Category Archives: Projects

Inovato Quadra Cooling Stand

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A while ago, when Raspberry Pi systems were hard to find, I bought a cheap ARM based system called an Inovato Quadra to see what it could do. It doesn’t have the GPIO options of the R-Pi, but it has USB, HDMI and Wi-Fi built in. With the optional USB dongle shown it gains faster Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well.

Ironically, these are now sold out (they are selling them as part of a HamClock bundle rather than standalone). For those who already have one (or, should they become available again), there were a number of cooling designs online that placed large fans under the case, but they made the footprint much larger and much of the air flow from the fans was going to blow up the outsides of the case. So, I went hunting on Amazon for some better cooling options…

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Purple Air / Kano Pixel

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I had three of these little Kano pixel units which I bought for the kids to learn some programming on when they were on sale. Turns out the kids didn’t really use them much, and now Kano seems to be history.

The boards are based on the ESP-32 WROOM microcontroller, and can be programmed using the Arduino IDE, but they can also run MicroPython – a version of the Python programming language that runs on microcontrollers like this one. Furthermore, there is already a library which adds support for the LED matrix (128 NeoPixels), the buttons and the rotary dial on the top. Sadly, it does not have support for the USB connectors, or the built-in microphone (which I suspect is connected via the 4th USB channel that the hub IC on the board provides).

Once I had it running Python, my next thought was what could I do with it…

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ESPixelStick Programming

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As part of the mission to build out some hardware for sound & light shows at Halloween (yes, I know it is only a few days away; my kids keep reminding me), and Christmas, I picked up an ESPixelStick from Amazon. These come fully assembled, but unprogrammed. How hard can that be I thought?

I will comment that it would have been nice to have some documentation, or at least a pointer to an up to date website in the bag with the board…

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Skull Eyes Project

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A couple of years ago I picked up two plastic skull decorations in the post-halloween sales. Once I got them home, it occurred to me that they could become an interesting project. Adding some lights to their eyes with some fun effects was the plan. It has taken me a while to get time to do this, but I finally pulled all the parts together and modified the basic plastic skull with some LED eyes.

The parts, in addition to the skull of course, are as follows:

The circuit is very simple:

Power comes from the USB, which also acts as the data connection to the computer for programming the board.

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