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bladeRF: a low cost wideband SDR transceiver

13/02/2013
With a 300MHz to 3.8GHZ range, 40MHz bandwidth, USB 3.0 interface and priced at only $400, it's hardly surprising bladeRF reached its $100,000 Kickstarter goal in under 8 days.
Gas Guzzlers and Green Chips

03/07/2012
- Analogue
- ARM
- Batteries
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- RENESAS
- Research Phase
- RL78
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wireless
The socially responsible among us wishing to save the planet from a carbon dioxide doom should quickly move on to the next blog post now, as I have a confession to make: I own and occasionally get to
Hacking the Wireless Frontiers

26/10/2012
Wireless communications is vital to modern life and our dependency upon it is only set to grow, and in this post we take a look at two exciting projects which seek to explore the opportunities, and threats, that this presents.
Review of *new* Renesas RL78/G13 Promotion Board

27/10/2012
- Microcontrollers
- RENESAS
- RL78
- Test
Renesas have produced a whole new range of chips, the RL78’s. A new range of low power high performance microcontrollers. Last week I got my hands on the RL78/G13 promotion board to give it a test run - so lets see how good it is!
Turning an £8 child's toy into a spectrum analyser

13/07/2012
- Batteries
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- FLASH
- GSM
- Human Machine Interface
- LCD
- Microcontrollers
- MSP430
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Solder
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
- Wired
- Wireless
This posts looks at how a child's toy can be reprogrammed to provide a simple spectrum analyser that may be useful when working with licence-free wireless technologies.Like so many great open source h
OpenRelief: Clearing the Fog of Disaster

25/04/2012
- Arduino
- Batteries
- Beagle
- Communication
- DSP
- FRAM
- Functional Test
- GPS
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Test
- Wireless
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is becoming increasingly affordable, and when combined with low cost wireless sensor networks and computer vision opens up exciting possibilities for use in di
Sensors & Energy Harvesting on the Renesas/Eco Solar Breizh Solar Car

08/12/2012
- Automotive Applications
- Batteries
- Design Phase
- FLASH
- Microcontrollers
- Power
- R8C
- RENESAS
- RL78
- Sensors
The next World Solar Challenge car race takes place in October 2013. The race involves purpose-built vehicles being driven from the north to the south coast of Australia powered by energy which must come from the sun or be recovered from the kinetic energy of the vehicle itself. Here is the second post in a series charting the development of one entrant sponsored by Renesas Electronics.
Microchip EDF - Report

19/11/2010
- Batteries
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- dsPIC
- Ethernet
- GPS
- Human Machine Interface
- Mbed
- Memory
- MiWi
- PIC
- PIC24
- Power
- Scientific Applications
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
- Wired
- Wireless
- Zigbee
Yesterday, anyone following me on Twitter will have seen that I attended the 2010 Microchip EDF (Embedded Design Forum) at RS Components in Corby. As an engineer it’s important for me and my employe
Think globally, act locally

19/04/2011
- 802.15.4
- Bluetooth
- Communication
- Freescale
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Sensors
- Standards
- Test
- WiFi
- Wireless
- Zigbee
Wireless Personal Area Networks: Zigbee or IEEE 802.15.4? Certification, Standards and Alliances.
Using the eZ430 Chronos with a Raspberry Pi

01/06/2012
- Accelerometers
- Communication
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Microcontrollers
- MSP430
- PIC
- Power
- Pressure Sensors
- Raspberry Pi
- Sensors
- SERIAL
- Test
- Wireless
- x86
The eZ430 Chronos development kit from Texas Instruments represents great value for money and provides a wristwatch with a wireless-enabled microcontroller, accelerometers and temperature...
HD Audio from ground up (Part 1)

18/05/2011
- Analogue
- ARM
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- DSP
- FLASH
- Functional Test
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
There are different ways for a system to interact with the real world. Starting with the use of a simple LED that describes the state of a process and going all the way down to complicated graphic LCD
Use your Cortex in the ARM jungle

15/12/2011
- ARM
- Batteries
- Communication
- Cortex-A
- Cortex-M
- Cortex-R
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- Freescale
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- Microprocessors
- MIPS
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Reliability Testing
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Test
There was a time when deciding which microprocessor to use for a new project was pretty easy: there weren’t that many to choose from. Who remembers the Intel 8080, Motorola 6800 or the CBM 6502? The
Make your own walking, talking, living….robot

29/02/2012
- Accelerometers
- ARM
- Beagle
- Coldfire
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- dsPIC
- Freescale
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
As I wrote this blog Raspberry Pi exploded on the scene taking everyone by surprise with the sheer volume of people wanting to buy it. Many readers will have to wait a while to get their hands on one so why not use the time to investigate rather more interesting projects than just writing games? How about giving a humanoid walking robot some Artificial Intelligence…
HKUST ROV Team shone in Asia Regional IET/MATE Underwater Robot Challenge 2013

