How to measure wind? (part 1)

By martinm, in DIY, january 11,2013.

Yocto-Meteo owners regularly ask us if Yoctopuce intends to put on the market a sensor to measure wind speed. The problem is that an anemometer contains more mechanics than electronics. We looked at some models available on the market. We concluded that the cheap anemometers were too difficult to hack and that the models designed to be interfaced were way too expensive. We are therefore going to tell you how to create your own anemometer using a Yocto-Knob.

MIDI-driven light show

By martinm, in DIY, july 12,2012.

The MIDI protocol, well known from all musicians, exists for almost thirty years. Although it was originally thought for keyboards, there are now all kinds of MIDI instruments: guitar, saxo, drums, etc. Most of the time, MIDI is used to record or drive an instrument, but would it be possible as well to use MIDI to drive a light show? Let's try...

The USB hot dog cooking machine

By mvuilleu, in DIY, june 14,2012.

Summer will be back in a week, and with it comes the sausage season! Obviously, geeks won't barbecue in the sun, everybody knows that the sun provokes cancers and it's dangerous for your health. So, how can you cook a hot dog sausage at the office, without putting fire to it, and without any other equipment than the few Yocto-modules lying about? Ideally, we'd like to monitor the cooking by USB, if it isn't too much to ask...

A USB email indicator

By martinm, in DIY, may 04,2012.

One of the common issues linked to internet consists in knowing whether you've got mail at a glance, without consulting any computer-like equipment. This week, we provide a solution to this issue by lighting a Yocto-PowerColor when an unread email is awaiting your attention in your mail box. In fact, the real difficulty lies in integrating the Yocto-PowerColor in a decorative element, making the result visually pleasing.

Example on ARM Linux

By Sébastien Rinsoz, in DIY and Tiny PC, april 20,2012.

This week, we are making two gauges which are going to display CPU and disk usage of a machine under Linux, but we are going to make them the Yoctopuce way: two physical gauges controlled by two servomotors! As many customers have been asking whether we support ARM architectures, we are going to create this project on a "computer" which uses this architecture.