Marcus Folkesson

Embedded Linux Artist

Experimenting with LoRa and MeshCore

Experimenting with LoRa and MeshCore I have experimented with Software Defined Radio and GNU Radio [1] before, but not that much with LoRa. LoRa is usually hidden inside a small radio module where you configure frequency, bandwidth and spreading factor, then let the chip handle everything else. That is convenient, but it also hides all the fun parts. I recently started to play with MeshCore [2], which is a small mesh network built on top of LoRa.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Friday, September 11, 2026

The Shelf - a searchable index of my board games

The Shelf - a searchable index of my board games We have a shelf in the living room that is full of board games. The number of board games is growing for every month and has done so for the last couple of years. This has not always been the case. Actually, it took me 35 years to stop hating board games and start enjoying them. As I, like most of you probably, have a history of Monopoly, Risk and other horrible, horrible lucky based games that just drain the life out of you.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Sunday, August 23, 2026

Electricity price on an e-Paper display

Electricity price on an e-Paper display I've written before about how much the electricity price varies here in Sweden during the day [1]. It's usually cheapest at night and most expensive in the morning and evening, but "usually" is doing a lot of work in that sentence - some days it's the exact opposite, and every now and then a price spike will make an hour or two absurdly expensive.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Monday, August 10, 2026

Making coffee difficult

Making coffee difficult Let's start this post with a video I found on Instagram [1]: I found this video incredibly fun as it reminds me of my own discussions about coffee. Me & Coffee A bit of my history I have been drinking coffee since even before I started elementary school. That's how it is growing up in a farming community; coffee and buns at 1PM for everyone. Then back to work for another 10 hours.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Saturday, August 8, 2026

Remotely controlled USB hub

Remotely controlled USB hub This is no fancy project, but I thought it might be useful for someone out there. There is probably better ways to do this, but this is what I came up with. My situation For those who haven't read my previous post [1], I have recently bought two (yes, TWO!) Rigol DP832 power supplies to power my lab equipment. (I really love them and will never use a non-programmable power supply without ethernet interface again.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Saturday, January 17, 2026

GNSS spoofing using SDR

GNSS spoofing using SDR First of all, sending false GNSS signals on the air is illegal in most countries. You must have a controlled RF environment (Faraday cage or such) to perform GNSS spoofing experiments. A box covered with aluminum foil with copper tape in all joints works quite well, but be sure everything (holes for cables, joints etc) are properly shielded. The best is to not transmit to open air at all, but using coax cables only.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Thursday, January 15, 2026

Repair of my Fluke 179 multimeter

Repair of my Fluke 179 multimeter My belowed Fluke 179 multimeter suddenly stopped working. There was no display, no beeps, nothing. I have had this multimeter for many (12+) years, and it has been a reliable companion in my projects. Fluke has a lifetime warrenty, but that only applies to the original owner, and I bought it second hand. Troubleshooting Here is what I did to troubleshoot the problem.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Thursday, July 3, 2025

An attempt to learn blindfolded chess

An attempt to learn blindfolded chess This is one of my more unusual projects, but I still think it is worth sharing. First of all, I do not consider myself as a skilled chess player. I would not say that I'm bad, but I have a lot more to learn. My ELO at Lichess is about 1400. I have played chess since I was a kid, but I have never been serious about it.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Friday, March 7, 2025

Repair of Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless earbuds

Repair of Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless earbuds I have a pair of Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless (MTW3) earbuds that had been lost for a while. Once I found them, they had been laying around for a while and the battery was completely drained. I tried to charge them, but they did not charge at all. They are completely dead. Here they are. What I could see, there was no obvious way to open them up.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Friday, January 10, 2025

Control of my geothermal heat pump

Control of my geothermal heat pump The electicity price in Sweden varies a lot during the day. It's usually cheapest during the night and most expensive during the day, but not always. One day a week ago, it was not much wind in Germany and therefore we exported electricity there which resulted in very high prices here in Sweden. 1 kWh cost over 10 SEK (almost 1 USD per kWh) for a few hours, this excluding transmission fees and taxes.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Thursday, December 19, 2024