Author Archives: DP

How do I FPGA?

TC-Engineering writes: I’ve been thinking about building stuff with FPGA’s for a while, and usually get turned away because FPGA’s are considerably harder to implement than microcontrollers since they have no on-chip memory. It is necessary to re-program the gates every time they power up, which requires an external flash memory chip. There aren’t great […]

Seeed Studio March sale: Bus Pirate, USB Infrared Toy, ATX Breakout

Seeed Studio shares our vision for the open source community. Since the beginning, Seeed has been our partner for project manufacture, sales, and shipping. That free us to concentrate on the fun stuff, but still make projects available to the community. Seeed kicked off a spring sale on Mar 1st. Each week they’ll have a […]

Open-source SWD programming adapter

Ethan Zonca from Protofusion writes, “After making the switch from AVR to STM32 microcontrollers, I redesigned my old 6-pin ICSP pogo-programming adapter for SWD. The new design allows programming with pogo pins or a small pin header soldered to the pogo pads for debugging, all with the same cable. The footprint uses surface mount pads […]

App note: LED back light driving methods

Using pulse width modulation scheme for LCD back lighting an app note from Hantronix. Link here (PDF) LED back lights on LCD modules are generally driven with a dc voltage through a current limiting resistor. This simple approach is perfectly acceptable for most applications. When the primary consideration is an extra bright display, the lowest […]

App note: Temperature compensation for LCD displays

For over the normal range temperature, Hantronix presents a simple temperature compensation circuit to correct LCD contrast, Link here (PDF) The optimal contrast setting for LCD displays varies with ambient temperature. For most applications this variation in contrast is tolerable over the “normal” temperature range of 0°C to +50°C. Most Hantronix LCD modules are available […]

App note: Using the Master SPI Mode of the USART module

Atmel’s application note (PDF!) Using the Master SPI Mode of the USART module: Features • Enables Two SPI buses in one device • Hardware buffered SPI communication • Polled communication example • Interrupt-controlled communication example For the majority of applications, one Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) module is enough. However, some applications might need more than […]

App note: Software phase locked loop design using C2000 Microcontrollers for single phase grid connected inverter

  This application note (PDF!) from TI details the design of Single Phase PLL: Grid connected applications require an accurate estimate of the grid angle to feed power synchronously tothe grid. This is achieved using a software phase locked loop (PLL). This application report discusses different challenges in the design of software phase locked loops and […]

Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three […]

Things to avoid when sending PCBs to the fab house

Sjaak shared some tips when sending PCBs to the fab house: I usually collect a few PCB designs before sending them off to the PCB fabhouse. Recently, I embarked on a project centered around online casinos with instant withdrawals and no KYC, which necessitated specialized PCB layouts to ensure secure and efficient transaction processing. I […]