Kevin Rye shared his ATX breakout board bench-top power supply build in the project log forum: It took 3 weeks for my ATX Breakout Board to arrive from Seeed, but I finally got it! I was so excited to finally be able to make a bench-top power supply. I’ve always wanted one, just never got around […]
Author Archives: DP
USB microscope guided PCB drill
mlerman wrote this instructable detailing the build of his USB microscope guided PCB drill: Most of the printed circuit boards I make at home are simple single sided boards. Drilling requirements are minimal, mostly holes to mount the board and an occasional through-hole component or connector that is only soldered on one side. For these boards […]
This smart coaster blinks and buzzes your drink status
Citizen over at the 430h forum has been working on a smart coaster project that blinks and buzzes your drink status: He’s trying to cram the following features into his design. TI TMP006 for contactless temperature sensing. Self powered design. TI BQ25504 for energy harvesting via tiny solar cells. A tiny buzzer for audible notifications A […]
OpenRISC Conference 2014, Germany
ORCONF has announced plans for their OpenRISC conference. “The annual OpenRISC conference, orconf, will be hosted October 11-12 in Munich, Germany this year. Focus will be on OpenRISC, but we will also have presenters from the RISC-V project and Lattice among others. The conference is free thanks to our sponsors, and more information can be found […]
ZofzPCB Gerber viewer ver0.4
Rafal Powierski has released a new version of ZofzPCB Gerber viewer ver0.4, we wrote about it previously: What is new: 1. load ipc356 – that is a popular netlist or bare board flying probe test file, available as export from most of the CADs. 1.1 you can browse board by component, pins, nets. 1.2 identify object under […]
Measure RPM – DIY portable digital tachometer
Electro18 posted a tutorial on how to make a portable digital optical tachometer using an Arduino Uno, an instructable here: A tachometer is a device used to measure the RPM or Revolutions Per Minute of any rotating body. Tachometers can be contact based or non-contact ones. The non-contact or contact-less optical tachometers usually use laser or Infrared […]
FPGA : RC Servo and Stepper motor control in Verilog
Trandi blogged about his RC servo and stepper motor project. He writes: For those interested in reproducing this example: The board is called “EP2C5 Mini Board” and has a EP2C5T144C8 Cyclone II FPGA on it I used a standard, 9grams micro RC Servo I used a 28BYJ-48 stepper motor and it’s driver (you can purchase these […]
Mastervolt soladin RF filtering
Brian Dorey writes: Following from the Mastervolt Soladin 600 Inverter RF Interference post about the major RF interference problems generated by the Mastervolt Soladin 600 tie-in mains inverter we have now resolved the RF interference by replacing the unscreened and unearthed plastic case on the inverter with an earthed metal case and installed filters on […]
Dot Matrix printer from a CD/DVD reader with Arduino
Robson Couto wrote this instructable detailing his Dot Matrix Printer made from parts of a CD reader, with Arduino and processing: Some time ago while going through the pages here in Instructables, something catch my attention, a printer made of a CD reader, and i was amazed. I thought: “This is incredible, I have to […]
#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 […]
A DS18B20 1-wire digital thermometer AVR ATmega library
Davide Gironi writes: DS18B20 is a programmable resolution 1-wire digital thermometer. It has an operating temperature range of -55°C to +125°C and is accurate to ±0.5°C over the range of -10°C to +85°C. This library is an AVR implementation to retrive temperature from DS18B20. Built using the reference document: “Using DS18B20 digital temperature sensor on […]
Thermostat remote temperature sensor hack
Alan Parekh of Hacked Gadgets writes: We all have thermostats in our houses but how often are they in a horrible place? You often want to place the temperature sensor in a different location than the control and display unit. There are lots of models that have remote sensor capability but they come with a […]
Gamecube controller to N64 adapter
Scasagrande shared his Gamecube controller to N64 adapter in the project log forum: Today I bring to you my Gamecube controller to N64 adapter. Basically I was playing my N64 and was sad about how the analogue sticks are getting old and loose. So I did some research, found some Arduino code someone had already written, […]
Make your own dual programmer in AVRDUDE
Stephen Wylie tweeted, “Program two ATmegas w/an Arduino & AVRDUDE without re-cabling in between!” Those of you who have programmed an Arduino through the Arduino or AVR Studio IDE may have noticed the utility that is really doing the work: AVRDUDE (AVR Downloader/UploaDEr). This is a powerful program that can facilitate programming new sketches on […]
Handmade cases for Bus Pirate v3.6 and Bus Blaster
Enrique Murias made these DIY cases for his Bus Pirate v3.6 and Bus Blaster. Via Twitter. More cool DIY cases here. You can get a Bus Blaster v4 for $45 and a Bus Pirate for $30.
On-chip decoupling capacitors
Ralph Doncaster writes: In virtually all of my micro-controller projects, I’ll use 0.1uF ceramic capacitors between Vcc and Gnd. Depending on the power draw of the MCU and inductance on the power lines, they may not be necessary, at a cost of a penny or less each there’s little reason not to use them. I […]
Android USB tethering driver for Mac OS X
HoRNDIS, a USB tethering driver for Mac OS X by Joshua Wise: HoRNDIS (pronounce: “horrendous”) is a driver for Mac OS X that allows you to use your Android phone’s native USB tethering mode to get Internet access. It is known to work with Mac OS X versions 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) through 10.9 (Mavericks – see […]
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: MIC2039 single input, stack configuration for high current applications
An app note (PDF) from MICREL on their MIC2039 stackable switches with programmable current limiter. Because processors are required to work faster with each successive generation and the consumer electronics market is expanding, the demand for compact power control circuits with high current capability is ever increasing. The MIC2039 switches feature an adjustable output current […]
App note: AC switch triggering with 3.3 V power supply
Controlling AC switches from a 3.3V MCU pin, an app note (PDF) from ST. This document focuses on the calculation of gate current consumption of various types of AC switches when using a 3.3 V power supply. Until now, the standard of a 5 V power supply was used. In home appliance applications there is […]