M5STack Large Language Model Upgrade

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You can even program the LLM using FlowCode - and you can work with the Python behind it too

One of the toys that I used at DDD North on Saturday was the M5Stack Large Language Model (LLM) unit. This is a complete embedded large language implementation that fits into an M5Stack Core device. I got it a while ago, and today I thought I’d bring it up to date. I upgraded it to the latest model and got it going and it is a big step up from the original. The spoken output sounds better and the model is more advanced. the UiFLow environment works fine now on my Core 2 device, which is nice.

It still has a complete Voice Assistant application you can just fire up and get going and it also has Text to Speech, Speech to Text and Keyword identification behaviours you can string together to make your own assistant, or use for other purposes. The documentation also mentions using a camera for image recognition, but I’ve not figured out how to do it.

I think that, bearing in mind that it is running everything locally, it works very well. It is certainly be a useful platform for self contained LLM fun. The latest version comes with a debug/comms adapter which provides a console and network ports for the LLM module. I’m very tempted to buy another one of these just to get that extra connection.

One tip: when the LLM fires up it can make sudden demands on power. If your power supply isn’t up to it you might find that the Core2 tips over at that point. I solved the problem by getting a battery base which clips on the bottom and provides enough power to handle sudden surges.

DDD North 2026 Hull

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I did say I’d put you in the blog….

Well, that was fun. Developer Developer Developer (DDD) North just keeps getting better. The session selection was great, the venue was wonderful, the food was wonderful and plentiful - and free. The weather, well, lets not talk about that too much - but all the action was indoors.

I did my session, “Fifty Years of For Loops” and was great fun, made all the better by having a splendid audience. The sessions I went to see were superb, from Message Management, to AI Model Selection, Vibe Coding and finally AI threat detection and mitigation. Every one was thought provoking and every one left me planning something new to have a go at. And there was always at least one on at the same time that looked really interesting.

This is my “thank you” slide from the presentation. These are the folks who made it possible, along with an army of volunteers who made everything work so smoothy. Huge appreciation to you all, and I’m really looking forward to the next event.

Bitzee Hamster Ball Fun

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This was a bit tricky to photograph

If you are nine years old (or have the buying habits of a nine year-old) you might rather like the Bitzee Hamster ball. Bitzee major in persistence of vision toys. They’ve produced a range of interactive pets which use rapidly vibrating paddles to conjure up coloured animations. Now they’ve moved into spinning POV displays with a hamster in a ball. It works rather well. You can feed your hamster, help it run inside the ball, go to visit friends, get it dressed up for photographs, feed it and even clean up afterwards. Think Tamagotchi in a ball. But it doesn’t need constant maintenance like earlier digital pets.

It’s all rather jolly. And somewhat reduced in price. Worth a look if you like silly toys.

DDD Schedule 28th Feb 2026 Now Available

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The schedule for DDD North 2026 has been published. It’s on Saturday 28th February at Hull University. I’m on at 12:00 in LTB. If you want details of my (or any other) sessions just click the picture above and then click on any of the talks. There are some really interesting sessions. Registration is free (and there’s free food too). You can sign up here.

The Curse of the Oversized O

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When I was making the tags yesterday I hit an interesting quirk of font rendering. My plan was to make my text exactly fit a tag by setting the size of the text to the height of the tag. This didn’t work because for obscure typographic reasons involving “making text look right” a capital O is rendered slightly larger than the surrounding text. As you can see above.

There were two ways I could solve this problem. I could check the height of each rendered character and scale it to fit exactly in the available height. Or I could just add a margin to the text.

I think I’ll just leave this here..

Divide and Conker at Tabletop Gaming Live

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We played Divide & Conker at Tabletop Gaming Live today. It’s a lovely little four player game that hangs on the English tradition of getting a conker, putting a shoelace through it and then bashing it against other conkers In a bid to be last one unbroken.

Just like in real-life, you can use all kinds of strategies to improve your chances. You can bake your conker, use a stronger lace and whatnot. Once you’ve picked your contender you take it down to the park to do battle. Then, in the course of series of dice-powered rounds you discover what you are really made of. In my case it wasn’t much. Oh well.

