https://www.photonicsguy.ca/ 2026-04-06T20:52:23+00:00 https://www.photonicsguy.ca/ https://www.photonicsguy.ca/_media/wiki/dokuwiki.svg text/html 2021-07-06T14:15:59+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.photonicsguy.ca/projects/t530?rev=1625580959&do=diff Lenovo T530 Laptop WiFi upgrade I successfully installed an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 wireless card by modifying the whitelist in the BIOS. I've compiled this step-by-step guide with references as I had trouble finding a similar resource online. Living in Toronto, the 2.4GHz WiFi band is over saturated and my best wireless throughput was roughly 16Mbps, now with 5GHz Wireless AC, I get an average of 700Mbps. I decided not to upgrade to the latest BIOS and to attempt the whitelist modifi… text/html 2016-03-09T00:46:23+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.photonicsguy.ca/projects/electronics/sumppump?rev=1457484383&do=diff Sump pump Monitor My parents have a cistern and a sump pump which would be useful to have some sort of water level monitoring. In the past, we would check the cistern level with a pressure gauge calibrated in inches of water. There was a rubber squeeze bulb which which would pressurize a plastic line which fed into the cistern, and the resulting level would be shown on the gauge. text/html 2016-12-11T20:47:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.photonicsguy.ca/projects/chip?rev=1481489238&do=diff C.H.I.P Computer Headless Setup * Connect CHIP to your Linux computer via USB * Run minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0 to connect to CHIP via a serial console * Login to chip, username: root, password: chip * Run nmtui, a console based wireless configuration tool text/html 2014-11-13T18:50:14+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.photonicsguy.ca/projects/electronics/ioboard?rev=1415904614&do=diff IO Board 16 Bit Digital input, 16 Bit Digital Output. Outputs 16 Relays Inputs [HP3700] 16 socketed Optoisolators, rated for 5 to 240 Volts, AC or DC. Pinout Relay boardSignal NamePin#PinSignal NameGndGround B1 #A1 -I/O CH CKI/O channel check; active low=parity error text/html 2014-11-13T18:50:14+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.photonicsguy.ca/projects/electronics/x10?rev=1415904614&do=diff X10 Interfacing X10 Mini Timer power supply The LCD display seems to die after a few years (on three units I've used) so I figured out the pinout. 4N35's are used internally for opto-isolation, The power is from a transformer internally, with a rectifier and a capacitor. text/html 2014-11-13T22:37:16+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.photonicsguy.ca/projects/electronics/7segdisplay?rev=1415918236&do=diff 7-segment display module [Working Display] Arduino library available on Github This was one of my first doublesided and surfacemount boards. I made this board using Eagle for layout and then I used BatchPCB to manufacture the board. The board operates correctly, however, if I were to revise it, I would use a larger SMT resistor than the 0402 size. The board will be controlled via I2C from a PIC microcontroller, initially for the pressure sensor and later for other projects.