Ian – Page 28 – Dangerous Prototypes

MakerBot TV launch episode

First episode of MakerBot TV: MakerBot Industries has a brand new online video series hosted by ME! Annelise Jeske – MakerBot’s Video Superstar! And it is AWESOME! Let me take you on a virtual adventure to an Afro Punk head-scanning party, watch how we MakerBot the heads of Angelo Moore (of Fishbone) and comedian Reggie […]

Microchip responds: A bounty for open source chipKIT support!

A few weeks ago we posted an editorial about the lack of complete open source support for Microchip’s chipKIT Arduino-compatible hardware. Marc from Microchip writes: We’ve been reading the blogs and comments, and do agree with you. Though we are a corporation, with a lot of suits (not really, actually I think we have a […]

New version of WinLIRC remote control receiver software

There’s a new version of WinLIRC and the WinLIRC plugin for the USB Infrared Toy. Just uploaded a new winlirc version, with yet another updated plugin for the IR Toy. It requires the latest firmware. Not tested it with the old one firmware, it might work but I wouldn’t advise it. Needs testing in case […]

7400 competition entry: Nixie tube clock

Here’s an entry in the Open 7400 Logic conpetition: A nixie tube clock. My entry for the competiton is a nixie tube clock where all the logic is in 4000 series chips (and the tube drivers are 7400 series!). Details and build log.

Web platform and Thermal Tweeter wireless tethering

The Thermal Tweeter needs a wired ethernet internet connection to get tweets. At the Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire we’ll be lucky to have wifi. Likely we’ll need to use a 3G wireless connection. We need a way to bridge the wireless data services to a wired connection. Today we picked up a cheap […]

Procyon ARM development board update

An update on Teho labs Procyon ARM development board that we’re been following in the forum: We are pleased to announce the Revision 2 of Procyon is free of PCB problems and is ready for production. Via the forum.

What exactly does bit banging mean?

ipatch asks: I recently watched this series of videos on Youtube, and the presenter refers to bit banging in one of the videos. He says specifically he had to bit bang 64MB of RAM in a 16MB window. How is this important, and could the bus pirate have been used for this sort of procedure? […]

#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 […]

Open 7400 Logic Competition update

Logos Electromechanical LLC The Open 7400 Logic Competition is in full swing. The list of prizes is has gotten amazing, and today we announced that Dave Jones from the EEVBlog will be a judge. Also check out the The Amp Hour coverage of the Competition. Here’s the list of swag that’s up for grabs: $100 […]

chipKIT followup and interview with elektroniktidningen

Swedish publication elektroniktidningen did a short interview and writeup [machine translation] about our chipKIT editorial. Here’s the English Q&A from our emails: Did you get any feedback from Microchip on this issue? The other companies involved in chipKIT – the hardware designer, the software developer – left comments on the article. Nobody from Microchip has […]

Bus Blaster v2.5 free PCB build

Randy Glenn built a free Bus Blaster v2.5 PCB. 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. You can get a Bus Blaster v2 for $34.95. Via the contact form.

CoolRunner-II breakout free PCB build

David built a free CoolRunner-II breakout board. 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 the CoolRunner-II development board for $15 and XC9572XL dev-board for $15.

Site: New illustrations in progress

Svenw1980 has updated a bunch of illustrations in the project documentation. Be on the lookout for cool new artwork all over the wiki. Thanks Sven!

PIC-based TV-B-Gone turns off TVs up to 10meters away

exapod built a TV-B-Gone using a PIC 18F2550 microcontroller and a few LEDs. It runs the IR Toy port of Adafruit’s TV B Gone kit firmware.

Zencart MOD: Limit Paypal to specific categories

Adafruit posts some Zencart zennieness every week. Here’s our first humble mod of the popular online store software. Soon one or two popular PCBs will be available for a couple bucks from the PCB drawer. This is just a test, we don’t plan to go into the retail business. We need a way to stop […]

Logic Sniffer 3D-printed case

arhi made a 3D-printed Logic Sniffer case: As you can see my design is as simple as it can be. It’s far from pretty but works. It does not have any “end stops” to prevent OBLS from sliding out of the case, it’s just “tight” enough so the OBLS is hard to move in/out. Worked for […]

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 […]

XT-IDE Adapter free PCB build

J1mbo built a free XT-IDE Adapter PCB. That’s the second XTIDE board build. A revised PCB will be available in a few weeks. 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.