Can’t sleep because of a noisy hamster wheel? Felipe shows you how to easily make a very silent homemade hamster wheel using an old hard disk drive: Felipe La Rotta from Cocodrilabs had a noisy hamster wheel. Hamster wheels like most other mass produced pet items are made as cheap as possible, that means that you […]
Author Archives: DP
Interfacing an I2C GPIO expander (MCP23017) to the Raspberry Pi using C++ (SYSFS)
Hertaville posted a detailed tutorial on interfacing the MCP23017 to the Raspberry Pi using C++ (SYSFS): In this blog entry I will demonstrate how to successfully interface the MCP23017 general purpose input/output (GPIO) expander from Microchip, to the Raspberry Pi over the I2C bus.
Sunrise alarm clock
Herpderp posted this picture of his sunrise alarm clock in the project log forum.
Workshop Update for April 2nd, 2013
Another day, another render. This is exercise 9 of the planed 12 for the Bus Pirate Edu kit. In Huaqiangbei we tested out some part sourcing services for our parts kits.
SMPS with battery backup and NiMH charger using the LM2595
Giorgos from PCBheaven designed an SMPS buck regulator with 2xAA NiMh battery trickle charger and power failure output: Some time ago I presented a small circuit with the MCP1640, the High Efficiency Battery Boost Regulator using the MCP1640. My original intention was to combine it with this one and make a complete power supply unit with […]
Use your launchpad as a BSL programmer
Kerry Wong shows us how to program a MSP430F5172 development board using a launchpad as a BSL programmer: Fortunately, most of the MSP430 devices can be programmed using the built-in BSL (Bootstrap Loader). And TI’s MSP430G2 Launchpad has a convenient utility which turns a Launchpad into a BSL programmer. More detailed information on the […]
Mantis hexapod walking machine by Matt Denton
Matt Denton of Micromagic Systems built this Mantis hexapod robot powered by hydraulics: After four years intensive R&D, inspiration, design and build, Micromagic Systems is proud to unveil Mantis — the biggest, all-terrain operational hexapod robot in the world. This 2.2-litre Turbo Diesel-powered, British-designed and -built walking machine can be piloted or remote WiFi-controlled, stands 2.8 […]
#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 […]
Easy Pulse board used as biofeedback for virtual jogging
Easy Pulse board used as biofeedback for virtual jogging: Sergej Stoetzer and two of his students just finished their virtual jogging project, where the Easy Pulse board has been used to provide a biofeedback to their system. They interfaced an ear-clip sensor to the Easy Pulse board to detect the heart beat during virtual jogging. […]
Workshop Update for April 1st, 2013
We continue to source parts for the upcoming kits in Shenzhen. Taking pictures as they arrive, and assembling an instructional booklet. Work on the in-depth documentation continues. Another image was generated. At your request we changed the angle a bit. We also generated the standard up-front view of this exercise, which you can check out […]
DIY ethernet temperature and humidity logger
Kerry Wong built an Ethernet temperature and humidity logger: I used an ENC28J60 Ethernet module along with an ATmega328p microcontroller to log the temperature and humidity readings and then process the data on my web server for display. To plot the data points, I used Google Annotated Timeline so that you can easily zoom into the […]
Madparts, the functional footprint editor
Here’s an open source functional footprint editor the Madparts by Andete, that is available at github: Being somewhat annoyed with the cumbersome task of creating footprints for ICs I decided to make my own program for it two months ago. Last Friday I finally released version 1.0 as fully open source software Via the forum.
Shrunk down an Arduino to the size of a finger-tip!
RFduino: A finger-tip sized, Arduino compatible, wireless enabled microcontroller, low cost enough to leave in all of your projects! The RFduino runs Arduino code and can do everything an Arduino can, plus much more. Using the RFduino USB shield, simply plug the RFduino into a USB port of any computer and use the Arduino IDE […]
DIY corflute project enclosure
Sleemanj posted pictures of his simple DIY case from a corflute: So I wanted to put one of my handy dandy LM2577 DC-DC SEPIC’s in a box with some binding posts. Being of an incredibly cheap-ass nature genetically there is no way I’m shelling out for an actual project box if I can avoid it! […]
App Note: How to test power supplies
Here is a video from Texas Instruments describing how to test DC-DC power supplies. Measurement of ripple and transient noise of switching power supplies is described in detail.
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. […]
App Note: PCB mounting guidelines for surface mount devices
Here’s an application note from Atmel on PCB mounting guidelines for surface mount devices. The article describes a multitude of tips on how to improve the reflow rate of production boards designed with SMT components.
App Note: Get the maximum power out of a solar panel
Here is an application note from Microchip describing how to get maximum power out of a solar panel. The focus of this application note is to identify how to get the maximum power out of a solar panel to power a remote application. The Maximum Power Point Converter is essentially a DC-to-DC converter, where the […]
Excel-based transistor amplifier calculator
Paulo shared an Excel-based transistor amplifier calculator. ‘Besides the basic gain and biasing calculations many others implement, this calculator can also estimate noise which is a bit more involved’: ..Because this is a circuit I use frequently, I decided to make an Excel spreadsheet to ease the calculations. The spreadsheet started as a simple resistor […]