Hardware

Claude can write MicroPython just fine. The annoying part is everything after that, getting the code onto a board, connecting to the REPL, figuring out why the pin numbers are wrong, iterating. I wanted Claude to be able to do all of that itself, talk directly to the hardware while I watch. ViperIDE is a browser-based IDE for MicroPython and CircuitPython by Volodymyr Shymanskyy. It connects to devices over USB, Bluetooth, or WiFi and gives you a file manager, editor, and REPL terminal. If you haven’t tried MicroPython before it’s one of the easier ways to get started. ...

I’m writing this blog post on my Pixel 5, standing in the kitchen. Termux open, connected to my home server through three layers of infrastructure that make the whole thing feel like I’m sitting at my desk. The same Claude Code session I started on my workstation this morning is right here on a 6" screen, and I can type a prompt, put the phone down, come back in an hour, and nothing has dropped. ...

MicroPython has about 1500 open issues across its repos. Some of them have been there for years. A bunch are duplicates of each other, a bunch more are already fixed by PRs that got merged without anyone linking them back, and a pretty solid chunk are just noise (support questions, cross-posts, wrong-repo stuff). Nobody’s going to sit down and manually review 1500 issues against 8000+ PRs looking for connections though. ...

Baratza Vario / Forte Motor drive parts and ratio Motor Baratza have at least 3 variants of motor used in the Vario… and 120V/230V versions of each: * PN: 1036 / 1037 D-shaft motor * PN: 1058? / ?? Helical shaft motor * PN: 6026 / 6027 Hybrid shaft motor There’s also two styles of motor enclosure used: not sure if these relate to specific part numbers above or not though, or it might be a Mahlkonig vs Baratza difference. ...

I’m quite a fan of my Sunbeam Torino It looks great and has a lot of solid features like dosed shot buttons, pour timer, pressure gauge, PID adjustable temperature control, quick warmup, strong steam and a full size (58mm) group head. When the Torino first launched, it did not review well, on CS the response was generally quite brutal… Sunbeam trying to sell it for AUD$2000 put it up against a lot of big names in the industry and people in the know didn’t seem to think it matched up at all. ...

At work we needed to certify a BLE device recently. We had the legacy PTS dongle provided by Bluetooth SIG, however I found it only supports testing devices up the BLE 4.2 So we need a new BLE Dongle - they now only support the Laird Connectivity | 451-00004 https://store.bluetooth.com/ This is normally stocked by all the online electronics distributers; element14, digikey, mouser, arrow etc. Unfortunately it was out of stock on all of them, for about 4 months. ...

I’m a big fan of my Sunbeam Torino I’ve had my Torino for about a year now. I read the reviews talking it down before I bought it but didn’t have the bench space for a BDB. I also got it for about AUD 1K, much less than the original RRP. For the price I think it’s the best looking machine that has all the conveniences like dosed shot buttons, pour timer, quick startup etc. ...