This post is a relic. The initial draft dates back in January 19, 2013. And was left as draft ever since. Past couple of days I was busy — among other things — learning a new programming language, C#. 🙂 Ok, here’s the deal: my scope (KeysightAgilent DSO-X 2002A) is SCPI–compliant device. If you remember, the reason behind […]
The __attribute__ keyword in GCC allows you to specify special attributes on variables, functions, and types — including struct and union definitions. It is a non-standard compiler extension that gives you fine-grained control over how the compiler handles memory layout, alignment, calling conventions, and more. This article focuses on one of its most commonly encountered […]
Ok. Today was THE mail day. I’ve received both my electronic parts orders, the one from RF Parts and the one from DigiKey, that I placed several weeks ago (but had some issues with a couple of backordered items). Ta–Da ! This is it: A lot of bags and goodies. Not to mention the pleasure of sorting […]
I was looking for a RF power module for my APRS beacon project and stumbled upon RF Parts. They are somehow of a niche–oriented online electronic part retailers, specialised on RF and — it seems — mostly on Ham Radio RF parts. I placed my order for two Mitsubishi power RF MOSFET Amplifier Modules and the package […]
While designing/ working on my APRS project, I used LTSpice IV for some simulations. For those that don’t know, LTspice IV is a high performance SPICE simulator, schematic capture and waveform viewer from Linear Technology. It is a freeware and can be downloaded from this link. Versions for my both platforms exist, Win 7.0 and Mac. […]
This will be a very short post. And only for the blog. I have a sweet spot (call it idiosyncrasy) for stationery. I mean, some people do heroin, some do alcohol, some do Oprah. I am addicted to stationery. Put me in a stationery shop — you can leave me there all day (give or take), […]
This is a quick update post. The road I took with this little project is slowly getting to a dead end due to what it seems to be a lack of available crystals for 144.8 (like 48.26 or 28.96 MHz, for using the third or fifth harmonic). I believe that, currently, all APRS modules are […]
I was coding today for a small project I have. A very simple iOS application that has a very simple storyboard, two different paradigms for iPhone and iPad, but very, very simple. While coding I was struck by the fact — frequently forgotten — that we tend to ignore the obvious. Ok, here’s the deal: take one […]
More work today and yesterday on this project. Still locking on 144 MHz, but this is normal, the crystal I used is a 48 MHz overtoned, working on the third harmonic in this case, thus spot on 144.0 MHz: I managed to clean the output, at the expense of transmitted power. I used a 7-pole 2m bandpass […]
I could hardly describe the pleasure of finding my mailbox full of magazines, brochures and thick envelopes. It’s psychological mojo probably goes back in my childhood days, when I was expecting my Topolino subscription, a magazine that my mother managed to get for me with some crazy efforts and connections. For those of you who do […]
Been busy at work lately, but still had some time for myself. Latest idea: a low-cost APRS beacon, done with a classical 144.8 Mhz TX and a μController. AX.25 on air. Automatically. So these days I’ve been busy making this: Winding coils, soldering, measuring. Fun. The frequency is remarkable stable, given the rudimentary nature of this. For example, […]
Mailbag today. Guess my surprise when I found this in my mailbox: It’s always nice to receive snail mail. Paper mail. Envelopes, magazines and newspapers. That’s why I try to subscribe to receive printed editions of all magazines of interest for me. Some time ago I signed a promo email from Texas Instruments in cooperation […]
A short reminder, because I ran into this today and Xcode’s very poor at providing you useful verbosity when debugging Auto-Layout stuff done in Interface Builder. Sometimes (Xcode 4.x and 5.x) you might get the following errors when building an iOS project: Going to each error does not help much. Debugging IB auto-layout errors is […]
Back from a long vacation. Then I resumed my office work. A lot of things to do so I neglected this blog for a while. 2013 went in smoke. Not a very nice year, but not too tough either. However, one year I was not very fond of. I am looking back to some stakes […]
Mailbag today 2 ! This time from NXP. OMFG, look what I got ! This baby will definitely end up in a power RF amplifier for my Ham Radio fun time. This will be a project. THANK YOU NXP ! Got them both today ! And I have to tell you, the girls and guys […]
