iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Here's an FS3000 Airflow Sensor attached to an Espressif #esp32 #microcontroller sending UDP packets with airflow data to a computer to detect air speed. The circuit is attached to an RC #CyberTruck and a McLaren to test the speed of the cars. There's a longer explanation on my website.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Here is a proof of concept analog calculator using a @microchip-makes.bsky.social Curiosity Nano dsPIC33. Instead of using logic gates to add/sub numbers, this uses a DAC / opamp / ADC to do the math with analog voltages with code written in Java. More Info: www.mikekohn.net/micro/analog...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Here's a stirling engine generating electricity to power an ATtiny85 microcontroller that plays music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3b0...

youtube.com

Stirling Engine w/ Electricity Generator

YouTube video by Mike Kohn

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

With big tech buying up all the RAM chips causing a chip shortage, I came up with this solution: Cloud RAM! Using an #FPGA as a MIPS CPU, instead of fetching data from a memory bus, this CPU can fetch it with UDP over a network to a cluster of #RaspberryPi 4's. www.mikekohn.net/micro/cloud_...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Xylophone + Solenoids = name that tune? The circuit runs on a Microchip (Atmel) ATtiny2313 with code in AVR8 assembly. The chip controls 8 solenoids and sends MIDI commands to an M5Stack MIDI module for drums. Code + music data fits in 2k of flash. More Info: www.mikekohn.net/micro/soleno...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Vacuum Tube Oven Experiment: I built this circuit around an ATtiny2313 microcontroller which could turn on / off 2 vacuum tubes in a thermos based on temperature from a MAX31855 kit from @adafruit.com. Tried to cook a kind of St. Louis style pizza.. More info: www.mikekohn.net/micro/easy_b...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Edible MIDI Keyboard: This is a musical MIDI keyboard with Kit Kat candy for keys. Longer video and more info here: www.mikekohn.net/micro/edible...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Two computers networked using lasers by using Linux's tunnel feature, a user land program that listens to the tun0 device, USB-UART cables, and an Atmel ATtiny85. The UARTs run at 2400 baud. More info here: www.mikekohn.net/micro/ip_ove...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Further progress on my latest FPGA project. This shows HDMI output with some Atari 2600 looking image and some sprites animating.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Guitar hooked up to an #ESP32 microcontroller. The ESP32 converts frequency to a MIDI note and sends it to a computer over a UART cable. More Info: www.mikekohn.net/micro/guitar...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Here's some of Post-it Note artwork I made.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Just got this tape player so I can make mix tapes for my friends. Or maybe not... have an idea for a weird project to try...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Got a pin from the St. Louis Battlehawks for being a season ticket holder. Looking forward to the next season of the UFL!

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Here's a Mandelbrot generated by code written in PDP-11 assembly language. The software is assembled by naken_asm and the PDP-11 core is running in an FPGA. I'm hoping to expand it to a bigger project later...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Instead of a standard root beer float, here's a (non-alcoholic) beer float with strawberry shortcake ice cream.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The past couple days of BlueSky has given me a craving for chicken TACOs. So made a couple for breakfast...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

RC Car Race Track: An ESP32 times how fast the car crosses the laser beam and displays the results on a 4 line LCD display. Included is an ATtiny85 based racing light tree. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCKg...

youtube.com

Race Track For RC Car

YouTube video by Mike Kohn

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Here's a mini-golf circuit made from two ESP32's that talk over WiFi. An RFID tag in 3 different balls know which player is hitting and a NanoBeacon from @sparkfun.bsky.social in each ball broadcast data from 3 axis accelerometers for a hit count. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FQi...

youtube.com

Mini Golf Circuit

YouTube video by Mike Kohn

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Caught this feral cat taking a nap on my deck the other day.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

They handed out towels at the #Battlehawks game last night. I guess that's why I feel like signing up for Verizon Business now. Three more #UFL games left in the regular season here in St. Louis.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Took this picture last night at the St. Louis Battlehawks game before it started. They gave us a mascot :).

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Got these LED letters from @adafruit.com ... figured I'd use them to let people at work know who I am. Running on an MSP430 microcontroller.. 100 ohms / 3.3v on each letter to get this level of brightness.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

NanoBeacon modules from @sparkfun.bsky.social soldered with analog 3 axis accelerometers for an upcoming project. These are configured to emit the X, Y, Z values of the accelerometers every 500ms using bluetooth. An ESP32 is being used to read these values.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Got this Sipeed Tang Nano 20k #FPGA board and got the Verilog implementation of the W65C832 (32 bit 6502) I did earlier working with it. The currently running program is written in assembly language and writes to a @sparkfun.bsky.social LCD display over SPI.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Short video of the feral cat that likes to visit me.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Here's a @sparkfun.bsky.social NanoBeacon breakout board with a 3 axis accelerometer. It's currently set up to announce it's rotational position every second to an ESP32. First part of a new project...

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Here's a 1 bit half adder made out of transistors. This consists of an XOR gate (at the top, made out of 4 NAND gates of 2 transistors each) to do an add and an AND gate (2 transistors for a NAND and a 3rd to invert the output) for the carry bit.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

This should be... 4 NAND gates and 1 AND gate made with transistors. Plus a could LED circuits.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

While attempting to take a picture of this feral cat before feeding her.. she smacked me and my phone.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

This is a cheap R/C car replaced with my own electronics / firmware and 2 big ducted fans. Runs 2 MSP430's and wireless XBee's. A relay on the front is hooked up to an ATtiny85 circuit to cut power if it hits anything. Finished 5 years ago but never tried it for fear of winning a Darwin award.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

$1 Wooden airplane + ATtiny85 microcontroller, tiny motors with propellers, IR receiver, and a 3.7v lipo battery. Earlier tests got it to pick up off the ground but I didn't capture it on video. This was probably the last flight.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Pizza Box Propeller Car - Powered by an #MSP430 and two small motors running at 3.3v (sadly off the regulator .. not good). Instead of wheels there are 3 castors at the bottom so it's very difficult to control.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Taking the SMD MSP430G2231 from my earlier post and attaching: a piezo speaker, 2 LEDs, and a CR2032 looks like. It's running at I believe ~0.3 MHz and only blinks out this pattern once every 1m47s or so. With 150 ohms on the LEDs this should last a while I hope.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Gave up trying to solder directly to the little pins of an MSP430 and soldered the chip to a breakout board instead.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Tried to "dead bug" solder small wires to this surface mount MSP430. From the picture on the website I ordered it from, it looked like it would be bigger and easier to work with.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

UFL football season is starting soon.. hopefully this year the Battlehawks will have a 2025 towel to give out on opening day to add to my collection since they skipped it last year :).

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Since I see a lot of posts on Bluesky with pictures of cats... here's a picture of a neighborhood feral cat that likes to come to my back door and extort me for food. In this picture (taken with a trail cam) she is high on catnip.

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Here's a #Verilog implementation of the Apollo Guidance Computer in an #FPGA. This computer was used in the Apollo spacecraft along a duplicate in the Lunar Lander that landed on the #moon. More info: www.mikekohn.net/micro/apollo... Thanks to @righto.com for the info on the divide instruction!

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Michael Kohn @mikeakohn.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

This was my last #FPGA project... this is a #Mandelbrot generated by a 65C832 (a 32 bit 6502 CPU) that I implemented in #Verilog. More info: www.mikekohn.net/micro/w65c83...

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