Review: JJRC H36 2.4G 4CH 6-Axis Gyro RC Quadcopter
I always like opportunities to try out new RCMoment sent me this cool little mini quad to try out - JJRC H36 4CH 6-Axis Gyro RC Quadcopter. First thing's first - full disclosure. I don't have any vested interest in RC Moment. They sent me this quad for free. I am not the type of person that is influenced by free stuff. I get asked to do a review, and I will give it my…
WIoT-2 Weather and Home Automation – Nextion with ESP8266/ESP32
This is a continuation from my first iteration of WIoT weather station. What is WIoT-2? I use it as a cloud-connected (IoT) info center of sorts. It is a culmination of information my wife or I often look for either on our way out of the house, or when we come home. It displays current/forecast weather, temp/humidity from outside the house (this), date, time, our local waste collection schedule, currency rates, the status of our garage…
Hot Tub: ESP8266 IoT Temp Monitor and NeoPixel Lighting
Finally got our free hot tub hooked up. Well, not so "free". Hot tubs are never free unless you have all the electrical and other bits already. Anyway, I wanted to add some remote temperature monitoring as well as jazz up the lighting a bit. Given Winters can get pretty cold here in Canada, I wanted to get notified if the temp falls below a threshold as frozen pipes in a hot tub pretty…
ESP8266 – Lessons Learned
I've gotten enough ESP8266 projects under my belt to have a few lessons learned to share with you. The ESP comes in many flavors. One of my favorites is the NodeMCU. I also like the Adafruit Huzzah WDT Reset Error: This error was the bane of my existence for quite some time. When experiencing this, you typically see your sketch run and fail. Using the Serial Monitor and carefully placed statements, you can usually…
Review: RBBell – Electronic Bike Horn
Today, I'm doing a review of the RBBell electronic bike horn. This is a battery powered piezo that beeps when the button is pressed. Pretty simple. It's loud (as in 120dB loud)! It startled me after accidentally pressing the button during my review video. I can tell already this is going to be effective when I hit the trails. I do a fair bit of biking. Most of which is in trails not…
WIoT: Weather Station & IoT Notifier
Update: Check out my latest version of this project WIoT-2. This is a project that I have been wanting to do for some time. Since the marrying of IoT with microcontrollers, the world of cloud-connected devices has taken off. I had a hard time naming this thing because its sort of a swiss army knife of IoT. I keep coming up with new ideas as to what to connect to and control. I've done other…
FeeYoung – FatShark 600TVL Rotating Camera Mount
This allows you to mount the FatShark TVL600 (or similar) FPV camera so it can be rotated by a servo on the FeeYoung ZX-250 quad frame. The flange is printed wider with a support. Once printed and cooled, you have to twist the flange to break it free. A few twists back-and-forth will loosen it up so it can act as a bearing. The right side flange is printed flat and can be slid on…
FVT LittleBee 20A ESC Mounts – FeeYoung Frame
You can use these mounts to hold a set of small ESCs in place on your quad. These were made for a FeeYoung ZX-250 frame and mount the FVT LittleBee 20A ESCs. However, they may work for others. Requires Hot glue or Goop (my favourite). Note: This is a single STL but 2 parts. FVT LittleBee ESCs FeeYoung ZX-250 Carbon Fiber Frame Tinker this thing.
LulzBot Mini: Arduino Temp Monitor / Fan & LED Controller
I'm on a mission to reduce the amount of noise my LulzBot Mini 3D printer makes. I've already added a motor damper to the Y axis. However, one thing that is consistently noisy is the case fan. It's on at > 70% nearly all the time. In addition to this, the air vent fins in the side of the case amplifies the fan noise. So, I decided to build my own fan controller. …
DIY & Hobby Projects: Parts, Components & Tools Must Have’s
Most people who visit to this site are either DIY'ers, Makers, Hackers, or Robotics / RC enthusiast. For the most part, we all do the same thing - we build or mod stuff for our projects or hobbies. Over the years, experience and repetition has given we wisdom as to what works, what doesn't, and key components that I want to have on hand. I wanted to share a list of parts/components I have found useful for…