At Qxf2 Services, we explore and test different hardware products. Recently, we come across Estimote Beacons. We purchased and explored them. We like the Eddystone-URL protocol which can broadcast a URL to nearby devices. We think this is a useful feature for a lot of shop owners, especially in large malls. In this post, we will show you how to […]
Broadcast a URL using Estimote Beacon (no code required!)
A configurable pothole for testing autonomous cars – Part 4
This is our last post in a four-part series about building a configurable pothole for testing autonomous cars. We built the configurable pothole prototype with five independent Scotch Yoke units controlled by servo motors and an Arduino UNO. For more background, please read the previous post of this series where we discuss how to interface Scotch Yoke units with Arduino UNO and […]
A configurable pothole for testing autonomous cars – Part 3
This is our third post about building a configurable pothole to test autonomous cars. We are making the configurable pothole with five independent Scotch Yoke units controlled by servo motors and an Arduino UNO. For more background, please read the second post of this series where we discuss two methods which convert angular movement to linear movement, why we selected […]
A configurable pothole for testing autonomous cars- Part 2
Autonomous cars are becoming a reality. We were wondering how testers could contribute to overcoming the engineering challenges related to self-driving cars. In the previous post of series, we discussed how self-driving cars work, typical sensors used in self-driving cars and some unconquered engineering challenges for self-driving cars. At the end of the post, we decided pothole detection was a suitable […]
A configurable pothole for testing autonomous cars – Part 1
A lot of research and development activity is going towards producing self-driving cars. Google and Tesla are playing a major role. We read many articles to figure out what all the fuss was about. And before we knew it, we were hooked. We even tried to imagine where we, testers, could play a role. We ended up building a configurable […]
Testing the Fitbit heart rate monitoring system: Part 2
In this post, we outline a cheap and creative way to perform repeatable and controlled tests on the Fitbit heart rate monitor. Our test has a reasonable degree of accuracy. We hope it helps the Fitbit developers rapidly test their prototypes. To be clear: thorough, accurate and precise testing is needed in the later stages of development. The test outlined […]
Testing the Fitbit heart rate monitoring system: Part 1
We outline a quick and dirty test for testing Fitbit’s heart rate monitor. This is the first in a series of two posts that will cover our work on developing a cheap and quick test with an acceptable level of accuracy for the Fitbit heart rate monitor. Why this post? The ‘why’ behind this post is long. You can safely […]