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• USB Tester BT4 Backpack

  MobileWill • 08/17/2015 at 19:25 • 0 comments

  Just wanted to post up a picture of the backpack with bluetooth. This is a prototype that has bluetooth and the Android app working. Its BT 4.0 and has an SD card on the bottom as well as a RGB LED. This is instead of the OLED display. A future ARM version would have both OLED and BT/SD/RGB combined into one design.

• Updated 3D Printed Case

  MobileWill • 08/17/2015 at 05:07 • 0 comments

  The 3D printed case is almost complete. I made some adjustments to the nubs inside to keep the backpack snug when you push the button. Before it was causing the case to come off.

  The same for the bottom portion of the case. Now when you pull it apart the case stays attached. There is very little play in the case.

  Here are some of the updated pictures of the case printed with an Micro3D.

• VA Tester Demo

  MobileWill • 08/17/2015 at 05:06 • 0 comments

  The VA Tester is a Voltage and Ampere breakout for measuring DC current from 0-26V at 3.2A Max. Using the screw terminal you can easily put this in inline between your power supply and your project. Just like the USB Tester. Except now you can use this for any project that isn't USB powered. Then you can probe the voltage or current with your DMM(Digital Multi-Meter).

  Here is my VA Tester demo video that I previously recorded with the original version.

• Licenses

  MobileWill • 08/11/2015 at 05:32 • 0 comments

  All the USB Tester firmware and designs are CC-SA-BY-NC. The NC part is actually only there so that if someone wanted to sell their own version I would like to be in the loop. Other than that it is open source and companies are free to use it internally. All sources are on Github for your viewing pleasure.
  

• Screenshots of Android App

  MobileWill • 08/11/2015 at 05:23 • 0 comments

  The Android app allows for remote monitoring without having to be tied to your workbench. The app works Bluetooth 4.0 or direct via USB OTG. Of course the latter you would still be tethered, but not if you have a Pebble smartwatch! It will pipe the data to your watch if you enable the option.

  One thing to note is I need to work on negative values. There seems to be an issue with the min value as it is always 0mA.
  

• VA Tester in Action

  MobileWill • 08/11/2015 at 05:16 • 0 comments

  Recently I used the VA Tester to monitor battery charging via a solar panel. Here is a picture of the setup.
  

  This setup is with the VA Tester and the Bluetooth Backpack. I am able to monitor the battery from anywhere in the house. The cool thing is I can tell from the graph whether the battery is charging or supplying power.

  Here is a picture with the OLED Backpack. You can see that it shows -8mA so the the battery is being charged.

• Schematic and Board Images

  MobileWill • 08/11/2015 at 05:09 • 0 comments

  Here are images of the board and schematics for the USB Tester and OLED Backpack.

• 3D Printed Case

  MobileWill • 08/09/2015 at 02:39 • 0 comments

  The last few weeks/days have been trying to tweak a 3D printed case to fit the USB Tester snugly. Between dealing with the printer and tweaking the design, I have had a hard time getting a good fit. The design is a two piece that separates the same way the USB Tester does from the backpack.

  I need to figure out a solution for the LED. If I use semi/translucent filament it works nicely. For solid color filament I need either a hole or a setup for a light pipe but the LED is so close to the supports for the button. So it'll probably have to be a small hole or just stick to translucent filament.

  I added tabs to hold the PCB tightly, but at this point I need to move them closer to the PCB and maybe add another tab below where the button is.

  The last thing is to have holes so you can use the base with banana test leads. They would slide through the Tester and through the bottom of the case. Or I could just make the case have more space between the base and the case to allow for more room for the banana leads.

  Here are some pictures of the progression. This set was printed with a Micro3D. I will do another post with pictures of ones printed with a Wanhao Duplicator i3.

  The little pieces on the end are the buttons that fit into a the hole with slots for the arms of the button. This design works quite well. I have to give credit to my co-worker for giving me a another set of eyes to look over the design.

• Android App

  MobileWill • 07/02/2015 at 20:24 • 0 comments

  Currently in beta is an Android app that works over OTG or Bluetooth LE when the Bluetooth version is ready. I have a working prototype that I can post pictures soon.

  The BT version replaces the OLED with just BTLE, SD Card, and RGB LED.

  The Android app displays all the different types of graphs and gives control to setup the RGB LED.

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