Flowcode 8 – Visual programming for PIC, Arduino and ARM

If only we could say that "No StromPi 3 was harmed during the making of this review“ we would be happy, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Power supply HATs for the Raspberry Pi are nothing new and some may even question why we are reviewing a new version of the StromPi and not a PiJuice or Pi UPS + HAT? To answer that question, this review looks into what the latest version of the StromPi brings to the table and shows how we can use it...

Need a PCB design solution? Elektor PCB Service, in cooperation with Eurocircuits, offers an affordable, user-friendly option for anyone who needs PCBs in small and medium quantities.

The objective of the PaPiRus ePaper Screen HAT for Raspberry Pi is to make ePaper technology available to anyone, which is why it is a fully open source product with schematics and source code at GitHub. Besides the ePaper display, the HAT also has four pushbuttons, a real-time clock (RTC) and a temperature sensor.

Elektor LABS proudly present a kit to help you assemble your VFD-tube Clock from the article published half a year ago. You’ll build it within about 4 hours, pre-cut acrylic sheet case included, using normal soldering tools and any computer with Arduino IDE. To keep the time synchronised our new VFD-tube clock employs an NTP server. Besides time, it also displays date and temperature in several display formats. Various sensors are supported. The RGB background lighting is user configurable (with a wireless Android app).

According to an old saying in my country, ‘he who can distinguish good advice from bad does not need advice from anyone’. If this is true, we probably would no longer need YouTube. Do you go to YouTube to help choose tools for your electronics lab? I have thought for a long time that some comparative reviews which one finds there, like those for two soldering irons, could be useful, as long as you are focussed and critical. But I’ve ended up doubting that.

DJs and fans of light shows are devotees of USB/DMX512 converters to control their projectors from their laptop PCs. Unfortunately, those found in the commercial world are often not (well) isolated from the mains voltage. Here, on the other hand, an isolated DC/DC converter powers the isolated RS 485 transceiver. Like any DMX device worth of the name, this new converter has an XLR socket.

Not always the case, but here’s a video of unpacking and assembly that’s nice and easy. No fiddly SMD soldering. Everything is shown with the rhythm of an electronicist who gets his kicks with good old fashioned through-hole components. This kit is a dual-purpose pocket test equipment, an affordable frequency counter (1 Hz à 50 MHz) and crystal tester. It has five standard 7-segment displays. Look at the measuring range: 1 Hz to 50 MHz. Especially for this price!

Microchip announces a highly integrated LoRa® System-in-Package (SiP) family with an ultra-low-power 32-bit microcontroller (MCU), sub-GHz RF LoRa transceiver and software stack. The combination of long-range wireless connectivity with low-power performance is designed to accelerate the development of LoRa-based connected solutions.

In Elektor Business 5/2018, we present wide range of articles on microcontrollers and programming, as well as topics such as benchmarking IC development, developing safety-critical embedded systems, vehicle emissions monitoring, and machine vision.

Competition in the e-mobility (electro-mobility) solutions market is heating up. Meshcrafts CEO/Co-Founder Paal Christian Myhre believes e-mobility is the future of public and private transportation. He talks about the future of the industry as well his company's innovative products.

The drone and autonomous robot industry is rapidly growing. Kevin Sartori talks about Auterion’s mission to extend the reach of open-source technologies to meet enterprise-grade requirements of companies in the commercial drone space.