Author Archives: Ian

MCP2200 breakout board free PCB built

After receiving a free MCP2200 breakout board from the Free PCB drawer, Tanukifu built and blogged about it. He writes about the design, pcb layout and build quality. Also included are his experiences using the board with Windows, Linux and OSX. If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a […]

Key less entry system using Ping))) and the Arduino

Mouser built a key-less entry system using Ping))) and the Arduino. The Ping))) ultrasonic sensor is used to gauge user’s hand positions. By moving the hand at different positions, a code is entered that opens the door. He used the moving average filter to keep the system from taking measurements while the hand was in motion. Source code, schematic diagram, as […]

7400 competition entry: Discrete logic POV clock

Matt’s entry in the Open 7400 Logic competition: Discrete logic POV clock. This persistence-of-vision clock was built entirely out of discrete logic chips. The design consists of three boards, a LED array and a drive motor. The digit board keeps the time while the display board controls the LEDs. The digit board Every second, a pulse increments the […]

Procyon Cortex M3 development board now available

Procyon, the biggest of teho Lab’s Cortex M3 development boards, is now available for $72. Brian has been posting development updates in the forum, it’s great to see this board in production: It has a massive 16 MB SDRAM, the ability to host USB devices (or be a USB device), Ethernet to get connected over […]

Improving open source hardware: Visual diffs

Sebastian send us a link to an article that explains how visual diffs can improve open source hardware. Doing change logs and version control with source code is easy to implement, since it comes down to comparing two text files. While trying to find differences between two revisions of the same hardware is a bit […]

Seeed’s Toy hacking contest- vote for your favorite project!

Toy hacking contest- vote for your favorite project. Couple of weeks ago Seeed launched a Toy hacking contest. Seven entries made the dead line and need to be voted by 7th of October. The entries vary from simple servo control to fully automated robotics. Every project has a step by step guide and a video demonstration.

Logic Sniffer: RC transmitter module design debug

pppd created a removable RC transmitter module based on ATtiny25  with the Logic Sniffer. Annoyed by an uncomfortable RC transmitter design and its stick mode, pppd decided to build a removable RC transmitter. It works by converting the standard RC PPM into the IR signal used by the toy. But first he needed to reverse engineer the original using the […]

Open 7400 Logic Competition update: 3 weeks left

There’s 3 weeks left to enter the Open 7400 Logic Competition. Check out the 40 entries posted so far. The list of prizes is amazing, get your project in by October 21st for a chance at this great swag: $100 cash, 3 “Hack Packs” with a Bus Pirate, LCD adapter, probe cable, and jumper wires, […]

Simple USB DIY Li-ion battery charger circuit

arup shared his USB DIY Li-ion battery charger circuit in the project log forum. The circuit uses both op-amps of an LM358 to control the charging of a single cell lithium ion battery. Charging automatically stops when the battery is full, and it is possible to charge batteries that have gone below the undervoltage limit. Power […]

From the mail bag: Bus Pirate JTAG XSVFplayer success!

cliff52 had success programing an Altera 3064 CPLD using the Bus Pirate JTAG XSVFplayer: I wanted to post a success using the Bus Pirate XSVFplayer software to program the Altera 3064 CPLD on the Amani64 Arduino shield, at least as far the ‘blink an LED’ stage. My BP is v3 and I used the SVF […]