Angus describes on his blog how he used the Bus Blaster to recover a bricked CC3D board: A few months ago I went to upgrade my OpenPilot CC3D board an something went amiss and I ended up trashing the bootloader. I didn’t have a SWD dongle to reprogram it with so its been collecting dust. I just […]
Author Archives: DP
USB Infrared Toy free PCB build
Kuba Tyszko built a free USB IR Toy PCB. With the USB IR Toy you can use a remote control with your computer, view infrared signals on a logic analyzer, capture and replay remote control buttons. If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, […]
Low cost TEA5767 based FM stereo radio receiver
Dilshan Jayakody writes: TEA5767 is electronically tuned FM stereo radio receiver from NXP for low voltage applications. TEA5767 based radio modules are now common in the field and this project is based on Samsung TT-502 radio module. The main objective of this project is to design low cost FM tuner based on this TT-502 / […]
DIY PWM to PPM converter for 2.4GHz receiver using Arduino
A DIY PWM to PPM converter using an Arduino Pro Mini from Al Prettybong. Oscar wrote a post on his blog detailing how Al made it: For radio receiver, there are a few output signal formats. The traditional and also most common type of RX signal is the PWM and basically PWM requires 1 cable […]
Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino, Part 3 – Hex IR Signals
The crew from AnalysIR has written up an article on Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino. This third part of a series will show you how to send Infrared signal using the Hex representation: In Part 1 of this series, we demonstrated how to send signals using soft or Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino. In our […]
Mesa-Video: 800×600 digital video for Arduinos over 2-wire serial Mesa-Bus
kevinhub88 writes: This post describes Mesa-Video, a low cost, low power, small size and fully Open Source Hardware and Software solution for providing 800×600 digital video for Arduino ( and other ) microcontrollers. Mesa-Video makes it quick and easy to display text and 24bit color graphics from any MCU using a single UART serial port […]
#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs
Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week: Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch […]
Examining the core memory module inside a vintage IBM 1401 mainframe
Ken Shirriff writes: The IBM 1401 mainframe computer was announced in 1959 and by the mid-1960s had become the best-selling computer, extremely popular with medium and large businesses because of its low cost. A key component of the 1401’s success was its 4,000 character core memory, which stored data on tiny magnetized rings called cores. […]
Moteino IoT sprinkler controller automation
Felix of LowPowerLab writes: Another node type is now available on the Gateway automation interface: a sprinkler controller. This is achievable through a board I designed to be able to control many outputs. I call this board IOShield and it features two 74HC595 serial to parallel shift registers. The IOShields are daisy chainable and can […]
How to control your ESP8266 from anywhere in the world
Rui Santos shared a tutorial on how to control your ESP8266 from anywhere in the world: The most common questions I get about the ESP8266 WiFi Modules are: “Is it possible to control my ESP8266 from anywhere in the world?” and “How can I control my ESP8266 from anywhere?”. I’m happy to announce today that […]
Vulcan-74: A 6502 Retro MegaProject
Radical Brad over at the 6502.org forum has been working on this cool 7400 logic VGA video game system, Vulcan-74: The Goals… Video must be perfectly stable VGA, putting out 256 colors at a resolution of 400×300 using an 8 bit color space divided into RRR-GGG-BB Video must include full 256 color 400×300 bitmapped screens with a […]
App note: How to successfully apply low dropout regulators
Application note regarding proper usage of LDO from Analog Devices. Link here (PDF) A low dropout (LDO) regulator is capable of maintaining its specified output voltage over a wide range of load currents and input voltages, down to a very small difference between input and output voltages. This difference, known as the dropout voltage or […]
Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week two random commenters will […]
App note: Isolating USB with SPI
Old but still good technical note from Analog Devices on USB isolation. Link here (PDF) Currently, iCoupler® digital isolation technology is capable of transferring data at rates ranging from DC to about 150Mbps, which is adequate for transferring serial data to support low (1.5Mbps) and full (12Mbps) speed modes of USB. There are three places […]
App note: Triacs – How to calculate power and predict Tjmax
An application note (PDF!) from NXP on how to calculate the power dissipated by the triac: This Application Note describes how to calculate the power dissipation for triacs and Silicon Controlled Rectifiers. Thermal calculations are also included to help the circuit designer to predict the maximum junction temperature or calculate the required heatsink thermal resistance. […]
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 […]
Simple PWM generator with TR only
Ondřej Karas writes, “One year ago, I published two posts about PWM module driven by IQRF. But there is also another way, how to generate PWM signal from IQRF TR module only. Just simple use PIC peripherals. This post is based on one of Advanced examples, which is part of IQRF Startup Package.” More details […]
Laser cut acrylic Logic Pirate case
Bartimaeus made a laser cut acrylic case for the Logic Pirate. This case is up on Thingiverse. More awesome DIY cases. You can get a Logic Pirate for $30.
Olympus RS-24 foot pedal mod
Rupert Hirst writes: For a while now, I have been toying with the idea of modifying a transcriber foot pedal into a programmable HID device. This could be useful for those complicated keyboard macros , Push to Talk or even for a more natural feel in racing type games, although not with proportional control. Your […]
Specan, a reboot of the W7ZOI/K7TAU spectrum analyzer
Ashhar Farhan blogged about his spectrum analyzer build: The Specan is actually a very simple but robustly built receiver. it is, in essence, a double conversion superhet receiver with 112 Mhz and 12 Mhz Intermediate frequencies. The first mixer uses an Si570 as the local oscillator. The second oscillator is a crystal controlled at 100 […]