If anyone is following this blog as it develops I wanted to ensure you that more content is on the way. Local traffic here has consumed most of my bandwidth but there are things queued up. In fact, I really need to get some things out of the queue because it will soon overflow.
I have 4 types of radar based motion sensors that operate on frequencies from 2.4GHz to 24GHz. One somewhat exotic type using FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) promises to work not only as a motion sensor but as a genuine presence sensor, providing indication of a static person and even the distance to them. It is cheap, around $5.00 a pop, and tiny at only 35mm x 7mm It doesn't seem trivial to deploy, though, for various reasons. But if it lives up to the description it could be a game changer for presence detection.
A tiny but promising radar-based sensor
I also have several interesting MCU dev boards including RP2040 base boards that aren't the RPi Pico. The Pico is very nice, and the "programming" technique of simply copying the compiled image onto a mass storage device is very handy. The other boards inherit this. One I am particularly interested in includes both the RP2040 and an ESP32-C3 with a nice LCD and battery management thrown in. One target for this board is Tensorflow Lite, which promises edge ML. I am very interested in the possibilities for that. It comes from one of my favorite companies—LilyGo—and i have come to expect high quality products from them.
Not cheap at ~15 bucks but potentially awesome
I also have two USB electronic loads, and two versions of a very nice USB tester to write about. I'll tell you, these testers can throw you into an arcane world of charging standards and protocols! And of course I have and array of the cheap and cheerful staples, including consumables like tape, cable ties, and antistatic bags; PWM modules, rotation sensors, interesting COB-based LED strips; and more.
I am hoping to post on a regular basis, probably once a week, once I get started again. So if this kind of thing interests you, stay tuned there's more to come.
I have 4 types of radar based motion sensors that operate on frequencies from 2.4GHz to 24GHz. One somewhat exotic type using FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) promises to work not only as a motion sensor but as a genuine presence sensor, providing indication of a static person and even the distance to them. It is cheap, around $5.00 a pop, and tiny at only 35mm x 7mm It doesn't seem trivial to deploy, though, for various reasons. But if it lives up to the description it could be a game changer for presence detection.
A tiny but promising radar-based sensor
Not cheap at ~15 bucks but potentially awesome
I am hoping to post on a regular basis, probably once a week, once I get started again. So if this kind of thing interests you, stay tuned there's more to come.
