MickMake Mail #16: Rock64, DLP2000, VolksPC & FLiR // News


YouTube video: MickMake Mail #16: Rock64, DLP2000, VolksPC & FLiR // News


Another MickMake Mail! This time I have the #Rock64, #DLP2000, #VolksPC and a #FLiR dumpster dive! Sweet!

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Kogan Smart Toaster

Why on earth do I want a smart toaster?

Because most of the control mechanism is already there and all I have to do is make a little smarter by adding in an ESP8266!
You can see it uses a very common Holtek LCD driver, the HT1621. This will be easy! Lot’s of uses from just cooking your toasties, to reflow soldering!

Guess what I’ll try first?


Rock64

The Rock64 is a new SBC from the Pine64 guys. They sent me one to review. I’m looking forward to this. I’m hoping that they have learned from their mistakes, (here, here and here).


The TI DLP2000 LightCrafter

This is a really cool project, that used to cost around US$399, but they have dropped the price of the evaluation board to only US$99! I couldn’t resist and so bought two!

It uses the DLP2000 module from Texas Instruments and will project a 64x360 display at 30 lumens. Just enough for my application!


VolksPC

I was contacted by the VolksPC guys to review their TV box. Matt, from the m3sca1 YouTube channel dropped by to help unbox it.

Built around the Amlogic S905X CPU it’s a fairly decent box, the best part is that it’ll run Android on top of Linux as an application. So you get the best of both worlds without having to dual boot!
I cracked it open and found a handy serial port that was used as the console.


SparkFun FLiR module

This was a great find! A dumpster dive turned up one of these.

It was supposedly not working, but I connected up to a Pi, fired it up and the demo code worked straight off! Woohoo!
Since I’m from down-under, the exchange rate adds a fair amount and I’d end up having to pay around $450 for this module!

What a saving!


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About Mick Hellstrom
Hacker. Maker. YouTuber.

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