This post serves as an update to an earlier post I did that used the legacy UPS Developer Kit. The legacy developer kit will become deprecated June 2024 in favor of the new API that uses the OAuth 2.0 security model. This new API implementation can be more complicated than the old “API key” method,…
Category: Programming
Burn an Arduino Bootloader via Parallel Port
It is possible to burn an Arduino bootloader with nothing more than a computer and parallel port cable. Finding a system with a parallel port is the hard part. Anything newer than a Core 2 Duo will be hit or miss for legacy ports — so a pre-2010 computer is a good place to start….
Burn an Arduino Bootloader with a Raspberry Pi. The easy way.
This process uses a modified version of the official Raspberry Pi OS (2020-02-13-raspbian-buster-lite.img). It has been configured with the tools necessary to burn an Arduino style bootloader using the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins (described here). Brief summary of steps: Wire Raspberry Pi GPIO pins to Arduino ICSP pins Boot the custom Raspberry Pi image Connect a…
Control Two Independent Stepper Motors with an Arduino
I work with stepper motors a lot. My projects typically include multiple motors running off of a single microcontroller. Everything is great when you’re running all of them at the same speed. But what if you need each motor to run at a different speed? at a different time? or you need to do something…
Programmatically Validate Addresses with the UPS Developer Kit, Tracking Integration
UPS API keys are now deprecated in favor of OAuth 2.0. See my post of updated post on using the UPS OAuth 2.0 API. If you have an e-commerce website, you can validate shipping addresses on the front end to reduce delays and minimize costly returns due to bad addresses. Going further, you can also…
Integrating PayPal with Perl
The method described in this article, ‘DoDirectPayment,’ is depricated. It will work for existing users, but no new users are allowed. Important: PayPal isn’t accepting new users for this feature, and we require existing users to upgrade to our Advanced Debit and Credit solution that supports EMV 3DS (3DS 2.0) for PSD2. Our Advanced Debit…
Creating PDF’s with Perl
I’ve long been a user of PDF::API2, a module available for Perl. I use it everyday at work and along with a few other modules, it has made Perl an invaluable tool for me. Being able to generate PDF’s for reports and documents allow for a bevy of automation shortcuts where traditional Data Merging, or…





