Author Archives: Glen

Building a Set of USB-Controlled Analog Panel Meters Using the Silicon Labs EFM8UB1

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Glen

I’ve always liked the way these little HUA SO-45 analog panel meters looked, but, given the long lead times from China, I’ve never ordered a set. This fall, I changed my mind and finally decided to order a set. While … Continue reading →

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The Single USB RGB LED

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Glen

This project is a single RGB LED that is controlled over USB using a command line interface from a serial terminal window. A PIC16F1459 microcontroller implements the USB communications device class (CDC), processes the commands received from the user, and controls a single APA106-F8 8mm round RGB LED. Continue reading →

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Mopidy Music Server Remote Control

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Glen

After wiring the house for a Dante digital audio network and building the Spotify and Pandora Wireless Remote Track / Artist / Album Display project, I decided the next thing needed to fix up my music listening experience was a … Continue reading →

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Spotify and Pandora Wireless Remote Track / Artist / Album Display

Posted on June 10, 2020 by Glen

I use Pandora and Spotify a lot–typically from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. I got frustrated with the Spotify and Pandora apps on my Pixel 2 and their inability to find and control my Chromecast Audio players … Continue reading →

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An Isolated RS-422 / RS-485 Shield for the Automation Direct P1AM-100 Open-Source PLC

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Glen

The RS-422 / RS-485 shield is an open source shield designed to add RS-422 and RS-485 communication capabilities to the ProductivityOpen family of open-source programmable logic controllers (PLC’s) from Automation Direct. It’s loosely based on the Arduino MKR RS-485 shield … Continue reading →

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Building an Add-On Module for the Automation Direct P1AM-100 Open-Source PLC

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Glen

In January 2020, Automation Direct launched their ProductivityOpen family of open-source programmable logic controllers (PLC’s). The first controller in the series, the P1AM-100, is based on the Microchip ATSAMD21 microcontroller and programmed using the Arduino development environment. To encourage development, … Continue reading →

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Fort Collins Connexion FTTH Construction – Part Four

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Glen

Welcome to part four of  my blog post on the construction and installation of the Fort Collins Connexion municipal broadband fiber network. In part three, we looked at the installation of service at my friend Collin’s house. In part four, … Continue reading →

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Build a DMX FeatherWing to Control Lights with a Feather M0

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Glen

This project uses an Adafruit Feather M0 board to control a group of RGB lights using the DMX-512 protocol. We’ll build a DMX-512 FeatherWing and connect it to the Feather M0 and a Particle Ethernet FeatherWing. Finally, we’ll develop a web-based GUI to select different RGB lighting effects and control the lights. Continue reading →

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PoE-Powered RGB LED Floodlight

Posted on February 2, 2020 by Glen

This project uses a Silvertel 802.3at Ag5300 PoE+ module with a built-in isolated 24 V DC/DC converter to power a 10 W ColorKinetics ColorBurst 4 RGB LED floodlight. The Ethernet cable and light plug into a small power / control board and PoE+ powers the floodlight and Art-Net UDP packets control the light. Continue reading →

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Fort Collins Connexion FTTH Construction – Part Three

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Glen

On January 7, 2020, Colin found a flyer announcing the availability of Connexion at his address in a neighborhood on the northeast side of town. He called the Connexion customer service number and scheduled an install. Here’s what happened when he had service installed. Continue reading →

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