A connected smoke detector

By mvuilleu, in Measures and DIY, april 28,2017.

The usual method to detect smoke consists in measuring the reflection of a light beam on the smoke particles suspended in the air. Although we don't explicitly have a smoke detector in our product catalogue, we recently started offering a product which can be used for this: the Yocto-RangeFinder. Indeed, this sensor uses exactly the same principle for its main feature (distance measurement) and can therefore easily be used as USB smoke detector, or even as a networked smoke detector.

Automating a coffee machine with a Yocto-Proximity

By seb, in DIY and Internet of Things, january 27,2017.

Five years ago, we modified our Jura coffee machine, which we nicknamed Josephine, to control it remotely via a web page. The idea was amusing but in fact this feature wasn't really useful as we still had to get up to place a cup in front of the coffee machine. But today, thanks to the Yocto-Proximity, we can do something more useful: We are going to brew a coffee as soon as a cup in placed on the machine.

A new animated Advent window

By mvuilleu, in DIY, december 23,2016.

If you have been following this blog for a while, you might remember our 2014 Advent window, for which we created an animated landscape in shadow play. This year, we created a new animated Advent window, but based on a different principle: a drawing with UV on a phosphorescent surface, with the help of an embryonic robotic plotter.

Yocto-Color, Neopixel and ping-pong balls

By martinm, in Internet of Things and DIY, december 09,2016.

This week, we present a small and quite simple DIY project based on the fact that white ping-pong balls make excellent light diffusers. We built a kind of multicolor chandelier, that you can drive through the Internet and which is PoE powered.

A screen that consumes (almost) nothing

By martinm, in DIY and Internet of Things, october 07,2016.

The issue with most screens is that they need to be constantly powered to display information. There is however an exception: the e-paper (or electronic paper) technology. This week, we take advantage of this technology to build a connected screen able to work for months on a single battery charge.