mhz (Set on Raspberry PI). The protocol uses GPIO pin’s as chip select for critical messages, but will otherwise rely on each device to filter out it’s own messages on MOSI.…

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HAL

HAL (Hardware Abstraction layer) is an interface between “normal” user modules and actual hardware. It makes hardware access easy and portable, it also gives us a layer where we can write optimized, hardware specific code if we need to. We will add more HAL classes as we go. ETC (Elapsed Time Clock) count the time…

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MPU9255

The picture show a classic MPU9255 breakout board found on ebay for < 5.- GBP. MPU9255 provide both I2C and SPI interface and a total of 9 sensors (3 axis Gyro, Magnetometer and Accelerometer). In our case we will use the SPI ports Connected to STM32. I am not sure if I should add a…

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DIY Spider Robot

This robot prototype uses a simple wooden box as body and 6 pan&tilt camera holders with  a total of 12 servos to move around. The picture is a prototype to test the concept. I initially used a 5.2Ah LIPO but the total weight on the servos was getting a bit much, so I dropped down…

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Adding a LED

Looking at my Rx breakout board I realize I need to add a LED for status. I don’t like wasting pins, but not having a Status led will be a pain.

Rx Breakout Schematics

This is the current revision 1.0 of the Rx breakout board. I am trying to find a decent way to display schematics, but the EDA I use is a bit limited in that respect. I am not going to mention what I use because I intend to change that to an open source EDA soon.