Newest acquisition to the home lab arrived! These are amazing, the build quality and the stiffness of the rotation/motion part is very well choose/tuned! Only may need to get a bigger metal base.

Ordered some JST-GH connectors from #AliExpress, first time I got one with the different plastic housing. The one in the bottom right, it's lighter color almost a bit translucent. Will see if it's a lower grade plastic or not...

While on one hand I fixed the BGA Tenting mistake for the work project, I have also continued to work on my new personal project! The layout and routing is not roughly 80% done, looking forward to getting it in my hands!

And this is how it is supposed to look, with the vias properly Tented!

To the embedded developers around here, for your embedded system (no Linux), what structure do you use for your HAL drivers? I started and kept with UART1Init(), UART2Init(), etc... option. With all the functions "duplicated" between insurances. Extremely customizable between instances but ugly...

Don't forget to double/triple check your generated Gerber files! By mistake forgot to set the vias to tented (Altium defaults to untented ...) on a first prototype at work. KiCAD defaults to tented vias and JLC for 6L and up does not seem to have an overwrite of this.

I was looking at the new Arduino Uno Q, out of curiosity. What strikes me as strange is that there seem to be no shield for the bottom connectors yet? So no way for now to use the MIPI interfaces (camera and display)? Am I missing something? www.arduino.cc/product-uno-q

This is an amazing video! Putting it into words and confirming my own experience when using AI to find solutions and/or information. The issue of AI quoting AI articles is also only starting and will get much worse... And then they want us to pay for unreliable information...

What?! Now that is an acquisition that I did not expect! What hobbiest/consumer facing products do they even sell? All there SoC are basically impossible to get as a DIYer... www.pcmag.com/news/qualcom...

New toy arrived! The all new ESP32-C5 from #Espressif! The first dual band (2.4+5GHz) WiFi chip from them. Will be interesting to test the new bands and the potential higher throughput!

Found this tool that looks very useful for soldering paste application! Should make it much easier to dose it then just using the syringe directly. Ordered already, will see if it makes a good addition to the reflow soldering setup!

Ordered it, will make a post about it once I have it and tested it a bit!

While I'm still working on the new project board (the flying squirrel shaped one 🐿️🪽), I'm also looking on how I'll solder the BGAs. Plan is to re-flow with a Hotplate, like this one. It's 40€ shipped and has the power supply integrated in contrast to smaller USB-PD ones.

Just found out that #Espressif launched it's first dual-band (2.4G and 5G) WiFi 6 ESP32 this year, the ESP32-C5! Anybody has tried it out, or has it on order, around here?

Just added the table and some additional thoughts and information to the Snippets section on the website: notblackmagic.com/snippets/hd-... Feedback is welcome! In the future, with time, I want to test the encoders out and compare performance and quality.

It's crazy that @jlcpcb.bsky.social can make 6-Layer PCBs with capped vias and ENIG for <30€! When I started to order PCBs there, 2L were ~10€ and 4L ~30€. In competing manufacturer in China can cost over 100-200€ for the same. How do they do it, just higher level of automation, scale?

Added a few more parameters, the high speed interfaces that in a vision application are of high importance! A high performance camera subsystem and encoder is no much use if you can't save and transmit the data. Looking forward to the first MCU with USB 3.0!

I have done quite a bit of searching and comparing of different MIPI CSI-2 enabled MCUs for the new project. The Table below summarizes my findings, maybe some of you find it useful for your own adventures/projects. Tell me if a MCU is missing or some value/parameter!

First power up was successful! The modified driver recognized the chip but there are some configuration mistakes and it did not fully initialize correctly into the full media chain... At least this time it got recognized and not destroyed by miss connecting it 🫣

Finally got all the parts for the SC132GS global Shutter camera module adapter PCB! Converts from the cameras DF40C-24DS connector to a 24-pin FFC connector compatible with my #NavQPlus.

Continuation on the placement of all the components, its getting dense!

Some more progress images for the new project! Trace length matching, although not *strictly* required at these speeds (up to 200MHz) it is still good practice and provides me some learning opportunities. Besides, they look cool!

Teaser of a PCB for a new (in reality revived) project of mine! It will be a very long term and complete project (if I keep the motivation up)! It's a project I have started and restarted many times over the years but never shown.

The Mini Optical Filter Wheel can be mounted on the Multi spectral illuminator creating a very versatile system!

First test pictures from the NEW Multispectral Imaging System using my Mini Optical Filter Wheel (notblackmagic.com/projects/min...). Using a cheap low res. RGB camera, with the interesting effect of showing the lower resolution in the RED vs GREEN band/color (typically 2 times lower).

The will fits nicely and spins inside the enclosure! Step by step getting closer to first spectral images! For now it will have to be with a cheap low resolution RGB USB camera until I get my B&W Global Shutter one working (need to order some components first). Stay tuned!

First fully populated filter wheel, with 8 narrow band optical filters! From Blue to IR covering the whole optical spectrum. Will be fitted into my Mini Optical Filter Wheel later. Project page is also now online! Check it out here: notblackmagic.com/projects/min...

