Author Archives: Wojciech Domski

Design of embedded system

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Today, I would like to ponder on a subject of creating some measurement systems, or in more general, embedded systems. There are multiple approaches to make such a system. Let’s consider a few of them — the most popular approaches.

Embedded systems are gaining popularity by the day. Those systems are used in Internet of Things (IoT) but also in more advanced control systems. However, sometimes a need of more sophisticated system is emerging which requires more computational power. I would like to present some architectures of such systems and highlight some features of those approaches.

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Reset router with Python script and Raspberry Pi

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Recently, I have written an article Automatic router reboot device with Arduino where I have presented a simple Arduino–based solution to reset router periodically. Since this is not the best idea to reset it, even if it does not require resetting, I have applied purely software–based solution. As the title says I have used a Python script which runs on Raspberry Pi connected to a local network.

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Automatic router reboot device with Arduino

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For quite some time I was experiencing a problem with my router. When the temperature rises behind the window it just starts to freak out. Every once two weeks or so it drops the Internet connection. Local network is still running but the incoming or outcoming connections are terminated. The only solution to this problem is to reset the router or just take out the plug and insert it after a few seconds. However, it requires me to do this every few days to make sure that the connection is good and running. I have decided to automatize the process with Arduino since it was laying around.

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Spot welder with Arduino

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Some time ago I have decided to make myself a electric bike — e-bike as they are called now. However, buying a stock solution, I mean a stock e-bike, was not an option because mainly of two reasons. The stock e-bikes are quite expensive stuff, this is one. The second one is about the actual parameters of the electrical bicycle. Manufactures sell e-bikes which have limited power output to 250 Watts and are only meant to support you and not drive themselves. But wait a minute … This should be about a spot welder not the e-bike ;). Well, each electric devices ought to have a power source and this is how the idea about making my own spot welder was born.

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Jupyter Notebook server on Raspberry Pi

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Recently, when I wanted to install IPython notebook server I discovered that for quite some time the project had changed its name to Jupyter. You may recall one of my posts about the IPython where I presented how to install it on Raspberry Pi. Now, I would like to present the Jupyter project to you which comes with some neat new features.

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Face detection with OpenCV and Python on RaspberryPi

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Many articles here and there describe how to use OpenCV on Raspberry Pi. However, most of them are about setting up the environment by hand — meaning compiling OpenCV from sources. There are two main disadvantages to this approach. Firstly, you have to spend some time to compile it. On Raspberry Pi 3 it takes quite some time, and not mentioning the earlier versions of this mini PC. Secondly, maintaining up–to–date version requires additional time. Still, you can go for middle ground — cross–compilation that requires less time but you have to set up the environment properly. Having above in mind I will introduce you to the OpenCV with Python interface installed from pre–compiled packages. If I have your attention keep reading 😉

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ST-Link-V1 — Obsoleted but not depreciated

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Yes, I am still using the practically obsoleted ST-Link-V1 on a STM32F1 disco board. It still gets the job done but regretfully it is not supported out of the box by IDE I happen to use from time to time.

When I gave a try to the AC6 (SW4STM32) I found out that, to not much of a surprise, the ST-Link-V1 is not supported. Only V2 and V2.1 are supported. Well, I decided to change that unfortunate situation because I have two of the disco boards with this debugger laying around.

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SPL vs HAL: which one should you use (and Low Layer Library) — part 2

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stmcube_import_step1

Some time ago I have written SPL vs HAL: which one should you use where I have focused on differences between two main frameworks for STM32 — Standard Peripheral Library (SPL) and Hardware Abstraction Layer commonly known as HAL. Since the recent post only focuses on those two sets of libraries I have decided to write some examples which can tip the scale. What is more, at the end of previous article I have asked an important question for a developer — does the STM is going to introduce us to a brand new library. Answer to this and other questions are further in this post.

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Mechanical filter for UAV — damping IMU vibrations

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Good quality estimation of tilt angles such as roll and pitch is desired when it comes to an UAV control. Without good quality signal a proper work of flight controller is nearly impossible. However, the task of filtering is not an easy task, especially when it comes to DSP (digital signal processing). It is even harder when digital filter is inadequate. In this post a mechanical filter is presented that allows to significantly improve attitude estimation in terms of roll, pitch and yaw.

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Large screen for Raspberry Pi with no compromises

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2016-08-27 08.57.09

There are plenty of screens for Raspberry Pi on the market. However, most of them is quite small varying from 3 to 10 inches most.

Some of those screens are dedicated ones some have HDMI interface through which you can connect it to RPi. Well, you can even use analog output to display the content of RPi’s desktop on a TV.

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Making a PCB using the UV light method

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PCB_UV_method_logo

This is a step towards PCB prototyping. Some time ago a similar post was published but it concerned making a PCB using a thermo transfer method. If you need to prepare a PCB fast this method is probably the best choice.

What is different about the UV light method? Why is it worth your attention. The answer is simple — quality. Then how to make it? Keep reading …

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STM32 HAL driver for I2C OLED display with U8glib

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oled_display_ssd1603

Recently, I have come to a conclusion that it would be good to print the state of my quadrocopter on a display. The question was what kind of display should I use. I decided to give a try to a small 0.96″ OLED display with I2C interface. It is based on SSD1603 driver. You can see this display on the image above. However, there was an issue regarding the screen controller. But it was soon solved. I have come across the U8glib which is a graphic library, quite popular among Arduino users. As soon as I started to read about the library I realized that it does not support STM32, not mentioning the HAL library.

Well, I have solved that 😉

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