USBug is a LPC1343 breakout board with USB capability. The bootloader appears as a USB flash drive, just drag a new firmware into the drive to update. Basically, my board is a 40-pin LPC1343 breakout board with 12 MHz crystal, USB Connect detection and disconnect, MicroBuilder’s single-button ISP, ISP Header and the standard LPCXpresso user […]
Author Archives: DP
Replacing resistor arrays with single 0603 resistors
If a project calls for resistor arrays, but all you have are singles and mad soldering skills, you can try this hack. Yoganerdnl used a bunch of 0603 resistors on their side to replace the resistor arrays on his Bus Pirate SOIC DIY edition board. It takes patience and a steady hand, but it’s a […]
MMA7455L breakout board build
Gary built two free MMA7455L accelerometer breakout boards. The MMA7455L is a 3-axis accelerometer with I2C and SPI interfaces. I’ve just received and put together the PCBs I got (they even worked). Thanks Ian for the free PCB!! If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture […]
App note: PCB layout for analog to digital converters
NXP provides some PCB layout design guidelines for the ADC modules in their LPC1100 and LPC1300 microcontrollers. These ADC modules, like many microcontrollers, use the power supply voltage as a reference so special care has to be taken to eliminate noise: The microcontrollers in the LPC1100 and LPC1300 families are all equipped with a single […]
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: Calibration of touch-screens
Here is an app note from Maxim describing how to implement touch screen calibration. It provides the reader with the necessary mathematical tools needed to address issues with mechanical misalignment and scaling due to imperfections in the touch screen: Mechanical misalignment and scaling factors can lead to a mismatch between the values from a touch-panel […]
App note: USB keyboard using MSP430 microcontrollers
This reference design from Texas Instruments shows how to build a USB keyboard design using a MSP430 microcontroller. The article contains the full design: the keyboard matrix, schematic, and the firmware needed to get it going. This application report describes the implementation of a USB keyboard with the following characteristics: • 101 keys, 2 LEDs: […]
App note: Adding a USB printer to your USB host PIC project
Here is an app note from Microchip explaining how to implement the USB printer class on PICs that have USB host capability. This will allow you to connect your project to a printer. The USB Printer Class, used on one of Microchip’s microcontrollers with the USB OTG peripheral, allows an embedded application to utilize a […]
Workshop Update May 11, 2012
Work on the POV Toy continues, further calibration and tweaking. We’re getting really close to the end result we want. Documentation on the open source USB stack is very close to completion, look for a full announcement next week. The John Doe board from the flux off needs a second revision with more room around […]
Another update on the hybrid race car
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hybrid race car made it into competition, check out some videos of the car running below. All last week was the competition. This is the first year RPI made it through all of the inspections and was able to compete. Next year is going to be even greater! Overall it consisted […]
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 May 11, 2012
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon. WORKSHOP VIDEO: USB POV Toy calibration tests Workshop update May 10th, 2012 Workshop update May 9th, 2012 Workshop update May 8th, 2012 USB Infrared Toy firmware v23 test HOW-TO: Bus Pirate PIC 24 analog to digital converter tutorial […]
Capacitive touch sensing with a single ADC pin
Capacitive sense buttons and pads are awesome, but many of the available systems are either propitiatory or require a dedicated IC. Toumas decided to code his own based on a closed source Atmel example where a single ADC pin is used for capacitive sensing. He reverse engineered it, and documented his results: I’ve been thinking […]
Workshop update May 10th, 2012
Work on the POV Toy continues, and it’s the subject of the workshop video this week. We might as well give up guessing the subject of the next video, it’s whatever is on the bench Thursdays. The firmware is being tweaked and calibrated, and finalized for production. We’re thinking about adding mounting holes to the […]
Microchip’s new cheapie PIC24F KL microcontrollers
Microchip added some new cheapie chips to the PIC24F family of 16bit microcontrollers, the ‘KL’ series. They come in 14, 20, and 28 pin packages, and some cost less than a buck in quantity: The PIC24F ‘KL’ family was developed for cost-sensitive applications that require 16-bit performance, extremely low power sleep and active modes, and […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO #21: USB POV Toy calibration tests
Today we play around with the latest USB POV Toy hardware and firmware. The POV Toy is a persistence of vision (not division…) device, but we added some special features. First, a USB connection makes it effortless to upload new patterns. Second, an inexpensive accelerometer actively detects the waving motion and syncs the pattern. We […]
NFC TI TRF7970A breakout board V1.1 update
Benjamin made a small update on his NFC TI TRF7970A breakout board. The board is designed to provide you access to RFID and similar RF protocols. Benjamin has 15 boards he is willing to giveaway, so contact him on his blog if you’re interested. It is just a little update on the new board TI […]
MCHCK – a small ARM Cortex M3 development board
Small form factor board, with a STM32L151 ARM Cortex M3 for around 5 dollars. This is the target of the MCHCK development board. The board was designed to be cheap enough so that you can develop a project with it, and not have to re-purpose it for the next project, but get a new one […]
Laser cut acrylic case for Bus Pirate v4
Here’s another cool laser cut acrylic case for the Bus Pirate. It’s made out of 4 layers of 2mm transparent acrylic. The inner two layers simultaneously act as standoffs and as an edge to the enclosure. The SVG source files are available if anyone wants to laser cut his design. I designed a laser cut […]
Updates from the workshop for May 9th, 2012
The latest POV Toy hardware is finally assembled, and initial testing of the firmware went successfully. We still need to design a calibration routine to get the best results. Pietja’s LGA soldering pictures will be up soon. Work on the open source USB stack demo continues. We found the right linker script for the PIC18F24J50, […]