Author: nebel

ATmega328P: Fake or Real?

March 7, 2023 / nebel / 2 Comments

The featured image of this blog post is by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay.

Recently, I bought some ATmega328P-PU (DIP packages) chips in China and was concerned that they might be counterfeit, given that three years ago some ATmega328P clones, which did not support nano-power, had been found on Pro Mini boards. The first check looked as if they were fake chips, ~~but apparently, they were the real thing.~~ but they seem to work fine.

The Return of the Y2K Bug

March 1, 2023 / nebel / 0 Comments

The featured image of this blog post is based on a picture by JL G on Pixabay

If you are old enough, you probably remember the Y2k bug. Now, mankind should have learned from it, right? Wrong!

Everything You Wanted to Know About Real-Time Clocks but Were Afraid to Ask

February 24, 2023 / nebel / 0 Comments

The featured image of this blog post is by Chen from Pixabay

What is a real-time clock? Why do you need one? What are the use cases? How accurate can a real-time clock be? Which features can a real-time clock have? Which models are around? And which one should you buy?

A Sunset Cache Box

February 18, 2023 / nebel / 0 Comments

The featured image of this blog post has been generated by Stable Diffusion.

What does it take to build a geocaching box that can only be opened at sunset? A box, a button, an electronic lock, an electronic clock, and a controller that ties everything together.

SD-WIFI by FYSETC: Wireless 3D printing

February 14, 2023 / nebel / 0 Comments

How do you communicate with your 3D printer? Carrying an SD card between your computer and the printer? This can end now using the SD-WIFI module! If you try to get it running on a Mac, some extra effort may be necessary.

Synchronism

January 22, 2023 / nebel / 0 Comments

The featured image of this blog post is by Steve Buissinne on Pixabay

In 2013, we found the Seattle-Köln Exchange Multicache, which requires cooperation between geocachers from Cologne and Seattle. This led to the idea of a geocache where two people at different locations had to press a button at exactly the same time in order to be able to open their respective cache boxes. And now the idea has become a reality!

Create Your Own World: Print it!

January 3, 2023 / nebel / 0 Comments

The featured image of this blog post is by Lutz Peter from Pixabay

Now it has happened. I finally assembled the 3D printer kit Prusa i3 MK3, which I bought in 2018.

Winter is coming …

December 1, 2022 / nebel / 0 Comments

The featured image of the blog post is by NettPix from Pixabay

And now, there is more time to sit at your desk and do “nerdy” things, such as soldering and coding.

Parasitic Power Supply

March 15, 2022 / nebel / 1 Comment

The featured image of this post is by Emphyrio on Pixabay

In parasitic power supply mode, a device sucks its juice from a data line instead of from the power rail. This can be intended or unintended. In the latter case, all sorts of funny things can happen.

Make it Fail

(David J. Agans)

The quote is from Dave’s book Debugging: the 9 indispensable rules for finding even the most elusive software and hardware problems, which I recommend to everybody who has to debug a technical artifact.