pinout-based identification:
Some chips have their top marking removed.
They can still be identified based on their pinout.
To help me with that, I created the Integrated Circuit IDendifier (ICID) database and search engine.
Integrated Circuit IDendifier (ICID) search engine
my custom wireless electricity meter:
While renewing my distribution board the land lord decided to remove the electricity meter. Now I can't note how much electricity I am using. So I decided to build and install my own electricity meter: the spark counter.
Using a cheap power meter (i.e. peacefair PZEM-004), a microcontroller (i.e. Arduino Nano 3.0), radio transceivers (i.e. nordic nRF24L01+), a single board computer (i.e. Raspberry Pi), and some storage and visualization tools (i.e. influxDB and grafana) I am now able to measure, log, and monitor my electricity consumption.
warning: the electricity meter I am presenting will only work for 1 phase 2 wires power distribution systems. I have a 3 phases 4 wires system and I am doing it wrong.
Published: 2015-10-29 by King Kévin
creating an open source hardware logo:
What better than a logo on your hardware to show ir is open source?
Such a logo provided by the Open Source Hardware Association even already exists, but the rights on it were not clear, no vector version and footprint were provided, and it's quite hard to draw in electronic CAD softwares.
So I decided to create my own open source hardware logo for my electronic designs.
It's simple and can be drawn easily in any CAD software, but the generator already lets you customize it and export it as vector graphic or as footprint for your electronic CAD software.
testing the accuracy of a power supply:
It was time to get a decent power supply, and so I found the EA-PS 2084-03B. It fulfilled all my criteria: good quality, silent, wide voltage range, and most importantly with PC connectivity.
But somehow the reading on the LCD does not match what is output. So I implemented a program to remotely control and monitor this power supply, and with a PC connected UT61E multimeter I can compare what is set to what is output. This way I can measure the power supply's accuracy.
Published: 2015-06-08 by King Kévin