stonehippo

Some PCB Design Tools

• KiCAD
• Fritzing
• EAGLE
• Multisim
• Altium

stonehippo

Homekit Dev

An ongoing list of resources for developing Apple Homekit stuff

Apple Documentation

• Homekit Developer Documentation
• Homekit Accessory Protocol - noncommercial version; required Apple Dev account to access. If you want the commercial verson, you have to join the Apple MFi program.

implementations

stonehippo

RPG and Tabletop

some new games I am interested in:

• Hard Wired Island - retrofuture cyberpunk
• Spire
• Heart
• unbound - rules-light universal system
• Impulse Drive
• Interface Zero 2.0/3.0

stonehippo

Tools for hardware - in case you forget

ESP8266, ESP32, and NodeMCU

• esptool.py (for flashing firmware)
• nodemcu-tool (for file management/code upload)

micropython

• mpremote file management and console

stonehippo

// A simple pumpkin/gourd flicker light
// Written by 2021 George White ([email protected])
// This code is in the public domain
//
// I built this to power a little carved gourd for a company function.
// I ran it on an Adafruit Trinket 3.3V with two NeoPixels dots, but it
// should work on pretty much any Arduino-compatible board. The main
// thing you'd have to change it the PIXEL_PIN.

#define PIXEL_PIN 0

stonehippo

#define SECOND	1000 // 1 sec = 1000 millseconds
#define MINUTE	60 * SECOND // 60 sec = 1 minute

void setup() {
	Serial.begin(115200);
	randomSeed(analogRead(0)); // choose a pseudo-random starting seed
}

void loop() {
	WaitForNMinutes();

stonehippo

Zsh aliases for Adafruit MCP2221A breakout

The AdafruitMCP2221A breakout is a handy little board for adding peripherals to a computer via USB. It provides UART, similar to a standard USB to serial interface, and adds GPIO, ADC, DAC, and I2C. This means you can use your computer to directly read sensors or control devices directly, without using a microcontroller.

Adafruit has added support for the MCP2221A to the CPython port of CircuitPython (Blinka). This means that you get a nice Python interface to work with all sorts of fun stuff.

The aliases in this gist reflect some settings that are needed in my MacOS setup to work with the MCP2221A breakout. I am using the now-default zsh, supplemented by the excellent Oh My Zsh, so I put this file in OMZ's custom location, $ZSH_CUSTOM.

For more information on the breakout, and getting it set up with Windows, MacOS, and Linux, check out

stonehippo

Fixing CircuitPython Blinka displayio to work with the MCP2221A

Dependencies

• Adafruit CircuitPython Blinka, configured to work with the MCP2221A breakout
• Adafruit CircuitPython Blinka DisplayIO
• Adafruit CircuitPython Display Text
• Adafruit CircuitPython Bitmap Font

Issues to address

stonehippo

# Arduino CLI shortcuts

# Compile and upload; add the USB port to the end or it will error

# Arduino Uno
alias ac-uno="arduino-cli compile -b arduino:avr:uno -u -p"

# Arduino Pro or Pro Mini, at 3.3v/8MHz or 5v/16Mhz
alias ac-pro-8mhz="arduino-cli compile -b arduino:avr:pro:cpu=8MHzatmega328 -u -p"
alias ac-pro-16mhz="arduino-cli compile -b arduino:avr:pro -u -p"

stonehippo

Seeed Wio Terminal Circuitpython Modules

note: All of these examples have been tested with the latest version of CircuitPython, which as of this writing was 7.2.4. Some of these examples may require tweaks in older or later versions, due to change in the drivers.

The Seeed Wio Terminal is a nifty connected device development kit. Built around a SAMD51 Cortex-M4 microcontroller and a Realtek RTL8720DN for WiFi and Bluetooth, plus an integrated display and a collection of handy sensors, the Wio Terminal is a great platform for IoT and smart device development.

One of the nice things about the Wio Terminal is the number of options available for developement platforms. You can choose the long-time hardware hacking favorite Arudino, MicroPython or Ardupy, an interesting blend of MicroPython and Arduino. And there's support for my