Sorry, due to a stupid Ian mistake we ran Free PCB Sunday instead of Facebook PCB Friday. Sunday will happen later this weekend. Comment here on Facebook for free PCBs. Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. The #5 and #11 people who comment on this post at Facebook get a free […]
Author Archives: Ian
OpenPicus WIFI development board winner
Today we announce the winner of the OpenPicus WIFI development board. There were lots of creative project ideas, thanks for your submissions. Congratulations to Tom, his idea for WIFI-controlled theater props scored him the OpenPicus starter kit: I build custom lighting, props and scenic effects for the theatre.As these things are very mobile on the stage, […]
Seeed Studio toy hacking contest
Seeed is testing a new Grove kit for hacking toys. Grove is a set of pre-soldered sensors that plug into an Arduino shield. It’s an easy way to build a project without touching a soldering iron. They need some beta testers so they’re having a contest. The top prize is a $200 store coupon: […]
Add auto turn-off to a cheap multimeter
Florin was tired of wasting batteries every time he forgot to turn off his multimeter. He hacked together an auto-shutdown: I bought this multimeter(Minipa ET-870C) a while ago for $17, great value. I got it because its nice to have around multiple meters for when you wanna measure both input and output voltage/current. I believe […]
Mail bag: PIC programmer for beginner?
“Hello, Recently I start to read dangerous proto blog and I must say that I am a fan of your site and your projects. I am not a PIC guy but recently I decided to make a bus pirate using a free pcb I got through the site. I have a question to ask. Which […]
Reminder: OpenPicus WIFI development board giveaway
Today is the last day for the OpenPicus Nest starter kit giveaway. If you’d like one just leave a comment with a project idea. We’ll give it away later in the day.
Partlist Wednesday: Buttons and switches
Every Wednesday we highlight a component from the updated partlist. This week: buttons and switches. Let’s talk buttons. The 6mm button is the classic button. It comes in surface mount and through hole versions. The 6mm surface mount button, DTSM-6 seems to be one package name, has nice beginner-friendly pads that are easy to solder. […]
More geeky cufflinks
More geeky cufflinks via twitter.
Giveaway: OpenPicus Nest starter kit
Tomorrow we’ll give away a Nest starter kit. If you’d like it just leave a comment on yesterday’s post with a project idea.
USB-MSD bootloader for the KwikStik development board
Mark made a USB bootloader for the Kwikstik development board. We covered this board in April, and they’ve promised us 5 to give away when the next batch is in. I have added K40 (including KwikStik) support to the uTasker project. See the following for details: It includes a USB-MSD boot loader for the KwikStik, […]
Spanish Bus Pirate 102 tutorial
Bus Pirate 102 is now in Spanish. All translations are appreciated. The wiki is open to anyone with a forum account. Thanks to Vincent, Foxit, and Fcobcn for these translations. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Free PCB coupon to RT #2 & #20 @dangerousproto
Every Tuesday we give away some extra PCBs via Twitter. This post was announced on twitter. The 2nd and 20th person to retweet it get free PCBs. Thanks for the heads-up on auto-retweeters JT! This week we’re giving away two PCB codes. Pick your own PCB from the free PCB drawer. Don’t forget there’s free […]
Farnell flux freebies
Farnell/element14 offered us free stuff to test drive advertise for them. We hardly ever buy from Farnell, but hey, free. We wanted something we could actually try out and evaluate in the workshop. There’s not much point in comparing capacitors from Farnell and Mouser. A couple types of flux seemed like a good idea: EDSYN […]
Italian Bus Pirate 101 tutorial
The introductory Bus Pirate 101 tutorial is now available in Italian. If you speak .it check it out. All translations are appreciated. The wiki is open to anyone with a forum account.
OpenPicus WIFI development board giveaway
OpenPicus gave us a Nest starter kit WIFI development platform to give away. Leave a comment on this post with a project idea, and it could be yours on Thursday. OpenPicus is working on open source wireless hardware and a free application development platform. The current WIFI hardware has a PIC 24FJ256GA106 microcontroller, and an […]
New WinLIRC version released
dukey has a new version of WinLIRC, Windows infrared receiver software that works with the USB IR Toy: the new version of winlirc is live, with some fixes to the irtoy usb plugin as promised. Since you guys love DIY hardware you should check out the audio receiver. I finally got a chance to sit […]
Clearance sale on OLD Bus Pirate v3 cases
Seeed is having a clearance on cases for the OLD Bus Pirate v3. These cases do NOT fit the Bus Pirate now in stock (v3.5), but if you have a v3 this is your last chance to score one for $1.50.
DIY nerdy cuffies with CCD camera sensors
Kevin comments on The ultimate Nerd Apparel: iCufflinks I made my own nerdy cuffies using 1/2 inch CCDs. Turned out pretty well (unlike the photo I took of them).
Soldering PICqueño32 dev-board prototype
A video of the PICqueno32 prototype build and test process. About 70 minutes of soldering is reduced to 5 minutes. First the big chips go down. This board has a 64pin TQFP PIC32 and a 28pin SOIC FT232 USB->serial chip. We had to salvage the FT232 from an old Bus Pirate prototype. Next the small […]
STATUS UPDATE: PICqueño32 v1.0
PICqueño32 is our knock-off the Arduino-compatible chipKIT Uno32. Earlier this summer Microchip and Digilent released a 32bit, PIC 32 development board. Yeah, it’s in the shape of an Arduino. What sets it apart from others is the open source compiler that works with the Arduino IDE and existing Arduino programs. We decided to make a […]