Author Archives: dwatts

Beaglebone Coding 101: Buttons and PWM

Posted on March 16, 2012 by dwatts

Updated Mar 20: Corrected the settings in the “Controlling PWM Using the File System” section. Updated Mar 21: Corrected the max PWM frequency – definitely not 250 Hz! Updated Mar 25: Correct PWM settings example: set duty_cycle to 0 before … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Programming | Tagged , , | 40 Comments

Beaglebone Linux 101: Assigning a Static IP Address with Connman

Posted on February 6, 2012 by dwatts

My article on configuring Angstrom Linux included instructions for setting a static IP address. Sometime after posting that article, I realized that the instructions work great unless you happen to reboot. Then, the settings reverted to the default of using … Continue reading →

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Beaglebone Linux 101: Configuring Angstrom Linux

Posted on January 29, 2012 by dwatts

My previous two articles about the Beaglebone (here and  here) focused on using it as a development platform for handling Arduino-like tasks: interacting with digital, analog and serial devices. In this article I’m going to cover the basics of using … Continue reading →

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Beaglebone Coding 101: Using the Serial and Analog Pins

Posted on January 22, 2012 by dwatts

[Updated Jan 25: Correction! There is a 1.8V voltage source on the Beaglebone: Port 9 Pin 32.  Thanks to Koen Kooi for the info.  I've updated the text with this information] [Update May 5: In kernel version 3.2.14, the file … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Gadgets, Programming | Tagged , , , , | 57 Comments

Beaglebone Coding 101: Blinking an LED

Posted on January 5, 2012 by dwatts

[Updated Jan 22 - various improvements to the Python sample code at the end of the article] In November, Texas Instruments, Digi-Key and the other members of Beagleboard.org, the Beaglebone.  This is a simpler, more hobbyist-friendly little brother to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Gadgets, Programming | Tagged , , , , | 38 Comments

Nimbits Gadget Updated

Posted on December 14, 2011 by dwatts

I’ve added a couple of new settings to the Nimbits Google Gadget: graph width and gadget height.  I’ve updated the “Minding the Data Store” article with the details. Nimbits itself was recently updated to version 3.3, and the its web site … Continue reading →

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A Pachube Gadget: Programmer’s Show and Tell

Posted on November 23, 2011 by dwatts

In my last post, I introduced a Google gadget that I wrote to display graphs of Pachube datastreams.  This gadget takes advantage of the Pachube API to add a few new features that I couldn’t find in other Pachube gadgets, … Continue reading →

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A Pachube Google Gadget: Size Matters

Posted on November 5, 2011 by dwatts

As described in past articles, I use the Pachube online Database/Internet-Of-Things-Thingee to log data from Tweet-A-Watt and various other sensors. (It’s pronounced “Patch-bay”, apparently, but that won’t stop me from my thinking “Pa-Chew-Bee” every time I see the word. Feel … Continue reading →

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FEZ XBee Sensor: Hat Trick

Posted on October 29, 2011 by dwatts

As mentioned at the end of my Watching the Watcher article, the Netduino Plant Light project is going to take a sharp turn at this point, losing both the Netduino and the Plant Light.  I’m going to spin off some … Continue reading →

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Netduino: Watching the Watcher

Posted on August 23, 2011 by dwatts

Note: This article is an installment in a series about building a plant light controller (and beyond) on the Netduino microcontroller platform.  For previous articles in the series, click here.  It’s been a few months now since the Netduino in this … Continue reading →

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