F*watch team writes: The F*watch, a fully open-source electronic watch project with an integrated GPS receiver, was initiated at CERN as an after-work endeavor to create a special retirement gift for a colleague who enjoys hiking and timing. Inspired by the transparency and flexibility that characterizes no verification casinos, the watch’s entire design—including electronics, mechanics, […]
Author Archives: DP
Digitally controlled bench PSU project update
Yet another update on Bertho’s digitally controlled bench PSU project we covered previously: Did some test-bed assembling today and did a dry-test of the power board. The good news… the power board did not blow up ;-) The aux PSU for +/-12V analog and the 5V logic supply switcher is working as it should. The power […]
App note: Power-supply solutions for Xilinx FPGAs
MAXIM’s power solution for Xilinx’ FPGAs. App note here (PDF!) Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are used in a wide variety of applications and end markets, including digital signal processing, medical imaging, and high-performance computing. This application note outlines the issues related to powering FPGAs.
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: Power supplies begin the circuit foundation, taming switching power-supply layout
A power supply design app note from MAXIM. This article outlines power, ground PCB, and system layout hints and kinks. It includes an overview of using power, ground star points, and multifrequency power decoupling. It also shows how to control the component placement to minimize the size of the high-current switching loop.
App note: Gamma-photon radiation detector
An app note on Gamma-photon radiation detector (PDF!) by Maxim: A PIN photodiode, four low-noise op amps and a comparator are used to detect individual photons of gamma radiation. The schematic, design considerations and component selection are discussed.
App note: High speed amplifier techniques
An old but interesting app note (PDF!) from Linear on high speed amplifier techniques: Most monolithic amplifiers have been relatively slow devices. Wideband operation has been the province o discrete and hybrid technologies. Some fast monolithic amplifiers have been available, but the exotic and expensive processing required has inflated costs, precluding widespread acceptance. Additionally, many of […]
Bus Pirate smart card shield
Bus Pirate smart card shield by Yaehob: Tired of playing with wires, breadboard and so on to interface synchronous smart cards with bus pirate, I made a kind of shield. Thank you Arduino for teaching me this way of thinking :-) Bill of materials 1x breadboard solder 1x smart card socket (e.g. this one, this one, […]
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. 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 […]
Week in (p)review October 17, 2014
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. Hacker Camp Shenzhen volume 3: Reflow open for registration DIRTY TUESDAY: Chinese Shipping Apocalypse Hackers in Shenzhen: Trev from UK Bus Pirate v4 Acrylic case kit v1 back in stock Coming up: Free PCBs via Facebook on Friday […]
DirtyPCB Yellow-Panel microgameboy
In this video Stijn Kuipers demonstrates his Yellow-Panel microgameboy: The recent DirtyPCBs.com paneling experiment resulted in a nice new addition to our prototyping toolbox. The yellow panel contains: Wolfsom SMT microphone breakout with small amplifier QFN24-to-dip adapter Freescale K20 TFT backpack (enhanced Teensy3.1 without the bootloaderchip) Freescale KL02Z DIP breakout with microphone USB-testpoint board in USBstick form […]
DIY USB-Oscilloscope in a matchbox
ajoyraman posted a tutorial on how to make a DIY USB-matchbox oscilloscope, an instructable here: In order to economize on the cost of an enclosure while still providing an aesthetic unit the Aj_Scope2 is enclosed in a large size cardboard matchbox enclosure. The USB connection to the PC is on one end while the Audio-Jack […]
DIY LM1876 dual 20W audio power amplifier
An audio power amplifier based on LM1876 from Electro Labs: We are building another enjoyable weekend DIY project. This is an audio power amplifier based on LM1876 which can deliver up to 20W per channel into 4 or 8 ohm load and guarantees less than 0.1% THD + N (Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise). The amplifier is […]
Measure audio level using root mean square on Spark Core
Davide Gironi writes: A Spark.io library to retrive RMS and Spl value from an audio input. This library reads data from an ADC pin and returns the RMS value of the input simply using RMS avarage. The root mean square (abbreviated RMS or rms), also known as the quadratic mean, is a statistical measure of […]
Nokia 5110 screen module with PIC microcontroller and Oshonsoft
Chris Holden made a font library for a Nokia 5110 display using a PIC microcontroller and Oshonsoft. He writes: Having left the 1980’s behind, we decided to write our own “libraries” to write text onto the Nokia 5100 display, using a PIC microcontroller. The code below was written for a 16F877a (because it was the first […]
Hackers in Shenzhen: Trev from UK
Trev from the UK 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.
Minimalism AVR development board
Baoshi of DigitalMe wrote an article detailing his minimalism ATTiny2313 development board build: The AVR chip I’m talking about is Atmel ATTiny2313, in SOIC-20 package. To make the development board, I bought some 28 pin SOIC/SSOP to DIP adapters. These adaptors usually come in double sided design. Corresponding pins on both sides are connected via the plated through holes […]
Controlling appliances using text messages
A GSM remote control project designed by Vassilis Serasidis: Two years later I built another one remote control based on GSM module. I choose the GM-47 sony-ericsson module because it was very easy to handle it via AT commands. Moreover, the price was low enough for experiments. Finaly, I decided to release the source code […]
Bus Pirate v4 Acrylic case kit v1 back in stock
The Bus Pirate v4 Acrylic case kit v1 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This fits the earlier Bus Pirate v4 models which comes in the non-Sick of Beige PCBs. You can get one for $3 at Seeed Studio.
Acoustic impulse marker
Adam Wrobel and Michael Grisanti of Cornell University built this device that tracks sound impluses: The core of our system is hardware based analog circuit, which filters, amplifies, and processes the sounds obtained from the microphones. By utilizing hardware for this, we are able to high frequency signal processing without taxing the microcontroller. Also, we remove […]