protoCentral is another open source hardware design studio we visited in Bangalore. They started out doing work for India’s military, building sensors and wireless gear. After using open hardware for some years himself, Ashwin decided to start distributing open hardware from SparkFun, Seeed Studio, and Arduino a few months ago. They are just now branching […]
Author Archives: DP
Global Geek Tour India: Tenet Technetronics tour
In Bangalore we had a chance to visit Tenet Technetronics, an open source hardware designer and distributor. Cool thing about their office is that it’s entirely built by the development team. They designed and fabricated all the furniture and installations in their office. Tenent Technetroncis is selling open hardware like crazy, next year they hope […]
Bus Pirate LCD Adapter free PCB build
Marv shared his free Bus Pirate LCD Adapter v2b build. This board lets your Bus Pirate drive HF44780 comparable LCDs. 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. Grab an assembled […]
Congratulations 7400 contest winners email sent
An email went out to winners a few hours ago. If you didn’t get it please let us know through the contact form. A copy of the email is below.
App note: Detecting human falls with 3-axis accelerometers
Here is an article from Analog Devices discussing the theory and application of detecting human falls with 3-axis accelerometers. While the article focuses on the ADXL345 3-axis accelerometers, the theory and principle behind it can be applied to other devices as well. This article, based on research into the principles of fall detection for an […]
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: Matching MOSFET drivers to MOSFETs
Here’s an app note from Microchip detailing how to match MOSFET drivers to MOSFETs. There are many variations of MOSFETs out there, and matching one to your driver and vice-versa is essential to getting the most out of your system. This Application Note discusses the details of MOSFET driver power dissipation in relation to MOSFET […]
App note: DC to DC converter tutorial
Here’s a tutorial from Maxim on DC to DC converter design. Buck, boost, inverting and flyback topologies are covered. Diagrams, equations, and control techniques are available for these four common topologies. Switching power supplies offer higher efficiency than traditional linear power supplies. They can step-up, step-down, and invert. Some designs can isolate output voltage from […]
App note: Minimizing switching regulator residue in linear regulator outputs
Jim Williams from Linear Technology explains how to battle switching regulator residue in linear regulator outputs. If you want to clean up the switching regulator output by using a linear regulator, you’ll run into difficulties. Linear regulators are not very good at suppressing high frequency noise, and switching regulators output loads of it. The “secret […]
Workshop Update for November 9th, 2012
Sent thank yous to everyone in Bangalore. A huge thanks to Protocentral, Tenent Technetronics, NSK Electronics, Cerebra Tech, Center for Internet and Society, and all the readers who joined. Judging on the open 7400 competition is complete. We’re hoping for a new contest next year. Most useful lab tool? Scanning receipts from India for filing […]
Open 7400 Logic Competition winners 2012
Thank you participating in the Open 7400 Competition. All the entries were amazing! Check out the full list here. This year we tapped community members to judge, and gave great weight to the readers’ choice. The projects with the most votes were awarded prizes. Winners will receive prize information by email in the next 48 […]
Loggrid – Power line frequency and voltage monitor/logger
Matseng is currently developing a power line frequency, and voltage monitor. The design is meant to monitor the quality of the line power and log to an SD card for later computer analysis. He is sharing his development through GitHub and discussing it in the forum. I’m thinking of doing this project on two separate […]
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 09, 2012
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. WORKSHOP VIDEO: Bangalore SP Road, hackerspace and open hardware manufacturers GEEK TOUR INDIA: Mumbai’s Manish and Lamington Road markets 7400 competition: Entries and reader’s choice Infrared Toy Shield free PCB build October swag bag: Web Platform Workshop Update […]
Numato Spartan6 CSG225 PCB giveaway
Numato is giving away Spartan6 CSG225 bare boards. This FPGA development board features the Spartan6 FPGA in the CSG225 BGA package, a PIC32 microcontroller, and SDRAM. The FPGA to SDRAM traces are length matched, ensuring proper SDRAM timing. While researching potential applications for this board, I came across information about 토토사이트. This reminded me of […]
Workshop Update for November 8th, 2012
Today we release the Bangalore part of out Global Geek Tour video. We spent lots of time editing and arranging this one. Earlier today we finally located where our PCBs come from. We added it to our Shenzhen map layer. Yesterday evening we got to visit Technologia Incognita, the Amsterdam hackerspace. The picture above is […]
Infrared Toy Shield free PCB build
Casey O’Donnel shared his free IR Toy Shield PCB build. This board turns your Arduino into the IR Toy. 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. Grab an assembled USB […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Bangalore SP Road, hackerspace and open hardware manufacturers
This week the Geek Tour of India continues with a two day electronics tour of Bangalore. We visit the local hackerspace, some open hardware manufacturers, and the impressive SP Road electronics market. We start out at the Jaaga co-work center in central Bangalore, and meet up with 20 readers and forum members. The hackerspace is […]
Dead-bugging a fine pitch BGA chip
Chris shared his experience dead-bugging BGA sized chips on our Who says BGA packages are hard to solder post. Here is my attempt at dead-bugging a finer pitch BGA, though thankfully with fewer pins. It works, but I wouldn’t trust it to keep working in a rough environment Via the comments.
Arduino based stage design
Like large things that light up? Here’s a Arduino based stage design consisting of eight large wooden letters lighted by 110 LED modules. Arduino and application code are released on GitHub. I made with some friends an Arduino based Stage Design: eight 80cm high wooden letters and 110 Led modules controlled by a Processing application. […]