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cnc

LCD Control Board for SX3 Mill

The LittleMachineShop control board replaces the button board built in to the mill, so when the spindle control board is connected the buttons and LCD built in to the mill are no longer functional. I designed a drop-in replacement for the button board to help add back some functionality.

  • Eric Sorensen
4 min read
hamradio

Full Disk Images of Earth from GOES-17

Geostationary satellites maintain their position relative to earth. This means a parabolic dish can be pointed at the satellite and receive continuous downloads.

  • Eric Sorensen
8 min read
photography

Astrophotography, Part 1

Astrophotography used to be a hobby of mine and I would make it out with my camera a few times a year. Over the last few years I haven't prioritized this hobby, but

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
photography

Soap Film Photography

After a few photo and brainstorming sessions, we ended up with a repeatable setup to capture the kinds of images we wanted. In this post I hope to pass on some of the things we learned and share some of the resulting images.

  • Eric Sorensen
7 min read
loopantenna

Loop Antenna - Initializing the TMC2130

Continued from part 4. Now that I can read and write across the SPI interface I am going to write an initialization routine for the TMC2130. Fig 22.1 and 22.2 in

  • Eric Sorensen
5 min read
STM32

Loop Antenna - SPI Read and Write

Continued from part 3. Now that I have confirmed the stepper driver is working properly, I want to establish SPI communication for configuration and status readback. This will be especially important to enable

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read
hamradio

DDS RF Signal Source

In 2017 I designed a local oscillator board which can be used to generate an RF signal in the HF range (< 30MHz). I hope that this can become the building block for

  • Eric Sorensen
1 min read
cnc

Shopfox M1111 Mill Conversion - Intro

In 2017 I acquired a Shopfox M1111 benchtop mill. It has an intermittent issue with the spindle motor, but is otherwise mechanically sound. This mill is very similar to the Grizzly X3 mills

  • Eric Sorensen
4 min read
loopantenna

Loop Antenna - Motor Control Part 1

Continued from Part 2.I am starting to work on the automatic tuner for the magnetic loop antenna. I will implement the various functional blocks in the following order:1.    Motor control and

  • Eric Sorensen
5 min read
loopantenna

Loop Antenna - Assembly and First Test

Picking up from part 1. Today I finished assembling the loop antenna and ran some tests on it for the first time. The results look great so far and after this I'll be

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read

Oddwatt Amplifier Assembly

In 2016 I built a sound system including speakers, preamplifier, subwoofers, and amplifier. I chose a tube amp design based on the "Oddwatt" design  by Bruce Heran. If you want your own tube

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read
loopantenna

Loop Antenna - Annealing Copper

Continued from Intro. Many people assemble their loop antennas using copper pipe and 45 degree angle connectors to form an octogon. This approximates a circle well enough, but introduces some electrical resistance to

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read

Infrared Photography

The sensors inside many consumer cameras on the market today are sensitive to infrared light. This isn't normally desireable, so manufacturers add an infrared-blocking filter in front of the sensor. It is possible

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
4pi

4PI Speaker Build

This is a build log for my 4PI speakers. These high-efficiency speakers have a 15" woofer and a horn-loaded tweeter.

  • Eric Sorensen
4 min read
audio

4PI Speakers and Oddwatt Amplifier

In 2016, I set out to design and build a sound system for our house. Going into the project, I knew I wanted to build a tube amplifier. I'm not much of an

  • Eric Sorensen
1 min read
art

Droplet Photos - Part 2

In Part 1, I showed my setup for taking water droplet photos by using an eyedropper and an IR emitter/receiver pair. After learning from that setup, I created a fully-automated droplet setup

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
art

Droplet Photos - Part 1

Droplet photography is interesting to me because it combines two interests of mine: photography and electronics. I've done multiple photo sessions over the years with different technical methods of synchronizing the shots. In

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
highvoltage

High Voltage Experiments

Flyback transformers are a great tool for experimenting with high voltage. These transformers were commonly used in CRT monitors/televisions and are designed to generate the high voltage necessary for the operation of

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read
loopantenna

Ham Radio Loop Antenna

Intro to my Loop Antenna Design

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
moveo

Robotic Arm - Part 2 - Assembly

In part 1, I shared some of my notes about the BOM for the Moveo robotic arm. In this article I'll share some pictures of the assembly.All of the plastic parts on

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read
moveo

Building a Robotic Arm - Intro and BOM notes

A coworker recently told me about an open-source 3D-printable arm design available online. Its called the "Moveo" from BCN3D. You can find more info about it here. I am going to write a

  • Eric Sorensen
3 min read
BEAD

BEAD Update - Using CMSIS and FATFs

Interestingly, these libraries seem like they will eventually become obsolete and replaced by the HAL (STM32Cube) libraries from ST. People don’t seem too happy with the code from STM32CubeMX so far, and the author of the SD card library I am using has said he will not port over to HAL.

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
BEAD

BEAD Update - Getting Started

I decided to use Eclipse and setup GCC as a compiler. I'm using openocd for debug. Some of the following links have been helpful in getting started

  • Eric Sorensen
2 min read
BEAD

BEAD Data Logger - Intro

I want to design a data-aquisition board which can be used as a general-purpose data logger. It should be small, low power, and very simple to use. I worked on a similar project

  • Eric Sorensen
1 min read
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