Tayken documented Tokyo Hacker Space’s 12V emergency phone charger for the aftermath of the tsunami: One problem we saw was that people were in these shelters without any type of communication. Sure they had cellphones but cellular system was down and charging their phones impossible as all had left their chargers at home. We couldn’t […]
Author Archives: Ian
Backcountry logger prototype
Big Mess o’ Wires’ backcountry logger prototype: The Backcountry Logger is a portable microcontroller-driven device that collects temperature, air pressure, and altitude data, and shows graphs on a built-in screen. It’s intended for hikers, climbers, skiers, and other outdoorsy folks who want to geek out with environmenal data about their activities.
Week in (p)review: July 01, 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: Maker Shed now stocks the USB Infrared Toy LeafLabs conference call Interfacing the TMP006 IR temperature sensor with the Bus Pirate xQFP breakout boards […]
How a PCB is made
Here’s how a PCB is made: Last year around mid-November Eric and I (Base2’s owners) were in the Denver area and were fortunate enough to be able to visit the circuit board manufacturer that we frequently use – Advanced Circuits. They were kind enough to give us a tour of their facility and explain the […]
Thermocouple to serial converter
phirephly built a thermocouple with USB and serial interface: This is a device that takes a thermocouple temperature input, converts it into a digital value, and then spits out the temperature on a serial port, which you can then feed into a computer, or another microcontroller. This is a useful device for any time when […]
Laser range finder testing
Dino at hacked a laser range finder this week: I decided to test mine on an Arduino and build a setup that could be mounted to the back of my vehicle as a backup proximity warning device. Something that would readout the distance on a dash mounted LCD and sound an audible warning below a […]
In the Maker Shed: USB Infrared Toy
Maker Shed now stocks the USB Infrared Toy: The USB Infrared Toy, available in the Maker Shed, is an assembled, open source, USB infrared remote control receiver/transmitter designed by DangerousPrototypes. Use it as a remote control with your computer, to view infrared signals on a logic analyzer, to capture and clone infrared signals, and to […]
LeafLabs conference call
MP3 download LeafLabs makes a 32bit Arduino compatible board called Maple. The board comes with a 72MHz 32bit STM32 ARM processor, and lots of extras like integrated LiPo battery charging. They shot us an email about the new Maple Mini. It had a snarky note in regards to our chipKIT coverage: while Microchip is getting […]
Interfacing the TMP006 IR temperature sensor with the Bus Pirate
Joe wrote an article on using the Bus Pirate to interface with the TI TMP006 non-contact temperature sensor covered earlier. This article explains how to interface the Texas Instruments TMP006 non-contact IR temperature sensor evaluation module (TMP006EVM) to a Linux computer using the Bus Pirate from Dangerous Prototypes. A small Java program has been written […]
Plunify interview questions
Tomorrow we’re talking with Plunify, the developers of an online compiler for Altera and Xilinx CPLDs/FPGAs. They added the CPLD dev-board demos to a list of project examples, and made a tutorial video. We put together a how-to when we tested it. Unfortunately, Xilinx has not yet given Plunify permission to use the compiler in […]
Tiny CPU boards
Big Mess o’ Wires has a review of Seeed’s PCB service: Overall I’m fairly happy with these Seeed PCB Fusion boards: decent build quality and cheap pricing. Yes, there are a few dinged and damaged boards, but given the total number of boards for the price (and the two bonus boards I received), I can […]
xQFP breakout board back in stock
xQFP breakout boards are back in stock at Seeed Studio. These popular boards let you solder a surface mount chip and then use it with wires or breakout pins. 0.50mm is by far the most popular size. Available in 0.50mm, 0.65mm, and 0.80mm for $3.
Open source hardware business model study
Remo Abbondandolo studied open source hardware as a business model. The results are published in his Master’s thesis Open Source Hardware Fostering User Entrepreneurship: Empirical Evidence from Arduino Users. Where do we fit amongst giants like Adafruit and SparkFun? 3.2. Business Models in OSH Drawing on detailed information from company websites and interviews, and applying […]
USB IR Toy through-hole free PCB build
fcobcn built a free USB Infrared Toy through-hole PCB. These PCBs are also available at Seeed Studio for $7. 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. Via the forum.
Maker Faire Indy and Fort Wayne application deadlines
NBitWonder reminds us that Maker Faire Indy and Fort Wayne application deadlines are tomorrow: Both events promise to be alot of fun. If you’re an exhibitor, THE CALL FOR MAKERS DEADLINE FOR BOTH EVENTS IS JUNE 30th (that’s 2 DAYS from now). Maker Faire Indy application Maker Faire Fort Wayne application Hurry up and get […]
CubeSpawn an open source manufacturing system
CubeSpawn open source manufacturing system: Eventually it will have a metal cutting milling machine, a lathe, a surface grinder, a RepRap module and many other capabilities. It is completely open source and my goal is that whoever decide to build these cubes will be able to exchange designs and programs between them. Via the contact […]
HAKKO soldering pencil driver
arhi made a control board for HAKKO soldering pencils. Add a power supply, probably from an old PC, and you have a quality DIY soldering station. From the project log forum: Upgrades from v1 1. thermocouple is read properly. The circuit used to get the K-type to go 0-5V came from microchip’s app note 2. […]
Free PCB coupon to RT #5 & #25 @dangerousproto
Every Tuesday we give away some extra PCBs via Twitter. This post was announced on twitter. The 5th and 25th person who retweet it get free PCBs. We changed the approach this week due to auto-retweeters grabbing boards first. Thanks for the heads-up on auto-retweeters JT! Love it, hate it? Let us know in the […]
Introduction to switches
Make has an introduction to various switches: Easily overlooked, but elemental to electronics hardware, the manually operated switch is the simplest of electromechanical devices — and likely the most familiar. While the most basic switch is… well, quite basic, there’s a crazy-huge variety of switch types and sizes available to the electronics maker nowadays. Those […]
Open hardware summit proposal deadline extended
The deadline for submissions has been extended to July 1st: We’re extending the submission deadline for the Open Hardware Summit until next Friday, July 1st (at 11:59 pm U.S. Eastern time). While there have been many exciting submissions already, we know that not everyone had enough time to put together their proposal. We wanted to […]