SGVHAK Study Session [ Monitoring Compressed Air Line Pressure ]

A practical application from SGVHAK study sessions.

A. Wiznet5500 Pi Pico Hat PCB designed with KiCAD
B. Laser Engraved Mylar Solder Stencil
C. SMD/Through Hole soldered board.
D. Assembled Pressure Monitor in 3d printed enclosure.
E. Pressure Monitoring with HomeAssistant

A Festo SPAB converts air pressure (0-150spi) to voltage (0-5vdc). The voltage is read by Pi Pico's 3.3vdc ADC though an adjustable voltage divider. Air pressure data sent to HomeAssistant via MQTT. Festo SPAB powered via 12vdc POE Splitter and Pi Pico powered via 12vdc to 5vdc buck converter.

The study sessions started out focusing on Derek Molloy's books on Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone, along with the Make: AVR Programming book. The Raspberry Pi book was published in 2016 and based on RPi 3, the Beaglebone book was published in 2015 and updated in 2019 to include PocketBeagle. The Make: AVR Programming book was published in 2014. These books are bit old but still relevant for learning about basic hardware circuits and programming. Recently we've also started to explore RPi Pico.

However, the study sessions has morphed into independent study sessions that has expanded from breadboard circuits to PCB design with KiCAD, through hole and SMD soldering, 3D printing Roger's storage grid system designed with CadQuery, manual and cnc machining, and cobots.

Study sessions are fairly dry and boring so bring a laptop. We have extra Pi Picos to try out book examples and get started.

We typically meet every Friday (sometimes Thursday) evenings. We use the meetups for quick show and tells, share ideas on hardware/electronics/software/firmware, work on our projects, and as a weekly progress reminder.

*** Mask and Vaccination recommended. ***
*** Post 11/05/24 we switched to a Gender Inclusive Restroom policy ***

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