Leonerd writes: I am happy to report a full success using the Bus Pirate to program HVSP on the 8- and 14-pin ATtiny chips. This requires a small additional bit of hardware, to use the AUX pin to control a +12V supply to the ‘tiny RESET line, and the 4 GPIO pins attached to the […]
Author Archives: DP
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: Lithium coin-cell batteries: Predicting an application lifetime
An application note (PDF) from MAXIM. The typical specification for lithium coin-cell batteries has been to provide a 10-year battery lifetime in the absence of system power. End users should evaluate the anticipated lifetime in their specific application, especially for those that exceed typical commercial environments or that need to last more than 10 years. […]
App note: AXI Chip2Chip reference design for real-time video
AXI Chip2Chip reference design for real-time video application (PDF!) from Xilinx: The LogiCORE™ IP AXI Chip2Chip is a soft Xilinx core that provides bridging between Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) systems for multi-device System-On-Chip solutions. This application note provides a setup demonstrating real-time video traffic across Kintex®-7 FPGA and Zynq®-7000 All Programmable (AP) SoC boards. The setup uses […]
App note: 8-bit RISC microcontroller
Here’s an app note (PDF!) for In-System Programming Solution for AVR microcontrollers from Atmel: Features • Complete In-System Programming Solution for AVR Microcontrollers • Covers All AVR Microcontrollers with In-System Programming Support • Reprogram Both Data Flash and Parameter EEPROM Memories • Complete Schematics for Low-cost In-System Programmer • Simple Three-wire SPI Programming Interface This application note […]
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 two random commenters. More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week: Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, get free […]
Week in (p)review October 24, 2014
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. DIRTY TUESDAY: Measure PCBs and create images from gerber files Hackers in Shenzhen: Darshan from India Bus Pirate smart card shield by Yaehob Check out Bertho’s update on his digitally controlled bench PSU in the project log forum […]
WiFi globalCALCnet with the Spark Core
A wireless calculator networking with WiFi gCn using the Spark Core. KermMartian of Cemetech writes: This current project achieves all the goals of that project, and more: it provides a computer-free way to connect calculators to the internet, and lets the calculators independently configure the bridge device as well. The two components that were necessary to […]
Yet another dirty boards from DirtyPCBs
@SUSpaceflight tweeted picture of his dirty boards from DirtyPCBs: GPS trackers for HABs with LoRa/RTTY modems. The larger board is a basestation with BT/USB/LCD
60 seconds voice record – playback module
A 60 seconds voice record – playback module project by Rajkumar Sharma of Electronics Lab: Voice Module 60 Sec project will playback and record up to 60 seconds of voice message. This circuit is an excellent choice to add voice to your project.
Optically controlled servo motor
Dilshan Jayakody writes: This is demonstration project to control servo motor movement using physical marker and normal video camera. In this project video camera capture the movements of marker and calculate rotation angle based on that. This calculated rotation angle is feed to the servo through small MCU based interfacing unit. In this project video […]
Hackers in Shenzhen: Darshan from India
Darshan from India talks about his experience in Shenzhen, China. There’s more and more hackers visiting Shenzhen to check out the world’s largest electronics market and manufacturing ecosystem. This semi-regular series asks who they are and what they found.
DirtyPCB NanoSeeker v2.1
Jon Hylands writes: So I built a board tonight, and its working (after removing and rotating one of the h-bridge chips I put on backwards). I’ve validated that micropython works on it, and I can turn on and off the four LEDs. I’ve also successfully paired my cell phone with the bluetooth module on the […]
Using a standard coil for NFC tag implant reading
Limpkin writes: Who knew it’d be possible to use this coil to read NFC tags? A while ago I backed the xNT campaign , which aimed at making an NTAG216 based NFC implant for different purposes. After a few months of waiting and a few weeks of trying to find someone in Switzerland willing to […]
Update on CERN’s investment in KiCAD
From the comments on our Cadsoft Eagle review post: Cern’s team is hard at work. You can see the list of their projects here The code is being contributed to Kicad’s official repository, though it may not be in the release version yet, as it’s still undergoing refinement due to the wide range of subsystems affected—especially the […]
Roland SP-404 AVR custom midi control pedal
An open source midi controller user for the Roland SP-404 sampler by Davide Gironi: The Roland SP-404 is a digital sampler made by Roland Corporation. This sampler has an input midi port, and expose a set of midi commands to control the unit. With this project user can control Roland SP-404 using a Midi Pedal. The […]
#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 […]
MorpHex MKIII, the transforming robot
Here’s a cool hexapod robot that transforms into a ball shape – the MorpHex by Kåre Halvorsen: I’ve done a lot of work on MorpHex lately, both on hardware and software. The two major updates; 24 Starlite RGB LED’s and a Razor 9DOF IMU made a huge difference when it comes to control and precision while rolling and the […]
Mini adjustable voltage regulator
MagicTK made this mini adjustable voltage regulator, instructables here: The minimum output is based on the voltage regulator’s internal reference voltage (look at the datasheet formula), and the maximum output is based on the batteries connected and how much energy they have left (as well as the maximum specified in the datasheet, in case you connected […]
Using Arduino due’s true random number generator
Kerry Wong writes: Arduino Due uses an Atmel SAM3X8EARM Cortex-M3 CPU, which has a native hardware based True Random Number Generator (TRNG). In this post, we will take a brief look at how to use it in the Arduino environment and take a look at some of its statistical characteristics.