https://beta.ncot.uk/tags/electronics/ Recent content in Electronics on [BETA] NCoT Tech Hugo en-gb Fri, 23 Oct 2026 13:56:58 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/i-let-chatgpt-teach-me-embedded-programming--it-went-badly--uperfect-be156mf-monitor/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:10:44 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/i-let-chatgpt-teach-me-embedded-programming--it-went-badly--uperfect-be156mf-monitor/ I picked up a Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) — an ESP32 with a built-in LCD — #ESP32 #AI #Programming #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/how-computers-add-numbers-using-logic-gates---half-and-full-adders-explained/ Sun, 24 May 2026 19:07:53 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/how-computers-add-numbers-using-logic-gates---half-and-full-adders-explained/ How does a computer add two numbers — not with code, but with actual electronics? In this video we build the circuits that make addition happen at the hardware level, starting from the simplest possible adding circuit and working up to something that can add multi-bit binary numbers. #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/agon-light/agon-light-joystick-interface/ Sun, 09 Nov 2025 09:30:06 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/agon-light/agon-light-joystick-interface/ I’ve built a joystick interface for my Agon Light, using a PCB I found online. This is an improvement on the last time I did this and just stuck wires in the GPIO ports. #AgonLight #RetroComputing #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/davinci-resolve-collaboration/ Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:59:02 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/davinci-resolve-collaboration/ I’ve worked out how to work on the same Davinci Resolve project from two different computers, at the same time. #RaspberryPi #VideoProduction #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/bring-back-physical-buttons/ Sun, 20 Oct 2024 21:17:35 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/bring-back-physical-buttons/ At least polling a physical button can be done with electronics that don’t require running code, meaning you can always program one of the buttons to be a “reset” switch if needed. #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/soldering-a-solar-light-in-the-sun/ Sat, 11 May 2024 20:41:14 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/soldering-a-solar-light-in-the-sun/ I bought a pair of cheapo outdoor solar lights from Amazon. One is on my shed round the back of the house, the other is on the shed at the front of the house. Yes, I have a bit of a shed obsession. After a few days the front one stopped working. I took it apart to find out why… #Soldering #Batteries #Teardown #SolarPower https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/estimating-battery-runtime-using-home-assistant/ Sat, 28 Oct 2023 09:08:37 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/estimating-battery-runtime-using-home-assistant/ I have a whole house battery solar system with 3kW of roof mounted panels and 9.6kWh of battery storage. I can monitor this using Home Assistant and it’s interesting to see my power usage and generation stats. Interesting, but not that relevant to daily life. What is relevant is knowing how long the battery has left, especially now we’re in autumn/winter and the… #HomeAssistant #Batteries #HomeAutomation #SolarPower https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/october-solar-stats/ Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:37:16 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/october-solar-stats/ Some more stats on my home solar setup now it’s autumn and daylight seems to be a distant memory. #Batteries #SolarPower #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/september-solar-usage/ Sat, 16 Sep 2023 15:58:06 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/september-solar-usage/ Here’s how my solar panels and battery system have been performing this month. I might do this more frequently, it’s hard going back in the historical data in my monitoring software and these posts are easy to find. #Batteries #SolarPower #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/solar-battery-usage/ Thu, 24 Aug 2023 20:34:10 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/solar-battery-usage/ It’s a crappy cloudy day today. There was about enough sunlight to power the house, but not enough to also charge the batteries. #Batteries #SolarPower #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/rc2014-raspberry-pi-pico-vga-terminal-self-build/ Wed, 26 Jul 2023 19:39:57 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/rc2014-raspberry-pi-pico-vga-terminal-self-build/ The RC2014 is a DIY Z80 based computer that talks to the outside world using serial comms. This means you need a serial interface to another computer in order to control it. #RC2014 #RaspberryPiPico #VGA #RaspberryPi https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/iconica-1000w-12v-hybrid-solar-inverter-fan-replacement/ Sun, 09 Jul 2023 16:03:04 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/iconica-1000w-12v-hybrid-solar-inverter-fan-replacement/ I replace the noisy fans in my hybrid solar inverter with quieter ones. #Batteries #SolarPower #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/repairing-my-ryobi-drill-battery/ Sun, 25 Jun 2023 14:11:35 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/repairing-my-ryobi-drill-battery/ So I joined the Ryobi battery cult, but since their batteries are expensive I did the obvious thing and bought some off Amazon from random third party companies. The batteries seem to work well. #Batteries #Repair #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/diy-vga-serial-terminal/ Thu, 08 Jun 2023 21:37:03 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/diy-vga-serial-terminal/ I use a Raspberry Pi Pico and turn it into a serial terminal for my RC2014. #RC2014 #RaspberryPiPico #RaspberryPi #VGA https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/diy-solar-is-it-worth-it/ Tue, 16 May 2023 19:28:23 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/diy-solar-is-it-worth-it/ Our energy prices are ridiculous and even taking into account recent “world events” I find it hard to understand why electricity is so expensive. So I figured I’d try to do something about it by installing my own battery and solar system on my shed. The idea being to power my servers from the sun. #Batteries #SolarPower #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/hacking-iot-smart-plugs/ Sat, 18 Mar 2023 19:46:23 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/hacking-iot-smart-plugs/ Let’s make the Internet of Things a bit more useful, and less like The Internet of Turd by hacking some smart plugs so they no longer phone home to China. This is an update to a [previous blog post]https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/freeing-smart-devices-with-tasmota/ I wrote about modifying [smart sockets]https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/hacking-smart-home-devices-literally/. #Tasmota #ESP32 #Soldering #HomeAutomation