We just back from a long local holiday, also called Chinese lunar year. Sorry for the late reply during this time. This won’t have in this year anymore.

We currently have another situation is the corona-virus spreading in China, it is a long story but we will scientifically prevent this incident, all will be fine.

In the meantime, the local government is taking measure to prevent crowding of people:

All local companies are forced to start to work after 10th February. This will influence our supply chain, logistics and more. So we are not able to run fabrication, or ship any orders.

Also many of our employees were back to their hometown, where is the original infected area. We need further quarantine even after 10th.

Please ONLY place order if you can wait until 10th or maybe 20th for us to send your order. Thank you!

Recommend the popular science books “A Planet of Viruses”, explain a lot of facts and history about virus.

The post Delayed Start of Work appeared first on ElectroDragon.

Install mingw +GCC on windows, find mingw installer on google:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/

Install mingw base and gcc in installer:

Setup environment path:

in control panel – system and safe – system – advanced system setup – environment setup and find path

Check if the path is working correctly:

enter into console CMD: gcc -v

Install notepad, recommanded version is 7.56, which has better support for plugins. Start to test simple hello print code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
	int i = 10;
	printf("i=%d\n", i);
	printf("Hello 111\n");
}

Use notepad “run” function from the menu, enter following command for compiling:

cmd /k gcc -o “$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\$(NAME_PART).exe” “$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)” & pause & exit

This will compile the current c file in notepad into windows executable file .exe, same name in the same folder.

And run command to run this exe file:

cmd /k “$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\$(NAME_PART).exe”

These two commands can be saved in notepad menu “run”:

C compiler GCC in windows can help you to quick start with c code learing, also try many preincluded functions like:

• memcpy()
• getkey()
• printf()
• …

These functions are pre-included in the string or stdio headers:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

The post Windows C Toolchain Easy Setup (Mingw + Notepad) appeared first on ElectroDragon.

We have tried first round of test, very very simple setup, to just make sure all can work and what is the performance by default without any optimize.

Setup of NRF24duino:

• A pair of module, both flashed with get_started sketch
• receiver module powered by 9V battery (on board xc6206 only support up to 6V, this is wrong)
• transmitter module powered by FT232RL at laptop to see serial output result.
• Laptop send packet, both module run in “ping-pong” mode, so lucky it should have round-trip feedback.

Setup of Loraduino:

• A pair of module, transmitter module flashed with radiohead RF95 reliable client sketch, receiver module flashed with radiohead RF95 reliable server sketch.
• transmitter module powered by lithium battery, powered and send data packet.
• receive module powered by FT232RL laptop, receive data and send hello back
• Both module soldered spring coil 433MHZ antenna.

Some points we already know:

Nrf24duino:

• The on board nrf24duino can reach TX power +7dbm, we use default sketch, not sure if can make it better.
• No 2.4G wifi connection to interfere, laptop wlan even turn off.
• Not test voltage, not test current, not power TX power. Just rough test.
• Wifi range, data could congest is a busy channel selected, can use a scanner.ino to find good/bad channel.
  • 0 => 2400 Mhz (RF24 channel 1)- wifi start
  • 1 => 2401 Mhz (RF24 channel 2)
  • 76 => 2476 Mhz (RF24 channel 77) standard
  • 83 => 2483 Mhz (RF24 channel 84) — Wifi goes to about here
  • 124 => 2524 Mhz (RF24 channel 125)
  • 125 => 2525 Mhz (RF24 channel 126)
• 250KBPS instead of 2MBPS could greatly improve the range.

Loraduino:

• dBm Tx power set to +13dbm on this round of test (set by default), could set to 20dbm (or 23dbm):
• // Defaults after init are 434.0MHz, 13dBm, Bw = 125 kHz, Cr = 4/5, Sf = 128chips/symbol, CRC on
• // The default transmitter power is 13dBm, using PA_BOOST.
• According to manufacture, set bandwidth bigger can get longer distance.
• With a dipole antenna like that, the signal tends to go out in the shape of a doughnut, so the angle may not have it is the most optimum position which would be both sender and receiver perfectly flat with antenna sticking straight up so the signal is polarized the same and in the optimum position for rx/tx
• A buck/boost LDO regulator could fully drink the power of lithium battery.

Environment:

• The giant metal railing that could impact the signal in a number of ways, should be avoid.
• A big high voltage transmission tower is behind the receiver.

Test Result:

Quick image took during test.

Test Result of NRF24duino :

• Get about 40-50 meters sight transmission distance, over this distance, packet will lose 50-90% .
• On 40 meters sometimes can send ok, but failed on round-trip check.
• PCB antenna should be face and point to receiver direction to get better result.

