An application note from Microchip: Avoiding MOSFET driver overstress (PDF!) This application note describes how to avoid MOSFET driver overstress. MOSFET drivers are used in many applications to drive the high input capacitance of a power MOSFET device. MOSFET drivers are very reliable when used within their operating specifications. Care must be taken, however, to […]
Author Archives: DP
App note: picoPower Basics
Here’s an application note from Atmel on power saving techniques to reduce energy consumption (PDF!): In this demonstration we will show you how to extend the battery life of our application by multiple factors by modifying only the firmware. You will see that while some of the modifications are very simple and only require setting some […]
Simple Arduino EMF detector
Here’s a simple Arduino EMF detector by Aaron ALAI: This is an improved version of an Arduino EMF detector from Aaron ALAI. It uses one resistor and a piece of wire to detect if there is any EMF (elector-magnetic field) around. Nice and simple idea! Via PCBheaven.
Wireless monitoring
Brohogan presents this post explaining the process for building a solar powered wireless radiation monitor: This project measures the background radiation outside the house, and transmits it to a display station inside the house. The outside sensing unit is solar powered (but it doesn’t have to be), and should have a range of at least […]
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 May 24, 2013
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. Bay Area Maker Faire 2013: Dangerous Prototypes booth More from Bay Area Maker Faire 2013 Bay Area Maker Faire 2013: Booths and Exhibits Bay Area Maker Faire 2013: ‘Get your stuff made’ presentation Bay Area Maker Faire 2013: Preview […]
Tinkerer’s tricorder update
Nickjohnson posted an update to his network analyzer we covered previously: More tweaks and improvements! I’ve moved to a dedicated LED dimming controller for the backlight instead of resistors, and made a few other layout tweaks. It’s now out for fab. A friend put together some nice renders of the case for me Via the […]
Alert Tube – Monitor anything on the Net
This Alert Tube by Michael Watson monitors the net for events that you choose and alerts you by light patterns, text to speech or sounds: The Alert Tube is an open source information appliance that connects wirelessly to the Internet of Things in the cloud. The user interface is dead simple, it communicates data via customized […]
The Moog ladder filter
Moog Engineer Rick Shaich discusses the Ladder Filter, the first Voltage Controlled Filter, which is the heart and soul of the Moog modular synthesizers of the 60s, the Legendary Minimoog of the 70’s, and is still the same filter topology used in all Moog Synthesizers to this day. The Ladder Filter creates the massive, thick […]
LED display matrix using PIC16F1847 and shift registers
Here’s Embedded Lab’s new PIC project: Making a 8×40 LED matrix marquee using shift registers: This project is about constructing a mono-color LED matrix display board that consists 320 LEDs arranged in 8 rows and 40 columns. The heart of this project is PIC16F1847 microcontroller which receives data from a PC through a serial port […]
OLSFront – Logic Analyzer
Jadew has been working on a new client for Open Bench Logic Sniffer: OLSFront is a Logic Analyzer client, currently supporting only the Open Bench Logic Sniffer. At the moment it’s still in alpha so it might have serious bugs and will suffer lots of changes until it will reach beta. It should work on […]
Welcome Arduino Yún – the first member of a series of wifi products combining Arduino with Linux
Welcome Arduino Yún – the first member of a series of wifi products combining Arduino with Linux: Massimo Banzi announced it some minutes ago during his annual “The state of Arduino” presentation at Maker Faire Bay Area: Arduino Yún is the first of a revolutionary family of wifi products combining Arduino with Linux. Yún means […]
Minimalist AVR programmer
Philip Peter posted an article describing how he designed his Minimalist AVR programmer: I always like a challenge, so when I saw [simpleavr]s vusbtiny programmer, I started to wonder how small I could make an AVR programmer. All in all I’m pretty pleased with the result. The schematic is almost the same as the original […]
DIY laser engraver
Want a laser engraver for your workshop? Here’s an Instructable by ianmcmill on how to build your own. If you have some old donated scanners and printers chances are you have most of the stuff needed to make your own DIY Laser Engraver. The main thing that all laser engravers have in common is a […]
Making chassis overlays with a Cameo
Teletypeguy posted a simple how-to on making chassis overlays with a Cameo: After finally getting stencils working with my Cameo cutter, I wanted to try making chassis overlays. Over the years I have spent good money getting polycarbonate overlays (7 to 10-mil) with rear silkscreen for connector identification and such, a flood-fill color, backed with […]
Workshop Update for May 21st, 2013
We continue working on the part kit models and diagrams. The images above are CAD drawings, and Eagle components of PCB edge connectors.
Laser-cut records made from wood
Here’s the world’s first Laser-cut records made from wood by Amanda Ghassaei: You can now turn your favourite music downloads into playable records made from materials you have lying around the house. Amanda Ghassaei, 24, from San Francisco has created the world’s first laser-cut wooden records using songs from Radiohead and Joy Division. And the […]
Atmel Tech on Tour: Bringing hands-on technology training to you
Xykon writes to let us know about the new Atmel Tech on Tour events: During this hands-on training, you will learn how to lower the power of your system designs using Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs) in conjunction with our wireless and touch solutions. Many of the lessons you’ll learn will be applicable to a wide variety […]
PCB a Week 10: Trifluxx
Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week. In week 10 he came up with Trifluxx, a triangular PCB game: I ended up with using resistor arrays instead of discrete 0805 resistors to save some space and the board can be used for both a sound reactive flasher or some kind of a 1/2/3-player game […]
USB Infrared Toy free PCB build
Chris built a USB IR Toy free PCB. With the USB IR Toy you can use a remote control with your computer, view infrared signals on a logic analyzer, capture and replay remote control buttons. If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever […]