APPLE2IDIOT Expansion Card Lets Your Apple II (Sort Of) Access The Internet

May 7, 2022 by Donald Papp 26 Comments

[Nathanial Hendler]’s Apple2Idiot expansion card for the Apple II family of computers is a nifty mix of modern and vintage, and provides a clever means of allowing the host computer to (indirectly) access the internet over WiFi while keeping things simple from the host computer’s perspective.

The PCB has plenty of space on which to silkscreen reference data. Click to enlarge.

It does this by embedding an ESP32 module and a dual-port RAM chip onto an expansion card. The Apple2Idiot, when installed into a host machine, presents as a memory location which the host machine can access. The ESP32 then takes care of all the WiFi communications and tasks requiring internet access, and the host computer directs these tasks (and reads their output) via PEEK and POKE commands.

This means that there are two pieces of software for any given task: one running on the ESP32 doing the actual work, and one running on the Apple II that communicates with the ESP32 on the card by reading and writing to memory. It’s a simple system, and one that [Nathanial] thinks works quite well for specific tasks.

Example programs include things like scanning and selecting a WiFi network, fetching weather data, and sending a message to Slack. Making new applications does mean having to write software on two ends, but the simplicity of the system also means flexibility, because anything the ESP32 does can have its complexity abstracted away by the time its data is presented to the host machine. Not that the Apple II is incapable of dealing with the modern internet more directly; we’ve seen a basic Apple II web server written in BASIC.

IoT Pool Monitor Helps You Keep It Crystal Clear

April 16, 2022 by Lewin Day 5 Comments

Having a pool is great, but it also requires significant monitoring and maintenance to keep it crystal clear and clean. The OPNpool controller from [Coert Vonk] aims to help in this task, integrating neatly into the smart home ecosystem of today.

OPNpool runs on an ESP32, and is capable of monitoring pool controllers, pumps, and chlorinators, as well as working with thermostats and other hardware to control the state of the pool. This allows the system to do useful things like run high-powered pumps when electricity is cheapest, or to find the best timing to run heating circuits. The controller relies on MQTT messaging and can integrate with Home Assistant for those that prefer to run their own cloud-independent smart home systems.

With WiFi onboard the ESP32, there’s no need for a hardwired LAN connection, and the system can be administered remotely over the web. It’s also capable of talking with other hardware over RS-485 and bringing it under its own control. With OPNpool installed, monitoring pool conditions can be done from the leisure of one’s deck chair with a smartphone, rather than squinting and dark LCDs in equipment cabinets.

It’s a useful tool that could be just the ticket for the savvy, IoT-aware pool owner. We’ve seen other DIY pool controllers before, too. With summer just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get hacking!

This Chariot Is Pulled By A Team Of Motorcycles

April 11, 2022 by Jenny List 21 Comments

We’re fans of unusual forms of transport here, so when we saw an article featuring a home-made motorcycle chariot we knew we had to share it with you. You’ll probably notice it comes from the keyboard of our colleague [Lewin Day] as he moonlights writing for The Drive, and he’s brought along a lot of context and history to the dual-Husqvarna chariot built by [Jack Field].

The machine itself is a chariot in the ancient Roman fashion, a two-wheeled platform on which the rider stands and holds the reins. Instead of a team of horses though there is the aforementioned pair of Husqvarna motorcycles, and a pair of rods to their handlebars with throttle and brake controls take the place of reins. It’s fair to say that this might not be the least hazardous of conveyances, but it appears both rideable and controllable, and will appear at motorcycle shows. truth be told we’d like to have a go ourselves, but since it’s in Australia we think there’s little chance. Unexpectedly the motorcycle chariot is not a new idea, with their being used for full-scale races back in the 1930s. There’s a trip into that world with some exciting but lethal-looking racing action to view, but it seems that these machines exist here in 2022 mostly for show.

This isn’t the first machine operated by reins we’ve brought you, how about a rein-operated tractor?

Retrotechtacular: The Transatlantic Radiotelephone System Of The 1930s

April 2, 2022 by Dan Maloney 8 Comments

With the web of undersea cables lacing the continents together now, it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t until 1956 that the first transatlantic telephone cable was laid. Sure, there were telegraph cables under the Atlantic starting as early as the late 1800s, but getting your voice across the ocean on copper was a long time coming. So what was the discerning 1930s gentleman of business to do when only a voice call would do? He’d have used a radiotelephone, probably at an outrageous expense, which as this video on the receiving end of the New York to London radio connection shows, was probably entirely justified.

The video details the shortwave radiotelephone system that linked New York and London in the 1930s. It starts with a brief but thorough explanation of ionospheric refraction, and how that atmospheric phenomenon makes it possible to communicate over vast distances. It also offers a great explanation on the problems inherent with radio connections, like multipath interference and the dependency on the solar cycle for usable skip. To overcome these issues, the Cooling Radio Station was built, and its construction is the main thrust of the video.

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IoT-Enabled Mailbox Lets You Check Your Mail Without Leaving Your House

February 24, 2022 by Robin Kearey 37 Comments

Whether you live in an apartment downtown or in a detached house in the suburbs, if your mailbox is not built into your home you’ll have to go outside to see if anything’s there. But how do you prevent that dreadful feeling of disappointment when you find your mailbox empty? Well, we’re living in 2022, so today your mailbox is just another Thing to connect to the Internet of Things. And that’s exactly what [fhuable] did when he made a solar powered IoT mailbox.

The basic idea was to equip a mailbox with a camera and have it send over pictures of its contents. An ESP32-Cam module could do just that: with a 1600 x 1200 camera sensor, a 160 MHz CPU and an integrated WiFi adapter, [fhuable] just needed to write an Arduino sketch to have it take a picture every few hours and upload it to an FTP server.

A pile of components making up an IoT Mailbox — The components inside: a solar cell, battery, power controller, LDO and ESP32-Cam module with WiFi antenna

But since running a long cable all the way from the house was not an attractive option, the whole module had to be completely wireless. [fhuable] decided to power it using a single 18650 lithium ion cell, which gets topped up continuously thanks to a 1.5 W solar panel mounted on the roof of the mailbox. The other parts are housed in a 3D-printed enclosure that’s completely sealed to keep out moisture.

The enclosure had to be made from a material that does not degrade in direct sunlight, which is why [fhuable] decided to try ASA filament; this should be very resistant against UV rays, but proved tricky to process. It warped so much during cooling that the only way to get a solid piece out of the printer was to enclose the entire machine in a cardboard box to keep it warm inside.

The end result was worth it though: a neat little extension on the back of the mailbox that should keep sending photos of its insides for as long as the Sun keeps shining. The camera should also give a good indication as to the contents of the mailbox, allowing the user to ignore any junk mail; this is a useful improvement over previous IoT-enabled mailboxes that use proximity sensors, microswitches or optical sensors.

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Keep Track Of Toilet Paper Usage With This IoT Roll Holder

February 3, 2022 by Dan Maloney 51 Comments

Remember the Great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2020? We sure do, and it looks like our old friend [Vije Miller] does as well, while seemingly harboring a somewhat morbid fascination about how much paper every bathroom visitor is consuming. And to that end, we present his IoT toilet sheet tracker.

His 3D printed roll holder has a Hall effect sensor that counts revolutions of the roll and sends it to a NodeMCU. The number of sheets per roll is entered when the roll is changed, so some simple math yields the number of sheets each yank consumes. Or at least a decent estimate — [Vije] admits that there’s some rounding necessary. The best part of the build is the connection to Thingspeak, where sheet usage is plotted and displayed. Go ahead and check it out if you dare; at the time of writing, there was an alarming spike in sheet usage — a sudden need for 68 sheets where the baseline usage is in single digits. We shudder to think what might have precipitated that. The video below is — well, let’s just say there’s a video.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen bathroom-based projects from [Vije Miller]. A few years back there was an attempt to freshen the air with plasma, and his IoT shower valve controller probably never scalded anyone accidentally.

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Rolling Your Own Long-Range IoT Sensor Network

November 11, 2021 by Tom Nardi 7 Comments

Homebrew wireless sensors are nothing new around these parts: grab an ESP8266, hang a BME280 from the I2C pins, and you’re just a few lines of code away from joining the Internet of Things on your own terms. Builds like this are so cheap and easy that they make an excellent first project for folks looking to get into the electronics game, but what if you’re looking for something a bit more bespoke?

In that case, you could follow in the footsteps of [Discreet Mayor] and put together a custom modular architecture for long-range wireless sensors. The core of the system is a breakout board for the Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC1312 wireless MCU which features a simple 2×11 header connector. This allows the module to either be plugged into a larger board or have a small sensor PCB attached directly to it.

Rather than using WiFi or requiring some existing radio infrastructure, the boards automatically create a private network using the IEEE 802.15.4 standard at a range of up to 600 meters. A dedicated receiver isn’t necessary, to pull data off the network, one of the CC1312 boards simply gets connected to a computer through a simple FT232 adapter.

[Discreet Mayor] has already created a number of projects that use these custom radios for communication, from a pool monitoring system to a temperature sensor for the BBQ. That portable battery operated devices are able to use this common communications backbone just as well as mains powered static devices is a testament to the work that went into the firmware to make it as robust and efficient as possible.

Like the idea of long-range private networks, but less enthusiastic about having to come up with your own hardware? Not to worry. Over the summer, Espressif announced that they’re working on an ESP32 variant that includes support for IEEE 802.15.4. Just as soon as this chip shortage is over, we might even get to see the thing.