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Author Archives: DP
Temperature Shield for Bare Bones Arduino v3, Part I
Kevin Rye writes: With version 3 of my Bare Bones Arduino boards off being fabbed, as well as the laser-cut acrylic, it was time to go ahead a design my first shield. I have a ton of 7-segment displays that I’ve sourced over the years from various tear-downs of stuff from the garbage. I’ve been […]
Bus Blaster v4 back in stock
Bus Blaster v4 JTAG debugger is back in stock at Seeed Studio.The cool thing about the Bus Blaster is that it uses a programmable logic chip as a buffer. It can imitate different types of programming hardware with a simple USB update. You can get a Bus Blaster v4 for $45.
Self balancing robot
In this video Trandi demonstrates his little self-balancing robot project: It’s really been a very long time since I added this on my todo list, and in the past couple of week-ends I finally found the time to do it. And for once, I managed to avoid over-designing it, and produce something that actually works and is fun […]
Open source smart display
Herpderp posted his smart display project in the forum: Even if it is not completed yet, I think that the current version of PCB/software is now “acceptable”. I’m currently working on a kind of documentation / user manual, I hope to finish it quickly… So here is a small video of the smart TFT And source […]
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: CPLD timing
See from Xilinx app note the timing constraints on CPLDs. In this application note we will discuss how to constrain a CPLD design and how to verify that the design has met timing. Fundamentally, CPLD timing is the same as FPGA timing; however, the CPLD timing constraints are a subset of the FPGA timing constraints.
App note: Understanding XC9500XL CPLD power
Here’s an app note from Xilinx on calculating power consumption for a CPLD. The goal of this application note is to discuss XC9500XL CPLD power estimation and optimization and provide the reader with an understanding of sense-amplifier based CPLD power dissipation. A brief discussion of the process for estimation is given. With this information, you […]
App note: CPLDs as Motor Controllers
Here’s a simple motor controller implementation using CPLDs from Xilinx. To enable a CPLD to turn the electromagnets on and off, external transistor drivers must be used. A unipolar stepper motor can be driven by four identical NPN or N-channel drive transistors. The various Xilinx CPLDs can operate with I/O voltages from 1.5V to 5V. […]
App note: Xilinx in-system programming using an embedded microcontroller
Program Xilinx’ CPLDs and FPGAs with the aid from this app note. By using a simple JTAG interface, Xilinx devices are easily programmed and tested without using expensive hardware. Multiple devices can be daisy-chained, permitting a single four-wire Test Access Port (TAP) to control any number of Xilinx devices or other JTAG-compatible devices. The four […]
Magic Mote thermostat and wireless temperature sensor
Tom’s another cool project the Magic Mote thermostat and wireless temperature sensor: A homemade thermostat up in the basement rafters controls the heating in my home. The smart bit is the radio frequency communication that connects it to a remote temperature sensor. So, I’m planning a home automation system based around wireless nodes (the Magic Mote […]
A LED Matrix mask built on AVR ATmega8
Davide Gironi blogged about his LED matrix mask built on AVR ATmega8: avr_mask1 wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! AVR Mask1 is a led mask built around 74hc595 shift register and 8×8 led matrix, running on an ATMega8 microcontroller.
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 […]
OOMP part box
We had 1000 boxes and part holding trays made up for the new OOMP part management system. These won’t be at Seeed yet, just for our internal use and giveaways, but I wanted to share the result. Each set (box+tray) is about 1.2RMB ($0.20), took about a week to make and deliver. We asked for […]
Week in (p)review January 03, 2014
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. Bus Pirate LCD adapter v3 back in stock Another Bus Pirate reference sheet Check out Doub’s dev board for Lua programming, Mats AndyBrd and MainSlogger and Markus’ alarm clock time using an OLED in the project log forum Coming up: Free PCBs via Facebook on […]
Car proximity v2
Bithead writes: The transceiver I created for the original solution was based on an Arduino Uno with an Xbee shield. I put the assembly inside a Sparkfun Arduino Project Enclosure which measures 87x64x28mm. This has worked well for about 1.5 years now, but there is room for improvement: 1. I’d like to shrink the enclosure […]
Wireless sensor node with MSP430G2553 and 8-pin adapter for NRF24L01+
Tom has designed this Magic Mote wireless sensor, that is available at Github: I set out to design a wireless sensor PCB that could be inexpensively prototyped in quantities of 10. NRF24L01+ modules are exceedingly cheap (~$10 for 10), use very little power, and have sufficient range for most indoor projects. Low power MSP430 microcontrollers make an ideal […]
Alarm clock using an OLED
Markus Gritsch writes: Inspired by this and this wrist watch, I decided to build yet another iteration of my bedside table alarm clock, this time using an OLED. As a first step I made a handy breakout board for an 1.3″ 128×64 OLED. The rest is soldered together on a perfboard. The hardware is complete and […]
A development board for Lua programming
doub has been working on a development board for Lua programming: So this project is about packing a relatively fast microcontroller, but not complex enough to require a high level OS (like Linux for SoC-class chips), with a big RAM chip. I picked a STM32F427, because I have some experience with the STM32 family, the core […]
Bus Pirate LCD adapter v3 back in stock
The Bus Pirate LCD adapter v3 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This breakout board lets you drive, and test HD44780, and compatible LCDs with your Bus Pirate v3. We changed the PCB to one of our standard PCB sizes, namely the DP6037 v1. Get an LCD adapter for $9.