Blog
Rectangle Packaging Problem / Efficient 2D Packing
Thursday, October 19, 2023 in Blog
4 minute read
Summary Programmatically pack 2D rectangular parts as efficiently as possible. Background I need to produce a bunch of 2D parts out of the same material. The parts are roughly rectangular and I need to produce an undefined large number (test jig …
Object Oriented OpenSCAD
Friday, October 13, 2023 in Blog
5 minute read
Summary This is a discussion on using vectors in OpenSCAD as objects that can be used polymorphically. I’ve found this to be a powerful approach which encourages more generic algorithms. It’s a bit ugly but it works. Nothing here is …
Preparing Laser Cutting Files from SVGs
Thursday, October 05, 2023 in Blog
2 minute read
Here’s a trick I’ve been using to prepare files for laser cutting that have been exported to SVG. SVG is just an XML file that contains a bunch of vectors and metadata. Here’s an example of one exported from OpenSCAD. Remember this, …
pyetest: Electronics Testing Tool & Method
Saturday, September 30, 2023 in Blog
11 minute read
Name: pyetest Github: https://github.com/snhobbs/pyetest pypi: TBD The following introduces a python library targeted at filling in spreadsheets to simplify writing pass/fail tests for electronics testing. This method generates easy to maintain test …
MCU Driver Development that Doesn't Suck
Thursday, May 18, 2023 in Blog
6 minute read
All I’m going to say here is to make your bed before you get in and close the barn before the horse puts in his two weeks notice. Writing MCU device drivers can suck. It can suck for many reasons. As someone who spent best part of a week …
Setting Up Multiple FTDI Devices
Thursday, April 20, 2023 in Blog
3 minute read
Background I’m building a test jig for a device that needs RS-232 and RS-485 transceivers. Since this is a test jig I prefer to build it out of off the shelf components, preferably ones that can be delivered overnight. Inside the jig I have the …
Scripting FreeCAD from an AppImage
Wednesday, March 22, 2023 in Blog
2 minute read
Appimages are yet another, honestly the number of these is insane, packaging methods for distributing code with all dependencies included. It’s one of the simpler approaches, there’s no package manager for it, you download the image and …
KiCAD Board Outlines
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 in Blog
less than a minute
I recently posted a video walk through of how I use board outlines and form factors as footprints. It’s a useful approach that I encourage you to try, especially when you are supporting many different designs. Simplifying and unifying designs …
KiCAD 7 Build Environment
Sunday, February 26, 2023 in Blog
2 minute read
KiCAD 7 has some notable improvements, not lease among these is the addition of kicad-cli. Check out the Hackaday article for more. I am a bit obsessed with pragmatic approaches to building and designing electronics. I want the complexity to not …