diy

E-Ink Weatherstation

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I had an old Tolino Shine E-Reader lying around that I did not want to throw out just because I did not use it anymore. After I found out it ran on Android and there is a way to root it I new I had to give it a new life. So I rooted it and created a mini-app that regularly pulls the current weather conditions and displays them. Furthermore I included a button to show current departure times of public transportation around my flat.

Ingredients:

[Update October 17th, 2020] Peter emailed me that he found an excellent comparison between various weather APIs. So if you plan to consume a weather API be sure to have a look here – maybe you find an API that better suits your needs.

Pixeltable Reloaded

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You might already know my Pixel-Table from a previous blog post (link). Back then it was powered by a Raspberry PI which had the hazards of managing a full OS and struggling with always-corrupted filesystems after power outages or just after some time when the SD card memory gets broken as of too many write-cycles.

So I started to move the hardware towards Arduino (to control the LED Stripe) and an ESP8266 to offer wifi communication. The two microcontrollers communicate via the serial interface.

Basic outline:
Webapp -> ((Wifi)) -> ESP8266 -> (Serial Interface) -> Arduino -> LED Stripe

Finally I also managed to build a grid for the LEDs so they appear far more pixel-shaped.

Ingredients:

  • Pixeltable Hardware as of previous post
  • Arduino Nano
  • ESP8266
  • DIY Webapp to send commands to ESP8266
  • Fun!

DIY industrial design desktop

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This is the desktop I designed and created for my living-room homeoffice corner. I had the idea to design it in industrial style and therefore used standard shawl panels that you normally use for concrete formworks. Especially I like the layered texture of the panels and the visible screws!

I also mounted some AC outlets on the surface so I do not have any annoying cables lying around that normally just act as dust attractors.

My latest addition to the table are USB outlets so I can also charge my mobile devices directly.

Ingredients:

  • DokaPly Birch Plates (Link)
  • Some nice-looking AC outlets
  • IKEA RÄLLEN – Integrated USB Charger (Link)