November 10, 2018 – Lights Out!

Saturday, November 10, 2018

10:00am
Q-College, Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Hosted by George Bowden and Craig Miller

LIGHTS OUT, a possible life saver. An acquaintance fell in the washroom and was unable to raise attention for thirty hours, and never fully recovered. The monthly cost ($50) of wearable alert bracelets and the habit of not wearing them is a large risk to seniors living alone. This alarm system, based on an ESP8266 and a php web app, alerts friends that a bathroom light has been left on for way too long. The link to the presentation docs is here.

October 6, 2018 Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express

Saturday, October 6, 2018

10:00am
Q-College, Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

A shallow Dive into Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express
The Circuit Playground Express is a small, cheap($32) dev board from Adafruit Industries designed to introduce electronics and programming to the novice. It’s built around an ATSAMD21 ARM Cortex MO processor and is programmable with either circuitpython or Microsoft’s ‘Makecode’ block programming interface. The board also houses a variety of sensors (motion, temperature, light, touch), buttons, a slide switch and IR transmit/receive capability. In this presentation I’ll demo some of the easier projects that I’ve mastered and maybe include something using the Adafruit Crickit, and add-on board for the CPX designed for simple robotics.  See the reading list here.
Hosted by Paul and Craig Miller

Meetup Sign Up

Dec 9, 2017 – Esp8266 Over The Air Programming

9:30 AM

ESP8266 OTA (Over the Air) Updates with Arduino IDE.  OTA update is the process of loading a new firmware to ESP8266 module using WiFi connection rather than a serial communication. This type of functionality is extremely useful in case of no physical access to the ESP module.

This presentation, by Greg Lawrance, will include a hands on session for those who want to learn more. Please bring your PI, and preload the software referred to in the meetup announcement.

Presentation Notes

Esp8266 Over The Air Programming

Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Intro to Pi & Others #2 – Tues Nov 21

Tuesday, November 21, 2017
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Intro to Pi & Others is a short monthly session to help get you up and running with your Pi or Other (embedded device). It is an unstructured hour-long session where you can ask questions, bring in your Pi or Other (and power supply), and get help with your project.

We plan on holding these sessions once a month on a Tuesday night. If you are looking for a bit of help, this session is for you.

March 11, 2017 – Intro to I²C on the Pi

Introduction to I²C on the Pi

  • Saturday, March 11, 2017

    9:30 AM

Location: Victoria Computer Club

85A Burnside Rd West (at Wascana), Victoria, BC (map)

I²C.  A common 2 wire bus, a brief background on how it works, and simple programming the Pi to read from and write to I²C devices on the bus. Devices include: External LCD display, 7 segment LEDs, and Addressable LED lights to name a few.

Join us and learn how to drive the I²C (pronounced eye-squared-see) from your Raspberry Pi.

Presentation pdf 

I²C Demos

December 10, 2016 – A Christmas Tree

Tis the season, a Christmas tree with lights and music controlled by an Arduino!

March 12 Meeting

Building An Arduino Obstacle Avoidance Robot

by Eileen Amirault (with a little help from Cody Gregory)

Last March Break, I read a book that changed my life. I immediately ran out and purchased an Arduino. A Raspberry Pi was not far behind. After a few months of experimenting, and watching YouTube videos of kids building Obstacle Avoidance Robots (OAR), we thought it looked like a good first project. We call it Bobby OAR. An OAR is an autonomous robot that rolls around and avoids obstacles by using sensor input. Then, based on programming, finds an alternate path forward, avoiding obstacles along the way. We had most of the components from various kits, so only a chassis and wheels needed to be ordered. Or was there something else?