Author Archives: DP

Velleman K8062 3rd party firmware upgrade

Velleman K8062 DIY kit is one of the most successful DMX transmitters sold world-wide, but it is also one of the poorest performers. Velleman uses an antiquated slow speed USB protocol on a device that supports Full Speed USB. A community developed firmware upgrade that offers up to 80x times better performance is currently undergoing […]

FPGACheap DIY Altera FPGA USB programmer

This is a DIY USB programer for Altera FPGAs. It only uses a PIC uC and a few discrete components to provide a JTAG interface with a FPGA. Somun found it on a Japanese site (machine translation), and with the help of Google Translate he built one for himself. There are two versions available. The […]

PixelController: Universal OpenSource light control solution

Pix­el­Con­troller is a real time video/VJ gen­er­a­tor and mixer with open source soft­ware developed by Michael. It generates images on a color matrix, as seen above on his PixelInvader panels. It supports many standards like Art-Net, Mini-DMX, LPD6803, and Seeedstudio’s Rain­bow­duino. Via the contact form.

A guide to Seeed Studio’s Fusion PCB service

Luca wrote a step-by-step guide to Seeed Studio’s Fusion PCB service. It covers how to export files from Eagle and get your PCB built. It’s available both in English and Italian. We like Fusion PCB service, it’s cheap and pretty fast. It starts at $10 for 10 PCBs ($1 per board), plus a few bucks […]

Solomon soldering iron review

While working on his soldering iron driver Arhi did some research on Solomon soldering irons (machine translation). Solomon is one of the largest OEM manufacturers of soldering irons, it can be bought under various names like Nedis, Elanco, Tenma, etc. Replacement irons are cheap, under $16, making them perfect for his driver. The most common […]

Logic Sniffer: Bluetooth wireless connection

There’s an interesting discussion in the forums about enabling the Open Bench Logic Sniffer to work with Bluetooth. The consumer market is being flooded with cheap Android enabled tablets, and it seems like a good idea to use them with the OBLS to make a portable logic analyzer. Pppd is currently working with a BT […]

#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 […]

HAKKO 907 and compatible soldering iron pencils

Arhi posted a roundup of HAKKO 907 (machine translation) soldering irons and compatible clones that are used with HAKKO 937 soldering stations. Hakko 907 replacement soldering irons are high quality and relatively cheap irons, and there are many compatible clones on the market. Arhi says there is only a slight build quality difference between the […]

First open hardware gathering in China

Seeed featured an article about the first open hardware gathering in China on their blog: This is the very first conference in China about open hardware, and surely will trigger much more events and activities. Hackerspaces are born all over China like bamboo shoots, and spreading the Maker movement in its region, more people interested […]

Driving a bicolor LED from a single output pin

This blog demonstrates how to drive a bi-color LED, or any 2 LEDs, by using only one microcontroller pin. Sinking or sourcing current from the LED selects which one will light up. Setting the pin as input turns both LEDs off. Alternating between 0,1, and high-Z, both LEDs are fully controllable and even dimmable. The […]

7400 competition entry: Bad driver feedback display

Gagandeep built a “bad driver” feedback display. It’s a huge 40X16 LED matrix spanning ~80cm in width, and it’s designed to be placed on the rear windshield of a car. The spacing of 2cm between LEDs is enough to ensure that the driver doesn’t have an obstructed rear view. Using 2 74HC595 8bit serial in […]