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Using Nanode RF and emonCMS for Remote Control and Monitoring
For the last couple of years I have been looking at simple low cost methods of measuring analogue data - such as that from temperature or humidity sensors placed around the house and getting that data...
View ArticleCasting the net further
About 3 years ago, whilst working for a central London energy monitor company, a co-worker asked me whether it would be possible to come up with a device which would allow her to switch off electrical...
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Upgrading a Nanode to a ATmega1284 microcontroller
One of the problems encountered with Nanode, or Arduino is that sooner or later you come up against the physical limitations of the ATmega328.With 32K of flash and 2K of RAM, the '328 is great for...
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Nanode on a breadboard - an exercise in minimalism
Nanode on a breadboardThe original Nanode was conceived as an exercise in minimalism, starting with the question "What is the least hardware...
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A Brief History of Nanode
The first Nanode on a prototyping board controls an RGB lampNanode was conceived back in the summer of 2010, when I returned from a trip to Shenzhen, China. I was between...
View ArticleTxtzyme - A minimal interpretive language and thoughts on simple extensions
Imagine a very simple programming language which could run on any microcontroller with the minimum of on chip resources. A language that could invoke complex instructions and one that could be used to...
View ArticleMore Thoughts on Txtzyme - and a musical interlude
In the last post I discussed the simple interpreted language Txtzyme and offered some ideas on how the language could be extended.Ward Cunningham, the creator of txtzyme describes it as text that...
View ArticleSIMPL - A simple programming language based on Txtzyme
SIMPL - A simple programming language based on TxtzymeLast weekend I played around with Ward Cunningham's Txtzyme - a minimalist programming language, with an interpreter written in C so that it can be...
View ArticleNot Enough Flashing Lights or Switches
Growing up in the 1970s, a common depiction of computers, at least by Hollywood film-makers, was a room full of wardrobe sized cabinets, with innumerable flashing lights and switches and spinning tape...
View ArticleA LED Chaser Display using SIMPL
My last post described how a LED chaser display was one of my first forays into physical computing about 30 years ago.My recent experiments with SIMPL, have shown that it is a perfect programming tool...
View ArticleA Little Nostalgia
In the decade that spanned the 1960s, the cost of computers fell by about two orders of magnitude, and with volume manufacture possible, they found their way into general scientific engineering and...
View ArticleExtending SIMPL and flashing a few LEDs
I have been experimenting with SIMPL, and have added a few new commands to give it greater functionality.I've wired Digital outputs 2 to 13 to a line of 12 LEDs, to give a very simple means of...
View ArticleExtensions to SIMPL
In the last week I have been thinking about the user interfaces used on minicomputers of the 1960s, in particular the PDP-8, and wondering if a similar front LED and switch panel could be created...
View ArticleDiscovering the STM32F407 - first steps into ARM territory
Having tinkered with the Arduino and it's clones for a few years, the opportunity arose to move up to a much more powerful 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 device, which is now available cheaply.The ARM is a...
View ArticleSIMPL on the STM32F4xx Discovery Board
Back in the summer, I posted some musings about a very small programming language that I named SIMPL - Serial Interpreted Micro Programming Language. It's an extended version of Ward Cunningham's...
View ArticleThe Elements of Language
Charles H. Moore is one of my all time computer heroes. He has to be up there amongst Kernighan, Ritchie and Thomson for his contribution to computer languages.In the 1960s, computer programmer Charles...
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ARMiGo - A breakout board for STM32F303 ARM Microcontrollers
As integrated circuits get smaller, and more powerful, it becomes increasingly difficult for the hobbyist to utilise them easily. Soldering tiny SMT parts is a challenge for many - but an amazingly...
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More ARM Adventures
Update 28/03/2014.An excellent online book "Discovering the STM32 Microcontroller" by Geoffrey Brown is now available. This comprehensive, up to the minute text leads the beginner through the main...
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Quick Hack - Arduino with Bluetooth Low Energy
This week, the nRF 8001 module arrived from Olimex. These are available for around $14 and take just over a week to ship from Bulgaria.In order to connect it up, I used a "bare bones" Arduino like...
View ArticleJoining the Dots .......
In the Beginning..In the early 1960s, Digital Equipment Corp, were contracted to build a system to control and monitor certain processes at a Canadian nuclear power station which would convey data back...
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