Apple doesn't like robots.

It's strange, since they have some great hardware and some excellent software.  But alas, trying to get a robot to connect to any iOS product is like asking Steve Jobs to come to dinner; you'll get your hopes up, but, alas, he's dead.  So, short of a necromancy and some Frebreeze, it's not going to happen.

But, I've found the backdoor to getting your iOS device to help your robot, and my friend, I'm going to give you the key.

Those little HM-10 Bluetooth Low Energy PCBs that I've written about for so long.  Those combined ...

A little lab controller PCB I'm working on.  It centers around four high-power constant current circuits meant to be driven by an Atmega328's PWM.

I hate working on anything mechanical in dim light; comes from dropping parts down under the engine when working on cars.  I'm also pretty particular about my type of light.  The "Cool White" or CFLs really bother me. I feel like I'm a bug headed towards a bug-zapper.

I have a few design goals,

1. Warm white is the way to go.  I'm shooting for four 1k lumen warm-white LEDs at 12v at ~1A.
2. I've a plug ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

Nostalgia

I wanted to post this simply because it working on it brought my a dry nostalgic joy. When I was young, 8-9, my parents got a old computer. All I remember was its screen was orange and black; having a Hercules graphics card . I quickly learned to get around from the command prompt. But I was always thrilled to run into menu driven program. It was like going to a fancy restaurant of abstractness. Anyway, when I wanted my code to slow down a bit and branch directions based upon user input, a ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

Part of my C journal -- Writing an LPC1114 bootloader

Setting Up the GCC Compiler

I setup a C environment as basic I could. There may be easier ways to go about this, but I wanted to use GCC to compile.

To setup the environment:

1. I downloaded and setup MinGW32 .

2. I then downloaded FTD2XX libraries . This included the ftd2xx.h file and ftd2xx.lib .

3. I then stole the test code from Hack-a-Day's article on bitbanging with the FTDI .

4. I modified the code as they suggested by including, in this order, the ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

I want to take a moment to thank Bdk6 . The man is a walking Stack Overflow, with more patience for stupid. I doubt I'd understand any of this without his guidance.

I thought I'd take some time away from coding my LPC1114 Uploader and verbally process a few things I've learned. As always, feel free to critique any of it; it'll only serve to make my code more robust in the end.

This post will be a series of post leading up to the large post I'll make on writing the uploader. All posts ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com my_uC_icon_5_300x300.png

Not All Those Who Wander are Lost (but I am)

I thought I'd take some time away from coding my LPC1114 Uploader and verbally process a few things I've learned. As always, feel free to critique any of it; it'll only serve to make my code more robust in the end.

This post will be a series of post leading up to the large post I'll make on writing the uploader. All posts will rely on the GCC compiler.

Setting Up the GCC Compiler

I setup a C environment as basic I ...