The Bus Pirate LCD adapter v2 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Get an LCD adapter for $9.
Author Archives: Ian
Xilinx CPLDs: XC9500 vs CoolRunner-II
The two cheapest and most readily available Xilinx CPLD families are the XC9500 and CoolRunner-II. Both are in stock at DigiKey in a variety of packages, with simple devices starting at around $1. We wondered what exactly the differences are, here’s our notes in a table. More on the wiki.
Week in (p)review: January 16, 2011
By popular request we’re going to start the weekly review/preview posts again. Last week was a big week for the Bus Blaster, but there was a lot of other stuff too: Bus Blaster v2 is going to production mid February, the prototype has already been validated robots, Tornado, and Jamz got urJTAG to program the […]
Vsprog SWD working on STM8 and STM32VL embedded debugger
Serial Wire Debug is a new two-wire JTAG debugging protocol used by several low pin-count LPC and STM32 ARM chips. Adaptation of SWD by open source debuggers like OpenOCD has been slow. Bingo succeeded in adapting the open source Versaloon firmware to do SWD programming on the cheap STM8S-Discovery and STM32VL-Discovery boards. Congratulations! We hope […]
Real-Time audio spectrum analyser
Here’s an application using FFT on an PIC18F4550 8-bit microcontroller: This project implements a real-time audio spectrum analyser using a PIC18F4550 8-bit microcontroller. The spectrum frequency analysis is performed by a highly optimised 16-bit Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) routine coded entirely in C. The output from the FFT is displayed using a 128×64 graphical LCD […]
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate PIC programming adapter
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 […]
App note: I2C controlled keypad scan IC
The TCS8418 is an I2C controlled keypad scan chip for up to 80 buttons: • Operating Power-Supply Voltage Range of 1.65 V to 3.6 V • Supports QWERTY Keypad Operation Plus GPIO Expansion • 18 GPIOs Can Be Configured into Eight Inputs and Ten Outputs to Support an 8 × 10 Keypad Array (80 Buttons) […]
Map proprietary connectors
Dan Reetz shows how to map proprietary connectors: I love the Casio EX-FH100. I hate proprietary bullshit. It’s tremendously aggravating when a manufacturer arbitrarily makes up a new connector — especially when we have perfectly good standard connectors already. Proprietary bullshit stokes my rebel spirit, makes me fighty, makes me hack. Via Makezine.
Announcement: Open source PIC USB stack
Forum member Honken released an open source USB firmware for PIC microcontrollers. This is a major open source contribution, congratulations! Most PIC 18F2550 and 18F4550 USB projects you see on the web use the Microchip USB source code. It’s easy to use and free. There’s one big problem: Microchip uses a license that isn’t open […]
Free SparkFun Free Day coupon code
Markus writes: During yesterdays DDOS attack Free-day at SparkFun I was able to get through just one time during the two hours the event lasted. Therefore I managed to acquire 10$ (and got 2$ donated to charity). Because I have no use for it, I thought I give it to you. It is worth 10$ […]
Logic Sniffer back in stock at Seeed
The Logic Sniffer is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.
Syringe-based 3D food printer
Fab@home‘s team is working on a syringe-based 3D printer that builds food one squirt at a time. We think this is a really cool project, but question how many foods can be tackled with layer deposition. Cooking requires a lot of techniques. Take flour – gentle handling for flaky biscuit, kneaded to developed gluten for […]
View binary files in the Logic Sniffer client
Cactus wanted to view a binary logic dump in the Logic Sniffer client. He made a Ruby script to convert files to the OLS format. I needed to look at some data from a binary file that wasn’t grabbed by the Logic sniffer hardware, but the software doesn’t support that (yet? :) So after jawi […]
C2000 Piccolo: F2806x MCU
rsdio tipped us to the floating-point Piccolo MCUs from Texas Instruments: C2000™ Piccolo MCUs offer an enhanced math engine specifically designed to simplify programming and optimize performance in real-time control applications that may require integrated communications. Developers of energy-efficient motor control and renewable energy applications can now use a single F2806x MCU to cost-effectively execute […]
Introduction to computed tomography (CT) medical imaging
rsdio tipped us to an app note on a computed tomography (CT) medical imaging. This tutorial explains how computed tomography (CT) imaging systems generate 3-D images of internal body structures. The high-end spiral CT technique is explained, as is the method by which light collected from photodiodes is processed into an electrical signal and eventually […]
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Unbrick the Bullet2 with the Bus Pirate
Bullet2 is a weatherized outdoor wifi node. Daedalus unbricked the Bullet2 (original , machine translation ) using the Bus Pirate to talk to the UART interface. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors Adafruit, Open Source Control Systems, and eHaJo. Via the contact form.
App Note: LEDs allow new remote-controlled lighting applications
A remote-controlled lightning applications: One benefit LEDs offer in general lighting applications is that they are easier to control remotely. This application note describes a remote-controlled architectural or street-lighting system and describes how to implement power-line or wireless communications control of a lighting system. Thanks for the tip rsdio!
Free PCB Sunday: FT2232H breakout board
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 […]
App Note: Overview of industrial motor control Systems
An overview of industrial motor control systems: This overview of industrial motor controls highlights the differences and subsystems for DC motor, brushless DC, and AC induction motors. An in-depth analysis of critical subsystems focuses on monitoring and measuring current; sensing temperature; sensing motor speed, position, and movement; monitoring and controlling multichannel currents and voltages; and […]