Lewis Moten

Unveiling the Code: Institutional Memory & Obsessions

Microcontrollers

The Raspberry Pi Zero W and a Solar Charge Controller
A DIY universal power supply (UBS) with recycled 18650 batteries
Pixel Art Bluetooth Box
SPO256 Speech Chip and Arduino
UV Lights on phosphorescent masking tape with a Arduino Nano
Programming the Arduboy

There’s something inherently satisfying about programming microcontrollers. Whether it’s experimenting with Arduino projects or tinkering with Raspberry Pi, I find joy in bringing ideas to life through hands-on experimentation.

  • Solar Log uses a Raspberry PI Zero W to communicate with solar charge controllers using the MODBus protocol using PHP as the back-end and a MySQL database. Google Charts was used to graph various aspects of daily activity.
  • Universal Power Supply. With the need to have a consistent power supply when the lead acid batteries ran out of power overnight, a UPS was created with an old 18650 lithium battery that had it’s own charge controller to keep the battery charged during the day and cut off if the voltage dropped. In addition, it could supply the correct voltage to the Pi.
  • Speech Chip. I have a passion for speech processors from long ago – specifically the SP0256-AL2 chipset from General Instruments. I was able to control the allophones with an Arduino UNO.
  • Pixel Art Box. I soldered a strip of addressable LED’s (WS2812B) into a 16×16 grid, covered with cardboard in a shadowbox, and used fluorescent light covers to diffuse the light in each cell. Initially controlled with an Arduino MEGA 2560, I later switched to an ESP32 development board to control the cell colors with bluetooth. I created a small app on the Android platform where you could choose a color and paint each cell with your finger. Some of the interesting things I learned was power management over long distances with low voltage.