embedded systems to learn and create
Meetings
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
See how easy it is to code microcontrollers with CircuitPython and the Mu development environment.
CircuitPython is a version of Python 3 created to run on small microcontrollers. Mu is a very simple Python writing tool. Put them together and programming micros becomes faster and more fun.
Lynn’s presentation is here:
Intro to Pi & Others Discussion. We will review the course materials, and discuss improvements, and getting the word out.
Intro to Pi & Others is a four part series with each session building on the previous sessions, where Pi basics of software and hardware will be explored.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PDT
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
Share the projects you have been working on over the summer. This will be a virtual show and tell using Jitsi.
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Sadly, we are still dealing with Covid-19, and the meetings will be virtual in the month of September.
Deid’s Clock presentation is here.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
Don will share with us some cool hardware additions to automate your Pi.
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentations
Presentation material is here.
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
Jim will share with us his secrets in Prototyping projects, from concept to breadboarding, prototyping and printed circuit
board.
The discussion will touch on hardware/software tools used in each of the phases with focus on methods of prototyping and assembly.
See the presentation .pdf here.
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentations
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentations
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
Deid and others will share what sensors they have been using to sense the real world and report it to the computer world.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
Click to page 2 for presentation links and images.
Alan German will walk us through the golden years of computer programming, covering many languages we all know and love, and some we may not have heard of.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
Jim will review the answers to the Challenge (1 and more). Did you get the answers right? Find out on Saturday. Find Jim’s Challenges here.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
Now that you have the world’s most useful project, it is time to package it up so the world doesn’t break it. We’ll discuss using different packaging containers to protect your project.
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST
Jitsi Virtual Meeting
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.
George’s packaging presentation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivUou7D7rNFYmZPl1GAi4F6A5dP52ewsqoxxl0eUt5c
Deid’s packaging presentation: http://drsol.com/~deid/pi/packaging/
Deid will give the Introduction to Pi presentation he gave to the OPCUG (Ottawa PC Users Group) last fall. It will be chock full of ideas for that Pi you have just laying around, or stuff in a drawer.
See presentation here: http://drsol.com/~deid/pi/piIntro/index.html
This will be a virtual Jitsi meeting.
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Murray will introduce/refresh us on the wonderful world of Algol.
This will be a virtual meeting.
Virtual Meeting via Jitsi
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Electronics doesn’t have to be all tiny surface mount components that you can barely see. George will tell us about how to do electronics using bolt cutters this month.
This will be a virtual Jitsi meeting.
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentations
Jitsi connection:
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
See the Projects presented here.
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
Overview of IDEs for programming your embedded devices.
Be sure to BRING a LAPTOP, as these are hands-on sessions.
QCollege has graciously offered to use their campus for our fall meetings. This will be a hybrid meeting (in-person & on Jitsi). Seating is limited, please indicate if you intend to attend in person post to this event on meetup.
QCollege
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
Introduction to Scratch. Scratch is a block-based visual programming language.
See Eileen’s presentation .pdf here.
And Jim will introduce Programming Challenge 2. Download the challenge here.
Be sure to HAVE a LAPTOP, as these are hands on sessions.
QCollege has graciously offered to use their campus for our fall meetings. This will be a hybrid meeting (in-person & on Jitsi). Seating is limited, please indicate if you intend to attend in person (post to the event on meetup here).
QCollege
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC
Vicpimakers and Others will be taking a summer break in July and August. We will be back in the fall with an awesome lineup of talent and gear.
Linux meetup will continue throughout the summer on the first Saturday morning of July and August. All meetings are virtual. https://meet.jit.si/vicpivlug
NetSig will continue too! Fourth Thursday of the month. https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/netsig
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
Virtual Meeting: https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Interested in feeding your data to more than just Flightradar24 or Flight Aware? Unsure which feeder to install first? Confused by which dump1090 fork to install?
This presentation will demonstrate installing one feeder on your Raspberry Pi and then discuss the quirks to setting up the additional feeders (ADS-B Exchange, AirNav RadarBox, OpenSky Network, and Plane Finder) so that they all play nice together.
ADS-B Exchange: https://www.adsbexchange.com/
AirNav RadarBox: https://www.radarbox24.com/
Flight Aware: https://flightaware.com/
Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/
OpenSky Network: https://opensky-network.org/
Plane Finder: https://planefinder.net/
Here is the video of our virtual meeting:
Saturday, May 23, 2020
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Learn how django can solve your problems
Learn how to harden your Pi
We’ll be conducting this meeting virtually using Jitsi
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
We will be conducting Virtual Meetings for the next few weeks using Jitsi, a free video-conferencing system. Please use Chrome or Chromium for the best experience, or download one of the pre-built clients: https://jitsi.org/downloads
Due to the current situation @ March 14, 2020, in-person meetings have been suspended until further notice. Please do join us on Slack or at our online learning sessions using Jitsi. Write to hello at vicpimakers.ca for invitations and information.
Q-CollegeSuite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC – 10am
It is fun to repurpose battery powered consumer products. For instance, here is a Leak Detector made from a window alarm. The article includes the window alarm schematic.
And George made a bike theft deterrent alarm with remote radio alerting from the same window alarm.
In normal operation, the window alarm senses separation from its external magnet via its internal reed switch and feeds its piezo disk with an oscillation. The window alarm runs on 3 button cells and draws no current when the reed switch is open. There is also a slide switch to enable/disable the alarm.
Here is a photo of the circuit board: The OUT signal from the 8 pin oscillator chip is a 10V DC wave, pumped up by the inductor from 5 volts. A voltage divider can be added to lower this chip output signal to less than 5v to feed another device.
Or the piezo can be used as a microphone, providing about 100mv into a very high impedance input
In May we can show what we achieved.
Deid successfully connected a 50 light string of addressable LEDs to an ESP8266 to cause the lights to light and change colour and move and …
Deid created the following patterns:
The ESP8266 C code to do this can be found here. Deid makes no representation that the existing code is good. In fact he knows some of it is not. Feel free to fix.
The challenge is to add more patterns and the code to implement the patterns. If you send Deid the code he will load and try the code. Unless someone comes up with a better way for folks to test remotely.
Details
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
This is a Virtual meeting using Jitsi. Join the meeting at:
https://meet.jit.si/vicpimakers
Interested in the basics of computer networking? Want to know how your packets get from here to there? Don’t miss this Introduction to networking presentation which will answer the following:
Bring your own coffee, and we’ll see you on Jitsi on Saturday!
Presentation notes:
Learn the basics of Computer Languages: c, PHP, Python, Bash
All four languages will be covered, where it will be apparent the similarities and differences of each.
Be sure to BRING a LAPTOP, as these are hands on sessions.
This session: Arrays
Saturday, February 22, 2020
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Camosun College Interurban Campus
4461 Interurban Road · Victoria, BC
Tech Bldg, Tec 177