Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Single USB RGB LED

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

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

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

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

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

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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Fort Collins Connexion FTTH Construction – Part Three

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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An Enclosure for the Dalibor Farny R|Z568M Nixie Tube

In the first post in this series, we designed a socket and driver board for a Dalibor Farny R|Z568M Nixie tube. In the the second post in this series, we designed a power supply and controller board for the Nixie … Continue reading

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A Controller for a Dalibor Farny R|Z568M Nixie Tube

The first in this series of posts described building a socket and driver board for a Dalibor Farny R|Z568M Nixie tube and driving the tube using a power supply and Particle Photon from another Nixie project. This post covers building … Continue reading

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A Socket for a Dalibor Farny R|Z568M Nixie Tube

I recently ordered one of Dalibor Farny’s R|Z568M Nixie tubes. I wanted to get the tube powered up and displaying digits so I designed a small circuit board to act as a socket and switch the anode and digit cathodes … Continue reading

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