Simone Cicero over at Open Electronics writes: AS you may know, just few weeks ago OSHWA published the results from 2013 Open Hardware Community survey. You can find original datasheets and everything here. Despite raw data is good, I thought it was good to spend some time looking at the data trying to gather more insights, when […]
Author Archives: DP
Simple SMD LED tester
Peter over at Electronics-Lab posted an article describing how he designed and built his simple SMD LED tester: This project is a simple LED tester and LED polarity checker. It can be used to check 1206, 0805, 0603 and 5mm LEDs. All parts are readily available and they are very cheap. Usage is very simple. Just press the […]
Another better component storage
Here’s another better way to store your electronics components by Nick of Arachnidlabs: I think I’ve found a better way to store those parts, though. I sourced some 3” x 5” antistatic bags for a pittance, lasercut a box to hold them in, and printed off some simple labels to keep track of what’s in each one. Here’s […]
HP 6113A teardown And calibration
Kerry Wong writes: A couple of weeks ago I did a teardown of HP 6181C — a precision DC current source made in the late 70′s and early 80′s. This time around, I am going to show some pictures of an HP 6113A precision DC power supply and do a basic calibration using my Keithley […]
New member of the WS2812 family
cpldcpu writes: What’s pretty cool about these LEDs is that they are diffuse – no more blinding unidirectional light. This might be very useful for indicator lights. Furthermore, you can easily wire them freeform without a pcb. I see a lot of RGB LED cubes coming up… The LEDs come with four leads: VCC, GND, […]
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.
Sound pressure level meter (SPL) dB audio meter using AVR ATmega
Davide Gironi has written an article detailing a simple sound pressure level meter (SPL) dB audio meter using AVR ATmega: What is proposed here is a SPL db meter using and AVR Atmega micro. A sound level meter or sound meter is an instrument which measures sound pressure level. Sound pressure level (SPL) or sound level […]
Open Bitcoin ATM
Check out the world’s first open-source Bitcoin ATM: Open Bitcoin ATM is the worlds first open-source automated teller machine for education and experimentation. Want to make one? Here’s a step by step tutorial. It takes about 7 – 10 hours to build with simple tools. Cost of components are less than $500 new but used […]
Autonomous iPad playing robot
Tom Randle made this robot that automatically plays Leap Sheep on the iPad: On a complete whim about 2 years ago, I decided to make a robot to autonomously play one of my favourite iPhone games: Leap Sheep. The game’s nice and simple so lends itself really well to automation. Sheep run from left to right, […]
Time plotting clock
A clock that plots time: The Time Plotting Clock mechanism is fantastically simple, 3 tiny servo motors allow the erasable marker to be moved along the drawing surface and raised when no contact with the surface is desired. This allows the pen to write the time. There is also a tiny eraser located in 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 […]
Custom Clothing in Shenzhen
By akiba One of the less commonly known features of Shenzhen is the clothing mall at the top floor of the Luohu shopping center. It’s an interesting place because you can get almost any type of clothing made there. Those that know me know that fashion sense is probably one of the last things on […]
Turning your Flash Destroyer into a clock
voidptr writes: So ! …. 2 years later, here an update on living with my dangerous Flash Destroyer hack ! First off, front and back picture :o) I added few things since its birth … A battery for the real time clock, really handy when you reprogram code and you don’t want to lose the […]
ATtiny LED driver for an RC car
joeforker posted his ATtiny LED driver for an RC car in the project log forum: I thought I’d share a little board I’m making to add headlights to a model car. The board is a little 1″ square thing with mounting holes. The top right contains a constant-current driver built from a BC847 BJT, a 2N7002 […]
STM32F429 discovery expansion play Amiga music modules
Fabrice writes: I just want to inform you that I just finished a Amiga modules player for the STM32F429. It is working very well. The source code is provided on my page Via the contact form.
RetroWatch, an open source smart watch project using Arduino and Android
Here is a very nice build of a DIY smart watch based on Arduino and Android by godstale. Check it out. But here is a simple way to evaluate smart watch’s future on your own. Make it! With Arduino micro-processor and Android, I made a simple smart watch and named it “Retro Watch“. You can […]
Networked 1D Pong
phalox decided to build his own version of 1D pong with the TCP/IP stack: Not just being a copycat, I really had to add a bit of extra mustard. In this case an entire TCP/IP stack! This results in a network connected 1D Pong game, in which you can have as many nodes (players) as you would […]
Why Do I Need A Calculator?
By akiba I’ve been getting some questions on why a calculator is included in the hackercamp package. There’s actually a pretty interesting story behind it. A lot of people new to the electronic markets in Hua Qiang Bei quickly realize that no English is spoken there. Bargaining is carried out in Chinese and you actually […]
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: Driving LEDs with Xilinx CPLDs
Here’s Xilinx app note on using CPLDs to perform the same functionality as those common LED driver chips. Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are commonplace on the modern day Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Whether they are indicating status, activity or some other function, they need to be driven by a device that can provide sufficient current to […]