Here is an app note from ARM describing the interrupt behavior of Cortex-M1 microcontrollers. The ARM Cortex-M1 processor was developed for the usage with FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and it is targeting low-cost applications in which costs, ease of use and low interrupt latency are critical. Such low interrupt latency applications can include real-time […]
Author Archives: DP
App note: Sensorless field oriented control of an AC motor
PIC 33 microcontrollers in the motor control series can implement sensorless field oriented control. FOC is a control technique that works with DC and AC induction motors. It operates smoothly over the full speed range, and has full torque when the motor starts. The term “sensorless” does not represent the lack of sensors entirely, but […]
Workshop Update for July 6th, 2012
Today we built up some prototype PCBs that arrived. We also cleaned up some sales pages at Seeed, and booked tickets to New York for the Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire in September. We replaced FT230x chip footprint on a prototype board we build with the right footprint. We also fixed the PHY IC […]
Moving projects from MPLAB 8.x to MPLAB X
Bogdan (Arhi in the forum) moved nearly 50 projects from MPLAB 8 to MPLAB X over the last few weeks, including the USB Bit Whacker 32. We asked if he could point out any bugs he might have encountered. Read the small interview below. UBW32 is a large project, how long did it take you […]
EagleUp v4.4 released
Jerome continues to develop the awesome EagleUp plugin for SketchUp and Eagle, which we use extensively in our 3D models. He released version 4.4, which fixes some bugs that popped up with newer versions of Sketchup and Eagle. He also added new functionality like custom silk layers, z-axis offset for parts, and relative paths for […]
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 July 06, 2012
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. WORKSHOP VIDEO: Exploring the serial port 3D Model: ATX Breakout Board v1.1 Eagle Monday: Easier way to make parts in Eagle Sabernetics I2C OLED display with the Bus Pirate Bus Pirate v3 LCD adapter back in stock MSP430 […]
Adaptive brightness control for seven segment LED displays
Raj made a temperature and relative humidity meter to demonstrate adaptive brightness control on a seven segment LCD. The system uses a LDR light sensor in a closed loop to continuously adjust the brightness of the LEDs. The objective of this project is to illustrate a technique of implementing adaptive brightness control to seven segment […]
Workshop Update for July 5th, 2012
Today is Workshop Video Thursday so we spent a lot of time in filming and editing. We still haven’t found a great solution for the screen capture software. Firmware development took a hit today, as we wasted most of the time following wrong assumptions. While implementing the final “menu activated” function, we somehow broke the […]
GIVEAWAY: Little Wire USB controlled multi-tool winners
Today we announce the winners of the Little Wire USB controlled multi-tool. There were lots of great ideas for projects based on the Little Wire, thanks for your submissions. tech2077 wins a Little Wire for his USB body monitoring system: I would use this for a usb based body monitoring system with multiple sensors for […]
MSP430 Launchpad Logic Analyzer based on the Logic Shrimp
oPossum built a 6 channel logic analyzer booster pack for the MSP430 Launchpad. His design is inspired by the Logic Shrimp and used SPI serial interface RAM chips to store samples. The MSP430 software is SUMP compatible and works with Jawi’s OLS client. This is a logic analyzer add-on for the TI MSP430 Launchpad. It […]
GIVEAWAY: 2 Little Wire USB controlled multi-tool
Later today we’ll announce the winners of the Little Wire. If you’d like one just leave a comment on the original contest post with an idea for a cool project. The Little Wire is available for $19.00 from Seeed Studio.
Chumby Hackerboard – Support THS moving efforts
Tokyo HackerSpace are moving to a new place. To support this move they teamed up with Safecast to offer the Chumby HackerBoard at ~$63, which is %30 off the normal price. The Chumby HackerBoard is a single board Linux computer, with a 454 MHz ARM processor, and 64 MB of memory. Tokyo HackerSpace in conjunction […]
Workshop Update for July 4th, 2012
UPS package finally corralled, and will be delivered tomorrow. A 74HCT245 will complete a long-delayed final revision of a certain secret prototype. We prepared for tomorrows workshop video on serial port interfacing. We arranged a giveaway for a coming week, and perhaps the first sponsor of the 2012 Open 7400 Competition. Today we continued contacting […]
Bus Pirate v3 LCD adapter back in stock
The Bus Pirate LCD adapter v3 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This breakout board lets you drive, and test HD44780, and compatible LCDs with your Bus Pirate v3. We changed the PCB to one of our standard PCB sizes, namely the DP6037 v1. Get an LCD adapter for $9.
Dual-tone multi-frequency signal generator and detector
Robots wrote a open source Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency signal generator and detector for his STM32 based development board. The code is available via github. DTMF generator is based on AVR314 appnote, and the detector is my practice in signal processing using “Goertzel algorithm”. Everything is written for integer/fixedpoint arithmetics. (no floats at all)… Generator generates signal […]
GIVEAWAY: 2 Little Wire USB controlled multi-tool
Tomorrow we’ll give away two Little Wire USB controlled multi-tool! If you’d like one just leave a comment on yesterday’s post with an idea for a cool project. The Little Wire is available for $19.00 from Seeed Studio.
OLinuXino-Micro ARM9 Linux board hits the streets
Olimex released their OLinuXino-Micro, an ARM9 development platform that supports Linux. It runs at 454 MHz, has 64 MB of RAM, an SD-card reader, TV PAL/NTSC video output, one USB High-Speed host port, and an a Pi-tossing 60 GPIO pins broken out. It’s priced around 24 Euros (30 bucks). Via the forum.
Workshop Update for July 3rd, 2012
We finalized part kit materials, and made a round of updates to Seeed sales pages, and the wiki. We also photographed some missing parts for the master part list wiki. Code for the secret project is close to first full function testing. Only one large function is left to be implemented. Today we mostly […]
XC95144XL CPLD breakout board free PCB build
Hlipka built the XC95144XL CPLD breakout board free PCB. The board has 39 of the CPLD pins broken out to a “Blade” style configuration, while the remaining pins are broken out to two dual-row headers featured on top corners of the board. I did not populate the large header yet, because I have not decided how […]