Welcome back to Elektor Lab Notes! Let's take a look back at what some Elektor engineers and editors have been up to during the past few weeks: a LoRaWAN project, interviews with top engineers, new Jumpstarter campaigns, and more. Share your feedback in the Discussion section at the bottom of the page. We want to hear from you!
 
Elektor Lab Notes

Mathias Claussen (Engineer/Editor, Elektor)

Below I share some lab notes about interesting articles and projects that I recently came across. I also offer a few notes about my work, which I think you will find useful. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at @ElektorMathias.

LoRaWAN for a Weather Station
If you weather station is outside your Wi-Fi coverage, you might want to use LoRaWAN. I have a spot in my garden that is suited for a weather station, but it is outside my Wi-Fi coverage range. By using an ESP32-PICO Kit, LoRaWAN can be an alternative. The hardware used is basically the same as in the Elektor Weather Station, but with a few changes to it. The ESP32 has been replaced by an Elektor LoRa Node, and an I²C OLED is used for local status information. Inside the sensors are now an I²C  ADC and I²C GPIO expander (hidden), allowing me to use four wires to connect everything to the main MCU. Data is sent over the The Things Network to a Node-Red server. If you would like to know how to send data over LoRaWAN and fetch it with Node-Red, have a look at Elektor 7/2021.
 
weather station project
Image for Lab Notes


This is not perfect, and all the wires should be replaced by a nice PCB. But doing new hardware is currently no fun as most of the components you need will be out of stock for a longer time.

An Interview with Parallax's Gracey Brothers
Elektor engineer Luc Lemmens and I had the chance to interview Chip Gracey  and Ken Gracey, founder of Paralax. Chip is the designed the Propeller microcontrollers, and he talked to us about the new Propeller 2 MCU. He also gave some interresting insight into microcontroller design and how the Propeller 2 became the MCU it is today. The full interview will be available in Elekor soon. If you want to learn about the Propeller 2 microcontroller, take a look at my five part-series, "Hands-on the Parallax Propeller 2."

Q&A with Raspberry Pi CEO/Founder Eben Upton
I recently had a chance to catch up with Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi Founder and CEO. As we prepared for special edition of Elektor Industry magazine, I talked with Upton about the history of Raspberry Pi and more. He also addressed the rumor about the Raspberry Pi 4A and he explained why a Raspberry Pi 5 won't be comming soon. And, if you have wondered why they chose "raspberry" for their name, you'll find the answare in the interview. For all his answers, you will have to wait until the magazine comes out.

Clemens Valens (Engineer/Editor, Elektor)

Atomstack A5 Laser Engraver
I recently got my hands on an Atomstack A5 Laser Engraver. I have been experimenting with it and wrote/made a review/video about it. It has a 5-W laser (20-W electrical power), which is enough to cut through 5-mm-thick wood (not in one go, but after several passes). I was told that you can work on metal too if you spread mustard on it first, but I haven't tried that yet. Its engraving and cutting possibilities probably make it an interesting tool for creating front panels and do some basic milling on plastic enclosures. Of course, you can also engrave your family's faces on a piece of wood (or plastic, or leather) and hang it on the wall.

KiCad Elektor-Style Symbol Library
Thanks to a comment posted by ElektroMaker at Elektor Labs, I discovered a nice Elektor-style schematic symbol library for KiCad. With it, you too can make good-looking schematics.
 
Elektor-style KiCad symbol library
Elektor-style schematic drawn with the KiCad symbol library.
Elektor Industry
For the upcoming Elektor Industry edition, I had a look at the evolution of microcontrollers in the period 2000 to 2010. Built-in EEPROM and Flash memory was getting popular then, allowing in-circuit programming, a great step forward. Also, the ever-popular 8051 saw more and more competiton, and then ARM came along... And ... did you know there exists a PIC17 family?
 
Elektor PIC17 board for Lab notes
Elektor's PIC17 board from 2000.
Elektor Jumpstarter
In August, I spent (quite) some time on preparing an Elektor Jumpstarter campaign for the ESP32 Thermostat by Yves Bourdon. It will have some more features than the original device and the construction of an updated prototype is in progress. But you don't have to wait for that, you can already back the project.

C. J. Abate (Content Director, Elektor)

As my colleagues noted above, we are currently preparing a special edition of Elektor Industry magazine, which will be available in November. And we're already working on 2022 projects and magazine articles. Below are some highlights and lab notes.

Popular Articles
Here is a list of some of the most popular articles that we posted online over the past month:
 
  • "A Hardware Engineer’s One-Room Workspace": Greece-based Eleftherios Provatos's one-room electronics workspace is the perfect setip for wide range of electronics and robotics projects. He proves you can engineer a lot with a small space and the right tools. Get inspired!
  • "Europe’s Efforts to Tame Big Tech": The European Commission (EC) is striving for a digital space based on the following values: a human-centered 'Net where everyone's fundamental rights are respected, and a single digital market with a level playing field. The EC is working on new regulations to achieve its goal. 
  • "Elektor @ 60: Engineering in August": As part of our Elektor 60 celebration, we recently spotlighted a few stand-out electronics articles, DIY projects, and engineering tutorials from previous August editions.
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555 as a Trigger (1975)
555 as a Trigger (from 1975)
WEEF Registration!
The 2021 World Elethical Electronics Forum (WEEF) is fast approaching. You have various options for participating as a speaker or as an attendee. Check out the various options. We recently set up a simple online registration form. Sign up today!

Elektor @ 60
Lastly, don't forget that we are celebrating Elektor's 60th anniversary all year. The engineering continues! Join us.
 
Elektor 60