Numanto Lab ported one of our CPLD breakout boards from the original Eagle files to the open source KiCad. CPLD breakout board design in KiCad based on design by Ian Lesnet of Dangerous Prototypes. This board is completely designed in KiCad in 3-4 hours. Get the CoolRunner-II development board for $15 and XC9572XL dev-board for […]
Author Archives: DP
DaisyLink Gadgeteer module connects many devices to one port
Here is module for the .NET Gadgeteer that allows you to connect other modules in daisy-chain configuration using only one port. This is a proof of concept for Arduino based Gadgeteer DaisyLink module.The Gadgeteer DaisyLink protocol allows to chain up to 126 various modules on one socket. The protocol is based on I2C-based EEPROM interface.
Kendal 852D hot-air rework station teardown
Schazamp bought a cheap Kendal 852D+ 2+1 hot-air and soldering iron rework tool. He opened it up and took some pictures. Most of the 852-whatever clones look pretty similar inside, there’s probably one factory churning out clones under a bunch of different brand names. Like our Aoyue 968, it’s made with through-hole parts. It’s a […]
Breakout board for the 44pin QFN ATxmega microcontroller
Brendan built a breakout board for the 44pin QFN ATxmega uC. He designed the board to have a USB connection and a 500mA 3.3V power supply. 30 of the pins were broken out to two rows of 0.1” pinheaders on either side of the board. You can download the source files from GitHub. I recently […]
KTechlab IDE: Open source software for microcontroller simulation
KTechlab is an open source microcontroller simulation and development application. It features circuit simulation, firmware development, a C compiler, and a flash programmer. So far it supports only old PIC16F84 uCs. KTechLab is a an IDE for microcontrollers and electronics. It supports circuit simulation, program development for microcontrollers and simulating the programmed microcontroller together with its […]
Christmas LED card morphed into a singing birthday card
Drew had a few of our X-mas LED cards left over from the holidays, so he decided to re-purpose one of them into a singing birthday card. He connected a small speaker to one of the LED pads, and reprogrammed the AVR to output an 880 Hz note. Via the comments.
osPID, an open source modular PID controler
The osPID is an open source modular PID controller. PID is used to monitor a process and provide feedback, such as the temperature controller on a DIY reflow over or sous-vide cooker. The main board has an Arduino and a user interface panel with an LCD and a few buttons. Two daughter boards are used […]
Using stepper motors as generators
Dino played around with some stepper motors by using them to generate electricity. The output is AC so he used a full-bridge rectifier, sometimes refereed to as the Graetz rectifier, to get a single direction signal, basically the absolute value of the sine wave. Check out the video to see it power LEDs, drive a […]
Converting an infrared cooker for reflow soldering
SadE and Rubu are trying to convert an infrared cooker into an oven for reflow soldering. This is a different than a normal toaster over, and claims to heat very quickly. The idea is to add a PID controller to the oven for temperature control, and slow down the convection fan so parts don’t fly […]
#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 […]
Flight Sim controller made using the Teensyduino
Paul made a controller for the Flight Sim airplane simulator. He used the Teensyduino to connect various input and output peripherals to the famous Sim. He goes into detail on how he programed his board, and he also provided all the source code.
Weller WSM 1 teardown finds DC driven iron
Weller WSM 1 is a 40w soldering station that drives WRMP soldering pencils with RT type tips. Inside you’ll find an LCD, a few ICs, and a few discrete components. It’s powered by a laptop power supply, and that the heater is driven by a DC/DC block. That sets it apart from the cheap AC driven […]
Bus Pirate Arduino Shield free PCB build
EnsuingRequiem built a Bus Pirate Arduino Shield from our free PCB. This shield morphs your Arduino into a Bus Pirate. 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 your own […]
Circuit simulator for Android devices
Cameron tipped us to a circuit simulator for Android devices. It looks a lot like the java based circuit simulator we wrote about a few weeks ago. Everycircuit seems like a useful tool if you want to play around with electronics anywhere you find yourself. Unfortunately it seems to only support abstract level simulation models, […]
AVR transistor tester build
Mick received his boards for the AVR transistor tester (machine translation) and was quick to assemble them. His board was designed to the exact dimensions of a 2X16 LCD screen. He did have some issues with the silk screen, but all in all we think his boards are awesome. Via the forum.
Contiki 2.5 running on the Web Platform
Shuckc has successfully ported the Contiki 2.5 OS to the Web Platform. Contiki is an open source operating system for embedded devices. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6 internet protocols, and is not too taxing on memory, usually taking around 40KB of ROM and a few K of RAM. As I hinted last week (and […]
Adafruit’s wearable electronics platform and accessories
Adafruit announced a new line of wearable electronics called FLORA. It is a Arduino compatible circuit designed to interface with various wearable electronics devices like sensors, and LEDs. For the last few years Ladyada has been thinking about everything she wanted in a wearable electronics platform for Adafruit’s community of makers, hackers, crafters, artists, designers […]
Roundup of tips and tricks for breadboards
Breadboards are a really helpful tool for quick prototyping. Boseji made a roundup of breadboard tips and tricks available online. His article includes useful tips like how to breadboard a power supply, and even how to build one yourself. We have all used breadboards, or those who plan to jump into the fascinating world of […]
App note: DMX512 isolated receivers using digital capacitive-isolation technology
Here is an app note from Texas Instruments describing in depth how DMX512 protocol functions, and how to build isolated DMX512 receivers. Their new isolated transceivers use digital capacitive-isolation technology, which has proven to be more reliable, and resilient, then the opto-isolation that was common in DMX512 devices. This type of isolation has been tested […]
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 […]