Tag Archives: Project

Improved PyQt Color Wheel Project

In this video lesson we improve last weeks project by making the PyQt widget more virtual. The PyQt widget generates 3 sine waves, one for the Red color channel, one for the Green color channel, and one for the Blue color channel. The three sine waves are displayed on the widget. You are then given the opportunity in the widget to scale any of the three color channels. This allows you to calibrate your RGB LED in case any color channel is dominating. The widget also features a “Chase” mode where you can introduce phase injection into any of the color channels. This causes one or more of the color channels to “chase” the other ones. In this version, we preserve the phase as we turn the chase mode on or off. We also add buttons at the bottom of the widget to show the composite color being generated, as well as the individual R, G, and B color channels. This is the circuit schematic we are using on the Pi Pico side.

RGB LED
Circuit Schematic for Connecting the RGB LED

This is the code we developed to run on the Pi Pico side. It is the server side.

You need to create this file, and save it as “secrets.py” in the lib folder of your raspberry pi Pico.

And finally, this is the client side program which will run on your PC.

 

Portable Arduino Barometric Weather Station

In this video lesson we take you through the project of building an Arduino Barometric Pressure Weather Station. It builds on the last two lessons in this series. We measure and display instantaneous Barometric Pressure, normalized to Sea Level. Then in the lower portion on the OLED SSD1306 display, we show a graph of the barometric pressure over the last 24 hours.

 

Arduino Altimeter
Schematic for the Portable Arduino Barometric Pressure Sensor

Below we include the code we develop in the above video. Make sure to set the ‘alt’ variable to your elevation at your location, in meters.

 

Arduino Tutorial 24: Understanding Passive Buzzers

In this lesson we show you how to incorporate sound into your project using a passive buzzer. Passive Buzzers have the advantage that they are less expensive than active buzzers, and you can more precisely control the tone. This lesson will show you how to hook up the buzzer, and then how to code the arduino to produce different tones.

If you want to follow along at home, you can order the Arduino Kit we are using HERE.

The Ultimate Raspberry Pi Project: To the Edge of Space with Raspberry Pi

We have what we consider to be the Ultimate Raspberry Pi project . . . we send a Raspberry Pi instrument package to space, and telemeter live data back to earth, including live video over HAM radios. We do the telemetry with an innovative technique we call Ethernet over Ham, where we use the 2.39 GHz Ham band right below commercial WiFi.

We have had 5 successful launches, and are preparing for the launch of Eagle VI in Early February, 2017. Watch the video and see a live demonstration of our raspberry pi based system. Enjoy!