🔧 Tool of the Week
I²CDriver
A small, open‑hardware USB→I²C adapter with a built‑in display, three I²C ports, programmable pullups, live address map and Python/CLI bindings — great for calibrating sensors and debugging tricky buses. 🔗 https://i2cdriver.com/. (i2cdriver.com)
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🛒 Deals & Finds
- FlightTracker (dot‑matrix Pi flight display)
– Ready‑to‑clone GitHub repo for a Pi + RGB matrix flight tracker (good quick maker build or demo for a Pi 5). 🔗 https://github.com/ColinWaddell/FlightTracker. (github.com)
- Solar Devboard V1 — PCB (order share on PCBWay)
– If you liked the solar ESP32 dev board (ESP32‑C6 + BQ25186), the PCB files are shared on PCBWay for direct ordering. Useful if you want a compact solar‑ready dev board without juggling modules. 🔗 PCBWay project page. (pcbway.com)
- SparkFun Bus Pirate (v3.6a)
– Still one of the handiest multiprotocol helpers (UART/I2C/SPI/1‑wire). Worth grabbing if you don’t already have a general‑purpose prototyping interface. 🔗 Retail listing / spec example. (business.walmart.com)
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🧪 Cool Build
Compact ESP32‑C6 Solar Power Management Board A tiny dev board that combines an ESP32‑C6 module, BQ25186 solar/Li‑ion charge path, USB‑C and a Qwiic I²C connector — designed for outdoor smart sensors. Good reference if you’re making low‑power, solar‑assisted IoT nodes. 🔗 Hackaday project page / build notes. (hackaday.io)
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📚 Worth Reading
- PCBWorld: A Benchmark Environment for Engine‑Grounded PCB Design Automation – Open benchmark for PCB routing and synthesis; interesting if you work on automation or EDA tooling. 🔗 arXiv / PCBWorld paper. (arxiv.org)
- From Dev Board to Bench Tool — Using an NXP FRDM board & Zephyr Shell – Practical guide for turning cheap dev boards into USB↔CAN, USB↔I2C or small bench adapters with minimal code. 🔗 Embedded Online Conference session notes. (embeddedonlineconference.com)
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⚡ Quick Hits
- PulseView AppImage (new nightly / AppImage on sigrok downloads) — easiest way to try sigrok/PulseView on modern Linux. 🔗 [sigrok download listing]. (sigrok.org)
- KiCad: release candidate activity continues (watch the KiCad blog for the next stable/RC notes). Good to test your toolchain if you rely on the latest libraries. 🔗 [KiCad blog / release notes]. (kicad.io)
- pcbGPT / schematic synthesis and related tools — useful reading if you’re exploring assisted schematic generation workflows. 🔗 [pcbGPT paper / arXiv summary]. (arxiv.org)
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📺 Cool Videos
- The custom PCB that runs my projects forever
– Walkthrough video from the author of the solar devboard showing design choices, assembly and field testing. 🔗 YouTube video. (youtu.be)
- 001 Sigrok and Logic Analyzers (PulseView intro)
– Short primer by the PulseView author on how logic analyzers work and how to use PulseView. Good if you’re stepping up from cheap clones to sigrok. 🔗 [YouTube: Sigrok / PulseView intro]. (sigrok.org)