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 […]
Author Archives: DP
Diolan plus2 – Diolan bootloader with standard instruction set
nyholku writes: To support my EazyCNC Project I I’ve create a version of the original Diolan bootloader that I call ‘diolan-plus2’ and which does not use extended instruction set making it compatible with C-compilers and still retains all the features of the original diolan bootloader and fits in the 2kB bootblock. Diolan-plus2 published on GitHub. […]
PICnano Breadboard, a 4-Layer Dirty PCB project
jechavarria shared his small 4-layer board based on the PIC18F2550 microcontroller project in the forum: The goal of this new design is try to have an Arduino Nano compatible module but with some new features, such have direct access to the power supply microcontroller. Via the project log forum.
Temperature controller for K-type thermocouple and MAX6675
Chris Holden of Nerd Club has written an article on their DIY temperature controller with a simple menu system: After what seems to have been a very long time, it was nice to poke more wires into a breadboard and make something actually useful for a while! Here’s a simple temperature monitor for our injection moulding heater […]
Digital data capture unit with EMF reader
Dilshan Jayakody writes: This is PIC16F73 base digital data capture unit with optional EMF reader. This data capture utility is design to work with most of the analog sensor inputs and by default it is equipped with EMF reader module. This unit use PIC16F73’s internal 8bit ADC to capture the analog signals. EMF reader unit […]
MoteinoMEGA pick & place assembly
In this video Felix of LowPowerLab demonstrates a complete pick & place assembly of a MoteinoMEGA panel: The main things to take from this video are: effective CPH (components per hour) rating is affected in large by several factors like travel from pick position to placement position, travel speed, mechanical alignment in X and Y directions, […]
Teensy SDR project
rheslip made this Teensy SDR project, that is available at Github: I managed to get the Teensy SDR in an enclosure over the Christmas holidays – now its starting to look like a radio! The enclosure is a plastic Hammond. Front and rear panels are PCB material and I added a layer of PCB inside […]
App note: Output current sensing for the MC07XS6517 and MC17XS6500 eXtreme switch devices
An app note(PDF) from Freescale Semiconductor This document describes the current sense performance of eXtreme switches, and describes the enhanced current sense mode dedicated for low current loads, such as light emitting diodes (LED). This application note also presents the accuracy for 7.0 mOhm and 17 mOhm channels, and the practical implementation of a calibration […]
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:Coils used for wireless charging
An app note(PDF) from Freescale Semiconductor on wireless charging coil designs There are many battery-powered devices, which need to be periodically charged, such as mobile phones, tablets, and battery-powered hand tools. These tools are usually charged by a dedicated cord from a USB port or from a dedicated wall adapter. Wirelessly transferred power simplifies the […]
App note: Lateral mosfet design recommendations for audio amplifiers
Semelab’s application note on lateral mosfet design recommendations for audio amplifiers: Semelab’s range of lateral mosfets has been specifically designed for audio power amplifiers and there are a number of advantages that they exhibit over bipolar transistors in these applications. This application note is intended to highlight these differences and give design guidelines in using the mosfets for […]
Automated drill press table for PCB manufacture
A DIY automated moving drill press table by Michael of Acidbourbon: When you design your PCBs with a proper CAD software (such as KICAD), you have the coordinates of all drill holes anyway, so how about making an automated moving drill press table which moves the PCB to the places where holes are desired? But calibrating […]
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 […]
Unbrick FT232 counterfeit chip
j3tstream writes: Like many people, i buy, time to time, some chips or shield from Chinese (dx, aliexpress, ebay) vendors, unfortunately my FTDI FT232 breakout was a fake chip, here he is a interesting thread about that. Jordi Binefa , (thank, you made my day), describe a quickly and easy method to recover a bricked chip, […]
MSP430 Bootloader by Dylek for value line series (RS232)
Daniel Duchna made his own MSP430 Bootloader and wrote a detailed description in his WIKI. It is as simple as usage of any other Bootloader. Firstly you have to flash ‘MSP430 Bootloader by Dylek’ to MCU. You can do it through ‘MSP430 Flasher’ provided by Texas Instruments on their WIKI
ARM PRO MINI, an open source ARM M0 microcontroller board
Zapta designed this open source ARM M0 microcontroller board, that is available at Github: ARM PRO MINI is a small barebone open source ARM M0 microcontroller board that is great for quick prototyping and as a starting point for your own ARM based custom designs. It was designed and named after the venerable Arduino Pro […]
#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 […]
Bus Pirate v3.8 free PCB build
xStouf built a free Bus Pirate v3.8 PCB. The Bus Pirate is an open source hacker multi-tool that talks to electronic stuff. If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer. Get […]
Driving a DC motor using PWM with AVR ATmega
Davide Gironi writes: The PWM frequency have to be selected in the way that the switch frequency is much higher than the dynamics of the motor. To avoid noise from the motor, the choosen PWM frequency is 20Khz. Which is a know to know frequency. So, with this one, you can drive up to 4 […]
App note: Thermal consideration of flash LEDs
LEDs maximum performance are primary determined by its thermal property stresses, See OSRAM’s app note(PDF). This application note focuses on how to develop an adequate thermal management for LEDs in camera flash applications.