Enlightenment Desktop on Fedora

I have been a full-time Linux user for just over 2 years now and I have never looked back. In the world of embedded software, web development, database design and electronics design it makes a lot of sense for me to run a free operating system.

Just today I was watching a very entertaining video about a shell named Terminology. This shell is unique in that it allows images to be "catted" to the interface. I did some more research and discovered Enlightenment Desktop.

Fun with Embedded HTTP Servers

I have been distracted for the past week by an embedded HTTP server. I am currently taking a very exciting course entitled Internet Embedded Systems taught by Senior Embedded Software Designer Robert Laswick. The end goal of the course is to achieve web based control and status of hardware.

Olimex MOD-IO with ENC28J60 Module

After I completed the core objective of the course I decided to run absolutely wild with the concept. I created some Makefile targets that minify, gzip and convert web resources (HTML, JavaScript, CSS) into C header files which I can then serve up to the browser.

AVR VGA Generation

I have always wanted to create a VGA generator. It has been a personal goal of mine for some time. Over the past couple of weeks I toyed with the idea and finally decided to implement one. I decided to implement it as a framebuffer to allow for general purpose display rather than application specific display. I implemented my own small colour gamut to be memory and CPU efficient.

I have made the source code available on Github.

Daft Punk from Tron Legacy

VGA Controller on a Breadboard

New Breadboards!

I ordered some breadboards 3 weeks ago and they have arrived today. I really like breadboards for building and prototyping some of my simple and even my not-so-simple projects. I ordered them from eBay user sinedya and they arrived within 3 weeks. This is a typical amount of time required to ship from China to Canada.

The quality is great and for less than $4.00 each, they are a steal!

Revisiting Projects - Microcontroller Audio Playback

This is another one of my older projects from the fall of 2010. I became very interested in playing audio using my microcontroller. This project is based upon my ATmega Butterfly board but this time I have paired it with an SD card and a lone DAC for monaural audio playback.

The final project assembled on two breadboards.

Revisiting Projects - Oscilloscope Graphics

Over the past few years I have developed a keen interest in working on small projects in my spare time. They typically involve a microcontroller or some fun analog circuitry. This blog will revisit an old project of mine from circa August 2010. I had just received my first oscilloscope and decided that it would be fun to show some graphics on it in X-Y mode.

The Mohawk College Logo

Hello World!

Microcontroller 128x96px 8bpp Frame Buffer

What is this place?

Welcome to The Resistor Network! I have decided to create this blog as a place to share my technology-related projects. I have a deep interest in the field of embedded software design, electronics and, at a higher level, the development of dynamic web applications.

A Brief Biography

My name is Andrew Rossignol, and I am passionate about electronics. I have been interested in electronics and technology since I was a child, when I would hook up simple series and parallel circuits. I started getting involved in embedded software development during my high school years. The ATmega Butterfly was my first demo board and I created simple PWM controllers and melody generators. I have been taking on personal and professional projects ever since!

My Style

I like big cities and the constant energy that they have. I love every aspect of the 8-bit scene and own a Commodore 64 and a couple of accessories. The artistic and technical creations of members of the demoscene never cease to amaze me. I have a nice collection of chiptunes that I listen to while coding. They keep me productive into the wee hours.

I can be geeky when I enjoy technology of past years, but I also know the importance of modern computer architecture. Older equipment gives me a view of the foundations of many technologies that we know and use today. The resource constraints force me to be more efficient with the modern resource abundant technology that exists today.