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, […]
Author Archives: DP
Bus Pirate: Interfacing with the ChronoDot over the I2C
Paretech used his Bus Pirate in I2C mode to interface with the DS3231 real time clock located on the ChronoDot board. The DS3231 is a high precision real time clock IC with an integrated crystal. He documented his experience with both devices. All the resources needed to setup a I2C connection to a DS3231 are […]
ARM announces 64-bit ARMv8 Platform
ARM announced that they will release 64bit microcontrollers. The ARMv8 uC will feature a 64bit instruction set, as well as extended virtual addressing. The uCs will have two execution states, AArch32, and AArch64. While the AArch64 handles the 64bit instruction set, the AArch32 executes the existing ARM 32bit instruction set. A compiler for the new […]
Setting up UARTs on several micros
Brian from teho Labs wrote a tutorial on how to setup serial UART communication on various microcontrollers. UART code examples for the Arduino, ATMEGA168, MSP430, STM32, and LM3S are provided. From his nice writeup it is easy to see why the Arduino is so popular. Being a library based platform, only two lines of code […]
Bus Pirate: Interfacing with an audio codec chip
Jared wrote about his experience interfacing the Bus Pirate with an audio codec chip using the I2C mode: It is no exaggeration to say the Bus Pirate saved me a metric crap-ton of time. In about ten minutes, I had the Bus Pirate hooked to the audio codec, figured out the text command interface, and […]
NXP Cortex-M0 microcontrollers in TSSOP and SO packages
NXP Semiconductors announced a new 32bit Cortex M0 microcontroller in low-pin-count packages. SOIC, TSSOP, and DIP versions are currently available for their LPC111x devices. With Microchip also planing to release their PIC32 devices in similar packages, hobbyists will now have a choice of 32bit uCs in DIY friendly packages. Via the forum.
ITead Studio: COLOR Your PCBs
ITead Studio is offering a new “Color your PCBs” service. You can chose to have your boards in red, blue, white, yellow, or black. There’s only a $5 price increase, but instead of 10 boards you get 8. To make up for the smaller board output, they are providing e-testing for all the boards free […]
Decoupling capacitors explained
Bertho, winner of the 7400 contest with his Capacitive Sensing, the Hard Way entry, made an excellent tutorial on the use of decoupling capacitors: While enjoying the 7400 contest, it occurred to me that many of the submitted logic designs lacked some of the most elementary safeties to ensure a working result. One of the […]
PID library for Arduino
Arhi tipped us to a PID library for Arduino. If you require precision control of electro-mechanical devices like heaters, servos, water pumps, etc. PID is one way to implement that control. It is an algorithm that controls a device by constantly adjusting its control or power signals to keep the device at preset state. Using sensors […]
Partlist Wednesday: Lithium-polymer battery charger chips
Lithium-polymer batteries are an excellent choice for portable projects. They are relatively cheap, hold a significant charge, and last for a long time. The drawback with these batteries is that they require rather complicated charging protocols. You have to watch out for overcharging, undercharging, overheating, etc… We are looking for a standard part to use in […]
IOIO andriod development board gets bluetooth support
Ytai demoed an IOIO android development board over Bluetooth. Connect the board to your Android enabled device and control various IO pins on the board: IOIO is a board providing I/O connectivity for Android. Until recently it would use a USB connection for communicate with Android. Yesterday, I announced Bluetooth support, which is achieved by plugging any […]
XC9572XL breakout board: Frequency counter
Jason implemented a frequency counter on an XC9572XL CPLD. It uses a 1Mhz clock to count the duration of the input signal pulse, and shows the output on a 6 digit display. Initially he had to use additional 7400 logic ICs to convert BCD output from the CPLD to the 7-segment displays. With some tweaking […]
Bootstrapping a PICqueño32
After populating his free PICqueño32 board with the microcontroller, Schazamp wanted to program it to check if his soldering was OK. Unfortunately he didn’t have a PIC programer, so he decided to build his own. He built a PICKIT2 clone, but that programer also uses a PIC uC. He had to build the simple JDM2 […]
PIC 16F1507 SSOP20 breakout board
After buying a few PIC16F1507s from Microchip, Dolabra is building a breakout board for their SSOP 20 pin package. Earlier this part was not supported by PICKIT2, and he had no way of programing them. As a stroke of luck Microchip added an updated device file for the PICKIT2 and saved him a lot of […]
In development: Soldering iron driver
Earlier this year Arhi developed a soldering iron driver (machine translation) that works with both PTC and K-type TC temperature sensors. In this design a microcontroller implements PID temperature control of the soldering iron, and shows the relevant information on a display. His posts in the forum inspired us to build one too. The soldering […]
#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 […]
Bus Blaster hack: Flashing a PC BIOS chip
Zougloub modified the Bus Blaster V2 somewhat and successfully flashed a PC BIOS chip. By using the onboard FTDI FT2232H chip in SPI mode, and slightly modifying the CPLD logic, he successfully established a link to the BIOS chip. He was now able to update his BIOS and use a processor with his motherboard that […]
UBW32 board
UBW32 is an open source project that allows users to write and read 70+ IO pins through USB. TitanMKD added his blog site on the silkscreen and got 10 PCBs built by Seeed. He is currently developing a project that uses the NFC shield to communicate with RF ID cards. So far he has been […]
A Larson scanner just in time for Halloween
Here’s a project for Battlestar Gallactica fans. Mike developed a Larson scanner, or popularized by the scanning eye of the Cylons. The effect is done by fading LEDs with pulse-width modulation to produce the TV show’s hallmark effect. Via the contact form.
Talking Halloween skull with Arduino
Boris built an open source Halloween project, check out the talking skull in action below the break. In this project the skull speaks and moves the mandible according to the sound level. An Arduino analyzes the level sound of a audio source and drives a servo motor connected to the mandible. All very simple. Via […]