TKJ Electronics

I’ve nearly finished first year out of three on HTX, which is a kind of Technical Highschool. On HTX you have a lesson called Technology where you have to find a problem, and then find a way to solve it!

Our last project this year was about the weather, and me and my friend found a problem on the harbours -- they don’t know the correct weather where they are. So we chosed to make a weather station.

We ended up using an Arduino Duemilanove connected to a temperature sensor, pressure sensor, rain sensor and wind speed and direction sensor. All these data is shown on a 128x64 GLCD display! Please take a look at this video to see how it ended up working (the things on the display is in danish though)…

Read more…

Many has sent me mails or PM’s about the STM32 library for Eagle, so now I’ve uploaded it here.

stm32.lbr – ST Cortex-M3 STM32F101/103 processor family in LQFP100, 64, 48 and VFQPFN36
stm32_lqfp144.lbr – STM32F101Zx and STM32F103Zx. LQFP 144 package.

I hope you guys can use them… Please keep me updated with your projects

In March is designed a USB LED Matrix board which I afterwards got manufactured at BatchPCB.

After about a month I recieved the board, but unfortunately it had some manufacturing defects. I contacted BatchPCB and got a full refund.
You can read more about the defects in one of my other posts. But now I’ve fixed the defects using a razor blade and some wire.

Here is some assembly pictures…

After a couple of hours programming I’m able to control the display using a nice GUI on the computer (made in Visual Basic 6). The programming is done in PicBasic Pro, and the flashing of the PIC18F2550 is easily done via USB, as I’ve installed Microchip’s PICDEM FS USB Bootloader on the chip.

A couple of weeks ago I recieved an SSD1963 evaluation board and a 7″ display.

The SSD1963 chip makes it possible to control a 7″ display with a regular microcontroller or microprocessor, which haven’t got enough memory and power to control it itself, as it’s a normal display with vSync and hSync and so on.
So after a couple of hours I got it running with my STM32 board and a touch screen controller.

Please take a look at the video below to see some of the things I can show/do.

Hi.
Today I finally recieved the PCB I ordered from BatchPCB about 1½ month ago.
Unfortunately PCB isn’t going to work as there is alot of planes being mistakenly ‘poured’ onto a trace!

EDIT
Today I got the full amount returned from Batch-PCB, including the shipping. Nice guys over there!

Here is some images about the problems…

Before you start reading this review, please have my current setup in your mind:

• Intel i5 750 – 3.1GHz
• ATI Readeon HD 4890 – two DVI outputs
• 4gb RAM
• Samsung P2450 60Hz LCD – with VGA and DVI input

EDIT
Today I got the full amount returned, but that was after I shipped the glasses back to them, and waited in 14 days… I kept calling them, and they just told me that I should write a mail to them, and wait for a response. They always told me: “I asure you that it will be done tomorrow!”

When I bought the glasses I got an email telling me that the software in the package that I was going to receive was outdated, and then there was a download link to a zip file. That zip file included the TriDef Experience setup file, and eDimensionals own 3D shutter glass executable.
Read more…

Hi again.
Today I’m going to talk about my mini computer I started making with the STM32.
It’s powered by the STM32F103RET6 stamp board from Futurlec, and it is clocked at 72MHz. Right now there isn’t any “real” applications or games in it, but theese are under development.

You can see some pictures about it here, but I’ve also made a video where you can see it in use.

The buttons on the right side of the menu is from Microchip’s Graphics Library, which I ported to the STM32.

Hi everybody.
Last week I started making a ILI9320 library for the Arduino Mega, as I was hoping it would work with my 2.8″ Display (with a ILI9320 controller of course).
After a couple of hours I’ve made the code doing the timings correctly, and then I made a simple PutPixel routine. It worked, so I continued to make a Text function, and afterwards different polygons commands.
When I had made all these commands I began to optimise everything, as the Arduino isn’t running fast enough, so a complete screen clear takes about 2-3 second. After a couple of days optimizing, I got it down to 1 second, and other commands such as rectangle was alot faster. I had also made a function so I could “scroll” the screen – which is descriped in the ILI9320 datasheet!

Here you can see some pictures of the final version of the code, which you can download here: Arduino Mega and ILI9320 code

Last week I recieved a new ARM toy. I unpacked it a minute after I got, and started messing with it straight ahead – and that’s why I’m first writing about it now
It’s called mini2440 and it has a Samsung S3C2440A ARM920T chip, clocked at 405 MHz (Max freq. 533 MHz), and a 3.5″ touch screen display on top. There is also 2MB NOR flash, 64MB SRAM, and 128MB NAND flash (you can get up to 1GB) on the board.

 
The mini2440 has alot of connection possibilities, as there is both a USB slave, USB master (OTG), ethernet, RS232, SD card slot and sound output. All these are routed to real connectors, but there is also alot of GPIO’s which is routed to small pin headers and connectors. There is also a microphone soldered to the board!
You can read more about the mini2440 board here: http://www.friendlyarm.net/products/mini2440

 

 
As the ARM920T hasn’t any flash itself, it is connected to a NOR and a NAND chip. In the NOR chip there is a bootloader called Supervivi, which makes it easy to upgrade the NAND chip and set boot-options in the NOR, using the USB and serial (RS232) port.

 
The mini2440 comes preinstalled with Linux 2.6.3 and a graphics layer called Qtopia. But as I haven’t messed alot with Linux I started investigating other opportunities.
Some of the operation systems (also RTOS’s) which can be installed on the mini2440 are for example:

• Linux 2.6.3 and Qtopia (Linux)
• Embedian (Linux)
• Angstrom (Linux)
• Android (Linux)
• Windows CE 5.0
• Windows CE 6.0
• uCos (RTOS)

 
Of course it is also possible to write code for the board without using an OS – this can be done in different ways

• Writing code for the 2MB NOR chip, and then boot from that
• Writing code for the NAND chip – this requires a specific bootloader which is placed in the bottom of the NAND chip

Right now I haven’t tried any of theese, but I have removed the Linux and installed Windows CE 5.0 and afterwards Windows CE 6.0. The great thing about Windows CE 6.0 is the .NET 3.5 Framework. This does the application development much easier, and I’ve already made my first “Hello World” application!

 

 

It took me hours to get started, as the CD which came with my mini2440 only included the Chineese manual.
But then there is two amazing sites:

• http://www.friendlyarm.net
• http://www.andahammer.com/
• And also the IRC channel on Freenode called #mini2440

Theese helped me getting started – but remember, the mini2440 is not for beginners. It requires a clear mind, and alot of time!

 
So to help you who may find it difficult to get started, I’ve uploaded some usefull documents and files.

• A 246 page manual about the mini2440, and how to use it
     – It also includes some guides about creating your own Linux or WinCE image
• A guide for the Supervivi bootloader
     – How to install Linux or Windows CE on the mini2440
• An english Windows CE 5.0 image
     – Follow the guide above to install it
• A backup of the factory installed NAND (with Linux and Qtopiad)
     – Remember this is only for the 128MB version – Restore it using Supervivi’s restore function

In the following weeks I will upload more things, and write a couple of guides to get started… Especially guides about getting started with Windows CE 6.0 development, as I’m doing right now!

This week I got some inspiration from the ST DSP library, so I made my own oscilloscope with the STM32 and my 320x240 pixels QTFT screen. I made the code from scratch, both the sampling and screen updating code -- but I used the ST DSP library for the FFT calculations of course

You can see the video of the project here…