Hardware, software, and everything in between
Reading Time: 9 minutes Update: You can follow the discussion of this article around the web on HN, Adafruit, Hackaday, and Hackster.io! This article explores the research and development journey behind my new sensor system, OptiGap, a key component of my PhD research. I m writing this in a storytelling format to offer insights into my decision-making process and the Continue reading R D Case…
Reading Time: 3 minutes This post quickly covers how I disabled (removed) the IR LEDs on several Tapo C110 cameras I own. This was to use them behind a window without the IR LEDs glare ruining the video. The Tapo C110 is an excellent small WiFi security camera, boasting up to 2K resolution, local continuous SD card recording, and Continue reading Disable TP-Link Tapo Camera IR LEDs The post…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Over the past couple of years we ve been working on a rather cool new class of robots called Soft Curved Reconfigurable Anisotropic Mechanism(s), or SCRAM, under this National Science Foundation EFRI project. For my latest paper, Electronically Reconfigurable Virtual Joints by Shape Memory Alloy-Induced Buckling of Curved Sheets, I spent a lot of time working Continue…
Reading Time: 6 minutes This tutorial covers setting up a pretty painless Raspberry Pi Pico C / C++ SDK development workflow on Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Visual Studio Code (VS Code) with IntelliSense code completion! With the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller being so new the current C / C++ SDK development process on Windows Continue reading Easy Raspberry Pi Pico…
Reading Time: 3 minutes It s not very well known that the Raspberry Pi has a built-in serial console that provides a fully working Linux terminal over serial. This allows for network-free headless access, including the absolutely necessary tab auto-complete! This feature is extremely useful for those projects that don t use a screen or need network access. It s also quite Continue reading…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Localization, in the context of robotics, is the process of determining the location of something within an environment. This article serves as a basic introduction to indoor localization, covering the commonly used techniques and technologies. The most well known and widely used method of localization is GPS. Even with its widespread use, GPS is not Continue reading Indoor…
Reading Time: 2 minutes I ve been designing a 4-layer PCB for a product for a few months now and I finally got to the stage of assembling the prototype after the PCB and components arrived. Most of the passive components I used were 0603 surface mount parts so reflow soldering was the only viable option (if I wanted to Continue reading Reflow Soldering in Unmodified Toaster Oven? The post Reflow…
Reading Time: 10 minutes Update: This article was featured on Hackaday.com and on SDP/SI s Featured People and Organizations page. Goose is a mobile autonomous robot I designed and built over 6 months in my spare time for a robotics competition. This was a fully custom and challenging build that tested my competence in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, control systems, Continue…
Reading Time: 2 minutes I recently had to design a 4-layer PCB and I finally decided to give KiCad another try (after hearing great things about version 5). I ve known about KiCad for years and even tried it once a few years back but it never felt quite there yet. After spending a few months designing a 4-layer board Continue reading 4-Layer PCB Design in KiCad 5: Quick Thoughts The post 4-Layer…
Reading Time: 2 minutes I recently needed to build Python 3.6 from source on the BeagleBone Black for a robotics project and discovered that the build would always fail after running out of memory. Who could have figured that 512MB of RAM wasn t enough to build Python from source?! While I could have set up cross-compilation and performed the Continue reading Adding Swap Memory to the Beaglebone…