Open Hardware and Devices: GNU-like Mobile Linux, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Librem, and More
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Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (7/2023): New Hardware and new PinePhone Keyboard Firmware
A fix for PinePhone Mesa troubles, a new Manjaro Phosh beta, a new postmarketOS splashscreen, a guide to developing mobile apps with a nested Phosh session, a new Tokodon release and an association Peter might join._
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Monitoring an Aquarium with InfluxDB and Grafana
I've been setting up a new tropical fish tank and wanted to add some monitoring and alerting because, well, why not?
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Converting KiCad Schematics to Verilog
I wrote a KiCad plugin to generate Verilog code from a schematic.
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How to detect the difference between a Pico and a Pico W #RaspberryPiPico #RaspberryPi @Raspberry_pi
Hardware-wise, both boards are nearly identical. But there are a couple subtle differences. And the onboard LED is connected differently.
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This little robot helps fight fires
This robot, which is a mid-sized rover, can operate via manual control or in an autonomous mode. In both cases, its job is to explore buildings, either during a fire or after a disaster, to map the interior and find hazards. Its camera system allows for visual detection, but it also has a host of integrated sensors for detecting elevated temperatures, gas pockets, and more. With that information, firefighters can then enter the building and rescue anyone trapped inside while avoiding hazardous areas or bringing the equipment necessary to deal with them.
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This original video game console features a VFD
VFDs (vacuum fluorescent displays) were common a few decades ago and have a nice, distinct glow that many find appealing. But like Nixie tubes and CRTs, VFDs have are outdated and almost obsolete at this point. They can’t come close to matching the price or functionality of modern LCD and OLED screens, but they still have a lot of charm. Simon Boak harnessed that charm when he built this custom video game console that features a VFD.
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Testing Raspberry Pi's new Debug Probe
The Debug Probe is powered by an RP2040, and lets you connect from USB to UART (serial) or SWD (Serial Wire Debug), perfect for debugging most embedded devices.
UART is useful to connect to a device's console when you don't have a display or other means of controlling it, and you can find UART/serial/console ports on almost any device with a processor or microcontroller.
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Raspberry Pi Debug Probe
The Raspberry Pi Debug Probe is a kit comprising the Debug Probe hardware in its own plastic case together with a USB cable and three types of debug cable, covering the vast majority of debug use cases. It is designed to make it easy to debug and program Raspberry Pi Pico and RP2040 with a range of host platforms including Windows, Mac, and typical Linux computers, where you don’t have a GPIO header to connect directly to the Pico’s serial UART or SWD port.
While designed for use with Raspberry Pi products, the Debug Probe provides standard UART and CMSIS-DAP interfaces over USB, so it can also be used to debug any Arm-based microcontroller that provides an SWD port with 3V3 I/O, or even just as a USB-to-UART cable. It works with OpenOCD and other tools that support CMSIS-DAP.
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Developing for Mobile Linux with Phosh – Part 0: Running Nested
Mobile Linux is gaining in popularity. What is a simple way to develop for it?
This upcoming series of posts will help with that using Phosh and related technologies. We’ll start out really simple and move into more complicated topics step by step.
For many bits you won’t even need to modify your phone (or even need to have one). A desktop or laptop running Linux with a graphical Wayland session is sufficient.
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How to build a super-slim smart
While a smart mirror isn’t exactly a beginner-friendly build, it is a bit of a rite of passage for makers. Being able to put together and code a smart mirror suggests that your skills have reached a certain level, and ending up with something big and impressive like this at the end of the process underlines your achievement. It’s also something you can look at and use every day — a satisfying reminder of your accomplishment.
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Reverse-engineering the interrupt circuitry in the Intel 8086 processor
I've been reverse-engineering the 8086 starting with the silicon die. The die photo below shows the chip under a microscope. The metal layer on top of the chip is visible, with the silicon and polysilicon mostly hidden underneath. Around the edges of the die, bond wires connect pads to the chip's 40 external pins; relevant pins are marked in yellow. I've labeled the key functional blocks; the ones that are important to this discussion are darker and will be discussed in detail below. Architecturally, the chip is partitioned into a Bus Interface Unit (BIU) at the top and an Execution Unit (EU) below. The BIU handles bus activity, while the Execution Unit (EU) executes instructions and microcode. Both parts are extensively involved in interrupt handling.