October Update
Hard to believe that another month has gone by and it's time for another newsletter! Some great videos and links in this edition - Read on and enjoy.
this edition was edited by: @atomic14
Things to Watch
Want a Complicated PCB Layout? Use a Script
atomic14 wanted to make a PCB stator with many coils in KiCad, but realised his drawing skills were just not up to the job. So he’s replaced himself with a script.
ESP Rainmaker and MQTT
John Macrae - Mostly Magic Smoke is making it “rain” at home - he’s using MQTT and ESP Rainmaker to automate everything!
Light Up Your Halloween Party With These Masks
Natasha/TechnoChic has teamed up with Chibitronics to make these fancy light-up masquerade masks - perfect for those Halloween parties!
Pumpkin Carving Made Easy
You’ve probably still got time to build something like this! How hard can it be…
A Lot of Things to Watch
In case you missed it (I know I did) you can watch all of the Espressif DevCon22 Talks on YouTube. There are a lot of interesting talks there - I’m particularly interested in trying out Rust.
WiFi Spectrum Analyzer
Our very own Mark Donners (The Electronic Engineer) shows how to make a wireless audio spectrum analyzer using the ESP32.
Things to Try Out
Tiny Tapeout
Tiny Tapeout is an educational project that aims to make it easier and cheaper than ever to get your digital designs manufactured on a real chip! Sign up for their newsletter to get in line for their next production run -- launching soon!
Online micro:bit Python Editor
The BBC has released a new web-based Python editor for the micro:bit board - https://python.microbit.org/v/3 - looks pretty good and easy to use.
Things to Read
Moore’s Law is Dead – Long live the Chiplet!
Is Moore’s Law dead? I’ll let you decide after reading the article.
MythBusters Helped a Wrongly Convicted Man Prove His Innocence
One for all you fans of Mythbusters - an episode that busted a whole bunch of Holywood myths - led to the freeing of a man who spent 35 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Read the article here - it’s a pretty shocking inditement of how bad science is used to convict people.
Creating Realistic Renders of PCBs
The 3D viewer in KiCad is one of my favourite features - but this take things to a whole new level. Exporting the 3D render from KiCad and loading it into Fusion360 produces some amazing results. Have a look at the article for some really nice images.
Using e-paper displays on resource-constrained MCUs
I’ve got a box full of these shelf ePaper displays so this article looks really handy. Still trying to think of a good project to do with them, but it looks like they might be quite useful.
Looking Inside Lithium Batteries
Have you ever wanted to cut a battery open to see how it’s made? Don’t do it. At best, the contents will irritate your skin. At worst, they’ll explode. Fortunately, you can take a look inside by just reading this article.
Have you seen something interesting?
Why not submit it to MakerNews? You can do it by filling out this very simple form.
Final Thoughts
I can’t believe that we’re already at the end of October - the year seems to have flown by. It feels like I’ve hardly had time to start let alone finish some of my projects. As always thanks for taking the time to read the newsletter. And if you liked it, share it with your friends.