December 2021

-Anthony postponed his 555 talk to January due to PC operating system corruption. He mentioned how he finally restored his Windows 10 by doing a installation overwrite instead of a install-with-user-data which required large amounts of free disk space.

Alex showed the following:

-Arduino OneButton library to handle single/double/multi-clicks by a pushbutton switch. It is supported on the ATMEGA,STM32 and ESP platforms.

-USBtinyISP AVR programmer using an ATTINY85 for burning bootloaders into boards like the Nano. Supports 5V and 3.3V micros by stepping down the USB 5V.

-test results of short-term power backups using supercaps versus battery on ESP32.

Martin showed how he soldered SMD components like LEDs and resistors using a cheap hotplate from Aliexpress. The results are quite acceptable for hobbyists but desoldering is not as effective for through-hole boards.

-Bob spoke about nearly winning a prime number competition and the Ulam spiral, a graphical display of prime numbers generated from a square spiral.

-Technobite(a new 5-min talk on a single tech topic):

-Alex showed a Wiki article on phased array radar used by new generation AWACs aircraft like the RAAF E-7 Wedgetail instead of the older rotodome USAF E-3 Sentry.