Eric from Seeed Studio stopped by the booth at Maker Faire. For live updates from the New York Maker Faire check out our twitter feed. More photos below the fold.
Author Archives: DP
New York Maker Faire 2012
It’s ridiculously busy here at Maker Faire. Follow the pics live with our twitter feed. More photos below the fold.
App Note: Fast diodes for switching regulators
Here is an app note from Linear Technology describing the importance of diode turn-on time in high speed (<1MHz) switching regulators. Turn on time is the time it takes the voltage drop on the diode to clamp at the rated voltage drop. Recently, switching regulator clock rate and transition time have become faster, making diode […]
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: Pitfalls of trusting the datasheet
Analog Devices explains when the maximum supply current given by the datasheet could lead you astray: For most integrated circuits, a maximum supply current is listed on the data sheet. Often overlooked are the measurement conditions. For some rail-to-rail output op amps, certain operation can result in supply currents two to ten times higher than […]
App Note: Thermal considerations for low-dropout regulators
Here’s an app note from Microchip aimed at shedding some light into power dissipation and heat-sinking of low-dropout regulators. Basically all power that is dissipated from LDOs is turned into heat. This article describes what to look for in datasheets to calculate if, and what kind of cooling your devices need. LDOs specify maximum output […]
App Note: Damage from a lightning bolt depends on how tall you are
This app note from Maxim describes how to battle electrostatic discharge (ESD). The article explains the theory behind ESD, how it’s generated, and gives suggestions on how to prevent it from destroying your electronic devices. In this tutorial, we will discuss ways to protect printed circuit boards (PCBs) against ESD destruction. We will show that […]
Workshop Update for September 28th, 2012
Today we’re touring the electronics side of New York. We visited the Hack Manhattan hackerspace, Radio Shack, MakerBot store, 269 Electronics store, Argo Electronics store, and the Leeds Radio store. Check out our tweeter feed with live picture updates. We wrote the application note posts that will be posted during the weekend. We also drew […]
Open 7400 prize: VideoOverlayShield from Low Voltage Labs
Low Voltage Labs donated a VideoOverlayShield to the Open 7400 Logic Competition. Send in your entry and this and other cool hardware can be yours. The Arduino compatible shield board overlays text on analog video, using the Maxim MAX7456 on-screen display chip. This board allows easy overlay of text onto an analog video signal, NTSC or […]
Bus Blaster free PCB build
Gege2b built a free Bus Blaster v1 PCB.This is the first prototype of the Bus Blaster that used fixed discrete logic to imitate a JTAGkey programmer type. The most recent Bus Blasters replace the fixed logic with a programmable CPLD logic chip so it can be upgraded to imitate many different programmers. The Bus Blaster […]
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 September 28, 2012
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon! USB and Open Source presentation at the Open Hardware Summit 2012 2012 East Village New York food crawl Global Geek Tour New York 2012 trailer Criff dog preview PROTOTYPE PREVIEW: Smoke Tester Smoke Tester: Calculating the INA138 load […]
Bathroom scale with Bluetooth and an Android weigh chart app
Casai modified a bathroom scale to send his weight info to an Android app through Bluetooth. He documented his built, and released the firmware, as well as the mods he made to the open source Weight Chart app. The scale uses an ARM LPC2103 microcontroller and a serial Bluetooth module to communicate with a Android […]
Workshop Update for September 27th, 2012
Today is the day we held the “USB and Open Source” presentation at the Open Hardware Summit 2012. This also meant we spent most of the day practicing, and battling stage fright. We wrote up a basic tutorial on LEDs, all that’s left is to illustrate it. We also worked on a holder board for […]
Open 7400 prize: Stair lighting controller kit and 10 stair lights from Hacked Gadgets
Hacked Gadgets donated a stair lighting controller kit and 10 stair lights to the Open 7400 Logic Competition. Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. This is a Stair Lighting Controller board and all components that are needed to assemble it. These parts will need to be soldered onto the […]
Voltcraft PS-1305/230 power supply teardown
Arhi tears apart the Voltcraft PS-1305/230 isolated 0-230 volts AC 4.5 Amp power supply. It also comes with a 0-30V 5A, and 5V 3A DC channels. The laboratory power unit is a combination of direct current power unit and safety variable isolating transformer with alternating current output. Via the forum.
Donatello PCBs arrive
We wrote about Dolabra’s Part Ninja and Superprobe combo idea, the Donatello. It combines the two, and delegates the “brains” to the computer via USB. He sent the PCBs to be fabed via OSHpark, and they just arrived. The boards are in. OSHpark boards are so nice! I hope I can get some time soon […]
Control your window blinds via the MSP430 LaunchPad
Here is how to use your MSP430 LauncPad to open and close window blinds. Basically the MSP430 drives a small 8g servo, which in return rotates the blind’s blade pitch adjustment. Via Hacked Gadgets.
Workshop Update for September 26th, 2012
Today we met with a banker for the first time. He reviewed our setup with a critical eye, pointing out flaws we hadn’t considered. After getting things straightened out, he even touched on how financial regulations are changing rapidly, especially when it comes to online industries like casino sites. The banker mentioned how some sites […]
µBoot 2.1 KB USB bootloader for the ATtiny85
Bluebie is developing µBoot, a tiny USB bootloader that only consumes 2.1 Kilobytes of flash on an ATtiny85. It’s based on USBaspLoader-tiny85 bootloader but loses ~0.7KB by customizing it’s functionality. µBoot is a tiny bootloader for attiny85 chips. Weighing in at just under 2.1kb it leaves more free space to uploaded programs than any other […]