Author Archives: DP

DoorBell + Moteino = Awesome

Felix of LowPowerLab has written an article detailing his DIY Moteino DoorBell: A lonely doorbell activated by a boring push-button at the front door is not very exciting in a world of Arduino and “Internet of Things”. I’ve been wanting to Arduinize the doorbell into the Moteino Framework gateway interface so that I could: observe/count/graph when the doorbell […]

Drive an old laptop display from an AVR

Jean refers us to this article by Eric Wazhung  about interfacing LVDS displays using an 8-bit AVR: Different displays have different (undocumented) functionality. With the several I’ve tested, I’ve attempted to create a step-by-step procedure to get a new display going (or find out early-on if it’s not possible. So far I haven’t run into one that […]

ESP8266 WiFi LED dimmer Part 8 of X: Version 2 of the PCB design

Quindor blogged about his ESP8266 WiFi LED dimmer project with DirtyPCBs: With the help of kind internet folks I was able to get a fritzing part for the new voltage converter I wanted to use to try and make a smaller board. A few weeks ago I sent my new ‘panalized’ design to dirtypcb’s and I got […]

App note: Tracking/Sequence for point-of-load DC/DC converters

Another app note (PDF) for power sequencing from Murata Whereas in the old days, one master switch simultaneously turned on the power for all parts of a system, many modern systems require multiple supply voltages for different on-board sections. Typically the CPU or microcontroller needs 1.8 Volts or lower. Memory (particularly DDR) may use 1.8 […]

App note: Green LED replaces LDO regulator

App note(PDF) from MAXIM using a green LED as LDO for low power application Insystems in which a microcontroller must communicate with peripheral devices that operate at different supply voltages, a level translator may be necessary. This design idea explains how for lowpower loads, a single green LED can replace a 1.8V LDO regulator in […]

App note: Improving ADC resolution by oversampling and averaging

Silicon Labs’ application note (PDF!) on improving ADC resolution  by oversampling and averaging: This application note describes utilizing oversampling and averaging to increase the resolution and SNR of analog-to-digital conversions. Oversampling and averaging can increase the resolution of a measurement without resorting to the cost and complexity of using expensive off-chip ADCs. This application note discusses how […]

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 times every […]

Use ESP8266 module as a wireless switcher

Razvan Dubau over at Extragsm posted a how-to on using an ESP8266 module as a wireless switcher: A custom firmware to transform the ESP8266 wifi module into a wifi http based switcher GPIO02 is used as an output pin. You can connect a led or a relay and controll it by a button added to GPIO00. Also the […]

XORLib, an open source game library for PIC32s

Shaos shared his game library for PIC32s in the project log forum: XORLib is a simple multiplatform game library that is licensed under MIT-license and developed at least for two platforms: PIC32 with NTSC and PAL TV DOS with CGA/EGA/VGA PIC32 code based on “NTSC TV interface” examples from hackaday.io/project/2032-pic32-oscilloscope by Bruce Land (Cornell University) that […]

LED strip testing with Bus Pirate

Drew tested out some addressable RGB LEDs he bought during Hacker Camp, using a Bus Pirate.    Via Shenzhen_hacker_hole WeChat group. The LDP6803 uses SPI for communication. A power supply and a Bus Pirate and I was able to change colors without code. The chip uses a 7bit encoding of colors so setting individual colors can’t […]

Laser etching SMT stencils tutorial

Felix Rusu of LowPowerLab has posted a detailed tutorial on how to laser etch SMT stencils: In this blog post I want to show you my new method that I’ve been using since I’ve purchased a laser cutter from china. It’s using the laser to etch stencils out of transparency plastic (mylar). Chances are that you already have […]

Teeny Tiny build using Bubble display and Femtoduino

Phillipe Cantin published a new build: I just received a bunch of those really cool QDSP-6064 Bubble Displays and I had to build something with them right away. I quickly tried it using the sample code and, as I was doing that, I immediately wanted to build a small device combining this display with a […]

Obstacle sensing walking stick for visually impaired persons

Avinash Gupta wrote an article detailing his smart walking stick project for visually impaired persons This project is designed to guide a visually impaired person to walk and avoid bumping into obstacles. Low cost ultrasonic rangefinders along with a microcontroller is used to measure the distance to obstacles and if they are close enough provide a feedback […]

AVR-HV: High voltage programmer for AVR microcontrollers

Dilshan Jayakody writes:  AVR-HV is high voltage parallel programmer for Atmel AVR series microcontrollers. AVR-HV allows programming, reading, verifying and configuring AVR microcontrollers with its high voltage programming interface and it connected to PC using USB interface. In High voltage programming mode, 12V programming voltage is applied to RESET pin of target AVR microcontroller and in […]

Embedded Linux System

hak8or was inspired by Henrik’s Embedded Linux system so he made his own: The repository is divided into two SOC’s, one being Atmel’s AT91SAM9N12 which is what the currently working board uses, and the other being Freescale’s I.MX223. Each SOC subdir contains schematics, board files, the required code modifications in the form of git patches to the […]