Andy Brown wrote an article on reverse engineering a CPU voltage regulator: A recent ebay fishing expedition yielded an interesting little part for the very reasonable sum of about five pounds. It’s a voltage regulator module from a Dell PowerEdge 6650 Xeon server. I originally bought this because I had the idea of salvaging parts […]
Author Archives: DP
App note: General overview of IR transmission in free ambient
Vishay’s general information about IR transmission in free ambient. Link here (PDF) Free ambient IR data transmission, IR remote control as well as most opto-electronic sensors and light barrier systems work with an optical wavelength between 870 nm and 950 nm. The emitter and detector components are highly efficient in this near IR wavelength band […]
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: Using Vishay infrared receivers in a Wi-Fi environment
2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz Wi-fi signals can sometimes affect IR receivers, here’s Vishay’s app note about them. Link here (PDF) In recent years, Wi-Fi connectivity has penetrated most consumer electronic devices used for media reproduction. New TVs, satellite receiver and cable boxes, and streaming devices are more often than not built with Wi-Fi capabilities at […]
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 […]
Manufacturing in China – What you should know
A series of videos from Akiba, creator of FreakLabs, answering questions on the challenges of manufacturing a product in China filmed during AMA on SupplyFX. Via Tindie. Check out the video after the break.
Wifi enabled 8×64 pixel LED matrix display
Raj over at Embedded Lab has just finished a new project article about Wifi-enabled LED matrix display using ESP8266: This project is a modification of my previous Bluetooth-enabled LED matrix display project, which used 8×64 monochromatic LED matrix (total 512 LEDs) for displaying scrolling text message. The original project used Bluetooth for display data transfer […]
How to run C programs on the BeagleBone’s PRU microcontrollers
Ken Shirriff writes: This article describes how to write C programs for the BeagleBone’s microcontrollers. The BeagleBone Black is an inexpensive, credit-card sized computer that has two built-in microcontrollers called PRUs. By using the PRUs, you can implement real-time functionality that isn’t possible in Linux. The PRU microcontrollers can be programmed in C using an […]
#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 […]
Video: Talk MIDI with the Bus Pirate on Talk Like a Pirate Day
Here’s a video tutorial on how to set up the Bus Prate for the MIDI protocol from Bent-Tronics: Until now there hasn’t been much on the interwebs on how to set up the Dangerous Prototypes Bus Pirate for decoding MIDI data. Here’s my contribution, which happens to be on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. More […]
When you need multiple analog inputs for your ESP8266 application
Tinkermax writes: In specific situations you can get away with having only one ADC by multiplexing your sensors. In my scenario, because I was measuring totally unrelated things, this was not possible. The most obvious approach is to add an external ADC. The drawback is that this requires you to get to grips with how […]
App note: High-speed level shifting using Si8XXX isolators
Silicon Lab’s Si86xx which provides digital isolation and voltage level shifting while Si823x as ISOdrivers, Link here (PDF) Voltage level shifting is common in analog and mixed-signal system applications. While several technologies implement level shifting (e.g., HVIC processes, discrete circuits, dedicated level shifting ICs), recent advances in CMOS isolation technology enables fast, reliable, and highly-integrated […]
App note: Novel current-sense measurement with automatic offset correction
Silicon Labs’ application note about a low power current measurement circuit using TS1001 nano power op-amp paired with low-power CY8C38 microcontroller, Link here (PDF) Pairing a simple circuit using nanopower analog op amps with a microcontroller can monitor single battery cells and solar harvesters. Pairing up a 0.65 V/1 µA nanopower op amp with the […]
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: USB field firmware updates on MSP430 MCUs
TI’s application note: USB field firmware updates on MSP430 MCUs (PDF!) With the advent of USB, end users can perform firmware upgrades in the field by simply attaching the device via USB and executing an application on the host PC. Such an approach has numerous advantages: Problems discovered after product release can be fixed. Reduced […]
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 […]
Capcom CPS2 security programming guide
Eduardo Cruz from Arcade Hacker writes: Dear all, after a few months of testing we are extremely happy to release the new clean desuicide / security programing method for Capcom’s CPS2 hardware. This guide is the result of almost two years of work by an small group of arcade enthusiasts to unravel the secrets of […]
Experimenting with MAX6955
Florin wrote an article about experimenting with MAX6955: My experimenting actually started with MAX6954. After many failed tries due to SPI issues (Maxim uses a special interpretation of the protocol, I read), I switched to MAX6955. MAX6955 is the I2C sibling of MAX6954 (which uses SPI). They both have identical LED driving abilities, only the […]
Adding ADC to Microcontrollers without ADC
Scott Harden writes: I recently had the need to carefully measure a voltage with a microcontroller which lacks an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and I hacked together a quick and dirty method to do just this using a comparator, two transistors, and a few passives. The purpose of this project is to make a crystal oven […]
CO2, temperature and humidity monitor
An open source CO2 monitoring project from Roving Dynamics: The project described below uses a MH-Z16 or MH-Z19 CO2 sensor and a DHT-22 (or DHT-11 if less accuracy is required) to measure the Temperature and Humidity. It has a 4 line by 20 character LCD Display to show the current readings and status, a warning alarm […]