We’ve been prototyping XT peripherals for old PCs, and discussing the possibility of building PCIe cards for modern computers. Out of curiosity we looked up 88086 and 8088 emulators, here’s a list of what we found: On Spartan2 Wiki list of soft processors MSF is a FPGA board performing backup functions for a real 8088 […]
Author Archives: Ian
chipKIT network and I/O shields
Joe Desbonnet writes: Microchip and Digilent have announced new IO and networking shields for the chipKIT (a PIC32 based Arduino clone) Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, and Digilent, Inc. today announced expanded capabilities for the 32-bit PIC32 microcontroller-based chipKIT™ Development Platform for the Arduino™ community. First, the companies […]
Thermal Tweeter laser-cut acrylic stand
A few weeks ago Tayken designed a laser-cut acrylic case for the Thermal Tweeter. We had it cut at Pololu for $25. It took about 24 hours to cut and ship the case. You can check out the Thermal Tweeter, in its spiffy laser-cut case, at the Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire New York. […]
Hacking hardware chips
Ever wonder what’s inside an unassuming black microchip? octal tipped us to the FlyLogic Engineering blog with illustrated chip internals. Via the forum.
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 commenter will […]
App note: Timeout protection for high current LEDs
rsdio writes: This looks like a great idea any time you’re worried that your custom firmware might crash at the wrong moment. You don’t necessarily need the MAX8607 LED driver, just the MAX6421 or maybe even a 555 equivalent. This protection feature enables reliable high-power LED operation over a long life cycle and prevent the […]
App note: Thermal management
An app note about heat management, including an overview of some cool thermocouple-reading ICs: This product guide showcases Maxim’s industry-leading portfolio of thermal-management devices, which includes temperature sensors and switches, fan controllers, and a highly accurate thermocouple-to-digital converter. Learn how to select the right fan controller and improve designs using multichannel temperature sensors. Thanks rsdio!
The Talking Breathalyzer
The Talking Breathalyzer. We were lucky enough to get a preview of this project at the Bay Area Maker Faire: A customizable Breathalyzer that talks and tells you how much you’ve had to drink. It’s also open source and can easily be modified with your own text on the LCD screen and audio MP3 files. […]
DIY rover hacking
hak8or posted his Rover hack in the project log forum: I am working on making a rover thing so I can finally have a mobile car that I can use for things such as just driving around, scaring my cat, and learn some things about mobile electronics such as battery power, power usage, motor drivers, […]
App note: Add precise output adjustment to low-voltage supplies
Another article that might help with bench power supply designs: To tweak supply-voltage levels and adjust voltage margins as required, this circuit introduces an op amp (MAX5481) and digital potentiometer (MAX4245) to control the feedback voltage to the voltage regulator. Thanks rsdio!
Free PCB coupon via Facebook comments #1 and #10
Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. The #1 and #10 people who comment on this post at Facebook get a free PCB. More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. This week we’re giving away two PCB codes. Pick your own PCB from the free PCB drawer. Don’t […]
Week in (p)review: August 19, 2011
Facebook free PCB Friday is on the way. Don’t forget to share your current project in the comments or the forum. Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week: Huge progress on the open srouce USB stack. USB IR Toy test firmware v20 and a bootloader for Bus Pirate v4 Dangerous Prototypes has […]
USB IR Toy firmware v20 test #6
Grab IR Toy firmware v20 test #6 from the forum. Yesterday we released a test firmware for the USB IR Toy that uses the new open source USB stack written by JTR and Honken. It had a few serious bugs in the SUMP-compatible logic analyzer mode. JTR made some updates and now it works […]
Logic Sniffer 16-bit input buffer wing back in stock
Logic Sniffer 16-bit input buffer is back in stock at Seeed Studio. The Open Logic Sniffer buffer wing in stock and shipping now for $15.
Chips in space, a look inside ARISSat-1
Joe Desbonnet tipped us to a series of articles about the design of the ARISSat-1 amateur satellite recently ‘launched’ (actually just flung out the door) from the ISS: Many of you are curious about what’s inside ARISSat-1. In the next two to three blog posts, I’ll introduce you to each of the subsystems. Following that, […]
BSD Unix on PIC32 microcontroller
RetroBSD is a UNIX port that runs on the PIC32 microcontroller: The system is targeted to a market of small embedded systems. Main features include: Small resource requirements: RetroBSD requires only 128 kbytes of RAM to be up and running user applications. Memory protection: Using hardware mechanisms, kernel memory is fully protected from the user […]
Power supply using a 1U rack chassis
hak8or posted pictures of a power supply build using a 1U rack chassis: I saw a post about using magnetic fields on the human brain to get certain reactions, and the first thing that popped to my head was trying it out myself. …I finally came to the conclusion that I should make a proper […]
Winner of TS1001 op-amp design competion
Touchstone Semi announced the TS1001 Op Amp design competition winner: Eric John Holland, a senior electronics design engineer at Avery Weigh-Tronix, was awarded the top prize of $1,000 for his design of a working, low-power 555 timer using Touchstone‟s TS1001 op amp. The TS1001 is the industry‟s first 0.8V, 0.6µA op amp cutting power requirements […]
More on PIC configurable logic cells
Here’s some more info on the new PIC microcontrollers with configurable logic cells. felix52 tipped us to a Configurable Logic Cell Tool from Microchip: The intention of this User’s Guide is to assist the reader in becoming acquainted with the Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) Configuration Tool. It will explain how to setup the tool and […]
FT2232H breakout board back in stock
The FT2232H USB 2.0 Hi-Speed breakout board is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Get one for $27.