Shaos let us know that his nedoCPU-32 boards and kits are available for purchase on his site. The nedoCPU-32 is a breakout board for PIC32 microcontrollers that come in through-hole packages. His board has a built in power supply, a quartz oscillator, and a passive protection circuit on the broken out pins. We covered the […]
Author Archives: DP
openHiFi open source digital music player update
Brian is hard at work designing an open source HiFi stereo digital music player. A Cortex M3 decodes various audio formats and sends them to a digital to analog converter audio IC via an I2S interface. This is all implemented on his Procyon development board. In this video he tests his firmware using a custom […]
Digital surface level detector
Shawon made a surface level meter that indicates when the surface of an object is not level. He used an SCA610 single-axis accelerometer to take the measurements. A PIC16F684 microcontroller controls the angle indicator LEDs and a buzzer. You can check out the video of his circuit in action below. A bubble or spirit level […]
Tiny USB Li-Po battery charger
This is a tiny, easy to make USB Lithium-Polymer battery charger. It’s based on the MAX1555 charger IC.
DIY case
Taylan posted picture of his DIY case. He cut it out from pieces of transparent acrylic. More awesome DIY cases. Via the contact form.
Bus Pirate servo driver documentation
We added documentation for the Bus Pirate servo mode. This mode was designed to allow Bus Pirate users to quickly test RC hobby servos. Firmware v6 has an overhauled servo mode as requested by several users. To start this mode use the “S” command. Now you will be able to select the degree of movement […]
Arup’s DIY fine-pitch soldering technique
Arup started building his Nokia LCD breakout boards and shared his soldering technique for the 0.5mm pitch connector. First he aligns and fixes the connector in place with a bit of sticky tape. Next he applies some flux. Now the interesting part is that when he solders the connector he doesn’t use any additional solder. […]
Soldering Iron Driver case
Arhi had a Soldering Iron Driver case made. It’s a two-piece metal box with the front panel drilled and cut to specification. The grey plastic panel holding the LCD was printed on one of his RepRap 3d printers. You can check out a picture of an earlier version below.
Cadsoft Eagle v6 bug
We received this error when using the new version of Eagle: WARNING: Most unfortunately, after the whole release process for version 6.0.0 had been finished, it turned out that there is a bug in the polygon handling of the CAM Processor. If a board contains signal polygons that have their “Orphans” parameter set to “off”, […]
DSO Quad – Aluminum Alloy version launched
Seeed Studio has added a choice of aluminum alloy shells for the DSO Quad. It costs 20 bucks more then the normal version, but a free laser engraving service is included. DSO Quad – Aluminum Alloy now is available at Seeed Studio. A new, rigid, elegant aluminum alloy shell makes the Quad even better.
FRISK USBTiny MkII AVR programmer
Yoshi built a USBTiny MkII SLIM clone that fits into a Frisk candy case. It’s a USB AVR programmer that supports ATmega, ATtiny, and ATxmega families of microcontrollers. His project is open source and all the design files are available on his site.
#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 […]
USB Analog/digital logger
Arhi started started working on a USB/UART analog and digital logger: It’s a simple USB logger that can log 12 analog and 3 digital channels + data from MAX6675 (thermocouple driver). It sends the data via usb or uart. We think this is a very useful device that has a place on every bench top. […]
Cheap light-based PC to microcontroller communication
We’ve seen some pretty cool projects that use blinking lights on a PC monitor to transfer data to a microcontroller. We did a little research, and here are some example projects we’ve found. This project uses two photo transistors to read a bar code from the monitor. One handles the clock, while the other has […]
AVR-based transitor tester
After our recent post about the commercial semi-conductor tester we started a discussion about building a similar open source project. What came up is this AVR based transistor tester (machine translation) by Markus. It’s built around an ATmega8 IC that interfaces with a standard HD44780 16×2 character LCD. The circuit that does the testing is […]
Lattice CPLD Dev Board free PCB built
Garrett built a free Lattice CPLD breakout board. He documented his soldering technique with pictures. The Lattice CPLD breakout uses the LC4032 CPLD that comes in the low pitch TQFP 44 pin package. Our breakout board allows you to get started without designing a custom board for your chip. If you build a free PCB we’ll […]
Eagle v6 released
The latest version of Eagle is released and available for download. We are excited about some of the new Eagle V6 features: XML database structure redesign, more flexible and easier to manipulate library and design files. Design reuse, now whole sections of merged schematic and PCB design can be cut and pasted into a new […]
Help the Nanode win Internet of Things Award
The Nanode in an inexpensive development board with an ENC28J60 Ethernet chip and an Arduino. It does everything the Arduino does, and adds Internet-connectivity. It was featured extensively in our Homecamp4 coverage. Recently the Nanode was nominated for best open source project in the Internet of Things Awards, along with the Arduino itself. The well-known […]
Semiconductor analyser determines part type and value
Here is an interesting electronics gadget. It’s a semiconductor component tester that displays the type, pinout, and some relevant specifications of the device connected to its probes. It doesn’t matter how you connect the test clips to the component, the Atlas DCA can analyse a vast number of different component types including bipolar transistors, enhancement […]
84th birth anniversary of Robert Noyce
We were pleasantly surprised that today’s Google Doodle featured a retro looking IC. This is in regards to the 84th birth anniversary of Robert Noyce “the Mayor of Silicon Valley. He is the co-inventor of the first integrated circuit which was one of defining moments in the electronics industry. Wikipedia quote: Robert Norton Noyce (December […]