26/04/2013
The ROV Team, a sub-team of HKUST Robotics Team, shone in the Asia Regional IET/MATE Underwater Robot Challenge 2013 held on 13-14 April 2013. 9 university and 24 high school teams from 8 countries around Asia competed in two categories, Ranger Class and Explorer Class, respectively. The HKUST ROV Team won the Champion Award in the Explorer Class, and they will represent Hong Kong to join the International MATE ROV Competition 2013 Explorer Class in USA in June 2013.
NetWorker - an advanced web server with a microcrontroller

13/04/2011
- Analogue
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- dsPIC
- EEPROM
- Ethernet
- FLASH
- Functional Test
- GAL
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- PIC24
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- RS232
- RX
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Solder
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
An Internet connection would be a valuable addition to many projects, but often designers are put off by the complexities involved. The ‘NetWorker’, which consists of a small printed circuit board
Please - Do you speak the I2C?

05/05/2011
- Arduino
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- EEPROM
- Human Machine Interface
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Resistors
- RS232
- RX
- Sensors
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
There are many ways in which devices can talk to each other. There is good old RS232 or use TTL serial RX/TX, or SPI and even parallel communications. However when I started on a project nearly t
ARM Powered m3pi mbed Robot - Review

18/12/2011
- ARM
- AVR
- Batteries
- Bluetooth
- Buzzers & Sounders
- Communication
- Cortex-A
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Robots
- Sensors
- Solder
- Switches
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
When is electronics exciting? Well most of the time people outside this world of electronics don't see flashing LEDs very exciting unless its on a tree at Christmas. However if you put some wheels on
Embedded development with EDP

01/02/2011
The RS Embedded Development Platform offers an alternative path to the engineering prototype stage of a project allowing quick and easy changes of processor at the time of initial design or for upgrad
Does in-vehicle technology reduce driver safety?

16/03/2012
- Bluetooth
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Functional Test
- GPS
- Human Machine Interface
- LCD
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Safety Testing
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
- Wireless
There is a lot of focus these days on safety in vehicles, particularly associated with distracting electronic gadgets, installed in the drivers view. It could easily be argued that adding a computer s
Driving a robot - with a flick of the wrist

24/02/2011
- Accelerometers
- Batteries
- Communication
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- PIC
- Programming
- Robots
- Sensors
- Switches
- Trial & Evaluation
- Wireless
I got hold of a TI Evalbot Stellaris MCU development kit the other day together with the necessary firmware enabling it to be driven from TI's other geek-magnet, the MSP-430 based Chronos sports watch
Will iPhone 4S Siri users cause your phone bill to go up?

29/01/2012
A controversial Apple's app on the latest 4S handsets now appears to have more serious consequences than merely being a very expensive 'extra'. Attractive enough for millions of users to choose iPhone
A Treacle Tin Radiation Detector

28/05/2012
- Arduino
- ARM
- Assembly
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- GSM
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Reliability Testing
- Resistors
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wireless
The OpenRelief project is building “open, modular information solutions for disaster relief”, and as part of which they're developing a range of network-enabled sensors. I offered to help out by p
Old and New at Sci-Fi London 2012

10/05/2012
- Analogue
- Arduino
- ARM
- ARM11
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- FLASH
- H8
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
A major highlight of a week of activity at the Sci-Fi London festival was the Horizon Spectrum event at the BFI Southbank celebrating 30 years of the Sinclair Spectrum 'home' computer. I attended the
RS-EDP Rover using mbed [Conclusion]

26/08/2010
- Accelerometers
- Analogue
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- Human Machine Interface
- Mbed
- PIC
- Programming
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wired
After a hectic last week or two of tuning and calibration, the mbed rover is finally ready. As a test of its odometry, inertial sensors and filter I decided to drive the rover around in a 1 metre squa
A Playful Internet of Things Futures

09/11/2012
A report from the IoT futures unconference hosted by BBC R&D on 7th November 2012.
The evolution of scopes

11/07/2011
Signals within electronic systems are becoming faster, more numerous, and more complex. The ability to capture fleeting glitches, instability or other signal errors puts ever more demanding requiremen
Progress on the RS robot 1

26/05/2010
- ARM
- DSP
- dsPIC
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
The future of user interface

17/11/2010
Watching us, watching them
Hands on with a 144 core processor

16/07/2012
The GA144 from GreenArrays is a highly novel 144 core processor that combines high performance with low power consumption. This post covers initial experiences with breadboarding the GA144 and using t
Engineering education is going CubeSat shaped....

08/04/2013
First it was the home computer, then the mobile phone: now it’s your own earth-orbiting satellite. Alright, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but about 5000GBP will buy you a kit of parts for the latest high-tech gadget, sorry, valuable research tool that no self-respecting technological university will want to be without...
MBED Workshops!

