Kevin Boone
Kevin Boone
Kevin Boone
Musing on computing, math, electronics, de-Googling and the small web, from an old warhorse of the IT industry.
Latest Posts
This is a versatile touchscreen display module with a strikingly low cost. But is it any good?
An oddity of the GCC C compiler that can lead to strange results, particularly in an embedded application
This is the second of (at least) two articles on loading and running arbitrary executable code into RAM on the Pico, and running it.
The Pi Pico has USB host support, and can work with a USB keyboard. Although there are some programming examples, the general approach to programming USB host operations is not well documented.
This article provides a brief overview of the rdkafka library, illustrated by a simple test application in C.
Administrators of middleware message brokers often struggle to get adequate throughput. A lot of time and effort can be wasted, if the administrator doesn't appreciate the crucial role of synchronous disk writes in these installations.
A mains inverter is a very useful device, but inexpensive models create significant electrical safety hazards. This article explains why.
Using a Camel application based on Quarkus to provide a way to route messages to and from a message broker using HTTP requests
Implementing a webservice in C and Java, to see which performs better in terms of throughput and resource usage.
The use of dithering when mastering a CD is well-established, and its effectiveness is rarely challenged. But is it beneficial in other circumstances when we need to reduce the bit depth of an audio stream?
The Raspberry Pi doesn't offer much in the way of analog outputs, or even hardware controlled PWM. Software-controlled PWM is an alternative in some applications, but it needs to be used carefully, if inefficiencies are to be avoided.
In this article I explain how to construct, and program in C, an I2C interface to the popular HD44780 LCD display for the Raspberry Pi. Between the article and the accompanying source code, no technical details are concealed: I present...
Many battery-backed power supplies for the Raspberry Pi, and similar systems, use the INA219 current/voltage monitor IC. This device has an I2C interface by which the Pi can determine the battery voltage and current, and estimate the...
The HC-SR04 proximity sensor is an inexpensive and widely-used ultrasonic device. Connecting one to an HC-SR04 to a Raspberry Pi is a common educational exercise, but getting accurate, repeatable measurement of distance in a real...
A simple and inexpensive shift register can be used to increase the digital output provision of a Raspberry Pi or microcontroller. This well-know technique is easy to apply, but has some limitations that require careful consideration.