We are pleased to announce that the Gadget Factory is now sponsoring the open 7400 logic Competition. Up for grabs are Papilio One 250K and LogicStart MegaWing. These and other prizes could be yours, but only if you get your entry in! The Papilio is an Open Source FPGA development board based on the Xilinx […]
Author Archives: DP
USB LCD Backpack free PCB build
Grapsus built a free USB LCD backpack PCB. The USB Universal LCD backpack controls LCDs with up to 16 interface pins at 3.3volts or 5.0volts. This includes common HD44780 character LCDs and larger graphical LCDs. If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever […]
chipKIT uC 32 and chipKIT Wifi shield winner
Today we announce the winner of the chipKIT uC 32 and chipKIT Wifi shield! There were lots of great ideas, thanks for your submissions. Congratulations to Tom, his idea for a nano-brewery data logger scored him a chipKIT uC 32 and chipKIT Wifi shield: FREE BEER. I would like to build a data logging controller […]
GIVEAWAY: Another chipKIT uC 32 and chipKIT Wifi shield
Later today we will announce the winner of the chipKIT uC 32 and chipKIT Wifi shield! Leave a comment on the original contest post with an idea for a cool project. The chipKIT uC32 is available for $34.99 and chipKIT Wifi shield for $49.99 from Digilent.
Cubieboard: Another Linux computer on a board
Cubieboard is another Linux computer-on-a-board type device. It features a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, with 1GB of DDR3 RAM, and the Mali400 OpenGL ES GPU with HDMI output. What sets it apart from the popular Raspberry Pi, is it’s 96 GPIO pins and SATA support. Unfortunately we were unable to find more information […]
Workshop Update for September 5th, 2012
Today we built up some prototypes to go to Seeed later this week. We did new PCB intake and scanning (look for them in the free PCB store soon). Added some more warnings and clarifications to the free PCB store to hopefully avoid some confusion about the whole system. Picked up one India visa, dropped […]
Open 7400 prize: Zigduino and 4×4 Driver Shields
Logos Electromechanical donated 2 Zigduino and 2 4×4 Driver Shields to the Open 7400 Competition. Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. The Zigduino is an Arduino-compatible microcontroller platform that integrates an 802.15.4 radio on the board. The radio can be configured to support any 802.15.4-based protocol, including ZigBee, […]
Bus Blaster v4 free PCB build and test
Mikelelere verified the Bus Blaster v4 design. I checked the board via the test program, and it successfully passed the tests (see the attached photographs). I’ve also succesfully used it to program a Coolrunner II CPLD board and a Lattice ISPMach128v CPLD, and I can confirm that the board is working flawlessly. Bus Blaster is […]
DIY foot operated switch
This clear foot operated switch is made with a bent piece of acrylic, and a PCB with a tactile switch and mounting holes: This time,i made a lighter version, very simple to make, still with a nice operating feel. I don’t really remember where i saw this design, i think from ebay.
Reverse engineering remote control helicopter IR protocol
Kerry reverse engineered the infrared remote control protocol used by a Syma S107G remote controlled helicopter. He took the remote control apart, probed it with a scope, and analyzed the signals: This tiny remote control helicopter is a rather amazing toy. Not only its movement is very stable, but the rotor speed, forward backward movements […]
GIVEAWAY: Another chipKIT uC 32 and chipKIT Wifi shield
Tomorrow we’ll give away another chipKIT uC 32 and a chipKIT Wifi shield! Leave a comment on yesterday’s post with a project idea, and these boards could be yours on Thursday. The chipKIT uC32 is available for $34.99 and chipKIT Wifi shield for $49.99 from Digilent.
Customized Sick of Beige case built
Riktw designed a case for his CMSIS-DAP ARM debugger based on our Sick of Beige templates, and standard PCB footprints for eagle. You can find his laser cutting design files in the forum. I also made a small casing for my PCB, first time ever I used Sketchup, think it came out alright :) Check […]
Workshop Update for September 4th, 2012
We received a box of PCBs and laser cut acrylic case parts for the ATX breakout board from Seeed Studio. We also received Ihsan’s Little Wire freebie – thanks Ihsan! Made a big Mouser order to push out a bunch of new stuff by the end of the week. We started work on some electronics […]
Open 7400 prize: Tautic Electronics uBoost battery voltage booster
Tautic Electronics LLC donated 4 uBoost battery booster boards to the Open 7400 Competition. Get your entry in and this and other cool hardware can be yours. These boards are based on the MAXIM MAX1724 Step-Up DC-DC Converter. They accept voltages from 0.8 to 5.5 VDC, and output 5V at 150mA maximum current. The board itself is […]
Texas Instruments power management reference design library
Texas instruments released the Power Management reference design library. It’s filled with schematics, design notes, gerber files, and any technical document you might need to get over 300 reference designs up and running. Texas Instruments PowerLab™ Power Management Reference Design Library contains hundreds of reference designs for any application. Each reference design contains supporting technical […]
Eagle Parts: 74141 nixie tube driver IC
We added the 74141 BCD-to-Decade decoder, nixie tube driver to our Eagle parts library. This device makes it easy to control nixie tubes by sending binary codes to light up a specific number. This part went into our nixie thing for Maker Faire, the PCBs should be in this week some time.
#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 […]
GIVEAWAY: Another chipKIT 32-bit board and Wifi shield
Another chipKIT 32-bit Arduino-compatible board and Wifi shield to give away this week. Leave a comment on this post with a project idea, and these boards could be yours on Thursday. The chipKIT uC32 is based on the popular Arduino open-source hardware prototyping platform and adds the performance of the Microchip PIC32 microcontroller. The uC32 […]
Offline high voltage AC power supply
Dilshan designed an offline high voltage AC power supply primarily for SMPS testing. It outputs a square wave, so hooking it up to a mains-transformer based linear supplies is not a good idea, as the transformer will overheat. It’s open source hardware, so the schematics and design files are available. This is a high voltage, […]
Workshop Update for September 3rd, 2012
We edited the video we shot in Sjaak’s workshop this week. Mouse died. Bought a new mouse that is truly awful – no feed back clicks on the scroll wheel, and it takes a ton of force to press the middle wheel button. We modeled and rendered the TFT Backpack board for today’s post. We […]