Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week. In week 19 he came up with breakout board for micro SD cards: This weeks PAW is just a breakout board for micro SD cards. There’s a number of boards like this on the market already, but they are kinda expensive and I like doing […]
Author Archives: DP
DIY adapter for flashing ATtiny84/85 with the Bus Pirate
@indigoid tweeted this picture of his DIY adapter for flashing ATtiny84/85 with the Bus Pirate: Very dodgy DIY adapter for flashing ATtiny84/85 via Bus Pirate. Shown w/ ATtiny85. No more jumpers! Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Minimal MSP430G2553 free guest PCB build
ejbs70 posted pictures of his free Minimal MSP430G2553 PCB build, a guest PCB from Boseji. If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer.
Chirp, a plant watering alarm
Miceuz of wemakethings made this Chirp, a soil moisture level sensor based on ATTINY44. When the plant dries out, it starts to chirp reminding you to water the plant: Chirp is a plant watering alarm – as simple as that. You put it into the soil near a plant and it emits a tiny chirp when the […]
MEEPROMMER: (E)EPROM programmer based on Arduino hardware
mkeller0815 built his own programmer – the MEEPROMMER, that is available at github: The idea behind this EEPROM programmer was to have a tool to get data on a 28Cxxx EEPROM for my own 6502-based computer. There are a lot of professional programmers you can buy, but for a lot of money. Using cheap and […]
Bus Pirate 3D-printed case
Here’s a 3D-printed Bus Pirate case by foosel, created in OpenSCAD: This is a case for the Bus Pirate v3.6 from Dangerous Prototypes/Seeedstudio. It offers access to the header and the ICSP connector and a clear view on the 4 status LEDs. The case was created with OpenSCAD, the source file is attached and can […]
LineBot project
A followup to the line-follower robot post, the LineBot project by bithead942: LineBot leverages an Arduino Uno which helps to decrease the complexity. I also used an Ardumoto shield for motor control (I’ll pre-solder the headers and screw terms). Using these will help accelerate the build since it means fewer parts on the breadboard and […]
Filming for “On The E-Waste Trail” documentary
We were contacted by documentary crew to talk about the Shenzhen electronics markets because of our Huaqiangbei Geek Tour Video. This is filmed on the roof of MixC, a giant mall a few stops away from the market. The project grew out of ‘The Light Bulb Conspiracy‘, a film which features a brief sequence about […]
Debugging the Crazyflie with the Bus Blaster
Chris Fusting tweeted: “Interfacing my Crazyflie with a proximity sensor. Debugging with the Bus Blaster“: A few months ago I came across my new favorite toy, the Crazyflie nano quadcopter. Developed by Bitcraze, the Crazyflie is an open source firmware and hardware flying development board. With a relatively beefy STM32 ARM Cortext-M3 MCU and an expansion […]
Energia Library : Interfacing to a Mifare RC522 RFID
Eelcor over at the 430h forum shared his Energia library for the Milfare RC522 RFID card: I wanted to share my results with the MF RC522 RFID reader. I found an article from Grant Gibson where he used a cheap reader from eBay to read Mifare cards. The command set and technical aspects of the […]
Arduino video overlay shield free guest PCB build
Rubi blogged about his free LowVoltageLabs’ Video Overlay Shield PCB build: In 2011 I won a free pcb from Dangerous Prototypes, a Arduino shield you can use to overlay and display data on a video stream. The Arduino Video Overlay Shield is based on the MAX7456 on screen display chip. The Arduino compatible shield board overlays text […]
Interfacing the DAC7564 to an MSP430
Juan has written an article detailing how to use an MSP430 with a DAC7564: The DAC7564 is a low-power, voltage-output, four-channel, 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The device includes a 2.5V, 2ppm/°C internal reference. The device is monotonic, provides very good linearity, and minimizes undesired code-to-code transient voltages (glitch).
#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 […]
Line follower robot project
exapod shared his line-follower robot in the project log forum: I’m planning of building a robot with a dspic33fj128mc804 and two encoders for implement some dead reckoning algorithms so for learn something on the dspics i build a line-follower, it uses 6 analog sensors that are read with the auto-scan capability of the chip, the […]
BeagleBone GamingCape
Max Thrun has written a detailed article on his hand-held gaming console based around the beaglebone black. It covers everything from custom PCBs, to a 3D printed prototype enclosure, to a final enclosure laser cut from delrin: Older brother of the LaunchPad GamingPack, the BeagleBone GamingCape transforms your BeagleBone into a full fledged hand-held gaming console capable […]
Wearable LED heart simulator pendant
Here’s a cool heart simulation project by Addie over on @tymkrs: This wearable LED heart simulator pendant was inspired by my work as a cardiovascular surgical nurse as well as my love of electronics. It simulates the electrical activity of 17 different rhythms and when paired with the heart backplane, it becomes an audio and […]
XT-IDE Adapter free PCB build
Mobilewill blogged about his free XT-IDE Adapter v1b PCB build: A few months ago I redeemed my free PCB coupon for the XT IDE Controller. It took some time to get the PCB and to order all of the needed parts, but finally everything was ready for assembly. I have to say this project was anything […]
Measuring microamps & milliamps at 3 MHz bandwidth
Paul over at Dorkbotpdx writes: Recently I needed to actually “see” a current waveform in the 100 uA to 5 mA range with at least a couple MHz bandwidth. This extremely expensive probe would have been perfect, but instead I built something similar for about $30 using the amazing Analog Devices AD8428 amplifier.
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: Adding intelligence to LED lighting
Here’s a tutorial from Maxim on how to design smarter LED lighting. How smart is your LED lighting system? While LED lighting holds the promise of reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs, smart LED lighting designs improve system performance in both areas, achieving higher performance per watt and reducing cost in the long term. Energy […]