Lately we’ve been testing the KiCad waters. For the ATX Breakout Board v2 we needed to escape Eagle’s PCB constraints, and we succeed. A major hurdle to using any new CAD package is that all your part libraries have to be built again. Luckily Sjaak pointed us to a script that helps you convert your […]
Author Archives: DP
#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 […]
DimBlue design files available on GitHub
As a follow up to yesterday’s post, Matseng released the design files for his DimBlue 16 channel USB or Bluetooth controlled light dimmer. The design files and firmware are available on GitHub. Via the forum.
Workshop Update for September 17th, 2012
We’re finishing up Geek Tour schedules, especially New York. We’ll be posting schedules for the East Village food crawl and geek tours tomorrow if you’d like to join us. We got our first complete nixie thing module running. Modeled and rendered the Bus Blaster v3 in the SoB case model for today’s post. We also […]
Open 7400 prize: C2000 Piccolo LaunchPad from C2kCentral forum
C2kCentral forum donated a C2000 Piccolo LaunchPad- LAUNCHXL F28027 to the Open 7400 Logic Competition. Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. The C2000 Piccolo LaunchPad is an inexpensive evaluation platform designed to help you leap right into the world of real-time control programming on the C2000 Piccolo microcontrollers. […]
Word clock with capacitive sense buttons
Trax designed and built this word clock with capacitive sense buttons (machine translation). Hours and minutes are displayed as text instead of the typical numeric representation. The firmware also has an alternate option that turns the entire clock into a large scrolling display.
More projects using Altoids tin boxes as enclosures
In response to our “Disposable metal boxes make excellent shielded enclosures” app note post, Sverre shared some of his projects using the same enclosures. They are mostly RF projects, benefiting from the tin enclosure’s EMF protection. Nice post which triggered me to picture some of my own Altoid projects. Via the comments.
7 segment display controlled by simple SPI interface
Touch let us know about these 4 digit SPI controlled 7 segment displays that cost a little less then $1 a piece. They include decimal separators and a colon separator so it’s easy to display time. I picked up some cheap 4 digit 7 segment displays over on eBay for $10 + shipping. They Include […]
DimBlue – USB controllable 16 channel light dimmer
Matseng designed DimBlue, an ATmega32u4 based USB controllable 16 channel light dimmer. Triacs which dim the lights are optoisolated from mains to provide protection from high voltages. The board is powered from mains voltage, via a PCB mounted transformer. As an added bonus, the board has a footprint for a serial Bluetooth module, giving it […]
App note: Guide to VFD operation
Here is an application note from Noritake Itron, a VFD tube manufacturer, explaining VFDs in detail. The article goes into the theory of operation, how it should be powered, how it should be driven, the timing characteristics, and more…
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: Disposable metal boxes make excellent shielded enclosures
Believe it or not, Maxim dedicated a whole app note to describing the benefits of using disposable metal boxes as EMI shielded enclosures for your projects. Small steel tins some candy manufacturers use provide both electrical and magnetic shielding: One way to break this wasteful cycle is use the small steel tins in which candies […]
App note: Nixie tube data archive
Dieter’s nixie tube data archive contains loads of information about nixies. Theory of operation, control circuits, power supplies, and reference tables for common nixies – it’s all there.
App note: High power LED driver with PIC12F675
A current controlled buck converter for driving high-power LEDs. The PIC12F675 microcontroller has an integrated comparator, which in combination with a low pass filter provides a control circuit for the SMPS. The circuit is based on a buck topology switching power supply using the on-chip comparator peripheral within the PIC12F675 microcontroller. The switching power supply […]
Workshop Update for September 14th, 2012
We soldered the photography models of the Bus Blaster v3 and v4, Bus Pirate demo board, and Bus Pirate v4 update. Worked on finishing the magnificent nixie thing, only a few hundred more wires to cut and solder. We worked on the app note posts coming this weekend, and added finishing touches to today’s KiCad […]
Open 7400 prize: Ethernet+CAN Evaluation kit and Stellaris LM4F120 Launchpad
Stellarisiti forum tossed in 2 EKT-LM3S8962 Ethernet+CAN Evaluation kits with 128*96 OLED display and 1 Stellaris LM4F120 Launchpad (Releases September 25th) for the Open 7400 Competition. Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. The Stellaris LM3S8962 Evaluation Kit provides a compact and versatile evaluation platform for Ethernet + CAN enabled Stellaris […]
Visualizer Arduino shield up and running
Matseng soldered his Visualizer Arduino shield. You might remember these PCB as the with the cool dithered “eye” artwork on the back. The shield shows the state of the each Arduino pin – ‘Hi’ or ‘Low’: It seems like both the hardware and firmware is ok. I just had to lower the value of a […]
Our KiCad EDA experience with ATX breakout v2
Last week we used the open source circuit design and PCB layout program KiCad to design version 2 of the ATX Breakout Board. This came as a necessity because the free version of Eagle is restricted to 100mm x 80mm PCBs, and the current ATX breakout already uses all that space. Read our likes, dislikes, […]
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 a every week: Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, […]
Week in (p)review September 14, 2012
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. WORKSHOP VIDEO #39: Magnificent Nixie tube thing 3D Model: Sick of Beige v1 template design Eagle Parts: IN-12 Nixie and IV-22 VFD tube sockets Playing with ATX Breakout Board in KiCAD Popular Science likes the Bus Pirate Cross […]