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Showing posts from April, 2019

Alternative Microcomputer Development Environments.

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I just ran across this free IDE that one more experienced coding author found to be more complete than Arduino's IDE.  Platformio , besides being adaptable to Ardunio format code, also s upports 550+ embedded boards , 25+ development platforms , 15+ frameworks .   Arduino and ARM mbed compatible . Platformio is built on top of GitHub's Atom and Microsoft's Visual Studio Code. Here's a how to article .  PlatformIO IDE for Arduino on Windows an extension for Visual Studio Code (VS Code) or Atom Editor.    Comes in a Free Forever version. (Platformio also runs on Macs and Linux,  I am have not looked into setting up Arduino on these systems.) - - - - - - - - mbed.com a site operated by the ARM processor designers, targets Internet of Things development, they an extensive database of processor board and sensor peripheral data and drivers.  mbed.com also has an online IDE where you can write code without downloading anything, it's closer to a prof

Amateur Radio Resources

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 Just some Ham radio related links I ran across while searching for gadgets... Amateur Radio radio operators, aka Hams, may have been more active in the days prior to Cell phones and the Internet (when long distance phone calls were costly), things have changed since I first leaned electronics from the Amateur Radio Handbook. The American Radio Relay League is a well organized group, with licensed volunteers providing communication services in the event of emergencies. Ham Radio Frequency Bands (Click for details) The article Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio , actually reviews some of the new activities that are contributing to Licensing to be on the rise. In addition to the traditional Ham communication methods other activities now include teletype, digital, satellite, packet, APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System), HamNet, Linked repeaters, etc. There are some still interesting parts of the 2011 article: Ham radio in the 21s century , including bouncing signals