H used an IC testing clip to make a simple adapter for programing ATmega microcontrollers on the fly. IC test clips are tools used to grip ICs and provide easy connection to the pins. I’ve got a different use for it though. If you develop a circuit using an Atmega chip (like, say, a circuit […]
Author Archives: DP
App note: Advanced 1-Wire Network Driver
This reference design shows how to drive long 1-Wire networks. 1-Wire is a communications protocol used by some Dallas/Maxim parts. The protocol uses only one wire for power, transmission, addressing, and synchronization. This document describes a microcontroller-based 1-Wire master interface for reliable operation of small, medium size and large 1-Wire networks. This is accomplished using […]
xQFP protoboard free PCB build
Juan used his free 0.50mm Dangerous xQFP protoboard to get started with a MSP430F5510. The protoboard is designed to get you up and running with a new surface mount microcontroller. We’re super proud of this board, it’s something we use all the time to develop our own projects. Currently available in 0.50mm, 0.65mm, and 0.80mm for […]
Bus Pirate v4 free PCB build
Fcobcn posted pictures of his free Bus Pirate v4.0 PCB build. 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 handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available […]
Teensy 2.0 based transistor tester
Wingnut decided to port the AVR transistor tester to his Teensy 2.0 board. The transistor tester is a tool for identifying and measuring common discrete semiconductors and passive devices. I decided to port the component tester (freely using Google Translate to get some sense of the comments) as my first hands-on tutorial, and managed to […]
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: December 30, 2011
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon: USB Infrared Toy firmware v22 final released Bus Pirate v3.5 is back in stock at Seeed Studio Jawi uploaded a preview of the new signal display component for the Logic Sniffer application Logic Sniffer: Vote for signal display […]
Soldering iron driver update
Arhi posted pictures of his latest soldering iron driver build: Here are the pictures of the populated board. Actually the DC driver is not populated as I’m not very interested in it and there’s no usb connector and D10, R40 as those are also only required for USB operation and I ain’t going to be […]
Nokia 1100 LCD interfacing with a microcontroller
Circuitvalley posted a step by step guide to interfacing Nokia 1100 LCDs with a microcontroller. Via the comments.
Logic Sniffer 16-bit input buffer wing back in stock
Logic Sniffer 16-bit input buffer is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This accessory buffers the extra 16 I/O bits on the ‘wing’ header. The Open Logic Sniffer buffer wing in stock and shipping now for $15.
KS0108-based Graphic LCD overview
Raj shows how to interface GLCDs with KS0108 controllers to PIC uCs. He covers the protocol used, LCD memory mapping, and how to write up the firmware using microC compiler. The use of a graphical LCD (GLCD) drastically changes the look of your project. It provides more freedom for presenting data than the HD44870 based […]
Test Nixie tubes with a flip of a switch
This Nixie tube tester has an 11 position switch to change the displayed digits. A simple device for testing and/or healing Nixie tubes of IN-18 type. An 11-pole switch is connected in series with a 50 KΩ pot (+ 470 Ω resistor for safety), powering from an 180V DC source. Normal operation at 2 mA […]
Small 10 mW thermogenerators available retail
This device is a tiny SMD thermogenerator that harvests heat energy to generate up to 10 milliwatts of power. Dev boards are available at Mouser for a mere $700 retail. In case of Micropelt devices, one side is placed near the heat source and the other side has a fixed heat-sink on top of it. […]
Logic Sniffer client: New signal display component
Jawi uploaded a preview of the new signal display component for the Logic Sniffer application. OLS is a java client designed to run on multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Mac. You can download this mock from ols.lxtreme.nl, which should run on Windows, Linux and OSX (only the latter is heavily tested ;)). A list […]
Breakout board for 18pin PIC16F microcontrollers
Raj made a breakout board for 18pin PIC16F microcontrollers. There are two tact switches on the board: one for reset and other for user input. Similarly, there are two LEDs: one for power-on indicator and the other for user output. The input tact switch and the output LED can be connected to RB0 and RB1 […]
Light programming using Manchester encoding
Mike has been working on a light programmer that uses Manchester encoding. A light programer uses a computer monitor to send data to microcontroller project. We blogged about similar systems earlier. I wrote a JavaScript application that you can load into your web browser. It takes a message, converts it to Manchester Encoded binary and […]
Christmas LED card built and shared
Drew picked up our old blinking Xmas card project. He got the PCBs just in time to complete the project before Xmas. I finally assembled a couple and am off to give them to my parents and grandparents at Christmas Eve We’re glad our project brought some joy during the festivities. This project is no […]
Logic circuits and computer memory are printed together on a sheet of plastic
Thinfilm Electronics and PARC developed a technology for printing semiconductors onto a plastic film. Last month, a small Norwegian company called Thinfilm Electronics and PARC, the storied Silicon Valley research lab, jointly showed off a technological first—a plastic film that combined both printed transistors and printed digital memory. Such flexible electronics could be an important component […]
USB Infrared Toy firmware v22 final released
USB Infrared Toy firmware v22 final is now available for download. This includes bug fixes for both IR Toy hardware versions. This is the most stable IR Toy firmware yet. Download release package Download source archive Firmware update instructions The open source USB stack is performing well. After a little more testing on the IR […]
openHiFi open source music player update
Brian made a video of the latest updates to his openHiFi project. openHifi is an open source music player based on the Procyon Cortex M3 development board. The most recent update reads Vorbis comments from the file metadata. Now it loads and assembles a list of all the song files on a connected storage device. […]