We have rotation! Still testing the limits, how fast it can reliably spin/switch the filter. The stepper is a bit underpowered so it sometimes can hang if the wheel is not well positioned inside the holder...

Here we go, the new version of the Mini Filter Wheel Controller fits perfectly and so far no mistakes found. Magnetic encoder works as does the Stepper driver! Now to control firmware development! (PCB sponsored by @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social) #PCB #Hardware #Stepper #Camera #DIY

New revision for my Mini Optical Filter Wheel controller just arrived! Should fix the multiple mistakes in the first revision. Will see after assembly if it now will work properly! Thanks to @pcbwayofficial.bsky.social for sponsoring the PCB for this new revision!

Back to testing some cheap BLDC motors on my Motor Test Stand. Some calibrations are required again after fixing the strain gauge. Also some new motor mounts for the different BLDC motors!

Discovered that there are now a few MCUs with H264 HW encoding! So far I have found the ESP32-P4 and the STM32N6. Then we have the NXP RT1176 and the Renesas RA8P1 which have MIPI-CSI but no video encoder (no even JPEG?). What others are there or are have been announced?

A new interesting discovery (with no explanation yet): When using an USB Isolator, a test for a possible future isolated version, I get very strange signals (see image) when measuring an isolated power supply output (with battery to)...

Updates on trying to get cheap GS sensor (SG132GS) to work on #NavQPlus: -FFC cable are easy to plug in wrong (killed the sensor) -Normal LDO can only source current not sink (1.8V rail of killed senors was at 2V) -Sensor no longer available with this connector and pinout...

Broke a strain gauge, the one in my Motor Test Stand. A design flaw in the holder I designed pushes to harsh on the cables and broke the V+ line. Nothing some scraping, soldering and epoxy can't fix! In any case, a new one is on the way to XD

Small collection of the cheapest BLDC motor controllers I found on #AliExpress. Ranging from 5€ down to 2€ (left to right). Will they actually work? Are they good enough? We shall see! To be tested on my Motor Test Stand (notblackmagic.com/projects/mot...) with new upgrades! #drones #uav #quadcopter

I think I achieved a new record with this tiny micro stepper driver board: so far it has 3 mistakes, almost 1 for each IC... - Wrong footprint size for stepper driver (0.5 vs 0.4mm pitch) - Unconnected EN on LDO - Unconnected TEST pin on mag encoder (needs to be grounded) #PCB

The motivation behind revisiting (and improving) my STM32G4DAQ is because I'm revisiting another old project: My Motor Test Stand (notblackmagic.com/projects/mot...) Back then I tested some 8520 coreless motors. Now I want to test some VERY cheap BLDC motors from #AliExpress and the ESCs.

I have been revisiting an older project of mine this week, the STM32G4DAQ. Besides burning the input mux, I'm also cleaning up the code (looking at your own code from 5 years ago...), and finally adding some Digital IO functionality! Need it for some other project 😉

Small issue with the custom filter wheel controller board, I used the wrong footprint for the stepper driver (TMC2300)... I used a 0.5mm pitch QFN footprint instead of the 0.4mm the IC uses.... Almost impossible to bodge the IC in as the thermal pad is the size of the IC...

Lesson learned while using my DIY DAQ (notblackmagic.com/projects/stm... ): I was monitoring the supply to a BLDC controller (left wires) and removed the USB connector. In that instant, the input shorted through the MUX (dying with 2A going through it)...

Slot to slot motion test, has quite some oscillation and also some drift. For the prototype I'll not worry about it to much though, let's wait for the components for the custom controller board!

The prototype is spinning! Next is to implement a simple controller to move from slot to slot. Parts for the custom controller board are ordered to

While waiting for the parts for the custom and much smaller control board, I'm testing it with an @arduino based prototype. Focusing on the control loop, wheel rotation through 8mm stepper and feedback through magnetic encoder. Fits my, placeholder, cheap USB camera module well!

The Chinese PCB manufacturing and shipping logistics sometimes still amaze me. These PCBs arrived in ~1 week after ordering, before I ordered the components for them!

Completing the design for the 8 slots small inexpensive optical filter wheel. Fits 8x8mm optical filters and is turned by a tiny Micro-Stepper. Magnetic encoder ensures the correct positioning at startup (no endstop) and in case of missed steps.

Found a Chinese store for magnets. They have all kind of magnets, including the required diametrically magnetized circular ones. And for very low price, lower in some cases to AliExpress sellers! Already ordered two sizes for myself, 2x2mm and 4x1.5mm. www.buyneomagnets.com

While looking into adding magnetic encoder to the Optical Filter Wheel, I learned (obvious now) that magnetic encoders require diametrically magnetized (left) magnets. These are much harder to find, all magnets I sourced so far from #AliExpress are axial (right).

Progress on the mechanical assembly for my DIY low cost optical filter wheel. The tiny stepper will come in hand here to drive/move the filter wheel. Designed to fit 8 optical filters of 8x8mm and to fit on low cost camera modules as a replacement for the M12 lense mounts

For people wondering where I got the 8x8mm optical filters, I got them from this seller on #AliExpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004...