LinkIt Smart 7688 Duo


 
FYI - Using an external antenna on the LinkIt is yielding a much more stable wifi connection, especially at distance and through concrete walls. You have to desolder the 0R resistor that leads to the on-board chip antenna for the external antenna to work. It's as simple as heating the soldering iron up and then wiping the resistor off with it. No need for a solder sucker or wick or anything of the sort.

uqod3ab.jpg
 
Something neat I've stumbled upon is the ability for both the MPU and MCU to set and read the value of the shared pins. In my Arduino sketch, I'm reading the value of digital pin 7, which is GPIO pin 0 on the MPU. I can set GPIO 0 to low or high and have the sketch react to the high/low state.


 
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I spent about $160 CAD in total. $100 for the lights, $40 for the 2 x 5V Regulators and 2 packs of waterproof connectors

The lights are 3 x 5M strips ( 5M @ 150 LEDs, waterproof, white PCB )

The voltage regulators are sealed / waterproof as I have them sitting in the rain gutters so be as close to the LED strips as possible. I wasn't sure if I'd need both or not, but there was too much voltage drop at the end of 15 meters, so a 2nd power supply made a world of difference. Throughout my testing with the strips in the house, neither of the 2 regulators got anywhere near warm, they were always cool to the touch, so I'm clearly not pulling gobs of current from them.

I'm powering the voltage regulators with a pair of surplus HP laptop power supplies that are rated for 19V @ 4 or 5A. I didn't pay anything for them, but they should be easily found for under $20 each with shipping. I can snag you a couple if you really want, since you're in the GTA!

I also spent another $50 at home depot on PVC pipe, zip ties and metal strapping.
 
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I also learned what "Compatible with Arduino Yún sketches" means. You get access to the IP stack running on the OpenWrt side of things from the Arduino! This thing is becoming so much more useful and fun to play around with!

Time to start playing around with the HTTP Client.
 

 

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