Firefox Developer Tools: a simple example

I don't use Developer Tools very often, so its a bit of a struggle remembering how to use them when I do.

 

Therefore this is a handy reminder to me (as much as anything) on how to make & test some simple edits.

I'm going to use the Gambas One forum as my test site for this example.

3D Printer control via Gambas

Its easy to write some Gambas code to provide basic control of a 3D printer.

You just need a good G-code reference list.

These notes were born out of a few experiments I recently conducted with my Creality CR-10-V3

Playing with colour recognition #2: resistor value reader

This post is about a practical example of colour recognition.

 

It describes an experiment to determine resistor values from their coloured bands.

Its an interesting, but difficult task.

Playing with colour recognition #1

A Python tutorial on Colour Recognition recently grabbed my attention.

 

It looked like an interesting playground to step into, so...

...like any good Gambaser, I decided to write some code.

Working with the Linux /proc directory

This strange directory contains some interesting & useful stuff.

 

Accessing data contained in its files is pretty easy.

So in this post I explore its treasures with some simple Gambas code.

Re-discover the Night Sky: star trails

With an improvement in the weather, I thought I'd try a bit of night-sky photography.

One thing I've never attempted is taking time-lapse photos and then stacking them to produce star trails.

I used a RaspiCam for the photos and Gimp to stack and process them.

a WifiScanner written in Gambas Script

I've been looking for a suitable application to write using Gambas Script, as a means of demonstrating its possibilities.

10 years ago I created a Gambas GUI app called WifiScanner which fits the bill.

So I've just stripped it down and created a script version.

Geany Syntax Highlighter for Gambas Script

Gambas scripts can be written using any text editor in 'black & white'.

But I'm so used to seeing my code in colour that black text seems to slow down my comprehension.

Although this post shows how to add colour for your Gambas script files in Geany, it may be more widely useful for those trying to add syntax highlighting for other languages to the Geany code editor.

Gambas Scripts

If you are familiar with Gambas (or Basic) you shouldn't have too much trouble writing Gambas scripts.

Although scripting is often used for small programming tasks, it can be used to create more ambitious projects.

It may also be useful on headless/GUI-less systems, like the Raspberry Pi.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth

One of the best things about the internet is free stuff!

 

I'm thinking specifically of information and software.

But its sometimes not good enough for some people.

Police UK API: Local crime data with Gambas

In the UK our Police force have recently made crime data available via the net.

You can access monthly crime figures by category from their website.

But there is also a simple API available for you to carry out your own data analysis.

Gambas: using external C libraries

It may be useful sometimes to use C-language library functions in your Gambas programs.

There may be a performance advantage in writing your own C functions or you may simply wish to use existing C libraries.

Here are my notes which may help you get started.

Gambas: using external Gambas libraries

The Linux programming language Gambas can use functions from external libraries.

This post gives a few simple examples to supplement the information in the Gambas Documentation.

Gambas Bat Recording Software for the UltraMic + Pi 3

As soon as Christmas was behind me, I found some time to progress my bat detector project.

I've been running the Dodotronic UltraMic with a Raspberry Pi 3 using re-written Gambas code...

...but the problem at the moment is a distinct lack of bats.

the Dodotronic UltraMic: first impressions

I just splashed out £225 on this USB microphone.

Initially I just plan to experiment & compare it with my home-made analogue bat recorder.

If all goes well this may turn into yet another bat detector/logger project.

BatGuru: a British bat ID helper

My BatGuru is a program written in Gambas which helps me identify British bat species based upon echolocation call data.

It simply saves me having to juggle the key parameters in my head as I scan the charts in my reference book.

But identifying bats from their calls is tricky due to the wide variability of their calls.

ZeroLiPo: Pi push-button battery power control

The ZeroLiPo is a Lithium-ion Polymer battery power manager for the Raspberry Pi from Pimoroni.

It does not handle battery charging, it simply converts the LiPo 3.7Volts to 5Volts, and provides a low voltage alarm.

Although I've had one of these for ages, I've only just considered using it, possibly for my Bat Call Logger.

Bat Call Logger: implementing pre-capture

My bat call logger uses a very simple/crude means to trigger recording.

This seems to work, but a few recordings are blank, as if the triggering signal has stopped before the recorder kicked in.

By having a pre-capture function, I should be able to capture a sequence before the trigger takes affect.

Site-Specific Browser: goodbye Midori

A Site-Specific Browser (SSB) is a program or application that is dedicated to loading and exploring a single web site.

I have been using Midori for this purpose, but having just updated to Lubuntu 17.10, I find Midori is not available!

So I went looking for an alternative and found the Gnome browser "Web" (a.k.a. Epiphany).

Bat Detector: automatic recording

Following on from my last post, this one gives revised details of my Pi based automatic recording system.

My original software just didn't work with real bat calls, and the microphone didn't have a very good response at high frequencies. 

But now this has been sorted out I'm getting 10-20 recordings per hour!