Tony Cox
@thesoupdragon.bsky.social
CEO, UK Biocentre, Milton Keynes. @ukbiocentre.bsky.social
Vintage HP test equipment enthusiast. Electronics tinkerer and fixer-upper. Opinions are my own.
Vintage HP test equipment enthusiast. Electronics tinkerer and fixer-upper. Opinions are my own.
You have to admire the tenacity of this old ash tree.
September 28, 2025 at 12:06 PM
You have to admire the tenacity of this old ash tree.
More or less complete. Added auto-cal and (after a couple of dead ends) I got Tx back-off working using LoRa’s channel activity detector (CAD) system. Packet Tx will delay up to a limit and if still stuck they are dropped. Reduces collisions dramatically when traffic is high.
August 16, 2025 at 7:06 PM
More or less complete. Added auto-cal and (after a couple of dead ends) I got Tx back-off working using LoRa’s channel activity detector (CAD) system. Packet Tx will delay up to a limit and if still stuck they are dropped. Reduces collisions dramatically when traffic is high.
Writing to an EEPROM *safely* via I2C and avoiding bus lockup during frequent hardware interrupts triggered by LoRa network packets arriving is REALLY hard!
August 5, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Writing to an EEPROM *safely* via I2C and avoiding bus lockup during frequent hardware interrupts triggered by LoRa network packets arriving is REALLY hard!
After several weeks of learning about LoRa networks my sensor network is finally running. Custom sensors based on a RAK3172 broadcast to a Heltec LoRaV3 receiver which filters and aggregates data. This sends the data via a high speed (wired) UART to a NodeMCU. This bridges data to WiFi and MQTT.
August 3, 2025 at 7:53 PM
After several weeks of learning about LoRa networks my sensor network is finally running. Custom sensors based on a RAK3172 broadcast to a Heltec LoRaV3 receiver which filters and aggregates data. This sends the data via a high speed (wired) UART to a NodeMCU. This bridges data to WiFi and MQTT.
Floral theft! This bee is far too big to crawl into the Hosta flower - so it heads up to the neck of the flower, cuts a neat hole and “steals” the nectar. Crafty 🐝
July 16, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Floral theft! This bee is far too big to crawl into the Hosta flower - so it heads up to the neck of the flower, cuts a neat hole and “steals” the nectar. Crafty 🐝
I see Greater Anglia Trains don’t have Ticket Inspectors any more - they have Revenue Protection Officers. Jeez.
June 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I see Greater Anglia Trains don’t have Ticket Inspectors any more - they have Revenue Protection Officers. Jeez.
Constant current source is working well. Stable 250uA with a diode to add temperature stability.
May 29, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Constant current source is working well. Stable 250uA with a diode to add temperature stability.
This is definitely going to be a soldering challenge. It may be time to invest in a hot air station.
May 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
This is definitely going to be a soldering challenge. It may be time to invest in a hot air station.
These Heltec LoRa V3 dev boards are really good for learning/testing ideas but with only 36 pins (many performing overlapping, incompatible functions) you rapidly hit limitations (eg external SPI conflicts with SX1262 radio chip). The docs are a bit limited too. So it’s Kicad time.
May 27, 2025 at 11:47 AM
These Heltec LoRa V3 dev boards are really good for learning/testing ideas but with only 36 pins (many performing overlapping, incompatible functions) you rapidly hit limitations (eg external SPI conflicts with SX1262 radio chip). The docs are a bit limited too. So it’s Kicad time.
My LoRa cryo-freezer monitor is coming on nicely. Doesn’t look much but PT100 RTD, battery monitor and door open sensor are all working. Power to RTD only switched on while reading. “Power is everything”, as they said on Apollo 11.
May 26, 2025 at 9:24 AM
My LoRa cryo-freezer monitor is coming on nicely. Doesn’t look much but PT100 RTD, battery monitor and door open sensor are all working. Power to RTD only switched on while reading. “Power is everything”, as they said on Apollo 11.
Help please! Can anybody identify this pcb-mounted wire press/clamp connector?
May 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Help please! Can anybody identify this pcb-mounted wire press/clamp connector?
Experimenting with a couple of LoRa sensors. The Heltec LoRa ESP32 v3 boards seem capable and easy to set up in the Arduino IDE. They come with neat 3D printed cases. The ESP32 ADC is not great - but with careful calibration it’s ok. Will be interested to see how long the 1100mAh LiPo lasts.