Test Result of Loraduino:

• Use Phone GPS to see two modules, maximum distance 800 meters, signal complete 100% lost on 900 meters. On 800m still can get 100% data packet.
• SX1278 can reach 3KM, so there are still much can be improved. This is not very promising result, will check if anything wrong on code or hardware, and test again.
• TX power set on 13dbm, not full power, need more test.

The post Distance Rough Test NRF24duino and Loarduino Board (Updating) appeared first on ElectroDragon.

We are pleased to inform that our boards and modules have been used during course “Internet of Things” at the WSB University in Wroclaw (Poland, UE). Students learned about the ability to build and programing “Smart Home” using the Electrodragon Relay boards, modules, various sensors, and LEDs and displays. PlatformiIO was used for example programming.

Jaromir Kopp from the Mój Mac Magazyn was teaching young people.

The classes enjoyed great interest and we hope that similar training will continue because “Internet of Things” is the future!

The post Electrodragon boards and modules used in education appeared first on ElectroDragon.

We will sell the same price as anywhere else.

Most information we can find are placed on this page now.

The post ESP32 Information appeared first on ElectroDragon.

Thanks to customer Mark, here is wiring diagram of the flow sensor/meter with esp8266, the key point is needing a 555 timer chip as a Schmitt trigger.

Also the VCC voltage of flow sensor is 5V, and esp8266 is 3v3, a voltage divider is needed in the circuit.

You can find the flow sensor here.

Updated to use a CMOS version of the 555 timer that doesn’t suck massive power like the old LM555.

The post Liquid Flow Sensor, Turbine Meter wiring with ESP8266 appeared first on ElectroDragon.

It seems the current online custom build with dev branch can not work well with smartconfig, or the ESP8266 smart config android APK, so we tried to figure with the espressif official APK and master branch.

The master branch is:

Build on ESP8266 NONOS SDK 1.4.0, support ESPTouch 0.3.4.3

Dev branch version is Espressif NONOS SDK 1.5.1

First compile online use the master branch, and download, note to use the 9600 baudrate instead of 115200:

And you will see the following information when it done:

You successfully commissioned a NodeMCU custom build from the master branch. You selected the following 7 modules: file gpio net node tmr uart wifi.

We’ll keep you posted by email about the progress of your build.

In the meantime I suggest you take a look at the build stats to find out how your firmware configuration compares to others in the community.

Open Esplorer and send the snippet code of startsmart to the board:

The APK Espressif IOT can be found on google play market, make sure you use the latest version, if you can not be sure, in the setting menu you can update the APK. Souce code of this APK can also be found on espressif github page.

The latest version ESPtouch should be 0.3.4.3, see the image below:

Open APK and try quick usage:

Then you can see the module is online now, IP address available:

The post ESP8266 Smartconfig Follow Up appeared first on ElectroDragon.

You can find the mentioned items in our store here.

This is a demo test of the pair of wireless power charger, five LEDs connected paralleled on the receiver end, output more than 200~300 mA (over range of display) current. There are some more notes:

• We use a very thin plastic bag to separated the receiver and transmitter, the thickness of the plastic bag is probably only 0.1mm.
• The magnetic ring of transmitter and receiver get the best transmission performance when the fully matched in round shape, and the power transfer lost very very fast when distance increase.
• The board can transfer on receiver 5V/200-300mA power, check this on the current meter.
• Power bench on the transmitter end is 0.3A and 6V (1.8W).

Update: Get a high power transfer pair, can transfer up to 1.3A current on very close distance. Easily drive small motors, or similar items!

The post Wireless Charging Test [Update March 1st] appeared first on ElectroDragon.

Pick and place file output from eagle, and copy into a SD card for use. The machine only running 10% speed of normal, but actually it can run 150% speed of normal.

Each time pick and place work include the following steps:

1. Move to the PCB 0,0 (x,y) zero point, which is locate on the left bottom corner
2. Move the reel of the part by using a pointer
3. Pick up the part
4. Place the part

Should be care:

• Board is placed on the real word X+ and Y+ quadrant, so any negative coordinate will make the machine stupid.
• Must check all the directions of the part, for example, either -90 or +90 for the LEDs, polarity capacitors.

The post SMT Pick and Place Machine Work appeared first on ElectroDragon.

Shipment Suspend:

• We will have a long holiday from 4th till 13th, delivery can not be fulfilled during this time.

Holiday promotion:

• Use coupon code “2016-year” to get 10% discount.
• This discount is not conflicting with your member discount.

PCB service

• PCB service will restart on 14th, please notice.
• If you place PCB order now, we will need to confirm first before we start it on 14th.
• The PCB order placed during holiday will be done on around 20th.

The post 2016 Chinese New-Year Holidays appeared first on ElectroDragon.