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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

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September 22, 2018 – ESP8266 Web Controlled LEDs (part 1)

10:00am
Camosun College
Bldg: Technology Bldg, Room: Tech 259 – 4461 Interurban Rd, Victoria, BC (parking at lot 8 for park users) presentation pdf

led

In this session, we’ll cover programming Neopixel LEDs driven by the ESP8266 using a Web Interface. We’ll cover the hardware interface to the LEDs as well as the web interface (running on the ESP8266 utilizing the PL9823).

In Part2, we’ll harden the installation by adding TLS/SSL and IPv6 support via NodeRed running on a Pi

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Feb 10, 2018 – Power Over Ethernet

9:30am
Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Discover the advantages of Power of Ethernet (PoE)! PoE is a technology that allows one to only run one cable to a distant device, just an ethernet cable. The distant device not only receives network connectivity, but also power from the single cable. This is good for small low power devices such as ESP8266 (embedded controller) boards.  Hosted by Mark G.  RSVP on Meetup here.

Here is a link to the presentation pdf.

What are two things that an Internet of Things (IoT) device
must have?

1. An avenue for communication.
2. Power.

There are a number of ways to satisfy both of these requirements
simultaneously.  Item one can be fulfilled with:

– Wireless ethernet;
– Wired ethernet;
– Another radio based data exchange (nRF24L01 transceivers, Bluetooth)
to a network attached controller;
– 2G/3G (and friends) cellular connections;

I’m sure there are others.

Power can be handled variously by:

– A device specific transformer using a wall plug;
– A battery or set of batteries;
– A solar power panel w/battery;
– A power over ethernet cable;

I’ll discuss the ins, outs, pros and cons of these needs
and their combinations.

 

 

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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

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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.