It is time to take a look at some of the latest developments in the electronics space and
today, I have 8 different things to share with you. We are going to start things off
with this very interesting Kickstarter project called
Cody Block which helps introduce coding to children aged 3 to 9 years. It’s best to
view a demo to understand it and as you can see there are a couple of wooden blocks which
contain symbols and an RFID chip inside. As the car approaches these symbols, it reads
the data from the RFID chip and executes the command. This helps develop logical and reasoning
skills that are critical for programming. The prototype is made up of several individual
modules and appears to be nicely put together. They do plan on having several other blocks
and modules to add more functionality. The set costs about $190 dollars and the campaign
has about 10 days to go, either way, this could serve as inspiration for future projects.
The next project is a DIY MIDI keyboard which is controlled by an Arduino Mega and appears
to be well put together.
It uses two momentary push buttons positioned such that one gets activated before the other.
The time difference between the activations for both allow you to determine the velocity
of the key press which is then used to generate the appropriate input.
The designer plans on selling it as a kit and it will be open source but do follow the
reddit post to check for more information. The final digital render of the unit does
look very interesting indeed.
If you use surface mount components regularly then you will know just how annoying it is
to use regular multi-meter probes to check values, LED orientation and so on.
This next product simplifies that for you. It can help you identify and determine different
component values as seen on screen. It also features a built-in rechargeable battery and
weighs only 29 grams. The device does cost about three hundred dollars but there is a
similar product for makers that only costs about fifteen dollars. It wouldn’t be as
accurate and such but I have ordered this one here and I will review it on the channel
once it shows up so do subscribe to stay updated.
The next project is a futuristic desktop ring that tells you the time using WS2812B RGB
LEDs. It does look well designed and a little confusing at the same time but if you do like
the end result then there are complete instructions available for you to build your own. It uses
the ESP-01 to obtain network time and also drive the LEDs.
If you are looking to create a raspberry pi based music player then definitely check out
this next project that uses RFID tags to launch playlists.
Each of the hexagonal tags have data stored in them which is read by the RFID card reader
that’s driven by the WeMos D1 mini board. The information is then used to trigger a
playlist in Volumio which is a very versatile music player. I will most likely be using
this for the smart speaker build so stay tuned for that.
The BLYST840 module is as impressive as it gets. It combines Bluetooth 5, Zigbee, Thread
and a lot more into a tiny fingertip sized module. What’s more is that you can hand
assemble it onto a PCB and that it will only cost about 18 dollars when launched. It is
designed around the nRF52840 chipset which is a 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller
and is not only power efficient but it can also run from 1.7 to 5.5V.
We have looked at the SiPeed M1n module earlier and the MaixCube uses the same chipset but
adds everything else that you need to get started. This includes an LCD screen, camera,
microSD card, accelerometer and much more. All for about 25 dollars. You can also plug
in additional modules to increase the capabilities of the board as seen here. It’s available
for pre-order with an estimated ship date of 8th May. However, keep in mind that there
appears to be delays with some products as the WioTerminal that was supposed to ship
on 15th April has been pushed back each week with the current availability date of 10th
May. We will be reviewing this when it arrives.
And finally, we have the ODROID-C4 which aims to be a Raspberry Pi 4 competitor at 50 dollars.
On paper it looks very impressive and even has 4 USB 3 ports. What makes it interesting
is that it can also run Ubuntu and other operating systems which can make it a true desktop replacement.
Performance wise it appears to be much better than the Raspberry PI in most scenarios here
while it drastically outperforms the Raspberry pi when it comes to cryptography.
That is it for this episode of WattHour, all links will be available in the description
for you to use. We will continue with the regular videos on Thursday so do subscribe
to stay updated, if you haven’t already. Thank you for watching and I will see you
in the next one!