New YoctoHub-Wireless-SR and radio range testing

By martinm, in New stuff, december 26,2013.

This week we are happy to introduce the YoctoHub-Wireless-SR. This device is almost the same as the YoctoHub-Wireless, except for the antenna: this YoctoHub uses an onboard PCB antenna rather than an external antenna. Of course, this does not provide the same performances. We have therefore decided to run a small Wi-Fi range testing session with various antennas.

A Tweet controlled Christmas ornament

By Sébastien Rinsoz, in Internet of Things, december 19,2013.

The holiday season is starting presently and it is more than time to take out Christmas decorations. While rummaging in the attic, we happened on an old ornament in the shape of a snowman. We thought that there had to be a way to make this basic ornament into something much more interesting. And what if YOU could control our Christmas ornament with a Tweet? Let's see how to put this idea into practice…

Yoctopuce on BeagleBone Black: Quick Review

By Sébastien Rinsoz, in Reviews, december 13,2013.

In the last few years, a great number of cheap mini- (or even micro-) computers have become available on the market. Most use an ARM processor and a Linux operating system. The most well known is obviously the Raspberry Pi. Recently, a new competitor has emerged: the BeagleBone Black. We decided to order one to see what its board is worth.

GSM temperature monitoring

By mvuilleu, in Measures, december 06,2013.

This week, our mission is to check, through temperature monitoring, that the heating system of a church is working as it should. We are going to show you how to set up the remote monitoring of the surrounding air temperature and of the heater temperature, without needing to write a single line of code. The specificity of the project is that the church (quite logically) doesn't have a wifi network. So we need to use a GSM or 3G connection.

High Power measurements by USB

By mvuilleu, in Measures, november 29,2013.

People often ask us whether we have a module to measure electric consumption on a high power system. Indeed, the Yocto-Watt is well suited to measure the power consumed by an electrical appliance, but its design limits the measurable power to 16A. This is not enough for example to monitor the global electric consumption of a house, of an industrial electrical installation of some size, nor of a three-phase electric system. Let's have a look at existing solutions for this type of applications.