2020
November
- Using a Chromebook in 2020
I’ve just got hold of a Lenovo Ideapad Duet 2-in-1 Chromebook/tablet. ChromeOS seems to have come quite a long way since I last used the HP Chromebook 11 back in 2013. With native support for Android apps and a full Debian linux that seemlessly integrates with the rest of the OS – maybe we’re finally at a point where a Chromebook could be a device capable of doing real work!
June
- Peanut Arduboy kit
I finally got around to assembling this little Peanut kit that I bought from Tindie a couple of months ago. The kit comes with everything you need (except a battery) to build a tiny (50 x 35mm) Arduboy-compatible handheld game. The specs are as follows: Arduino Pro Micro 0.96” OLED screen Piezo speaker The build instructions were very simple to follow, requiring only basic soldering skills (and a tiny SMD resistor to change out). Uploading games to the Peanut is pretty straight-forward. On Windows there are a couple of applications available. On Linux the process is a little more involved but it works great once you’ve got it set up. The only thing to note – in my experience – the ATTRS{idProduct} for the udev rules is slightly different with the Arduino Pro Micro provided in the Peanut kit, but you can easily find the correct value by checking the output of lsusb. There’s a bunch of games available on the Arduboy forum and also a nice curated list of games that can be automatically uploaded with the desktop app.