https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/bbc-basic-in-riscos-on-a-raspberry-pi-is-really-cool/ Sun, 12 Feb 2023 16:27:10 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/bbc-basic-in-riscos-on-a-raspberry-pi-is-really-cool/ Picture the modern world, but without Windows, PCs or Apple. What would be on your desk? #BBCMicro #RaspberryPi #BASICProgramming #RetroComputing https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/samsung-sdp-860-document-camera-thing/ Thu, 02 Feb 2023 22:50:00 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/samsung-sdp-860-document-camera-thing/ I go eBay shopping and buy something that might be useful in future videos. #Soldering #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/home-assistant-solar-monitoring/ Sat, 22 Oct 2022 19:37:05 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/home-assistant-solar-monitoring/ I think I’ve managed to make Home assistant tell me how much money the solar power I’m generating would be worth from the grid, and how much running things off solar/battery instead of the grid is saving me. #HomeAssistant #Batteries #SolarPower #HomeAutomation https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/workshed-tidying/ Mon, 17 Oct 2022 19:34:52 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/workshed-tidying/ My workshed is mess, I can barely get into it and I have a bunch of projects that need starting. Let’s fix that… #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/diy-home-solar-finished/ Sun, 09 Oct 2022 18:29:46 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/diy-home-solar-finished/ After a week of testing and tweaking, my DIY solar shed upgrade is complete. And it seems to work pretty well! Last week I bought a solar panel, inverter and some lead acid batteries and set up a solar system in my shed, with the intention of powering my servers. It seems to work pretty well and I have it all integrated into Home Assistant. I’m going to do a load of videos on it and Home… #HomeAssistant #Batteries #SolarPower #HomeAutomation https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/freeing-smart-devices-with-tasmota/ Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:51:03 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/freeing-smart-devices-with-tasmota/ I have a load of smart devices in my house that all have ESP8266 microcontrollers inside them. They all work with the Tuya SmartLife app on my phone, and the Tuya integration in HomeAssistant. They also all talk to China to do anything. I’d rather they didn’t. China doesn’t need to know I want to turn my lighting on. #HomeAssistant #Tasmota #ESP32 #HomeAutomation https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/upgrading-my-atari-st-to-4mb/ Wed, 14 Jul 2021 15:50:46 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/upgrading-my-atari-st-to-4mb/ I upgrade my Atari STFM to 4MB of RAM using a Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe board #AtariST #Soldering #RetroComputing #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/smt-soldering-and-atari-st-repairs/ Wed, 02 Jun 2021 20:52:48 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/smt-soldering-and-atari-st-repairs/ Yesterday I recapped my ST’s PSU which went well, nothing exploded. However when trying to boot the machine it kept crashing, especially when it went to the desktop. #AtariST #Soldering #RetroComputing #Repair https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/tecknet-mechanical-keyboard-repair/ Sun, 30 May 2021 21:12:25 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/tecknet-mechanical-keyboard-repair/ I wanted a mechanical keyboard with Windows keys. I have an IBM Model M keyboard, but its lack of Windows keys makes using Windows 10 more annoying than it should be. I don’t hunt and peck around the start menu, I’ve learnt to press the Windows key and just start typing the program I want to open. #Soldering #Keyboards #Windows #Repair https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/bbc-micro-mega-upgrade/ Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:19:41 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/bbc-micro-mega-upgrade/ Upgrading my BBC Micro to use a Gotek floppy emulator, 1770 disk controller and a Raspberry Pi co-processor. #BBCMicro #MSDOS #RaspberryPi #RetroComputing https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/switch-joycon-drift-repair/ Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:59:40 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/switch-joycon-drift-repair/ Here is how I fixed the drift on my Nintendo Switch Joy-Con. It is properly fixed, not just putting cleaner into the thumbstick. I will also be showing how to swap the shell of the joy-con for a different style. You don’t have to do this if all you want is to do is repair your joy-con. #Nintendo #Batteries #RetroComputing #Repair https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/esd-safe-soldering-station-hack/ Mon, 11 May 2020 10:50:19 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/esd-safe-soldering-station-hack/ Turns out my £20 soldering station does indeed work, but its claims of ESD safety are lies. Let’s fix that! #Soldering #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/grandma-shark-20-quid-soldering-station/ Mon, 11 May 2020 10:50:03 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/grandma-shark-20-quid-soldering-station/ I bought a soldering iron for £20 from Amazon. Is it any good? Does it even work? #Soldering #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/gmtk-game-jam-2019/ Wed, 07 Aug 2019 09:45:03 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/gmtk-game-jam-2019/ It’s been a long time since I entered a game jam, the last ones being the One Game a Month jams back in 2014. This one was the GMTK Game Jam 2019 #RaspberryPiPico #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/odroid-go-graphics-programming/ Mon, 30 Jul 2018 21:16:30 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/odroid-go-graphics-programming/ Making a microcontroller produce graphics is very similar to making an old 8 or 16 bit computer draw images. They both have small screens, not much RAM and not enough CPU power to draw all the screen all the time. #ESP32 #Sprites #Graphics #Programming https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/odroid-go-raw-coding/ Wed, 25 Jul 2018 20:56:47 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/odroid-go-raw-coding/ The ODroid GO is a handheld console that sells itself as a device that will run emulators of all your favourite 8bit systems. And it does that job rather well, I spent at least five minutes with mine playing Tetris, and it was a good emulation. Then I installed the Arduino libraries for it, plugged in a USB cable and started trying things out. #ESP32 #Programming #Electronics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/a-week-of-pico-8-and-the-fun-of-limits/ Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:45:03 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/a-week-of-pico-8-and-the-fun-of-limits/ A week that turns into two, after a trip to hospital following a fire drill. In between these excitements is some Pico 8 programming. #RaspberryPiPico #Electronics