Brandon Vandegrift @bmv437 tweeted, “Got my @defcon badge working again! I must have shorted out either R9 or R10, which are pull-up resistors for the I2C data lines. Without that, the PIC32 can’t communicate with the LED driver board. @dangerousproto Bus Pirate to the rescue, with it’s built in pull-up resistors!” Get your own handy […]
Author Archives: DP
#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 […]
Build a Multisensor Shield for ESP8266
Rui Santos has a great write-up on building a Multisensor Shield for ESP8266, that is available on GitHub: In this project you’ll discover how to design and create a Multisensor Shield for the ESP8266 Wemos D1 Mini board. The shield has temperature sensor (DS18B20), a PIR motion sensor, an LDR, and a terminal to connect […]
Tool battery teardowns: Craftsman 19.2V and Ridgid 12V
Russell Graves did teardown of a Craftsman 19.2V DieHard battery and a Ridgid 12V battery: It’s time for more tool battery teardowns! This week, I’ve got a Craftsman 19.2V DieHard battery, and a cute little Ridgid 12V battery. They’re both lithium, and I’m going to dig into both of them, because that’s what I do with […]
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: The reduction of input voltage spike on power switches
Another app note from Richtek introducing solutions for reducing the input voltage spike on power switches. Link here The power switch is a low voltage, single N-Channel MOSFET high-side power switch, optimized for self-powered and bus- powered Universal Serial Bus (USB) applications. In worse operating condition, an input voltage spike may over the chip’s maximum […]
App note: Analyzing VIN overstress in power ICs
Investigative app note from Richtek about the component failure point caused by EOS. Link here (PDF) Failures in power ICs are often the result of Electrical Over Stress (EOS) on the IC input supply pin. This report explains the structure of power IC input ESD protection and how ESD cells can become damaged due to […]
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. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three […]
Electric steam boiler – first steam
Quinn Dunki has a great write-up on building this homemade-from-scratch electric steam boiler: Yes, you read that title correctly. After many months of effort, this homemade-from-scratch electric steam boiler is finally going to make steam. Before we’re done, we’ll learn some sobering lessons about the dangers of live steam. Now that our boiler is pressure-tested […]
#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 […]
Lattice iCE40 Ultra Plus FPGA: Gnarly Grey Upduino – Tutorial 1: The basics
A how-to getting an LED flashing using VHDL from Harris’ Electronics: The cheap price however comes with a few niggles, namely getting it up and running in the first place with the limited documentation. Gnarly Grey do a great job of explaining programming a starting program but don’t say much about further development. With that […]
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: DC/DC converter testing with fast load transient
Another app note from Richtek, this time about transient load testing on power converters and how you can make a simple and low cost fast transient tool. Link here (PDF) Load transient testing is a quick way to check power converter behavior on several aspects: It will show the converter regulation speed and can highlight […]
App note: RT2875 3A automotive buck converter
An application note from Richtek on buck converter used in automotive application. Link here (PDF) Automotive environment can be quite harsh and designing electronics that need to work reliable in this environment takes special care, and often requires automotive qualified parts. When designing voltage regulators that need to step down an intermediate voltage from the […]
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. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three […]
Big Timer
Peter Scargill has a nice write-up about a powerful timing node for Node-Red, the Big timer: Big Timer is (probably) the best-ever timing node for Node-Red, providing a general purpose timer as well as handling summer/winter correctly as well as (importantly) lighting up time (for which you should provide longitude and latitude). After all you […]
Tutorial: Using the Arduino’s internal EEprom to store calibration data and LCD screen fonts
Edward Mallon writes: This is a follow-up to our post about using Nokia 5110 screens on three unused analog lines with shift-out. That saved me from messing with the hardware SPI bus which we reserve for the SD cards. A secondary benefit is that the code is really lean, on the order of about 250 […]
#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 […]
Tutorial, experiment and teardown of a 24GHz Doppler radar module
Shahriar posted a detailed analysis of a CDM324 24GHz Doppler radar module from IC Station: Opening the module reveals a series of microwave PCB components and several active devices. A complete analysis of the module is presented. The unit is then measured and the impact of antenna impedance and power supply voltage on the output […]
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 […]