mikecoats.com

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This is part 3 of a series of articles on extending CircuitPython with native modules for CircuitPython Day 2026.

As described last time, for CircuitPython Day 2026, I wanted to get closer to the metal and write a module in C that I could call from CircuitPython.

For CircuitPython Day 2025, I installed CircuitPython on an unsupported board.

Last week the "SODOLA 6 Port 2.5Gb Web Managed Switch, 4 x 2.5G Base-T & 2 x 10G SFP+" showed up on my recommendation feed for less than £40.

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When I transitioned this blog from WordPress over to Zola, I had to rewrite all my HTML and CSS for the new engine.

This article includes sponsorship or links with referral codes which will earn me an affiliate fee.

This article includes sponsorship or links with referral codes which will earn me an affiliate fee.

Last week I published a new web toy, a Peter de Jong attractor visualiser. peter-de-jong.mikecoats.xyz I've pretty much always been a Massive Nerd ™, so it's no surprise that in the mid 2000's I was a big fan of the TV show NUMB3RS.

As summarised by Peter Salus in his book, "A Quarter Century of UNIX", the Unix philosophy is: Write programs that do one thing and do it well.

I've been exchanging emails, discussing debugging protocols like I2C with my Spy!

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In part one of this series, I walked through the steps to generate self-signed, untrusted certificates for your private Caddy server.

Mike's Opinionated Music Tagger Opinions are like arseholes.

In part one of this series, I showed you how to generate self-signed, untrusted certificates for your private Caddy server.

Caddy is an excellent piece of software.

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The old adage goes, "if it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid."

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I've you've read this blog for any time, you'll be aware I'm a massive shill for the Open Source Hardware Association.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been building a new PCB around the AT42QT2120 touch sensor.

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I've been on a bit of a 3D printing spree lately, designing and printing some props and accessories for my daughter's Halloween costume.

For CircuitPython Day 2025, I wanted to show how I installed CircuitPython on one of my favourite, but unsupported, boards, the Freenove ESP32-S3-WROOM CAM Board.

After 12 months of questing and grinding, I recently reached "level" 42.

I've been working on and off for the past few weeks towards a new project.

The last two Back 2 Basics posts were very much grounded in the analogue domain.

We bought our first Night Light a fortnight after our daughter was born.

metronalmost (noun): A metronome that beats at almost, but never quite exactly, 60 beats per minute.

As I mentioned in my Kilnettle Tape Dispenser post, some of my favourite things about in-person events are the wee conversations that happen in the corridors and hallways around the event itself.

In my last Back 2 Basics post we built a DAC from an R-2R ladder.

One of the great things about in-person events is the opportunity for fortunate little meetings that happen at the periphery.

A week ago, I migrated my Mastodon server from a self-hosted DigitalOcean droplet to an instance provided by Masto.host.

As is plainly clear from my efforts during the design of the VanSpoof boards, particularly in my earlier "Muntzing" post, I am not a trained professional when it comes to electronics.

Apologies for the break in blogging, but I've spent the past month preparing for, and then giving, my talk "VanSpoof and F**dG3ar" at the 2025 Open Hardware Summit.

I'm excited to announce that in one month's time I'm presenting at @oshwassociation's Open Hardware Summit 2025.

tl;dr I'm now selling my electronics boards, kits & products on Tindie!

There's probably some nasty edge-case bugs to iron out, so it's maybe not 100% complete, but I'm happy to announce a combined v1.0 release of my VanSpoof hardware and firmware!

In my last post, about Low Tech Prototyping, I worked out the VanSpoof PCB had to be no bigger than 31.5 mm by 21.5 mm to fit in the space left over from removing the motor.

The Nankadf (aka Wanptek) WPS3010H power supply is an excellent piece of test equipment to have on the bench.

In my earlier VanSpoof prototyping posts I was working with circuit boards designed for testing and debugging, but not really suitable for installing on to the bike.

This post is a break from the technical show-and-tell theme I've adopted of late and is much more personal.

With my first few VanSpoof prototypes assembled and the firmware coming together nicely, I realised it was time to start working on the second and hopefully final version of the board.

Simplify VCD is a command-line tool designed to make working with Value Change Dump (VCD) files more efficient and faster.

In part 1 and part 2 of building my first VanSpoof prototype, I managed to flash the microcontroller on the PCB with a blinky demo.

Last time, we built a prototype PCB.

Let's look at building a prototype PCB for my VanSpoof project.

Last week, I built a small web app to show the next few trains that are scheduled to arrive at or depart from my local railway station.