Blog
From the bench
Shorter, looser posts: what I'm building, what failed, and what I'd do differently.
Getting started with LoRa in South Australia
Four names, one radio: the rules, the local groups and a first project to find your range.
A forest sensor that smells bushfires before they flame
A solar, battery-free LoRa sensor that detects bushfires while they're still smouldering.
Solar farms are cutting the cables and going LoRa
Why big solar farms are dropping trenches and SIM cards, and a backyard version to build.
Solar Meshtastic repeater: build or buy?
About $150–$200 either way. The real choice is convenience or control.
5 tips for 3D printing PCB mounts that actually fit
Tolerances, heat-set inserts, standoffs, snap-fit lids, and leaving room for cables and antennas.
Slic3D PETG on the Bambu P1S and A1: cheap filament, strong parts
Bambu Studio settings, AMS and bed tips, and how to dry budget PETG properly.
The ESP32 that runs Linux: meet the ESP32-S31
The first ESP32 with an MMU boots real Linux. Is it a Raspberry Pi killer, and what does it mean for MicroPython?
ESP32-C5: finally, an ESP32 that speaks 5 GHz
MicroPython 1.29 makes Espressif's first dual-band chip properly usable. The short version.
7 technologies to think twice about before you design them in
A free 20-page guide to the tempting-but-premature choices, and what to build instead.
The ESP32 number that decides your battery life
Sleep current, not the datasheet: how one line took a vineyard soil sensor from 3 weeks to 6 months.
Half your ESP32 pins have a second job
Strapping pins, flash pins and ADC2: why a status LED made a board boot only 95% of the time.