BADnetwork made a Bus Pirate case out of an unrepairable transformer. We really like how he soldered a button to the PGC and PGD ICSP pins to enter the bootloader for updates. I bought one of these on eBay, It turned out faulty, so stripped it down, turned out it was unrepairable. Looked at the […]
Author Archives: DP
Debugging the SPI protocol with a Logic Sniffer
Fortysevenfx shared this tweet with us: Debugging the SPI on motherboard with the Logic Sniffer. Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping. Via Twitter.
HOW-TO: Crude ways of making plated slots in Eagle
As far as we know Eagle doesn’t offer an option for making plated slots. Here are two hacks we found on the subject. Check out our previous tutorial on building footprints in Eagle. You can also skim through our Cadsoft_Eagle other tutorials on the wiki.
#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: Simplecortex v1.3 Cortex M3 dev-board
Tomorrow we’ll give away Simplecortex v1.3 Cortex M3 Dev Board with onboard debugger! Leave a comment on the original contest post with an idea for a cool project. The Simplecortex v1.3 is available for $45.00 from ITead Studio.
Workshop Update for June 19th, 2012
Today was mostly documentation day. We wrote another Eagle tutorial, this time on how to make plated holes for your PCBs. We will run it tomorrow, as our regular “HOW TO” post. We also continued with some renders of a soon to be released product. We spent lots of time editing the render in Photoshop, […]
Milled aluminum Bus Pirate case
Mmattice shared pictures of his milled aluminum Bus Pirate case. The Bus Pirate is a hacking multi-tool that can talk to many common electronic chips. I make use of my BP at both home and work, and wanted something to encase it in. I started with a printed case I found on thingiverse, but that […]
PARTS LIBRARY: 2×07 0.1″ pitch shrouded pin header
We added a 2×07 0.1″ pitch shrouded pin header in our Eagle parts library. We extended the shrouded header footprint, as the previous version was slightly smaller than the actual part. We also updated the 2×5 and 2×6 headers. This header could possibly replace the 12 pin header on Bus Pirate v4. The v4 2×6 […]
LCD touch and button Boosterpacks are available at 43oh
Lars designed and produced these LCD touch and button Boosterpacks for the MSP430. It’s an LCD breakout with 4 tactile buttons or 4 cap buttons, depending on the version. It sits on top of the 430 LaunchPad, but can also function independently if a microcontroller is soldered on. This pack is a good component if […]
GIVEAWAY: Simplecortex v1.3 Cortex M3 dev-board
We are giving away a Simplecortex v1.3 Cortex M3 dev-board with an on-board debugger! Leave a comment on yesterday’s post with a project idea, and this board could be yours on Thursday. The Simplecortex v1.3 is available for $45.00 from ITead Studio.
New Scientist TV: How to hack a snail to create a living battery
Dan Mikesell writes in Hacker Space Seoul- Open group: ‘this is some serious mad scientist hacking‘ In this exclusive video, you can watch how the animal was turned into a power source. Through slits cut in its shell, electrodes coated with enzymes are implanted in its body. Glucose and oxygen in the snail’s blood become fuel […]
Workshop Update for June 18th, 2012
Today we worked on the 3D model and rendering of the XC95144XL CPLD breakout board. Later we also made some renders for soon to be released product. We continued routing the Bus Blaster v4 board. We optimized some signal trace lengths, and added ground vias near decoupling caps. We also fixed some silk labels.
XC95144XL CPLD breakout board free PCB build
Schazamp 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 didn’t populate the top headers — I forgot to include them in […]
Precision event logger measures 0.02 to 6.8 seconds
Dilshan developed a precision event logger based on the PIC16F73 and some binary ripple counters from the CMOS logic family. The project uses a 2Mhz reference clock, and is capable of measuring events from 0.02 to 6.8 seconds long. The counter gets activate and deactivate in positive edge of the input signal. Thanks to the […]
GIVEAWAY: Simplecortex v1.3 Cortex M3 dev-board
Simplecortex v1.3 is a Cortex M3 dev-board with an on-board debugger. It’s Arduino shield compatible, so you can turbo charge shields with a 32 bit ARM processor. It features a LPC1769 Cortex M3 microcontroller from NXP with 512KB of flash, 64KB of RAM, and a 120 MHz top speed. To make sure that the Simplecortex […]
Connector sampler pack
We have an ongoing thread in the forum where you can share your latest electronics purchases. Here’s some stuff Zeta got recently: You know how hard it is to choose the right conector when all you have is an online catalog and well TE Conectivity (via Digikey) sent me a sample pack of their sotutions […]
App note: Using the LTM2881 as an Isolated 5V power supply
Here is an app note from Linear Technology on how to use their LTMM2881 isolated RS485 transceiver as a isolated 5v power supply. The LTM®2881 is an isolated RS485 transceiver that guards against large ground-to-ground differentials. An onboard DC/DC converter provides isolated 5V power to the output.
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: Precision current limiting with the LMP8646
Here is an app note from Texas Instruments describing how to use their LMP8646 ‘shunt’ current monitor as a current limiter on linear, and switching power supplies. The LMP8646 is a precision current limiter used to improve the current limit accuracy of any switching or linear regulator with an available feedback node. Many regulators might […]
App note: Control a USB Host-enabled AVR from an Android device
Atmel describes how to control an AVR chip from an Android device. This document introduces the Android Open Accessory Protocol for Atmel® microcontrollers. The library and examples are included in the Atmel AVR® Software Framework (ASF) to provide the customer with a quick and easy way to get started with developing an Android accessory. The […]