Flowcode Support Board

Today I tried to access the site and it was closed down. Would it be possible to list the available components here?
Also, if someone needs a component, how can we get it? I own only the SI4703 FM Radio component from that site (I think I have purchased it).

Yes - world events rather put paid to things - and the £4.50 in sales didn't cover the hosting costs
I still have the components I did - (somewhere) - I can post them. What are you interested in particularly?

Martin

Hi Martin,

I think I purchased the Si4703 component from you, along with a separate .pdf.
Is this the only FM radio chip you have? For example, another FM radio chip component is Si473x.
My interest would also go into DAB radio chips.

Another component I am searching for is MAX6954/MAX6955 to drive a 14/16-segment LED display with more digits.

It would be nice to see the complete list of components you have tested, and maybe forum members will purchase them from you via the forum.

Andreas

Hi Andreas,

I think the forum rules forbid advertising / selling...

The MAX695x chips look interesting and should be relatively easy to get working, I'd also like to play with the radio chips - having the multi-band capability is much more interesting than just FM - and I see some variants support weather satellite data too!
Would you suggest a suitable dev board for either / both - I usually try to post the code I do (or bits I hope others will find useful) on the forum - and Matrix have been very generous with support (and cake ) although I do also do some work on commission...

Martin

Hi Martin,


One good evaluation board which I could recommend is "MAX6955 Evaluation Kit", sold under the name MAX6955EVKIT. The board costs around 100EUR and it's very well documented, as you can see in the enclosed document:
The board comes populated with all the displays and required components to make it work. My focus so far has been on playing with 74HC595 shift registers and learning how they work, but my interest is in alphanumeric displays and eventually doing a project with them.

If you want something to prototype quickly, I recommend you have a look at Mikroe Click boards, as there is a Black Friday sale during this period. For example, I have purchased the following products: mikroBUS Shuttle, Arduino Nano Click Shield, 7seg Click, 2x2 Key Click, LCD mini Click with LMB162XFW 2x16 characters LCD, RTC 10 Click, and more.

Mikroe also has four different Click boards which would work well with Arduino Nano, and they are called FM Click, RadioStation Click, AM/FM Click, and AM/FM2 Click: https://www.mikroe.com/click/audio-and-voice/fm

I live in Scandinavia, and for example, in Norway, all FM stations have been shut down and now there is DAB almost everywhere. To me, FM does not have a long life - even many of the modern cars now come with DAB by default, and it's extremely strange to see a SW/MW/LW radio together with FM.

They are some SoC from NXP that are dedicated to DAB, but I have not looked for development kits. At the moment, I am trying to get help to start with some basic projects in FC, and such a project would be too advanced for my level of knowledge. Still, I would play with an FM radio chip...


Andreas

I think I'll order some ht16k33 displays as a gateway device. They are much cheaper - and perhaps more hobbyist friendly - they don't have the built in character set - but that's a very minor drawback.
Not sure if Flowcode's starburst display covers this?
Then when that's working it should be easy enough to modify for the MAX device. Will have a look at some radio chips while I'm trawling AliExpress...

Martin

I would avoid a chip/SoC/SoM manufacturer from Asia. Indeed, they are much cheaper, maybe broadly spread among hobbyists (especially Espressif SoC), but serious manufacturers won't use them in their products. For example, I would not share my WiFi password with a project that involves an ESP32. I don't know if you have seen this article, and it's just an example:

https://cybernews.com/security/engineer ... ot-vacuum/

I do find serious and well-documented manufacturers like NXP, Nordic Semiconductor, Analog Devices, Microchip, Silicon Labs, and many others.

Just saying...

Yes - I would agree. For any 'serious' stuff (work) then OEM is best. However, for something intended as an interesting programming exercise (play) - then £2.50 is easier to swallow than £75. Usually for dev work someone else is paying for the kit
I've found quality to be pretty good generally - apart from some duff dfplayer boards from TEMU.
The esp32 - does, of course, offer a LOT of bang for the pound and I'm not sure the Chinese are any more interested in me than Bill Gates was in tracking my every move after my vaccinations! I was never sure why all those smart lights / plugs etc - only ran through a(nother) dubious app though - so have avoided those. I know someone who works in government - and Alexa is banned too, just in case it (or it's handlers) are listening!

Martin

Hi

I do some Proof of Concept (PoC) and whilst I wholeheartedly agree with andeug regarding the hidden dangers of Chinese products, they do have their place (in many cases the bin).

If need to establish if something or other is the way forward or just a bad idea, I'd much rather spend £10 on amazon (other cheapo sites are available) to discover it was a bad idea, than perhaps £100 with a reputable supplier.

Also, many cheapo sensor boards come with header pins for you to solder on yourselves. I bin them and use pins from companies such as Farnel etc as the cheapo pins are of such poor quality, your jumpers then become a liability. Earlier this year I looked at some sensors purchased last year. One had cheapo pins, the other "proper" ones. Cheapo pins were covered in rust....

Regards