Category: Electronics
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Getting started with ESP32 development boards and Arduino
However fond of good old Arduinos based on ATmega328 and ATmega32u4 we might be, no one can now say they are state of the art. Sure, they might be the first choice to do something cheap and simple, but compared to most more modern designs, they are just too old and too weak. Slow, little…
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Soldering, rosin, flux and a Stannol x32-10i flux pen
If you really really want, you can solder without flux. But it is a painful experience. Almost all modern solders have flux integrated into its core. And as long as you do not try to solder anything big, it’s enough. Of course, sometimes it is not enough and you have to help yourself with additional…
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CC1101 868MHz Wireless Transciever Pinout
CC1101 is another example of modern radio modules. I might not have the receiver sensitivity or LoRa SX1276, but with proper antennas should give more than 1 km of radio transmission. Recently I got a couple of them, so expect some new projects with CC1101 and Arduino. Now, something that took me some time to…
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Arduino hygrometer with DHT11 and SSD1306 OLED display
One of the things I like about Arduino ecosystem is that you can prototype pretty decent device in very short time. It might not be pretty, but will work. Just like my DIY hygrometer built with DHT11 and SS1306 OLED display I’ve built few weeks ago: Simple, efficient and runs on 4 AA batteries. The…
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Crossbow LRS, hardware
Weather outside is bitchy. Period. It rains, then it's windy and then maybe there is some direct sunlight for 15 minutes. No way to fly or test my DIY RC radio link. But, there is some progress after all. My latest changes seems to be working just fine. On a bench link was stable for…
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Hands on: LoRa32u4 II 868MHz LoRa development board
Idea for Crossbow, DIY LRS system did not appearned in my mind out of nowhere. All my previous LoRa attempts were aimed at telemetry purposes only. E45-TTL-100 are cool, but bulky. If I would want to use them, I would either have to attach Arduino to it or hack it open and reprogram onboard CPU…
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E45-TTL-100 not transmitting when connected to Arduino
While working on one of my project involving Arduino and E45-TTL-100 LoRa 868MHz radio modules, I’ve discovered that it is not working exactly like expected. Documentation states: (…) When the data inputted by user is up to 58 byte, the module will start wireless transmission (…)(…) When the required transmission bytes is less than 58…
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Testing 868MHz LoRa range, part 3: round trip
After determining that range of 868MHz LoRa wireless modules E45-TTL-100 have, at least, quite impressive range (5,7km and I was out of line-of-sight to test further) I’ve decided to test something else. In the beginning I was planning to use those radio modules for telemetry only, but then another thought crossed my mind: why not…
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Quick note on SEMTECH SX1276 100mW output mode
Few facts about SEMTECH SX1276 LoRa modem and 20dBm (100mW) mode: +20dBm (100mW) is possible only on PA_BOOST pin Pins RFO_LF and RFO_HF allows only up to +17dBm (50mW) Maximum allowed duty cycle while using +20dBm mode is 1% Maximum allowed VSWR while using +20dBm mode is 3:1 The biggest problem with +20dBm on PA_BOOST…