Creating Constrained Certificate Authorities

This blog post has been written in collaboration with Mohit Gupta whose blog covers cybersecurity and other random technical things. For our home labs, we have a number of internal systems shared between the two of us including a number of web services. Originally, these were accessed over plaintext HTTP connections, or bypassing any certificate… Read More »

A Primer on implementing POE devices

This is part two of a two part writeup on building POE (power over ethernet) devices. This part gathers together the information I discovered when going through this process with the aim to be a useful starting point for others looking to add POE functionality to a device. The previous part covered the design and… Read More »

Building a POE enabled lighting fixture

This is part one of a two part writeup on building POE (power over ethernet) devices. This section covers the design and build of the project, a network controlled stack light, and part two will go into more detail on how to add POE functionality to a device. The idea for the project came when… Read More »

Pi 4 with partial USB Type-C fixes

Reports are coming in that a fixed version of the raspberry pi 4 in the 4GB version has started to come through via distributors and this has been confirmed by the raspberry pi foundation. While some people have encountered this version as far back as november they are now becoming more comonplace. The new version… Read More »

Making PCB end panels for enclosures

When making custom electronics, producing a quality enclosure for the boards can make any project look more professional. There are a large range of enclosures which use end panels, such as the Hammond 1593 series, which can be replaced by custom panels fabricated using standard PCB production techniques.  The result is a good looking enclosure… Read More »

Using USB Type-C on hobyist projects

The new Type-C USB connector is the latest addition to the USB connector standards. It offers reversible plugs, direction independent cables, USB3.1 speeds, and 3A charging in a connector only a little bigger than the USB 2.0 MicroB connector. In order to add these capabilities the plugs and connectors have additional configuration pins to allow… Read More »