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A Builder’s Guide to Buying Electronics on eBay

A Builder’s Guide to Buying Electronics on eBay

It's never been cheaper to round up a ton of quality hardware for open source projects! Here's what you need to know about the eBay experience.


The New Wireless Thread Network Protocol

The New Wireless Thread Network Protocol

Thread, a network protocol released July 2015, is optimized for the connected home network. It is IPv6 based, uses IEEE Standard 802.15.4 and runs on existing hardware.


Introduction to the MQTT Protocol on NodeMCU

Introduction to the MQTT Protocol on NodeMCU

MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a popular low-overhead messaging protocol used by many IoT devices to communicate. This tutorial will show the user how to to set up a basic MQTT network using Python on his or her computer and an ESP8266 running the NodeMCU firmware.


Projects Sep 15, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd
BLE using nRF51: ARM-GCC Build Environment

BLE using nRF51: ARM-GCC Build Environment

How to set up the build environment for the nRF51 system-on-chip using makefiles and ARM-GCC.


ZigBee vs Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart

ZigBee vs Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart

ZigBee, Bluetooth and the newer Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE/Smart) are all communication protocols for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs), but they are optimized for different applications.


A Big Mesh: Military Tactics and the Future of Mobile Communications

A Big Mesh: Military Tactics and the Future of Mobile Communications

An analysis of the historical link between the military's use of retransmission stations ("retrans") and the advent of the mesh network.


News Sep 01, 2015 by Mark Gerasimas
An Introduction to the Wunderbar

An Introduction to the Wunderbar

Learn how to set up the Wunderbar platform to begin building your own IoT apps. This will demonstrate the "Can't Touch This" and "Tell Me When" demo applications to measure WunderBar sensors and perform actions based on them. Some of the major bugs are discussed.


Projects Aug 29, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd
Semiconductor Mergers and Acquisitions in 2015….So Far

Semiconductor Mergers and Acquisitions in 2015….So Far

A look at some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry.


News Aug 15, 2015 by Jennifer A. Diffley
An Intro to Multiplexing: Basis of Telecommunications

An Intro to Multiplexing: Basis of Telecommunications

Multiplexing was developed in the early 1870s, but it’s become much more applicable to digital telecommunications in the late 20th century. Today, frequency division multiplexing (FDM), time division multiplexing (TDM), and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) have become an extremely important asset to telecommunication processes and has greatly improved the way that we transmit and receive independent signals over AM and FM radio, telephone lines, and optical fibers.


How to Make an Interactive TCP Server with NodeMCU on the ESP8266

How to Make an Interactive TCP Server with NodeMCU on the ESP8266

Learn how to connect your device with Linux Screen using the built-in Lua interpreter to set up the file system and connect to the network. Then, learn how to automate the scripting process with Luatool and put it all together with a basic TCP server that can interact with a pulse-width modulated LED, a potentiometer, and a switch.


Projects Jul 22, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd
Estimating Wireless Range

Estimating Wireless Range

How to estimate wireless communication range from radio parameters.


The Five Best Hardware Kickstarters (That Need Your Money)

The Five Best Hardware Kickstarters (That Need Your Money)

Five of the coolest hardware Kickstarters!


News Jun 30, 2015 by Jennifer A. Diffley
Beginner’s Guide to the Arduino

Beginner’s Guide to the Arduino

This project will help you get started with the Arduino, including a description of the different types of Arduinos, how to download the Arduino software development environment, and describe the different shields that are available for the Arduino along with the accessories you will need to develop Arduino projects.


Projects Jun 12, 2015 by Tim Youngblood
Saelig’s New Low Power Radio Transceiver

Saelig’s New Low Power Radio Transceiver

The new 2.4 GHz radio transceiver module is designed to facilitate the simple embedding of wireless capabilities in industrial remote control equipment.


News Jun 04, 2015 by Jennifer A. Diffley
Cypress’ Bluetooth Smart Remote Control and Touch Mouse Reference Design Kits

Cypress’ Bluetooth Smart Remote Control and Touch Mouse Reference Design Kits

Cypress announced the availability of two reference design kits (RDKs) based on its PRoC™ BLE Programmable Radio-on-Chip solution for Bluetooth Smart applications. The new CY5672 PRoC BLE Remote Control RDK and CY5682 PRoC BLE Touch Mouse RDK provide feature-rich, production-ready implementations with prolonged battery life.


News Jun 01, 2015 by Tim Youngblood
Industry’s First NFC Sensor Transponder

Industry’s First NFC Sensor Transponder

Texas Instruments (TI) released today the industry’s first Near Field Communication (NFC) sensor transponder family. The RF430RL25xH system-on-chip (SoC) device is equipped with a fully programmable low power microcontroller (MCU), non-volatile FRAM, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and supports an ISO 15693-compliant NFC interface as well as Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and Inter Integrated Circuit (I2C). The high frequency13.56-MHz sensor transponder can operate on full passive (battery-less) or semi-active modes for optimal battery life in portable and wireless sensing applications.


News Apr 06, 2015 by Tim Youngblood