3D Printed Metal Gun by Solid Concepts and our ability to 3D Print the world’s first metal gun solidifies our standing. The gun is a classic 1911, a model that is at once timeless and public domain. It functions beautifully: Our resident gun expert has fired 50 successful rounds and hit a few bull’s eyes […]
Author Archives: DP
Reminder: Another chipKIt Motor shield, chipKIT WF 32, chipKIT DP 32, and chipKit Cmod giveaway
Tomorrow we’ll give away another chipKIT WF 32, chipKIt Motor shield, chipKIT DP 32, and chipKit Cmod! Leave a comment on yesterday’s post with a project idea, and one of these boards could be yours on Thursday. The chipKIt Motor shield is available for $29.99, chipKIT WF 32 for $69.00, chipKIT DP 32 for $23.99, and chipKit Cmod for $29.00 from Digilent.
Proverbial LED blink program for chipKit DP32
Ras B blogged about his chipKIT DP 32 he won in our last week chipKIt giveaway: Ok I just could not resist, and had to post the Proverbial Led blink Program adapted for the DP32, that has 4 LED’s on the board ( Digital Pins 11 to 14). Will scroll them from right to left, speed varying on 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 […]
GIVEAWAY: Another chipKIt Motor shield, chipKIT WF 32, chipKIT DP 32, and chipKit Cmod
Another chipKIt Motor shield, chipKIT WF 32, chipKIT DP 32, and chipKit Cmod to give away this week. Leave a comment on this post with a project idea, and one of these boards could be yours on Thursday. The chipKIT WF32 is based on the popular Arduino™ open-source hardware prototyping platform and adds the performance of the Microchip […]
FT230X charger detection investigation
Baoshi writes: I bought some FT230X (FT230XS) USB-USART bridge chip recently for a new design. FT230X is not only cheaper than the traditional FT232RL, but also offers a new fancy “USB charger detection” function. This interests me because I’m quickly running out of desk space and power socket. I wish the new device to be […]
LED cube spectrum analyzer project
John Boxall over at Tronixstuff posted a step by step guide on building a LED cube spectrum analyzer: A few weeks ago I was asked about creating a musical-effect display with an RGB LED cube kit from our friends over at Freetronics, and with a little work this was certainly possible using the MSGEQ7 spectrum analyzer IC. In […]
Tektronix PS2521G power supply teardown
Kevtris tears down the Tektronix PS2521G power supply. He produced this post detailing his findings.: Weellll, I needed a good bench power supply, so I finally broke down and bought one. I got a Tektronix PS2521G. This doodad has three isolated outputs. This means that each of the three outputs can be wired in series or parallel with […]
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 […]
KORUZA, the open-source open-hardware wireless communication system
KORUZA, the open-source open-hardware wireless communication system by Luka Mustafa – Musti KORUZA is an innovative open-source open-hardware wireless communication system, employing a new low-cost approach to designing free-space optical network systems, enabling building-to-building connectivity with a highly collimated light beam at a capacity of 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps) at distances up to 100 m. It […]
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 November 08, 2013
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. Tokyo Mini Maker Faire 2013 Check out Mats’ PlingPlong a portable synth in the project log forum This week giveaway: Circuit patterns trading cards Coming up: Free PCBs via Facebook on Friday App notes on the weekend Free PCB Sunday […]
The Beast, a Cortex M4 based development platform
Limpkin writes: “In this article, I’ll present you ‘the beast’: a cortex M4-based platform that has plenty of communication interfaces and to which you can connect a lot of different peripherals.” Visit Limpkin’s page for project details.
KiCad: CERN’s contribution to Free/Open PCB design
Bearmos writes, “Looks like more good things are going to be coming to KiCAD, thanks to the folks at CERN. It sounds like they’re committing a programmer full time for one year to the project.” One of the main issues the open hardware community must overcome to reach a maturity level akin to that of […]
Giveaway: Circuit patterns trading cards
Nick Johnson over at Arachnid Labs wants to giveaway a few decks of circuit patterns trading cards. Each card has a schematic and short description of a common circuit pattern in electronics. Topics covered include digital, analog, and power electronics. He’ll give these away to 3 random commenters, just leave a comment on this post with a circuit pattern […]
The Oscilloscope Watch
If you want to carry around a portable oscilloscope device at all times then check out this cool geek watch, the Oscilloscope Watch by Gabriel Anzziani of Gabotronics: The Oscilloscope Watch has all the features of a modern watch (time, calendar, alarm, etc…) combined with all the features of the popular Xprotolab (Oscilloscope, Waveform Generator, Logic Analyzer, Protocol […]
Battery pack load
Paul over at Dorkbotpdx writes: I purchased a cheap USB power pack, thinking it would be ideal for powering small projects. But it automatically shuts off if the device isn’t drawing a lot of power, since it’s meant for charging cell phones. Here’s a 2 transistor circuit I built this morning that keeps it on […]
RadioduinoWRT – a do it yourself webradio
Raffael Herrmann wrote in to let us know about his latest project the RadioduinoWRT – a do it yourself webradio: In the last weeks I built a webradio by myself. It made from an Arduino, an hacked TP-Link WR703N router and some interface parts. It’s fitted into a beautiful Yamaha enclosing and supports the original Yamaha interface, […]
#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 […]
GPS clock prototyping, Part II
Kevin Rye posted an update on his GPS clock project we covered previously: It’s been a few months since I worked on the GPS clock. I couldn’t nail down exactly how I wanted it to work. I had a few ideas floating around, as well as a list of what features I wanted to include. However, in order […]