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Welcome to the latest edition of the VoltJots newsletter, linking you to the very best electronics and IoT news, products, and projects.

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By installing PiZZa, you can run a real-time OS and Arduino Core on a Pi Zero W or Zero 2 W, giving you microcontroller-style control but with way more processing power, RAM, and storage thanks to its quad-core CPU and microSD card.

Unlike passive filters that rely on resistors, capacitors, and sometimes inductors, active filters add op amps to gain signals and shape frequency responses more precisely. This setup avoids loading problems and bulky components, and you can create designs easily with software, keeping in mind that real op amps may affect results.

Quickly calculate the ideal pull-up or pull-down resistor to keep noise low and protect your microcontroller’s pins. By instantly providing both the precise theoretical value and the nearest standard E12/E24 component, it saves you from wasting time hunting for obscure parts or risking component damage with incorrect values.

Source: OctaCalc

Using ESP32, MQTT, and Node-RED, this simulated greenhouse monitors key sensors and controls ventilation, watering, and lighting automatically or manually. The Node-RED dashboard shows real-time data and allows easy switching between control modes on desktop or mobile.

The ELM11 board from Brisbane Silicon runs Lua with a fast multi-core chip and offers a new IDE to simplify hardware interface design. It connects via serial port for instant Lua REPL access, letting you quickly prototype and deploy projects using Lua’s flexible scripting.

Circuit Canvas is a free web app that lets you sketch neat schematics and wiring diagrams fast, right in your browser without installing anything. You can get started in just a few minutes and create simple circuits with ease.

This project guides you through deploying a four-stage AI pipeline on Qualcomm-powered devices to detect hands, track 21 landmarks, and classify gestures like open palm or thumbs up. It handles video input from various sources, visualises results on screen, and streams or exports data for robotics or automation setups.

The TP4056 manages charging current from 130mA up to 1A, protecting lithium Ion cells from overcharging or discharging too low. It includes status outputs to show charging progress and works with input voltages between 4V and 8V, suitable for USB power. This article covers how to use the chip and its breakout boards safely, including setting temperature limits.

Built around an ESP32-S3, TongDou uses radar and an IMU to understand its environment, moves on gearmotor wheels, displays on an OLED, and chats with pre-recorded voice lines inside a stylish brass tube.

Espressif has kicked off mass production of the ESP32-S31, a dual-core RISC-V SoC running up to 320 MHz with a 128-bit SIMD core, low-power coprocessor, and support for DDR PSRAM and 60 GPIO pins, designed for AIoT devices needing fast processing and multimedia support.

Modbus RTU is a reliable serial protocol that links sensors and controllers using binary data over RS485. This guide shows you how to read sensor data like humidity and temperature with Arduino and the MAX485 module for solid communication.

A beginner electronics project that demonstrates how to wirelessly control an LED using an Arduino and a smartphone app via Bluetooth.

A network-attached storage system built from scratch features the Radxa Rock Pi 5 ITX, combining 8 CPU cores and a Mali-G610 GPU. It runs Armbian with CasaOS on Debian, enabling simple file access over the local network and sports a self-designed enclosure with large heatsink-style fins.

Seeed Studio’s reTerminal Sticky offers a 3.97-inch 800x480 ePaper display with an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, combining voice control, sensor data, and storage in a compact magnetic unit. It includes next/previous buttons, a microphone for voice-to-note, temperature and humidity sensors, and a 3-axis accelerometer.

Discover how Light Dependent Resistors help your Arduino projects sense ambient light and activate devices like night lights, alarms, or streetlights based on real-world lighting conditions.

You can get your ESP32 up and running using just three easy tools and no programming at all, making it simple to create working projects in just one afternoon!

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