Foxit built himself a free Schazamp’s breakout board for the Bus Pirate. Via the contact form. 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 […]
Author Archives: DP
DIY Bus Pirate case design
Drewmerc bough a 2in1 soldering station and decided to use the hot air gun to bend some plastic for a Bus Pirate case. After a trial and error learning exercise he succeeded in finishing his case. More awesome DIY cases. Via the forum. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also […]
Online graph tool for the DSO Nano
MD Schmidt developed an online utility for viewing graphs stored by the DSO Nano. It was made to be used with BenF’s firmware mod that allows, amongst other things, DSO Nano to save it’s waveforms in xml format on a SD card. The online utility takes the xml file and displays the waveforms.
Open-source energy monitoring system
Open-source energy monitoring system is being developed. This is a project to develop and build open-source energy monitoring, control and analysis tools for energy efficiency and distributed renewable microgeneration. The design uses the Arduino to read pulse signals from the utility meter to get information about overall consumption. It also uses current transformers to read […]
Seeed studio Halloween contest
Seeed Studio is getting into the Halloween spirit, they are giving away blinking buttons to any purchaser from 8th to 17th of October. They are also rewarding first 50 Halloween themed pictures to be posted on their flickr account with a pirate head wrist strap. There is also a Halloween contest: This is a competition […]
7400 competition entry: TTL Tilt Sensor
Chris added another entry to the Open 7400 Logic competition: TTL Tilt Sensor. His device works by converting accelerometer analog outputs into digital signals via 3×4 comparators, 6 are used for the X-axis and 6 for the Y-axis. From then on discrete logic chips are used to convert the different signals into various positions on […]
#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 […]
E-book reader for the microtouch
Rossum built an e-book reader for the microtouch. He wanted to use the common e-book format epub. But unfortunately since the format is actually a compressed set of text, html links and images, it was too much for the 8-bit microcontroller to handle. To overcome this he developed a transcoding tool (epubgrider) to decompress the […]
PICqueño free PCB build
Fcobcn built a free PICqueño PCB. The device is functional with USB power only, as he left out the external power supply circuitry. Follow some of our other PICqueno build videos. 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 […]
Source code for the EvalBotADK USB host driver released under GPL V2
TitanMKD has finished up his USB host driver for Android open accessory on EvalBot. He added an external power supply for host applications that can now draw up to the 500mA specified by the USB standard. He also provided an example of it communicating with the DemoKit. Image by Français: CC BY-SA
Controlling your home over the internet
Maurício developed a Arduino based project for controlling devices in your home over the web. The site is in Portuguese but the video has English captions. The project uses the ethernet shield to allow you to interface with the Arduino over the web, which in return controls relays. How to turn on lights, and various […]
Backwoods logger mini – Open source and on sale
The backwoods logger mini from Big mess o’wires is a thermometer and altimeter for logging your cross country hikes. It is an updated version of the backwoods logger classic. A production test run of pre-assembled units is available for sale. All the PCB files, as well as the source code are available. It measures temperature […]
Intelligent Fan Controller
Geoff designed this USB PC case fan controller. It is used to control the speed of your fans depending on the temperatures in your case. Software that was developed for this project allows you to customize the temperature profiles for your computer. The project is based on the PIC18F2550 that is connected to the computer […]
App note: Understanding switch-mode boost power stages
Boosting DC voltage is required in many applications, like LCD backlight, powering a 5v device with a battery and many more. This app note from Texas Instruments gives a detailed explanation on how it works and how to calculate all your components based on input/output specifications. The report includes detailed steady-stage and small-signal analysis of the boost power […]
Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week two random commenters will […]
App note: Thermocouples, and design guidelines for AD59X TC amplifiers
Analog Devices has an app note on thermocouple basics, and some guidelines on how to design projects with their AD595 and AD594 thermocouple amplifiers. Temperature is the most frequently measured physical parameter. However, the techniques of temperature measurement are grossly misunderstood, often resulting in serious inaccuracies or meaningless data. Thermocouples are basically two wires made […]
App note: Board layout tips for switchmode DC/DC converters
The app note featured here provides basic PCB layout tips for building switch-mode DC/DC converters. As an integral part of their function, switch mode converters have square like signals in some of their traces. These signals create harmonics from the switching frequency that can cause much EMI interference, as well as decreased stability of the converter. […]
App note: DMX512 receiver and transmitter on a PIC
DMX512 is a 3 wire interface protocol used in professional lighting. This app note by Microchip explains all the protocol details and how to implement it on any PIC microcontroller with a hardware UART peripheral. Only external part is a RS485 transceiver. DMX512 transmitter sends 512 8bit data packets one after the other to 512 individual […]
IR protocol decoder software for use with the IR Toy
After we blogged about his IR helicopter automatic altitude control video, amieres added another video. In this one he explains how to decode the IR protocol using a program he developed and the IR Toy. His software has many useful options like frame length recognition with a rounding option to eliminate signal travel time. A replace option is implemented […]
MLX90614ESF IR thermometer interface with the Bus Pirate V3 and V4
TitanMKD shared a demo of the MLX90614ESF IR thermometer interface with the Bus Pirate. His demo contains details on how to read the device specifications in the Bus Pirate I2C mode, ambient and measured object temperature, and PWM mode calibration data. Multiple measurements can be read every 100ms. Via the forum. Get your own handy Bus […]