Type-safe scripting with C++ (and other weird explorations)

The why and the what(-the-f***) Let’s start this short tale with some background.  For reasons unclear, I’ve started working on my n-th abandonable side-project. Much detail isn’t necessary here: it’s basically a C++ library for performing simple math operations— averaging, sum, standard deviation, autocorrelation and the like. Each operation is implemented as Functor: instantiate it, … Read more

The VFD Series – Part 1: The ups and downs of SPWM

I’ve given up on trying to post periodically here. Let’s see if this brave act of reverse psychology has some effect on my productivity. Introduction Recently, I’ve started working on firmware for a three-phase frequency inverter. While this is absolutely no technological revolution on the grand scheme of things, it’s certainly new ground for me … Read more

AS5030 magnetic encoder: capturing a PWM signal with an ATSAMD21

It seems that I can’t avoid periodically ostracizing this page. Welp, let’s try to make it up. Context: the AS5030 magnetic encoder IC In a project I’m currently working on (more about it in later posts, perhaps), I needed a halfway decent way of measuring the angular displacement of a small, manually-turnt wheel. I had … Read more

Getting OpenProject up and running

Ok, so I was looking for a self-hosted project management tool. Something that would fill the gap that the late (and discontinued?) DotProject left in my heart. After lots of Googlin’, I came across OpenProject. Though they offer hosting plans, you can host the tool for free on your own server. Installation looked like it … Read more

openVPS: Poor man’s motion capture

The Why and The What Flying tiny drones indoors is cool, no questions asked. And stuff gets all the more interesting when you can accurately control the drone’s position in space — enabling all sort of crazy manouvers. However, using regular GPS for such applications is often a no-go: antennas may be too heavy for the … Read more

libFilter add-ons

Following my last post on my minimalist filter library, I just got off my butt to add some high-pass filtering capabilities too. That’s specially useful when you’re trying to remove trends from datasets – this happens a lot for instance in biomedical applications, e.g. ECG, where some breathing artifacts come up as low frequency trends … Read more

Minimalist low-pass filter library

So, the other day I needed to compute some low-pass filters on the fly on an Arduino Mega. By “on the fly” I mean that the filters’ parameters would eventually be recomputed mid-operation, so setting some equation with static const parameters would not cut it. Using a static filter, is, however, the most common application scenario. If … Read more

Finding my way with Cura 10.06

I’ve been using Cura as my go-to 3D-printer slicer for quite some time now. Compared to Slic3r, it’s faster and produces more optimized G-Code (using the same settings in both slicers, Cura’s prints were faster for me- but as always, YMMV). However, Cura provides less tweakable options than Slic3r, so it takes some getting used to. … Read more

PCL library with Kinect under OSX 10.11

This last week, I dug up my trustworthy Kinect for a spin. I’ve been wanting to mess around with the PCL (Point Clouds) library for some time, so I decided to give it a shot. Installation on OSX using Homebrew is fairly straigthforward, as shown in their documentation. However, I want to make sure that I … Read more

Using CMake and Qt Creator 5.5.1

Well, things have been dead around here. So, to keep things running, I’ve decided to post some less important content, mostly as notes-to-self (ya know, when you spend the weekend trying to get something to work, only to forget how you did it a month later). To avoid purging hard earned pseudo-knowledge, I’ll try to create the habit … Read more