Maker Faire is the World’s largest hands-on DIY festival. We’ll be at the Bay Area fair later this month, along with the Gadget Factory and other makers, in the Seeed Studio booth. Flights are booked, hotels reserved, and new business cards just arrived. Stop by to mess with a Bus Pirate, IR Toy, or Logic […]
Author Archives: Ian
Your favorite online hardware stores
voidptr writes: I recently lost few bucks on a bad online tools store and maybe you folks can give me good or bad experiences. What online hardware stores do you use? We’ve been discussing several in the forum, including: sureelectronics.net iteadstudio.com futurlec.com seeedstudio.com Via the forum.
Setup MSP430 peripherals with point and click GUI
TI launched a new point and click GUI that configures MSP430 peripherals. Just select your options and C configuration code is generated. This could be a huge time saver for even experienced developers. Less time digging in a datasheet? Sign us up: the Grace software platform [is] a free visual plug-in that enables developers to […]
Bus Blaster v2 free PCB build
rubi posted a picture of a fully constructed Bus Blaster v2 free 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. (Well, […]
Free USB IR Toy v2 PCB to RT #3 & 8 @dangerousproto
Every Tuesday we give away some extra PCBs via Twitter. This post was announced on twitter. The 3rd and 8th people 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 […]
STATUS UPDATE: Nokia LCD backpack
We’re trying a new Monday post with status updates on new projects currently in production. This will cover project development, and gritty details like last minutes changes and production problems. We’ll try to hit a Monday next time. A disappointing update on the USB backpack for SparkFun’s cheap color LCDs. In the previous status update […]
Alternative Logic Sniffer client v0.9.4
Jawi just released version 0.9.4 of the forked SUMP logic analyzer client that works with the Logic Sniffer, Bus Pirate, IR Toy, etc. See topic starter post and/or the client’s home page for direct download URLs. The list of bugs solved in the final version is mostly the same to the latest RC. Major highlights […]
phpBB3 spam hammer v1.0.0 for AUTOMOD
A few months ago we introduced our spam filter for phpBB3 forums that prohibits links for new users. Since installing it we’ve had zero, none, nada new forum spam. We’re happy to announce release v1.0.0 of the filter. It’s now packaged for the phpBB3 AUTOMOD install system. We also submitted it to be included in […]
#twatch Twitter trends watcher firmware update v0e
The #twatch is a network LCD backpack that shows the latest popular topics on Twitter. It was the first project at Dangerous Prototypes, over a year and a half ago. Late last week Twitter removed the feeds the #twatch used to pull the latest trends and it stopped working. Thanks to Presence and everyone else […]
Pico-OS a dangerous coroutine kernel
voidptr posted a pico-OS in the project log forum: … it is an old silly pico-os (smaller than micro) of coroutines from one on my old projects. This is not fancy or complete like other os or RTOS but it is very small and can be useful… right now it is written for the PIC […]
Smartphone garage door opener
Smartphone garage door opener: The tuxgraphics garage door opener is not limited to just one type of smartphone. It does not require the installation of an app. It works with any phone that has a web browser built-in. This garage door opener can be used from an iPhone, from an Android phone or any data […]
iOS Arduino control app
Mike’s app melds Apple iOS stuff with an Arduino: I wrote an iOS app find my Arduino over Bonjour and talk to it. It’s call Ciao, and the App Store approved it last Thursday. Ciao makes it easy to talk to your Arduino from your iOS device. Load one of the example sketches onto your […]
Mystery dual-increment potentiometer
arhi has a mystery dual-increment potentiometer: there are 2 pots inside … example, you turn the pot fully to the left. let’s say it is 10K, then you rotate it to the right, and it goes “easy” rotating to the right almost a full circle (few degrees shy from a full circle) and that goes […]
Web platform wireless home automation update
megabug posted an update on the web platform wireless home automation setup we covered earlier. The updated firmware has cleaner code, supports 3-state pin outputs (1, 0, hi-z). Get an assembled web platform for $40, including worldwide shipping. Via the forum.
Free PCB Sunday: USB Infrared Toy v2
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 we’re giving away two […]
Electric vehicle GrandPrix races
NBitWonder writes: The NBitWonder staff are Purdue-based, and wanted to get the word out about 2 cool events that are happening the next 2 days in the West Lafayette, IN area. Purdue and other local-area universities are sponsoring an all electric vehicle grand prix. We didn’t get this up in time for the April 30th […]
TLC59108 simple 2-wire LED driver for color mixing
megabug tipped us to the TLC59108 I2C controlled LED driver. You might be familiar with the TLC5940 – this looks like a much easier chip to work with. We’ll get a sample and do a demo with the Bus Pirate. Just FYI: TLC59108 is a nice I2C PWM IC! there is also a 16port version […]
Oscium iOS oscilloscope review
EDN reviewed the Oscium logic analyzer and oscilloscope for the iPhone/centiPad. It uses the Cypress PSoC 3, which is a CPU+FPGA hybrid. Cool tech, but too closed and pricey for us: The $297.99 device comprehends one analog and four digital channels, touts 5 MHz analog bandwidth and 12 million sample/sec specifications Warning – the EDN […]
App note: Extend range of current-sense amplifiers
A current-sensor would be useful in a lab power supply. This app note is about chaining two current-sense chips to use at high voltages: Using a transistor as shown, you can double the allowed voltage limit on a current-sense amplifier by stacking two such amplifiers one upon the other. The voltage signal from the bottom […]
New State of Electronics documentary trailer
There’s a new preview for the State of Electronics a documentary about open hardware. The first trailer is here The producer hopes a network will be interested if there are a lot of youtube views, your extra hit could make it possible. Interesting fact: filmed with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital camera. Video […]