A lot of the fun comes from the beautifully illustrated cards, the wacky weapons and the different conker personalities on show, but the underlying gameplay is nicely structured too. If you fancy a game where you can really take it out on your opponents and where a lucky streak can suddenly turn the tables, then you will love it.

Oh, and the gaming show was wonderful. It was at Doncaster Racecourse, which turned out to be a splendid venue. Just the right balance of interesting stalls and space to play with your newly acquired games. I hope they run it again next year. If they do, we’ll be there with our conkers at the ready…

Well Shielded

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The unit on the right will never light up green

I’ve spent the last couple of days working on some Bluetooth code to remotely control a Polaroid camera. I’ve got the code working and now I’m looking for suitably small units to host it. I’ve always been a fan of the M5Stack Atom device, particularly the one with the 25 led dot matrix display. I’ve now got the software working a treat, and so I thought I’d add battery power for a properly mobile experience. I got a couple of M5 external batteries, the Tailbat on the left and the Atomic Battery Base on the right. Both work fine, but unfortunately the Atomic base seems to block the Bluetooth signal. Wah.

Fiji Instax Mini Evo Cinema Review

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It does look super cool

The instax mini Evo Cinema is a strange camera. And I quite like strange cameras so I got hold of one to play with. If you are the right age, you might think it looks a lot like an olde school home movie camera. And it takes genuine olde school movies as digital files. The viewfinder can be removed, exposing a small lcd touch screen that serves as the viewfinder and control input.

The big knob on the right hand side of the camera (known as the “eras” selector) lets you pick a decade and then the camera approximates the look and sound of cameras from that time, from black and white movies through old TV, home movie, video cassette and YouTube channel. You turn the ring around the lens to vary the intensity of the effect and a switch lets you add a border effect from that era as well.

Even I’m not old enough to have been around in some of the eras you can select, but the looks are always interesting and extend to the soundtrack and the image disruption that you get when you tap the camera during shooting. You can shoot scenes can last up to 15 seconds. If you prefer you can switch to still pictures, and these still retain the personality of the era.

The video quality is not great (although it reflects the quality of the time). If you turn the effects up to max you will have difficultly recognising people. Around half way works best in my opinion. If you select 2020 you have the option to double the image resolution but the quality won’t complete with your smartphone unless it is over ten years old. The camera does have another trick, You can print out pictures or still shots from a movie on the instax mini printer which is part of the camera.

If you connect your phone to the camera you can transfer movies and stills. One pro tip: Fuji use the same instax mini app for both the instax mini evo and the new cinema camera. You need to change the mode of the app in the settings to match your camera type or you will spend a while faffing around when the camera fails to connect. In the usual Fuji tradition you can only transfer clips and pictures that you’ve printed. This is super annoying, but of course you can take out the micro-SD card (which you have to buy and plug into the camera) and load all the files straight from that.

Once you’ve uploaded things to your phone you can assemble videos and upload them to the internet. You can print out a still picture with a title and a QR code which takes you to a page where you can view and download the video. Fuji will host the video for two years. This is quite nifty and would be super at parties and weddings, but I’d swap it in a heartbeat for an app which was more responsive, didn’t contain lots of unnecessary animations and used Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth to move things around more quickly.

The camera is well made and fun to handle. The pictures and movies it makes are full of character. However, it is very slow to use. Switching eras takes a lot longer than it should. After you’ve taken a clip you are asked to confirm that you want to keep it. This is super annoying and adds no value to using the camera. And you can’t turn it off. The battery life is pretty poor. You’ll need to take a battery pack with a USB C cable if you want to film for more an an hour or so.

Would I recommend it? Tricky question. It does things that nothing else can do, although your smartphone might come close with the right filters. All the controls are wonderfully tactile and the sensation that you are using a machine from the past is well realised. And it is great fun to play with - if somewhat infuriating at times. I really wanted to love it, and perhaps I will grow to with more use. But as it is, I’d strongly advise you to have a play with one before parting with any cash.