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Blink a LED on a Raspberry Pi With Vaadin

As I'm becoming a senior developer in terms of age, I've transitioned from one language to another. One of my main interests has always been clean, easy-to-understand UIs (User Interface). That journey started for me with Director (to create multimedia CD-ROMs), Flash website animation, and Flex Rich Internet Applications (= "Flash on steroids"). When I started developing with Java over 10 years ago, we had some projects with the early versions of Vaadin and JavaFX. As I went on with serverside applications, I only continued with JavaFX for some personal and side projects and loved the way you can create a UI both with XML (FXML actually) and code, exactly the same approach I loved with Flex. Since then, my love for Java and JavaFX only grew and it's still my major programming environment.

But JavaFX has one missing piece: running it in the browser... Yes, JPRO can do this, but it needs a license and a dedicated server. And yes, there are some projects ongoing to bring JavaFX fully to the browser, but they are ongoing and not mature yet... Let's look at another approach: Vaadin Flow and run it on a Raspberry Pi to control a LED and show the state of a button.

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Shop signage for business prosperity

Today, there are many ways to promote products and services, and one of these effective methods is signage.

Sign making as one of the advertising tools among the people has developed and become so popular that it is no longer considered a cost but an investment for the business.

Signs are either placed in the form of billboards in squares and crossings and highways or at the entrance of the business premises, or on the roofs and are exposed to the public.

The better the quality, beauty and lighting of the panel, the more effective it will be in attracting customers.

Panel making is designed and implemented in different types such as Chelnium, Flexi, LED, metal, neon plastic, light box and city TV panels. Each of them has its own design and implementation process.

Chelnium embossed panel has gained more fans these days than other types due to its lighting with different and beautiful colors.
Advantages of making a panel:

Signage is more durable than other advertising tools and is resistant to cold and heat and sunshine and dust and does not deteriorate, and if the conditions are provided that you have to move and relocate it can be easily in the area. Moved geographically.

Billboard making is superior to other advertising tools such as leaflets because most people pay very little attention to it when they receive a tract and may even throw it away without looking, but billboards when at business or in the market. And the crossings and highways are installed, they are exposed to the public for a long time, and whether they like it or not, everyone even pays attention to it once, and when they need it, they go to the desired place, and maybe to the customer. Become permanent.

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Building Blazor ”Hello, Blinky” IoT Application

Build your Blazor IoT app in the blink of an eye!

I thought my first ASP.NET Core edition of Hello, Blinky would be my last, at least for a long time. But then something reminded me of Blazor, and I thought why not build a Blazor edition of Hello, Blinky for Windows IoT Core and Raspberry Pi? After some hacking, I made it work. Here's my Hello, Blinky for Blazor.

You may also like: Building an ASP.NET Core ''Hello, Blinky'' IoT Application

Who the Heck Is Hello, Blinky?

Hello, Blinky is sort of like the "Hello, World" from Raspberry Pi and other microboards. While it's possible to do a "Hello, World" with these boards, why not do something more interesting with connected electronics? Isn't that what those boards were made for anyway?

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How do LED monitors make the connections between each LED

From my understanding, LED monitors turn each pixel on sequentially at such a high speed that the human eye can't observe it, but how does it make the necessary connections? For example, for a monitor made with a single color of LED across a standard HD resolution (say 1940 x 1080) there would have to be 3020 connections assuming its built in a grid.

I'm assuming I'm missing something.

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DIY Wireless Magnetic Levitating Moon Lamp

If your child ever makes a special wish, you will do everything in your power to make it happen, right? So, my daughter's wish was a 'moon lamp'. And here is it: a magnetic, levitating (MagLev) wireless moonlight:

MagLev Wireless LED Moon

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For The Record, My Liberty Lite Earbuds Review

I am something of a self-confessed Anker hardware fan. I've been using their cables, power supplies and portable chargers for years now. However, I never really thought of Anker in the audio space, until now. Soundcore is an Anker brand with just audio products out there, as the name suggests. So, I needed some new earphones for my daily multi-mile walks and thought I'd give Soundcore a go. Especially when I saw these 'Liberty Lite' wireless earbuds were so much cheaper than the big brand versions from the likes of Apple, Bose and Samsung. Not that I have an iPhone, I'm currently a Samsung kind of a guy for my sins. Anyway, I took the plunge and as these earbuds have had something of a mixed bag of reviews on Amazon I thought I'd share my experiences with DaniWeb users.

First things first then, the price. Here in the UK, Apple is currently asking a whopping £159 ($200) for a pair of AirPods. Way too expensive an ask for me, especially as I say I don't have an iPhone. OK, so seeing as I do have a Samsung phone what sort of price are a set of the latest Gear IconX earbuds? Erm, amazingly they are even more expensive at £179 ($230) which is the same as a set of Bose SoundSport buds. All far too rich for my blood I'm afraid. There's always the you get what you pay for argument to consider, which is why I wouldn't go near the no-brand £20 a set clones that are all over Amazon. The Liberty Lite's, however, are branded and hit the middle ground when looking at cost: you can currently pick them up at Amazon for £59.99 ($75).

What do you get for your money? Well, what you don't get is the quite the same top-end feel as those other aforementioned products. Yes, you get a charging case but it's very much a hard plastic job and not particularly pleasant to hold. Do I care? Nope, why would I? The thing stays either in my backpack, my pocket or on my bedside table. It works, and works well. Drop the buds in, and they snap into place thanks to the magnetized charging points, and start charging immediately. You get nine hours of charge from the case, with LED indicators on the outside to show the current level as well as LEDs on the buds to show they are charging. That's on top of the three hours the buds hold themselves.

The buds are also a little plasticky, but not so as to be uncomfortable in the ear. Not least as you get a bunch of different ear tips (in sizes ranging from extra small to large) and a bunch of rubberized 'wings' which make for a much nicer touch experience once fitted. More importantly, I was able to find a combination of the two that fit my unhuman-shaped ears really nicely. Comfort has not been an issue even when worn for two hours straight during one of my walks around the West Yorkshire countryside where I live. Nor do I fear that they are going to fall out and I'll watch my investment quite literally go down the drain.

I kind of miss having a volume control, you can only skip backwards and forwards between tracks, pause and take/reject calls with different presses of one or the other buds. Talking of which, I also miss the volume being a bit louder if I'm honest. Yeah, I know, it's not good for me but I'm a big boy now and can deafen myself if I want. Except I can't, at least not with these buds. Don't get me wrong, they are not stupid quiet, far from it. They just aren't as loud as I am used to. They are pretty noise isolating though, which kind makes up for it.

What they are, though, is truly really nice sounding. I was half expecting a compromise on the audio, but was pleasantly surprised to discover a really broad soundstage delivery and a decent amount of warmth in the tone. I've had more detail from headphones, but generally they are going to be closed ear jobbies and costing twice as much as these babies. Again, no complaints from me on the audio quality whether I'm listening to Adele or Five Finger Death Punch!

As for the specs, seeing as we are all tech geeks here, the Liberty Lites don't disappoint either. Bluetooth 5 makes for a reliable connection, and I've not experienced the dropouts I note some buyers on Amazon have complained about. There's the IPX5 'sweat proofing' which is good enough not to worry about a bit of singing in the rain. They aren't waterproof though, so no singing in the shower.