May 17, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Experimenting with a couple of LoRa sensors. The Heltec LoRa ESP32 v3 boards seem capable and easy to set up in the Arduino IDE. They come with neat 3D printed cases. The ESP32 ADC is not great - but with careful calibration it’s ok. Will be interested to see how long the 1100mAh LiPo lasts.
Hand soldering these SOT-23 3.3V LDOs is proving a challenge. I don’t have a hot air soldering gun so it’s a filed down standard tip and lots of concentration.
May 17, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Hand soldering these SOT-23 3.3V LDOs is proving a challenge. I don’t have a hot air soldering gun so it’s a filed down standard tip and lots of concentration.
My breakdown cover renewal quote from the AA was £93.92. Despite everything being online they explained that £50.40 of that was an "arrangement and administration fee". Suffice to say I'm now covered with The RAC on equivalents terms for £50.
March 31, 2025 at 7:31 PM
My breakdown cover renewal quote from the AA was £93.92. Despite everything being online they explained that £50.40 of that was an "arrangement and administration fee". Suffice to say I'm now covered with The RAC on equivalents terms for £50.
Why on Earth is eBay asking for my National Insurance number?! Well, whatever the reason, forget it!
March 20, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Why on Earth is eBay asking for my National Insurance number?! Well, whatever the reason, forget it!
Reposted by Tony Cox
Quick tip for those who don’t have or don’t want to use a second email account for setting up additional accounts: If you have a Gmail account, you can create unlimited variations by adding a +suffix to your email handle.
February 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Quick tip for those who don’t have or don’t want to use a second email account for setting up additional accounts: If you have a Gmail account, you can create unlimited variations by adding a +suffix to your email handle.
FUTURE-AI: international consensus guideline for trustworthy and deployable artificial intelligence in healthcare
www.bmj.com/content/388/...
A set of 30 best practices to operationalise trustworthy AI in healthcare were defined addressing technical, clinical, socioethical, and legal dimensions.
www.bmj.com/content/388/...
A set of 30 best practices to operationalise trustworthy AI in healthcare were defined addressing technical, clinical, socioethical, and legal dimensions.
February 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
FUTURE-AI: international consensus guideline for trustworthy and deployable artificial intelligence in healthcare
www.bmj.com/content/388/...
A set of 30 best practices to operationalise trustworthy AI in healthcare were defined addressing technical, clinical, socioethical, and legal dimensions.
www.bmj.com/content/388/...
A set of 30 best practices to operationalise trustworthy AI in healthcare were defined addressing technical, clinical, socioethical, and legal dimensions.
Is governing by executive order any different from being a dictator? Asking for a friend.
February 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Is governing by executive order any different from being a dictator? Asking for a friend.
The Guardian is not pulling its punches today. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán
Trump has moved to gut the federal government, fire critics and reward allies – a path similar to ‘would-be dictators’ like Orbán, experts say
www.theguardian.com
February 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The Guardian is not pulling its punches today. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Phone developers: if you force me watch a full screen advertising video *before* I even get to the app home screen it’s an instant delete. No matter how useful the app may be.
February 6, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Phone developers: if you force me watch a full screen advertising video *before* I even get to the app home screen it’s an instant delete. No matter how useful the app may be.
Birthday present to self :-) I’ve been looking for an HP5370A time interval counter for some, er, time - and this one is in mint condition. It even has all its feet! 🥳
January 23, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Birthday present to self :-) I’ve been looking for an HP5370A time interval counter for some, er, time - and this one is in mint condition. It even has all its feet! 🥳
Just (re)discovered my first (2005?) assembler dev board in the garage. This is an 8051 self-build kit by @paulstoffregen.bsky.social and it still works after ~20 years. So good that he still keeps the documentation available on his website. I think the afternoon just disappeared…
January 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Just (re)discovered my first (2005?) assembler dev board in the garage. This is an 8051 self-build kit by @paulstoffregen.bsky.social and it still works after ~20 years. So good that he still keeps the documentation available on his website. I think the afternoon just disappeared…
My end-of-year goal was to move all my daily work reporting R scripts from Windows to an Ubuntu server. The Windows task scheduler is truly arcane and I find cron much more friendly plus the whole “spaces in directory names” on Windows drives me a bit mad.
December 30, 2024 at 1:52 PM
My end-of-year goal was to move all my daily work reporting R scripts from Windows to an Ubuntu server. The Windows task scheduler is truly arcane and I find cron much more friendly plus the whole “spaces in directory names” on Windows drives me a bit mad.