This week some musing over a Bus Pirate educational/learning kit, and we received the PCBs for the VFD tube module of the Nixie Tube thing. ARDX is an extremely popular electronics learning kit based on the Arduino. It has an Arduino, breadboard, motors, servos, ICs, and jumper wires. Enough bits and pieces for 11 experiments […]
Author Archives: DP
PICShift programmable monostable multivibrator
Have a race car that needs a monostable multivibrator (one shot pulse) to control the pneumatic gear change actuators? Use a 555 timer, you say? Unfortunately, due to vibrations accompanying race cars a 555 controlled through a potentiometer is out of the question. A solution proposed by the Ohio State University’s formula team is to […]
Workshop Update for January 16th, 2013
We continue working on the Bus Pirate Education Kit, and the VFD module. We also made the video a day early which covers the above mentioned projects. In Bus Pirate firmware we’re working on adding a ‘clutch’ mechanism to our protocols. It came about due to the fact that under some protocols the device connected […]
Simplify Eagle library part creation from BSDL files
Here’s a tutorial on how to automatically generate Eagle parts from manufacturers’ BSDL files. These files are available from some manufacturers and include tables listing pin names and numbers. This information is used by the make-symbol-device-package-bsdl.ulp to generate your device. On our wiki we have a tutorial on how to built devices for your Eagle […]
Color organ – LED light show
Want a simple light show in your room? Here’s an Instructable on how to build your own. The Color organ is all analog and built from only transistors, resistors, capacitors, and of course LEDs: Audio source can be any “line level” output from audio equipment, or headphone output from computer sound cards and iPod/MP3 players. […]
Digitally controlled power supply
Wvdv2002 shared his digitally controlled power supply with us in the forums. It’s capable of driving 0-18V while having a current controlled output of 0-3A. The brains of the design is the PIC18f46j50 which controls a switch mode regulator’s voltage and current output through the MCP4822 two channel I2C DAC. Via the forum.
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.
Workshop Update for January 15th, 2013
VFD module for the giant Nixie blob (pictured above) is coming together. Getting all the leads in the right hole was a pain. We received another box of PCB prototypes from Seeed. Were working on adapting the Bus Pirate v3.6 gerbers to Hackvanna’s PCB and solder stencil service.
Type4me USB keyboard emulator automates passwords
Bored of always typing in the same password over and over again? Luca designed a board to tackle just that problem. It’s a USB composite device, featuring both a USB keyboard emulator and a serial port. You program the letter sequence for the keyboard to type via the serial port, then press a button on […]
#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 […]
Simple shrink wrap Bus Pirate case
Voidptr used clear shrink wrap to encase his Bus Pirate v3 and cut holes for the IO headers. See our case video from a few months ago, and even more awesome DIY cases from Bus Pirate fans. Check out our Bus Pirate Sick of Beige case now selling at Seeed for $3. Get an assembled […]
Nottingham Hackspace “days accident free” counter
Fowkc tweeted a picture of his somewhat late open 7400 competition entry. It’s a giant 3 digit 7 segment display used to count the number of day’s there hasn’t been an accident in his local hackerspace. You can read about it’s development on his blog. Back in September 2011, Dangerous Prototypes started a competition for […]
Workshop Update for January 14th, 2013
We received our PCBs for our VFD tube project. In the meantime we continue to prepare the Bus Pirate Educational Kit. In parallel to the kit, we are pushing to fix all the bugs that have crept up into the Bus Pirate over the years.
Geiger counter with SI-3BG Russian tube
Erdabyz designed a Geiger counter around a SI-3BG Geiger Muller tube. It uses a PIC16F1508 to read the radiation level, and passes it to a computer via a FT232R USB-to-Serial IC. Timer 1 uses a secondary xtal oscillator at 32,768kHz as clock source. Every 2 seconds the timer overflows. Output pulse from the geiger tube […]
PCB a Week 5: Oledy generic OLED breakout board
Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week. In week 5 he came up with Oledy, a breakout board featuring 8 most common pitches for OLED display connectors, spanning from 0.5mm to 1mm. The Oledy board is a 5×5 cm board meant to be cut in half ending up with two boards 2.5 […]
Control panel toy with Stellaris LaunchPad
Tom designed this mock up of a control panel for his kid’s 3rd birthday. It has 26 LEDs, a joystick, 3 buttons, and 2 switches. A Stellaris LaunchPad is used to control the LEDs depending on what user interface options are pressed, moved, or switched. Via the forum. Happy birthday Oscar.
Bus Pirate v3.6 Sick of Beige v1 acrylic case v1 back in stock
Bus Pirate v3.6 Sick of Beige acrylic case v1 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Version 1 of the basic case is simple, cheap, easy to assemble, and fits our Sick of Beige standard PCB sizes. Check out our tutorial on how to customize Sick of Beige cases. Get Bus Pirate v3.6 acrylic case […]
A tool to talk to chips – our 2600 magazine winter ad
Here’s our Bus Pirate winter ad in the latest issue of the infamous 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. This ad is in the issue that hits newsstands now. 2600′s free ads are still the only advertising we do on a regular basis. We’re in good company in the 2600 marketplace, TV-B-Gone has an ad a few […]
App note: USB on the go (OTG) basics
Here’s a tutorial from Maxim describing the basics of USB on the go (OTG). OTG gives, devices that support it, the capability to act as hosts to other devices. But OTG concept doesn’t end just there, it also allows for on the fly role reversal, and gives the peripheral the ability to request power from […]
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 […]