Orcinus tiped us about this interesting app note on acoustic thermometry from Linear Technology: People usually measure temperature in order to correct the distance determined using ultrasonic transducers. Acoustic thermometry takes the opposite approach – the distance is fixed and the time it takes for an acoustic pulse to make a round trip is used […]
Author Archives: DP
App note: Inductive and capacitive Li-ion cell balancing methods.
No two lithium ion battery cells can ever be the same. There are variations in state of charge, capacity, impedance, and temperature characteristics. These slight differences lead to cells being disproportionately charged or discharged when they are connected in series. This shortens battery life, and even total breakdown of cells is possible. To solve these […]
Laser etched QR code in wood
Jobytaffey added this picture of a laser etched QR code to our Flickr stream.
Basic kludges: 5 minute SOIC-DIP adapter
Here’s a quick way to how to adapt an SOIC surface mount chip to replace a through-hole part. You can do this with stuff on your bench: a DIP IC socket, a few wires, and a wood scrap. Beautiful? Heck no. (More like slimy but satisfying.) But finding a way to get your circuit board […]
EZ-USB-FX1 based PSOC 3/5 programmer
Zeta built a Cypress PSOC 3/5 programmer with the EZ-USB-FX1 IC: The First touch kits have an embeded programmer based on EZ-USB FX2LP so I wanted to clone it. I didn’t have any FX2LP and didn’t want to wait a week to get some on my mailbox, but I happen to have some FX1 chips […]
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: November 11, 2011
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week: USB & serial LCD backpack was released Dangerous Prototypes on Google+ Dangerous Prototypes grunge logos TQFP 100 break out for Microchip devices Bus Pirate, PICqueño, Bus Pirate v3 and Superprobe free PCB build xQFP breakout boards are back in stock at Seeed Studio Check out Raj’s all through-hole development […]
Hybrid SID player using bluetooth
Markus added bluetooth to his Hybrid SID player: I thought it would be nice to have my SID player hardware located next to the stereo equipment and have its audio output connected to it. Having an USB cable running to the laptop from which ACID 64 sends the SID data isn’t convenient, so I looked […]
Another Microchip TQFP 100 breakout board
Here is another Microchip TQFP 100 breakout board built by Haley0918, similar to the board we posted yesterday. The PIC IC and RESET button are placed on the top side of the board. The voltage regulator, quartz crystal, and all the decoupling capacitors are on the bottom. It was designed for the dsPIC33FJ256MC710 with digital […]
Bus Pirate free PCB build
Sky built a free Bus Pirate v3.5 PCB. 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 from our friendly […]
xQFP breakout boards back in stock
xQFP breakout boards are back in stock at Seeed Studio. Available in 0.50mm, 0.65mm, and 0.80mm for $3.
Through-hole development board for 18-pin PIC microcontrollers
Raj made an all through-hole development board for 8bit PIC microcontrollers. Feature list is quite impressive: An ICSP header to connect PIC16F1847 to PICkit3 On-board voltage regulator (+5 V) A HD44780 based character LCD display 8 LEDs to read the status of output pins 6 Tact switches for providing inputs A potentiometer for providing analog […]
Driving a cheap 3” touchscreen LCD
Colin found cheap 3” touchscreen LCDs on eBay for just $7. He bought a bunch of them and developed a breakout board. This LCD doesn’t have an integrated controller, you need to use a high power microcontroller to drive the LCD and run the touchscreen. Colin used a PIC32 and the pinout, protocol, and firmware […]
Bus Blaster: Programming the STM32F4 DISCOVERY
Nabil programed the STM32F4 DISCOVERY development board using the Bus Blaster JTAG debugger and open source OpenOCD software: My initial research lead me to texane’s github where he created a linux version of ST-LINK. It doesn’t support the STM32F4 yet, but there is a fork which is making good progress. I couldn’t get either to […]
New Microchip PIC32 chips in DIP packages
Here’s a pic of the new 32bit PIC32 microcontroller in a DIY friendly though-hole package. Shaos received a free sample from Microchip and shared this pic in the forum. Microchip is not alone, NXP is also releasing an 32bit ARM in hobbyist-friendly packaging.
Open source GSM/GPRS autonomous weather station
Andrianakis built an autonomous data logging system using a GSM/GPRS cell phone modem module to transmit data to a online server. It’s designed to read wind velocity for a future wind power station installation. A PIC16F877A communicates with a SIM900 GSM/GPRS module, and reads sensor values. By using a battery and a solar cell charger, […]
TQFP 100 break out for Microchip devices
After noticing that most of Microchip’s microcontrollers in TQFP 100 packages use the same basic pinouts, we decided to make a breakout board to take advantage of it.So far we checked support for PIC24F, dsPIC33E, and PIC32 devices, and with the exception of the programing header all the 100-pin chips are compatible with the board. […]
Professional techniques for hand soldering
BFX tipped us to this video of professional soldering techniques in the comments of our Soldering the 8bit PIC SchmartBOARD post. The video shows how to prepare, solder, and clean a board with SMT components. Amongst other things, this tutorial shows how to solder one side of a fine pitch QFP device in one swoop […]
Electronics art
Being bored can sometimes inspire people to make cool stuff. Hak8or made these cool stick figures from his unused electronic parts. The hardest part of this build was soldering the tiny 0402 LEDs for eyes. You might also wanna check out these amazing sculptures made from unused PCBs. Via the forum.
PICqueño free PCB build
Schazamp posted a picture of his free PICqueño 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.