New version of EVE

Bridgetek’s next generation EVE3 BT815/BT816 Embedded Video Engine IC is ready https://brtchip.com/bt81x/

Reverse engineer wireless devices protocols

According to Andreas Spiess, “Hacking of 433 MHz or other RF devices is a human right for makers because these devices usually use proprietary protocols…“. Take a look at his blog entry where he uses a Raspberry and RTL-SDR to reverse engineer protocols. Might be useful if you want to use cheap wireless weather sensors in your own project.

5″ 800×480 capacitive touch LCD with built-in ft811 graphics controller

In a previous post  I used a 7″ capacitive touch display together with a ft810 graphics controller (using FTDI VM810C development board) and ESP8266 processor. This time I’ll try to run the same software using a 5″ LCD from Thaoyu (cost $38 + shipping) with a built-in FT811 graphics controller. While it’s a smaller display it cheaper and less complex to put together. You only need the display and a main processor.

Gameduino3 with FT81x and esp8266 support

Back in January I tested running a modified Gameduino2 based library on an ESP8266 and FT81x graphics chip. There is no reason to use that modified library anymore because James Bowman has now released the new 4.3″ Gameduino3. The library now officially supports esp8266 and FT81x chips.

The Gameduino3 hardware is available for $34.99 (includes shipping) !

 

ESP8266/NodeMCU with FT81x based 7″ display

I want my weatherstation to be connected wirelessly to internet to fetch weather data, time info, symbols etc. One of the cheapest option these days is to use a ESP8266. Originally I planned to use it only as a serial wifi device for Arduino. Moving small abouts of (structured) data such as forecast, time etc. from ESP8266 to Arduino is easy. But what about images? It seems to be easy to download images using ESP8266, such as Daniel Eichhorn have done in his ESP8266 Weather Station Color. But how to transfer images from 8622 to the Arduino? Common external flash or SDcard ? Serial ? I really don’t know. So, what if I can use the ESP8266 for everything and just ditch the Arduino? After all, the ESP8266 is a capable processor.

Testing Various Low-Cost Hygrometers

In my search for humidity sensors I found a nice overview at kandrsmith where the following devices are tested:

• Bosch Sensortec BME280
• Measurement Specialties HTU21D
• Silicon Labs Si7021
• Aosong DHT11, DHT22, AM2302, AM2320, AM2321

The test has main focus on humidity, but also discusses other aspects of the various devices.

 

Arduino with 7″ 800×480 capacitive touch display and Gameduino2 library

First time I saw the graphics capabilities of FT800 was on the Gameduino2. From then I’ve wondered if FT800 could be used as graphics controller in my weatherstation project.

Due to limited resolution it could only be used for LCDs up to 5″. Since then, the FT81x series of controllers have been released. They support higher resolutions and allows for typical 7″ displays. In the meantime I’ve also experimented with capacitive touch panels. I find them so much better that the resistive ones.

7″ standalone capacitive multitouch panel (800×480)

Some months ago I bought a $8 standalone 7″ capacitive multitouch panel from BuyDisplay (7 inch Capacitive Touch Panel with Controller FT5316 for 800×480). I’ve now had time to test it out. My theory was that I could reuse library code I already had for a  previous 7″ display project even though the controller is not exactly the same. In fact, it worked without any modifications. Code is as usual on github.

I now have the possibility to add capacitive multitouch capabilities on any 7″ LCD display I chose. One example is shown in arduino-with-7-800×480-capacitive-touch-display-and-gameduino2-library.

Scargill’s Tech Blog takes a look at Linkit Smart 7688 wifi

ESP8266 brought an inexpensive way to include Wifi in small DIY projects. Later SeeedStudio has released Linkit Smart 7688/7681 based on MediaTek chips.The MediaTek LinkIt Smart 7688 development platform consists of a Linux Wi-Fi SOC with the OpenWrt Linux distribution. Scargill’s Tech Blog has taken a look. Always good to have a few alternatives. The basic module starts at $5.

Also take a look at the MediaTek 7866 Developers Guide

Dani Eichhorn’s ESP8266 weather station

Dani Eichhorn has created a weather station based on ESP8266 and a small OLED display. It reads weather data from http://wunderground.com using his own JSON parser. Read more at this entry in his SquixTechBlog .