Author Archives: Glen

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Mopidy Music Server Remote Control

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Spotify and Pandora Wireless Remote Track / Artist / Album Display

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on An Isolated RS-422 / RS-485 Shield for the Automation Direct P1AM-100 Open-Source PLC

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Building an Add-On Module for the Automation Direct P1AM-100 Open-Source PLC

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fort Collins Connexion FTTH Construction – Part Four

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 →

Posted in DMX / Art-Net, Ethernet, Lighting, Microchip, Power over Ethernet (PoE), SAMD21 | Comments Off on Build a DMX FeatherWing to Control Lights with a Feather M0

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 →

Posted in DMX / Art-Net, Ethernet, Lighting, Microchip, PIC18, Power over Ethernet (PoE), RGB LED | Comments Off on PoE-Powered RGB LED Floodlight

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fort Collins Connexion FTTH Construction – Part Three

PoE-Powered VFD Tube Clock

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Glen

This is a vintage VFD tube clock that uses Ethernet for both power and data. The power is provided using 802.3at PoE+ and a Molex PD Jack that contains both integrated magnetics and a PoE Type 2 PD controller. The IP stack runs on a Microchip PIC18F67J60 microcontroller that has an integrated Ethernet MAC and PHY. The IP stack includes DHCP, DNS, NTP, and LLDP functionality. Continue reading →

Posted in Ethernet, Microchip, PIC18, Power over Ethernet (PoE) | Comments Off on PoE-Powered VFD Tube Clock

It’s an Ethernet-Powered Christmas Tree!

Posted on December 29, 2019 by Glen

The lighted tree in the video above gets both the power and data for its RGB LED pixels using a single Ethernet cable. Power for the pixels is supplied from an Ethernet switch using the 802.3at PoE+ standard. Data for … Continue reading →

Posted in DMX / Art-Net, Ethernet, Lighting, Microchip, PIC18, Power over Ethernet (PoE), RGB LED | Comments Off on It’s an Ethernet-Powered Christmas Tree!