At Hacker Camp Shenzhen we learned to reball BGA chips at a mobile phone repair school. This technique was developed to repair cell phones with little to no equipment. That means no expensive reballing rigs, no collection of tiny replacement BGA balls. Just simple hand tools. We thought it was so cool we bought all […]
Author Archives: DP
Serial audio player with amplifier
Chris Holden writes: Steve Carpenter wants some wav playing boards, so I redesigned the circuit to use an integrated op-amp, so they just require power and a speaker. I’ve no idea which op-amp works best, a TL072 or an LM386 (I’ve not had much luck with the LM386 in the past, and Steve really rates […]
Sensor stick project
Elpis of Embedded Day shared his sensor stick in the project log forum: I just finish the assembly process of my latest super mini project! It’s nothing amazing… but its a very handy sensor module! On board there are three commonly used sensors: SHT10, BMP085 and MPU6050. I was constantly using those ones over my […]
ChipStomp, a digital effects pedal with a ChipKit DP32 and Stompshield
Catmacey has been working on a digital guitar effects processor based on a PIC32MX, the ChipStomp: Here’s another “Guitar stomp box” project… This one combines a Chipkit DP32 (PIC32MX) with an Open music labs Stomp Shield to sample audio, mess with it and squirt it back out at 44Khz. It uses the built-in 10bit ADC for input […]
Arduino GPS distance calculator
GPS distance calculator created by a group of students from Indiana University, built as a final project: As sports fans building for golfers, we kept the design anchored to real courses in Indiana, where players care about precise yardage from tee to landing. The handheld logs latitude and longitude at impact and at rest, then […]
#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 […]
Easy WebSockets with Flask and Gevent
Miguel Grinberg writes: This weekend I decided to take a short vacation from my book writing effort and spend time on a project I wanted to work on for a long time. The result of this effort is a brand new Flask extension that I think is pretty cool. I’m happy to introduce Flask-SocketIO, a […]
Thermal camera project
In this video Avery demonstrates his thermal camera project that he is working on: The code does technically work. I put my hand over the sensor, and LEDs light up. In the video, they appear to get brighter because the led on/off decision is made by basically taking the image and converting it to on/off based […]
Simplest and cheapest foot-controlled telepromter ever
Giorgos from PCBheaven wrote a post detailing the build of his DIY foot-controlled telepromter: I’m preparing a whole new set of theory videos. I’ve set almost everything up, new camera, light fixtures, microphones and everything. I even used my old laptop as an telepromter to narrate the script. But i did not want to hand any […]
DIY acrylic skeleton clock
Benmurton posted a step by step guide of his DIY acrylic skeleton clock build: This is a clock made fully out of acrylic! This was originally was my year 13 mechanical engineering college project, we had to research, design and build a project for a stakeholder, this including lots of recording so there is no shortage of photos. […]
Interactive LED beer pong table
Jeff wrote this Instructable detailing the build of his LED beer pong table project: This instructable will guide you through all of the steps to in order to create a one-of-a-kind beer pong table complete with cup detecting RGB pods, automatic ball washers, a 32×12 ping pong ball LED grid, side LED rings for spectators and an RF interface […]
app note: High-Side Switch Using LDO Regulator Controller
An old but good app note from Micrel using LDO Regulator as High Side switch controller. The Micrel MIC5158 Super LDO™ Voltage Regulator Controller can be used as a high-side switch driver that features a relatively accurate current limit. The part is normally intended for driving the MOSFET pass device of a voltage regulator. It […]
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: Simple Current-Limiting Power Supply
A simple current-limiting power supply from Micrel, app note here. Just three ICs are required to build this adjustable-voltage, adjustable-current-limit power supply that operates like a laboratory supply. It offers an output voltage range of 0V to 25V and a current limit range of about 10mA to 1.5A. The Micrel MIC29152 LDO Regulator has a […]
App note: Getting the most out of the MAX14920/MAX14921 high-accuracy battery-measurement AFEs
An application note from Maxim on getting the most out of the MAX14920/MAX14921 high-accuracy battery-measurement AFEs: The MAX14920/MAX14921 is a high-accuracy battery-measurement analog front-end (AFE) ideal for cell balancing and battery-measurement applications. The performance of the system in which the MAX14920/MAX14921 is used, however, depends highly on the components that support and surround it. This application note provides […]
Magnetically actuated micro-robots
Magnetically actuated micro-robots for advanced manipulation applications: SRI is developing new technology to reliably control thousands of micro-robots for smart manufacturing of macro-scale products in compact, integrated systems. Via Hacked Gadgets.
Hi-Fi audio power amplifier for experiments and general use
Dilshan Jayakody writes: This is high quality audio power amplifier which we constructed for our audio related experiments. This amplifier is based on NXP’s TDA1521A integrated circuit and it is capable to deliver 2 × 6W audio output power with 20V – 25V asymmetrical power source. The design of this power amplifier is heavily based […]
Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters
eEvery Friday we giveaway 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 free […]
Week in (p)review April 25, 2014
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. Hacker Camp Shenzhen Day 1: Surviving Shenzhen, Chinese Lesson, Market Hacker Camp Shenzhen Day 2: Export, Import, Shipping, Sourcing Agents Hacker Camp Shenzhen Day 2: Soldering workshop Hacker Camp Shenzhen Day 2: BBQ dinner Hacker Camp Shenzhen Day […]
The Delta router + 4th axis
Barton Dring wrote a post on his blog detailing his Delta router build, he made it for ORD Camp: This year there happened to be a session on creativity with constraints. The question we debated for an hour was, do constraints help or hurt the creative process. Constraints can move you out of your comfort zone and maybe […]