Author Archives: DP

Blast from past: Automatic shutdown timer for TVs

Back in the 80s when very few TVs had remotes, let alone automatic shutdown timer, Victor decided to build exactly that for his grandfathers TV. After a set interval an LED turns on indicating that the timer has expired, if a button isn’t pressed within a few seconds the TV is turned off. My grandfather […]

Driving 4 8×8 LED matrices via the HT1632C and an Arduino

Luca wrote a tutorial on how to drive four 8×8 LED matrices connected to the HT1632C IC via the Arduino. The HT1632C is a LED driver IC capable of controlling 256 LEDs. It uses a custom 3pin serial interface. The Arduino sketch for the demonstration displayed in the video is available.

Open 7400 prize: DE0-Nano development kit from Terasic

Terasic donated a DE0-Nano development kit to the Open 7400 Competition.  Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. The DE0-Nano board introduces a compact-sized FPGA development platform suited for prototyping circuit designs such as robots and “portable” projects. The board is designed to be used in the simplest possible […]

Driving an LCD from a broken laptop with an FPGA via the Papilio Plus board

Alex connected up an salvaged laptop LCD to his Papilio Plus FPGA development board. He is designing a pair of boards for easier interface, one is designed as a wing for the dev board, and the other as a breakout for the LCD. They’ll be connected together via an HDMI cable, even though the protocol […]

LOpen logic probe detects high, low, and floating pins

LOpen is a PIC-based logic probe that fits inside a pen. It detects if a pin is at a logic ‘High’, logic “Low”, or at high impedance (floating). This time it’s a Logic Pen controlled by a tiny 6-pin PIC10F202. The PCB is 5 cm by 5mm so it fits just fine inside a regular […]

TI debuts Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad for $4.99 USD

Texas Instrument just released the Stellaris LaunchPad for sale for less then $5. It’s a LaunchPad series development board based around the Cortex M4 Stellaris family of digital signal processors. The Stellaris LaunchPad is the latest addition to the Texas Instruments LaunchPad ecosystem, an innovative portfolio of low-price evaluation kits and expansion boards that lets […]

Open 7400 prize: Books from Electronics-Lab.com

Electronics-Lab.com sponsored the Open 7400 Logic Competition, these great books will be in the prize pool: Programming & Customizing PICmicro Microcontrollers – Myke Predko PIC: Your Personal Introductory Course, Second Edition – John Morton PIC in Practice – David W Smith PICmicro Microcontroller Pocket Reference – Myke Predko Thank you to Electronics-Lab.com for sponsoring the 2012 […]

Eagle Parts: MIC2027 Quad USB power distribution switch

We added MIC2027 Quad USB power distribution switch to our Eagle library. This part is used to limit the outgoing current to the USB maximum 500mA. In case of a short circuit, an over-current pin for the corresponding channel is raised high. At the same time the device switches to a current limiting mode. This […]

Guitar Hero wireless foot pedal talking to the Arduino

Tom wanted to operate the panning of his webcam via foot pedal. The solution he came up with was to use the old Guitar Hero wireless pedals. He reverse engendered the PlayStation protocol to allow his Arduino to communicate with the pedals. What he ended up with were 2 wireless pedals with linear position reporting. […]

Workshop Update for October 1st, 2012

Today we fly back from the awesome New York Global Geek Tour 2012. Expect lots of pictures, reports, and videos during the week. We modeled and rendered the Smoke Tester. It took longer than usual as we had to model some of the components ourselves. The VFD tube holder board development continues. We had issues […]

Open 7400 prize: ICD 3 and an Explorer16 from Microchip

Microchip donated an ICD 3 and an Explorer16 to the Open 7400 Competition.  Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. MPLAB® ICD 3 In-Circuit Debugger System is Microchip’s most cost effective high-speed hardware debugger/programmer for Microchip Flash Digital Signal Controller (DSC) and microcontroller (MCU) devices. The Explorer 16 is […]

Review of the Stellaris LaunchPad

Alex wrote a review of the Stellaris LaunchPad. This is Texas Instrument’s latest development board in the LaunchPad series. It is built around the Cortex M4 microcontrollers. All in all, AWESOME little boards for $5! Especially considering that, once they’re available wholesale, the bare chip goes for $4.40@1kU, and there are two on the board! […]