Author Archives: DP

Genesis of the Soldering Iron Driver

We’ve been following Arhi’s work on an open source soldering station for a while now. Now that the latest version is working, he documented the complete process of designing the Soldering Iron Driver project. See his initial ideas and how they developed over 3 generations of into a final “works for me” version. Soldering Iron […]

#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 […]

Silabs C8051F320 breakout board, intro to 8051s

Zeta designed a breakout board for the Silabs C8051F320 microcontroller. A nice feature of this uC is that it doesn’t require external crystal to support full-speed (12Mbps) USB. The C8051F320 is a nice chip it needs only 4 Capacitors to work. It comes in a hand solderable QFP32 package (0.8mm pitch). It has an internal […]

BoardX kickstarted project overshoots target by $8K

Developers of the BoardX started a kickstarter project with a target of $5K. They have reached their goal and overshoot it. Congratulations. The BoardX is a multiprocessor development board we wrote about in an earlier post. It accepts custom modules with a large choice of processors and peripherals. Via the comments.

Interfacing a DHT11 humidity and temperature sensor

Raj show how to interface his PIC16F breakout board with the DHT11 humidity and temperature sensors. The DHT11 uses a proprietary single-wire protocol, not Maxim’s 1-Wire (which we consider EOL). This articles discusses the DHT11 sensor which also provides calibrated digital outputs for temperature and humidity but is relatively lot cheaper than the Sensirion sensors. […]

Move pins on the fly on the Papilio FPGA board

Gadget Factory started a weekly series of tutorials for their Papilio FPGA development boards. This week they cover how to move IO pins around and change their assignments. Possibly the most exciting feature of the Papilio is the ability to shift peripheral functionality to any pin at any time, completely on the fly. Shifting SPI […]

First steps in designing projects with AVR microcontrollers

Pete made a nice tutorial on the fist steps of designing projects with AVR microcontrollers. He covers choosing the right uC for your project, finding datasheets, getting a programmer/debugger, and setting up the AVRStudio 5.1 for developing and debugging. In the wee hours of the night, I’ve been continuing to learn how to develop for […]

TI India design contest irrational terms and conditions

Bertho pointed us to the totally irrational terms and conditions of the TI India design contest. Once you enter your project into their contest you lose any right over that project and idea whatsoever. TI claims total ownership of “all rights, title and interest, including but not limited to patents, designs, mask-works, copyright and rights […]

App note: Logic-level translation

Here is an app note from Maxim describing how to implement level translation when faced with two systems that operate at different voltages. The article describes methods for accomplishing logic-level translation varying from very simple circuits using only a few discrete components, to circuits using a single dedicated IC. Electronic design has changed considerably since […]

App note: Opto-isolating the I2C bus

Isolation is important if you need to separate two circuits completely, leaving no possibility of an electrical problem in one causing an problem in the other. The most challenging digital circuits to isolate are bidirectional data lines like the I2C bus. In this EETimes editorial the opto-isolation of the I2C bus is covered in detail. […]

App note: Electrically isolating a USB device from the host

The Analog Devices ADUM4160 isolates and protects a computer from shorts, high voltage, or high currents in a USB device. The isolator chip sits on the D+ and D- data lines between the USB jack and the microcontroller on the USB peripheral. Unfortunately it doesn’t come cheap at more than $5, but it could save […]

App note: Guidelines for soldering QFN lead-less packages

This app note from Texas Instruments covers the basic guidelines on how to solder QFN and SON lead-less package. It includes some PCB design, solder paste screen printing, assembly, and reflow guidelines. Quad flatpack no leads (QFNs) and small-outline no leads (SONs) are leadless packages with electrical connections made via lands on the bottom side […]

Raspberry Pi Linux boards are in production

Raspberry Pi, the credit card-sized Linux development boards, are now in production. The first boards will start rolling off the manufacturing lines at the end of January. Raspberry Pis started being made a couple of days ago, but I was forbidden to tell you about it until signed contracts and receipts for payment had arrived […]

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: January 13, 2012

Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon: Workshop video: Bus Pirate and Bus Blaster Bus Pirate firmware v6.1 is now available for download Nook Tablet hardware protection hacked with the Bus Pirate Dsm posted updates on his “clamshell” yabp case design for the Bus Pirate […]