03/11/2010
Rapid Prototyping with 32-bit MicrocontrollersThese workshops brought to you by the ESP KTN Electronics Knowledge Centre in partnership with RS Components and ARM/NXP, are aimed at demonst
Power over ethernet: simplifying the equation

21/04/2011
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- Ethernet
- Human Machine Interface
- LCD
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Powerline
- Switches
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Power over Ethernet started out as a proprietary technology developed by network equipment vendors such as Cisco, to deliver power to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones without using separate
Like it or not, Batteries rule our lives

12/10/2011
- Batteries
- Circuit Design
- Designspark PCB
- Enclosures
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Test
- Wireless
Christmas morning 1979 Santa delivered Bigtrak under the Christmas Tree, unfortunately he forgot the batteries… I was just 1 x 9V and 4x 1.5V D Cells away from Christmas morning heaven!.
Mobile Robots - the (New) Learning Tool

28/11/2010
There seems to a rash of small mobile robots on the market at the moment. There have always been kits from small specialist suppliers, but now the big boys have got involved, It's been recognised for
Not so much Spin, more Tornado

01/03/2011
I have allways admired the Parallax Propeller multi-processor chip ever since I played with one last year for the purposes of a review. Now it looks like the long awaited Propeller 2 is moving from fr
Learning how to be Smarter with Energy

08/12/2010
RS hosts Microchip seminars.
mbed Multipurpose Display Board (Part 1)

24/06/2011
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- Ethernet
- Functional Test
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Resistors
- Test
As the title suggests, this post is all about the creation of a multipurpose display board, powered by an mbed. The display board has exposes many of the GPIO functions of mbed and so can be used for
Exploring mbed with the Application Board

28/01/2013
A first look at the mbed platform and the recently launched Application Board.
Wireless Sound!

27/05/2010
- Bluetooth
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Test
- Wireless
Perfect Sound. Wireless.PurePath™ Wireless Audio from Texas Instruments.
Developments in Bluetooth

05/12/2010
- AVR
- Batteries
- Bluetooth
- Mbed
- Memory
- Power
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Test
- WiFi
- Wireless
The "Connectivity Technologies Industry Update - August 2010" from IMS Research contains the statement that "the development of Bluetooth high speed and Wi-Fi Direct could bring the technologies head-
Charting the Convergence to a Common Controller Core

16/02/2012
- ARM
- Cortex-M
- Freescale
- Functional Test
- H8
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- Microprocessors
- MIPS
- PIC
- Power
- RENESAS
- Safety Testing
- SuperH
- Test
- Wireless
This is an extract from an article in the latest eTech MagazineThe general-purpose microcontroller, or MCU, is now a commodity product. Perhaps this is an overstatement. But in one sense, at least, it
Interview with creator of the Twitter-controlled dog feeder, @FeedToby

12/03/2012
- Arduino
- Buzzers & Sounders
- Circuit Design
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- Human Machine Interface
- LASER
- LCD
- Manufacture
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Test
Last month Nat Morris built a Twitter-controlled feeder for his dog, Toby. In the first five days of this being online it was being used by a group consisting of friends and family. But after national
iSay - How to harness the potential of energy harvesting technology?

20/01/2011
Over ten years ago Energy harvesting was known only to a small group of research engineers. but if you google it today you will find nearly two million hits and there is now a diverse range of energy-
Pi Perspectives: Kevin Murrell (National Museum of Computing)

26/03/2012
- Arduino
- Assembly
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- GPS
- Human Machine Interface
- Manufacture
- PIC
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Sensors
- Temperature Sensors
- Test
- Wireless
Kevin Murrell is Director of the UK's National Museum of Computing based at Bletchley Park. I caught up with Kevin and he kindly agreed to be interviewed, providing us with insights into how he starte
Connecting electronics design to Google SketchUp

14/07/2011
RS’ free of charge IDf-to-Collada converter allows EDA tools to connect with the popular Google SketchUp 3D Modelling package. Ever had a design that did not quite fit the mould? You have laid out t
Microchip Motor Control Starter Kit Review - DM330015

16/01/2012
At ebm-papst are well known as a fan manufacture so I was keen to see the latest development kit from Microchip, the Motor Control Starter kit. So I was interested to see how easy it is to setup and u
Connecting People and Products (The User Interface) Part I : Art or Engineering?

11/04/2011
Crux of it… This blog intends to provide an introduction on User Interface (UI) and debates whether designing UI is an art or is just another engineering process. Design is not just what it l
So when will we get the Star Trek Tricorder then?

19/01/2012
- ARM
- ARM11
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Switches
- Test
A competition has been announced with a $10m prize for the first working medical tricorder. If you claim to be an engineer and don't know what I'm talking about, then may I suggest locking yourself in
TI Chronos Watch Controls Robot

10/11/2010
- Accelerometers
- Display & Lighting
- LCD
- Microcontrollers
- MSP430
- Pressure Sensors
- Robots
- Sensors
- Test
- Wireless
Just been on to the Texas Instruments stand at Electronica 2010. The stand was rammed with visitors looking at a variety of exciting new products. There was particular buzz around a metallic table top
Connecting the Analogue World to RS EDP - Part 2

03/06/2011
- Analogue
- ARM
- DSP
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Test