Tomas Basham's Blog

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Git Workflows for Project Management

This is how I use git either working as part of a team or individually. I use an amend/rebase mutable-history workflow where each idea is always represented by one commit. I never make checkpoint commits, and I only need to write git commit messages once per feature (and perhaps amend...

Articles

Starting out in CryEngine V

It is an irrefutable fact that CryEngine is a fantastic game engine. This is made evident be the AAA titles that are being released. As a developer I have been keen to get in on this action and create my own stunning landscapes with a captivating storyline. However upon being...

Building a Bar Top Multicade

For sometime I have wanted an arcade machine for retro gaming, but they can be extremely expensive and take up a lot of space. This is no more true then a full sized cabinet. Furthermore they often come preloaded with only a handful of games that become tiresome pretty quickly....

Brexit Jeopardises a Developing LED Market at Warp Speed

The vote for Britain to leave the European Union may delay benefits UK households would receive as a result of switching to energy efficient LED lighting. Post Brexit it is expected the UK to suffer huge delays in adopting new EU backed initiatives as government trawls through 40 years of...

Netflix and Chill - Part 3

If you have been following along with this tutorial series you should have a working electronic prototype with the necessary code to turn on your TV and signal an external messaging queue to later extend the functionality of your switch using a Raspberry Pi or other internet enabled device. In...

Tricks of the Trade - Hotplate Reflow

I previous covered PCB fabrication and how to apply solder paste using a stencil. Now we’re ready to secure our components. In this article, you will learn how to perform surface mount reflow using inexpensive tools easily purchased on Amazon. From now on I assume you have ready a PCB...

Building libjingle for the Raspberry Pi

Following an increasing trend in decentralised applications there is an ever growing demand to produce secure protocols and software development frameworks from which to implement these applications. The modern browser implements an API definition drafted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), called WebRTC, that supports peer-to-peer (P2P) voice/video calling...

Tricks of the Trade - PCB Fabrication

In a previous article I describe prototyping an electronics project using through hole components and breadboarding. This is an effective method for quickly slapping together a simple circuit but falls short when you need to scale up or miniaturise your design. Typically surface mount reflow is inaccessible to hobbyest, especially...

Netflix and Chill - Part 2

We finished last time with a complete electronics prototype of our Netflix switch. Next we must implement the code to make this a working system. By now we know what hardware we have available to us, but what are we actually trying to achieve? The goal for the original switch...