Spell Foundry https://spellfoundry.com/ Release your magic Tue, 18 Oct 2022 20:55:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 43041961 Updates April 2022 https://spellfoundry.com/2022/03/31/updates-april-2022/ https://spellfoundry.com/2022/03/31/updates-april-2022/#respond Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:02:29 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=393517 Greetings loyal readers! A quick update on “stuff” in and around Planet Spell Foundry. The main issue to talk about is the recent Global Component Shortages which seem to have affected the whole world for much of the last year. From a lack of new cars to limited availability of graphics cards, anyone making anything […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2022/03/31/updates-april-2022/feed/ 0 393517 Raspberry Pi Rainbow Screen Of Death: How To Stack Multiple HATS And Avoid Disaster https://spellfoundry.com/2020/09/19/raspberry-pi-rainbow-screen-of-death-how-to-stack-multiple-hats-and-avoid-disaster/ https://spellfoundry.com/2020/09/19/raspberry-pi-rainbow-screen-of-death-how-to-stack-multiple-hats-and-avoid-disaster/#respond Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:00:43 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=388111 The “Rainbow Screen of Death” aka “Rainbow screen at boot” is that dreaded Rainbow screen that appears and doesn’t disappear when you boot up your Raspberry Pi. It gets stuck on the Rainbow. Its arrival is never a good sign.  Whilst there is a multitude of reasons for this to happen: Like outdated firmware on […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2020/09/19/raspberry-pi-rainbow-screen-of-death-how-to-stack-multiple-hats-and-avoid-disaster/feed/ 0 388111 Reliable Embedded Systems: Recovering Arduino i2c Bus Lock-ups https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-recovering-arduino-i2c-bus-lock-ups/ https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-recovering-arduino-i2c-bus-lock-ups/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2020 17:26:16 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=387236 It’s not unheard of for the i2c bus to “lock-up” on you, which can stop your system from working. If you are trying to operate a remote or embedded system, this is not ideal. This article discusses techniques that you can use to try and make your system more fault-tolerant and attempt to recover from […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-recovering-arduino-i2c-bus-lock-ups/feed/ 2 387236 Reliable Embedded Systems: Using The Arduino Watchdog With Crash Tracking https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog-with-crash-tracking/ https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog-with-crash-tracking/#respond Thu, 25 Jun 2020 16:28:01 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=387230 The previous article in this series introduced the “Watchdog Timer “ as a tool to use to build more reliable systems; it will reset the Arduino processor in the event of the application locking up. However, as in medicine, this is like treating the symptom and not the cause. Why did the application lock-up in […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog-with-crash-tracking/feed/ 0 387230 Reliable Embedded Systems: Using The Arduino Watchdog With Sleepy Pi https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog-with-sleepy-pi/ https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog-with-sleepy-pi/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2020 16:04:02 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=387163 A previous article in the series introduced the concept of the Arduino Watchdog Timer and its value in developing more reliable embedded systems. When developing systems based on the Sleepy Pi platform, we make extensive use of an Arduino library to put the Arduino to sleep. In some cases, this library uses the watchdog internally […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog-with-sleepy-pi/feed/ 1 387163 Reliable Embedded Systems: Using The Arduino Watchdog https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog/ https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2020 16:03:17 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=387155 Embedded systems are generally extremely reliable; they are closer to the “bare metal” and don’t have the layers that a Desktop Operating System has and thus there is less to go wrong*. However, they are not without their own challenges and can also hang on occasion. This can be for a variety of reasons, from […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2020/06/25/reliable-embedded-systems-using-the-arduino-watchdog/feed/ 2 387155 Sleepy Pi 2 and Raspberry PI 4 Compatibility https://spellfoundry.com/2019/08/12/sleepy-pi-2-and-raspberry-pi-4-compatibility/ https://spellfoundry.com/2019/08/12/sleepy-pi-2-and-raspberry-pi-4-compatibility/#respond Mon, 12 Aug 2019 21:40:31 +0000 https://spellfoundry.com/?p=382116 The Sleepy PI 2 is mostly compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4 - this describes how to connect it up properly.

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2019/08/12/sleepy-pi-2-and-raspberry-pi-4-compatibility/feed/ 0 382116 Configuring The GPIO Serial Port On Raspbian Jessie and Stretch Including Pi 3 and 4 https://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/29/configuring-gpio-serial-port-raspbian-jessie-including-pi-3-4/ https://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/29/configuring-gpio-serial-port-raspbian-jessie-including-pi-3-4/#comments Sun, 29 May 2016 12:00:57 +0000 http://spellfoundry.com/?p=79835 ** Updated for Raspberry Pi 4 ** This used to be relatively straightforward, but with move from Raspbian Wheezy to Raspbian Jessie, (and then Raspbian Stretch and Buster) things changed. Add to this, the newer Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 family with new hardware and the whole thing became a bit of a Dog’s Breakfast and issues with […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/29/configuring-gpio-serial-port-raspbian-jessie-including-pi-3-4/feed/ 111 79835 Introducing Sleepy Pi 2 https://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/21/introducing-sleepy-pi-2/ https://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/21/introducing-sleepy-pi-2/#respond Sat, 21 May 2016 16:26:25 +0000 http://spellfoundry.com/?p=78913 The original Sleepy Pi was introduced over 2 1/2 years ago and has been doing sterling service ever since, finding it’s way to all four corners of the globe. With the 26-pin connector it is compatible with all models of Raspberry Pi. However, with the introduction of the Raspberry Pi B+ a new 40-pin GPIO […]

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]]> https://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/21/introducing-sleepy-pi-2/feed/ 0 78913 Project: ARUPi – A Low-Cost Automated Recording Unit for Soundscape Ecologists https://spellfoundry.com/2015/09/28/project-arupi-a-low-cost-automated-recording-unit-for-soundscape-ecologists/ https://spellfoundry.com/2015/09/28/project-arupi-a-low-cost-automated-recording-unit-for-soundscape-ecologists/#respond Mon, 28 Sep 2015 17:00:31 +0000 http://spellfoundry.com/?p=23428 Anthony in Good’ol Blighty has built an Automated Recording Unit Pi (ARUPI) for recording Soundscapes in Ecology research. He’s created a detailed Instructable that shows how he’s built it. An ARUPI can be used to : monitor the birds in your garden or just to make nice recordings of the dawn chorus, without having to […]

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