Skip to content

Arduino

ESP32/CDP/LLDP/DHCP – Third Edition

This is the third major update to the CDP/LLDP packet sniffer (First, Second). The main processor is now the ESP32 microprocessor. Of the available packages, I’ve chosen the TTGO T-Display. I would like to give a shout-out to Colin for his assistance, and for testing what has been (at times) some cringe worthy code. There has been some pretty poor work-arounds to resolve issues, and then (hopefully) cleaned them up later. If you notice any remaining please let me know. You can see below that the wiring is far simpler than the previous versions. This is thanks to the T-Displays extra built in options. The major changes in the T-Display: built in TFT, charging circuit, and Bluetooth. The red mosfet is used to distribute power to peripheral devices. The reason for the mosfet is to… Read More »ESP32/CDP/LLDP/DHCP – Third Edition

Desktop CNC – Work In Progress

To make my projects smaller and more durable, it would be better to make custom PCB’s rather than jamming a wad of wires into already small cases. To make this possible, I’ve made a desktop CNC. To keep the costs down, it will be made using mostly surplus parts. To cut back on costs further the sides and 3D printed parts where redesigned to fit 8mm smooth rods, rather than 12mm, which are considerably more expensive and harder to find. There are many revisions of the CNC design I chose and I had to piece together parts from 2 or more of them, notably the X-carriage – most of them where designed as a single piece, which would need supports. I increased thickness of most of the CNC parts to 9mm (from 6mm). During the… Read More »Desktop CNC – Work In Progress

Arduino CDP Revisited

UPDATE 5/5/21: Please check out the most current version. During some down time I’ve decided to revisit the Arduino CDP sniffer and add extra features. This will be a running post and will be updated periodically. As mentioned in the comments of the other post I will be looking at adding LLDP support and an export feature to a mobile/laptop. The export or “history” addition will allow a log to be saved to an external device as easy as possible. As a prototype, it’s had an ESP8266 added to it with a web server running showing modified serial output. Initial results work, but I’m again getting plagued with power issues from the ESP8266’s. Getting those 3.3v and enough amps into the original container will be problematic. The benefit of this is it’s exported as text… Read More »Arduino CDP Revisited

Virtual Pinball Machine

Virtual pinball tables consist of the same basic elements as regular pinball machines with a few replacements; The playfield and backglass are replaced with monitors and controlled by a PC. The buttons (and sometimes the plunger) are replaced by buttons and a game controller or keyboard emulator. In more advanced tables the LED dot matrix display replaced with a compatible replacement or a 3rd monitor. This previous project was the perfect test bed to see if the PC I was planning on using was good enough to run the games smoothly. The first test run was running Future Pinball with a Kinect for facial recognition.  At 25-30 FPS is was OK but there was noticeable lag at times. As this was my first and I wanted to use atleast 90% recycled parts I’ve moved away from… Read More »Virtual Pinball Machine

Mostly Printed CNC (MP-CNC)

Having a CNC machine to cut panels for projects has been a wish for a while. Then I found this awesome project: Mostly Printed CNC (www.vicious1.com). As the name says, most parts are 3D printed and the non-printed parts are easily accessible. The controller is a RAMPs 1.4 board with Arduino Mega, easy to find cheap online. I used the Marlin firmware because it’s the same as both my 3D printers. After destroying my Mendel i2 trying a new printing surface I had spent many hours printing the parts on my Solidoodle2 with a printing volume 6″ x 6″ x 6″. It took longer than usual due to my choice of ABS over PLA. I have had to reprint most of the parts in PLA. The project page gives accurate build times for each part,… Read More »Mostly Printed CNC (MP-CNC)

Smoker/Kettle BBQ Controller

After tasting some awesome BBQ offered in the US, I wanted to try making it myself. I’ve tried to use a gas BBQ, but it always turned out dry and tough. I moved to a charcoal kettle grill and wanted to be able to have more control of the temperature. Options: manual control – Continuously checking the temperature on the gauge that came with the BBQ. Buying a professional smoker – big $$. Make my own controller – When researching I found a professional BBQ team that used a controller that adjusted the temperature using a fan and temperature probes. I was kindly given a European Outdoorchef BBQ (cheers Chris), and I’ve been using it to smoke a few cuts of meat, the largest and latest was a 4kg pork leg roast. When I get… Read More »Smoker/Kettle BBQ Controller

Prusa Mendel i2 to CNC Engraver Conversion – In progress

I’ve been checking out parts lists and prices for DIY CNC routers. After some research, I’ve decided to convert my Prusa Mendel i2 to a small, very cheap CNC engraver, So I could get a feel for them and work out if it would be worth making a full size one. Below is what I had to work with. You may notice the extra braces on the top corners – the green parts. There is other extra supports on the board it’s screwed on to, to make it more ridged than usual. I found a few mounts on thingyverse, but I have an old Ozito rotary tool. The flexi shaft has different dimensions than the Dremel, so I created my own mount for it: Ozito_FlexMount I did a test print @ 20% fill and 1… Read More »Prusa Mendel i2 to CNC Engraver Conversion – In progress

Ambient Light with Arduino and WS2811

The ambient lighting on this project turned out so well I wanted to try it on a normal TV. When making the back light for a second time, I used an Arduino Mini Pro with mini USB port. I did find a small hiccup, the baud rate needed to be changed to 115200 most likely due to limitations in the USB to serial chipset on the Mini Pro (CH-340). The refresh rates are still very good. I am also using less LEDs which may contribute:         “device” : { “name”       : “MyPi”, “type”       : “adalight”, “output”     : “/dev/ttyUSB0”, “rate”       : 115200, “colorOrder” : “grb” }, In typical fashion, I’ve taken a pretty slap-`dash approach to the finish – the vertical LED’s are only tacked on using plastic tape which will most likely fall off when… Read More »Ambient Light with Arduino and WS2811

LCD TV Table – Inprogress

Having a coffee table with a TV screen in it doesn’t serve any real purpose, but if you have an unused, trashed, coffee table and 80cm LCD TV, it cant hurt to merge the two. The table is a brown Ikea coffee table from the Markor range. I haven’t got any product links for it. I’m assuming it’s discontinued. The TV/monitor is an Panasonic 80cm LCD with 2x HDMI inputs. The media player is a 512MB Raspberry Pi running Openelec (Kodi). The table was in the Mancave for a while and had oil and glue over it. It was roughly sanded with a belt sander (quickest option). Next I took measurements of the bottom inner space under the table to correctly center the TV screen to table top. Beige: Area available for the TV on… Read More »LCD TV Table – Inprogress

Wireless Touchscreen LED Strip Controller

For Christmas I installed 20M (4 x 5M) of RGB LED strips, and 1 RGB spotlight under our patio, I then used the WIFI to 2.4GHz bridge (V4) (same used here) to connect them to the network in 2 groups. Now they can be turned on using our phones, etc… But I don’t carry my phone with me everywhere so this seemed fun but short sighted… With the ESP8266, a Touch screen, and 3.3v Arduino mini pro, I was able to create a wireless touch screen controller for the Christmas lights. Note: There is one caveat; it’s slow. This is due to the long delays I’ve had to add to the code to make sure the ESP8266 module actually does what it’s told to do, rather than replying “busy s…”. When it’s finally finished loading,… Read More »Wireless Touchscreen LED Strip Controller