A practical account of sitting the UK Amateur Radio Foundation licence exam, including preparation, exam format, and next steps into the hobby.

Integrating the BME280 sensor into a weather station project, debugging a BMP280 mix-up, and verifying sensor identity via I2C device ID.

Testing the weather station PCB by verifying the OLED display, UART connection, and sensor modules, while uncovering an unexpected BMP280 sensor mix-up.

A practical look at using AI as a copy editor to improve clarity, readability, and workflow efficiency—without giving up control or relying on AI to do the thinking.

Finishing the weather station prototype PCB, testing the assembled board, discovering an OLED pinout mismatch, and investigating reverse voltage through the LDO regulator.

Assembling and testing a custom weather station PCB, including SMD reflow using a hotplate, lessons learned, and early-stage debugging.

A practical look at using the ATtiny1614 as a low-cost co-processor in embedded systems, and where it fits alongside newer alternatives.

Testing cheap hotplates for SMD soldering and experimenting with Sn42Bi58 low-temperature solder paste.

A practical walkthrough of building a simple compiler for a custom Digital Sequencer DSL, covering lexical analysis, syntax parsing, semantic validation, and bytecode generation for embedded systems.

Defining the core instruction set for a digital sequencer DSL, including SET command behaviour, execution model considerations, and mapping to a compiled bytecode representation.