While developing the OS X driver for my Agilent DSO-X 2002A oscilloscope, I ran into a topic that I found to be poorly documented. It is about interaction with a device driver. There are several ways to communicate with a device driver from client space (the application). One is by modifying driver properties. This method requires […]
December again, another year passed. Traditionally, this is a month when I am taking a long break. But I was up to something in the past days and I wanted to share. I have created a driver for my KeysightAgilent DSO-X 2002A oscilloscope. Maybe not a big deal, but huge for me because this is […]
For some time I was struggling with an ambitious project, to write a Mac driver for my Agilent DSO-X 2002A oscilloscope (see here). The reason behind this is SCPI and the opportunity to reach fresh perspectives in computer–measurement instruments’ integration. However, it was not an easy way. More of a reverse–engineering project, was very time–consuming […]
I was struggling for some time to make my Mac communicate via bulk endpoints with an Arduino. It is part of a larger project of an USB-controlled Lab PSU that I am currently in prototype stage. Part of these problems solved when I finally realized that you cannot use Arduino serial ports to mimic USB […]
I added a new category/ topic on this blog because last week I successfully passed my Ham Radio certification ! This is something I wanted to do for a long time but had not much time to study and prepare for the exam. One of my relatives was a long time experienced class I Ham […]
I’ve been quite busy the past few weeks doing improvements to this blog. I have used the twenty-ten WordPress theme that I was never very happy with. Not a big deal, anyway. The content is much more important. But the biggest complaint that I had was with an endless list of plugins that I installed […]
It comes a moment for any electronics hobbyist to build a power supply unit. Probably is one of the most useful and basic projects that you can go for. Well… one can easily buy those, but what’s the fun then ? However, the majority of PSUs available on the market are high-power (high-current) PSUs. With […]
WordPress users that updated the blog platform to version 3.5 might have observed that the link manager is missing from the admin pages: It seems that WordPress announced this as one of the major core changes when they released version 3.5: One other major change is the Link Manager. If you’re using it, you’ll want […]
I love fridge magnets. We love fridge magnets (my wife likes them too). This is how our fridge looks like: But we also love beer. And we have a large collection of beer bottle caps and coasters. So I thought to combine these and make the caps stick to the refrigerator. Now, what you need […]
I was struggling for some time to make my Mac communicate by USB with Arduino. It is part of a larger project of an USB-controlled Lab PSU that I am currently in prototype stage. Part of these problems solved when I finally realized that you cannot use an Arduino as an USB controller simply because […]
Yesterday I had a less busy day. Partly due to Halloween and All Saints’ Day, not much to do at work than to go over older emails, looking over missed tasks etc. I would rule for one such day each second week at last. It is incredible how well keeps you organized and how efficient […]
Not very often I have the occasion to salvage some good parts from throw–away devices. Two days ago I found an empty TV set carcass lying on the sidewalk with some pieces left. The rest was — probably — savagely ripped off for copper and some other metals. It’s a bit of shame to see […]
I am into a complex task: for some time I’ve wanted to update the theme of this site and make it more versatile. Despite my obvious lack of time, the content is increasing steadily, so is the number of visitors, and I feel more and more often the need to structure better all these posts […]
Before we continue the second installment in the series of basic tutorials about UIPickerView usage and customization, a short digression. Most Cocoa/ Cocoa Touch tutorials assume that all connections to delegates, data sources and outlets are done visually in XCode. Our previous example was no exception. You can see from the project (gave the link below) […]
Apple released its latest OS X version, 10.9 or “Mavericks”. Quote Apple: “With more than 200 new features, OS X Mavericks brings Maps and iBooks to the Mac, introduces Finder Tabs and Tags, enhances multi-display support and includes an all-new version of Safari.” Cool, ain’t it ? But this I like most: “The latest release […]