When using a microcontroller one of the most important feature to use is the internal non-volatile memory. This will allow you to store information that might be needed to store user selected features or system variables that need to persist power cycling. Interfacing with the EEPROM will depend on the microcontroller you are using. In this case it is an Atmega168.

Our friend Daniel Garcia from Prostack has put together an article that shows us how to Read and Write to the Atmega168 internal EEPROM.

Alibaba is a great site for finding suppliers of almost anything you could need when you start making your products in a bit of volume. I have used them for a number of years now and it works quite well to sort out the companies you would like to deal with. They also have a service called AliExpress which is for single item purchases or small volume purchases. Pricing on AliExpress is similar to on Ebay.

I saw that Alibaba had a booth at CES, I didn’t check it out since I already know what they are all about but while roaming around look what I stumbled on. That’s right the Alibaba Robot! This is obviously a guy on a Segway with some voice alteration and audio clip playback. The guy is good at getting the crowd hyped and is quite funny. Even with his back to our camera the air guitar Alibaba Robot experience is very funny.

There were lots of ordinary cables at CES but I met some of the most friendly people at the HJ Cable booth in the Las Vegas Hilton Convention Center part of CES. They had one cable on display that was anything but ordinary! This thing is a monster, just imagine the cable bling you would have if you used this stuff for all of your interconnect needs. If I had this cable on my system I would have the wiring side of my equipment facing the room.

Thanks again guys for being so inviting and letting me drool over your products.

There were quite a few cool looking contest booths at CES. The challenge in the D-Link booth was to use a small fishing rod to cast a small plastic fish into the plastic pool. They were promoting a device called mydlink, this is a wireless camera that you can place anywhere and monitor it on the internet. The technology is a good idea for people that want something plug and play, nice thing about it is that you don’t need a computer in the loop. The design of the larger than life demonstration unit was very well done. If you look at the closeup of the hand holding the iPhone you would swear that it is a picture of a normal iPhone with me on the screen. Not until you see the image of the hand holding the iPhone that is pulled back so you can see the background set do you get the scale of the device. I wish there were more demonstrations with this much attention to detail!

So this was the last day of CES and I am flying out tomorrow. Lots of CES content to come in the days or weeks to come. Myself and a new friend noticed a total Las Vegas RTC Transit Fail. I tried to optimize their unused icon situation but it didn’t seem to be a touch screen. Next time I will bring a USB mouse and find where to plug it in.

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Voltaic had a booth at CES 2011 with all of their cool gear on display.  If you are always on the go keeping your devices charged is always a challenge. Voltaic has a number of solutions to this issue. Regardless if you need to keep your laptop going in the middle of nowhere or your iPhone battery is always getting sucked dry before the end of the day. The panels are very strong, they are designed to take a beating since they have a solid section of aluminum built into them. Many people use these bags when performing outdoor sports but the solar briefcase would look right at home in the hands of a high level executive.

The flashlight is interesting, there is very heavy and solid feeling, I thought it was odd that there was no on button. After a second look through the frosted front lens I noticed what looked like a small tactile switch. Sure enough, when the lens was pressed the light turned on. The flashlight also has a dim red glow when it is plugged into the solar panel so you know it is charging.

I thing my next laptop case will definitely have to be the solar powered briefcase!

See more pictures of the Voltaic solar gear after the jump.

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In a past post I asked if anyone had any requests while I was covering the Consumer Electronics 2011 event and I received a number of emails from readers who were thinking of attending a future CES and wanted to know what amenities were provided to the press and bloggers. Instead of talking about it I thought a quick walk through video was the best way to demonstrate the space. There are a number of these spaces in other venues such as the Venetian Conference Center but this is the largest one located in a central area of the main Las Vegas Convention Center. They provide coffee and water all day. In the morning you can stop in for some breakfast, one ticket is provided for a meal each day. A typical lunch meal consists of a large sandwich, bottle of water, an apple, a bag of chips and a few cookies. There are a variety of meals to choose from and they are quite good.

After walking around literally for miles you need a comfy place to sit down. There are lots of couches to have a rest and if you want to be productive during you rest you can whip out your laptop and post some articles using the free WiFi. If you prefer to travel light around the show as I do you can simply use one of the dozens of provided computers.