XC9572XL CPLD development board v1b are back in stock at Seeed Studio. CPLDs are programmable logic gate arrays which allow you to build custom logic devices simply by programing them. Get the XC9572XL dev-board for $15 and CoolRunner-II development board for $15.
Author Archives: DP
Raspberry Pi like pixels
Michu writes: My OpenSource LED Matrix software support the Raspberry Pi. Thanks to Scott Gibson, he wrote and it accepts data from PixelController via UDP. I wrote a little Blog post about it Via the forum.
GIVEAWAY: Scratch and dent boards
Later today we will announce the winner of the 5 special coupon codes that can be redeemed for any one of these boards. Leave a comment on the original contest post with an idea for a cool project.
Circuit board assembly at SMA’s German factory
Nerdvana tweetted: Interesting PCB assembly infomercial …similiar to eevblog #264 Via TweetDeck.
Bus Pirate v3.5 free PCB build
Crenn built a free Bus Pirate v3.5 PCB. The Bus Pirate is an open source hacker multi-tool that talks to electronic stuff. 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. Get […]
Workshop Update for August 29th, 2012
Received parts for giant nix I blob power supplies. Started building 4 so there’s enough current for a bunch of different tubes. Working on ATX PSU v1.3 board update, placing bottom lables, LEDs.
USB and serial enabled LCD backpack back in stock
USB and serial enabled LCD backpack is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This board connects HD44780-compatible character LCD screens to your USB port. It works with apps like LCD Smartie to show news, system stats, and more on an external LCD. Get USB and serial enabled LCD backpack for $16.95.
Nixie hoard or collection, you decide
Like many, we’ve amassed a bunch of nixie tubes but never use them for much. Matseng shared his hoard collection: Top left to right: 10 pcs alphanumeric ZM1350, 5 boxes @ 20 each of the tiny IN17, 8 pcs of the huge B7971. Left middle: A box with about 100 random nixies with 16 pcs […]
GIVEAWAY: Scratch and dent boards
Tomorrow we’ll give away 5 special coupon codes that can be redeemed for any one of these boards. Leave a comment on yesterday’s post with a project idea and we’ll send out some codes on Thursday. This was a big bunch of stuff, look for more special coupon giveaways soon.
Dithered images on PCB silk screen
Earlier we posted the rendering of Mats’ dithered PCB silk screen. They turned out great. Quite a few more are posted in the forum as well. The dithered image on two of the boards that I wrote about earlier turned out rather good – much better than I expected. Via the forum.
Laser cut acrylic power supply case uses ATX breakout board
Systemstech posted pictures of a case he built for his ATX Breakout board. You can get a ATX Breakout Board v1.1 for $14 at Seeed Studio.
Workshop Update for August 28th, 2012
Believe it or not looks like Radio Shack may let us film a geek tour stop in their new york store. Still working on the smaller locations. Finished up a draft of the open hardware summit presentation. It will probably be this weeks workshop video.
Great Cow BASIC an open source BASIC IDE for AVRs and PICs
Great Cow BASIC is a set of open source BASIC programming tools for Microchip PIC and Atmel AVR microcontrollers: Great Cow BASIC has been written with three main aims – to remove the need for repetitive assembly commands, to produce efficient code, and to make it easy to take code written for one chip and […]
GIVEAWAY: Scratch and dent boards
Scuffs and dings in the silkscreen, misprints, an occasional short circuit or dead chip – whatever the reason, these prototypes are too dangerous to be sold. Seeed Studio sent us all the scratch and dent boards that have gathered over the years – Bus Pirates, Infrared Toys, Bus Blasters, and even the now discontinued #Twatch. […]
Breakout board for PIC16F628/88/1827/1847 microcontrollers
Raj designed a development board for some of the popular PIC16F microcontrollers. It features everything necessary to get them going. The board includes a reset button, crystal oscillator, power supply, and a pin controlled LED. If you are planning on developing an application using 18-pin PIC16F series microcontroller, this board provides all the basic elements […]
#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 […]
Resistors and power ratings
Kenneth discusses resistors and power ratings: Resistors are possibly the most basic component of electronics; given an input voltage, they allow a current to flow, and given an input current to flow, they produce a voltage. The relationship between the voltage and current is linear (a straight line), (mostly) frequency independent (unlike capacitors or inductors), […]
Interfacing the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins with a breadboard
Zuzebox writes in about Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins: There seems to be some misunderstanding about how h/w hackable to RPi is? It’s got 17 i/o lines which is only 3 less than an Arduino which has 20 i/o. It’s got GPIO, UART, SPI, I2C and a single PWM. The only thing it lacks is analog […]
Workshop Update for August 27th, 2012
Last year’s sponsors were invited back for the 2012 Open 7400 Logic Competition. The competition goes “public” September 3rd. Ordered parts for giant nixie thing we hope to take to Maker Faire New York. We were accepted to the faire and are good to go next month. Reached out to Radio Shack to see if […]
Raspberry Pi stackable Arduino compatible board
Osbock let us know about his Raspberry Pi stackable Arduino compatible board design. An Arduino is gently introduces to a Raspberry Pi header. Most will find the UART connection the easiest way to communicate between the boards. A header is available for the Fastrax UP501 GPS, DS3234 real time clock, Micro-SD card slot, and a […]