MrTrick made a star map: Now that Christmas is over, most of us have gone back to work, and the decorations are being packed away, the fake Christmas tree is likely to use up the most space in storage, and you only use it once a year! It’s a shame to throw it away, but […]
Author Archives: Ian
Seeed’s Pick and Place machine
More about Seeed Studio’s new Pick and Place machine: We don’t want to keep pushing our PCBA factory any more. All factories in Shenzhen prefers quantity to keep their machine running, so small orders will take high setup fee and unnecessary lead time. It might take only half day to assemble 100 pcs Bus Pirate but […]
Introduction to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
rsdio tipped us to an app note on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This tutorial explains how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems use the reaction of hydrogen atoms moving in a magnetic field to yield a detailed medical image. The types of magnetic fields typically used are described. The note explains why today’s higher resolution MRI […]
Seeed Studio’s new pick and place machine
Take a look at Seeed Studio’s new pick and place machine. It looks like the board being stuffed is a Bus Pirate v3. Video here. Via the forum. 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.
IR Toy repurposed for Play Station 3 jailbreak
Daedalus used the PIC18F2550 on the USB IR Toy to jailbreak his Play Station 3 (original article , machine translation). He programmed the IR Toy with PL3GrooPIC, a port of the PSGroove jailbreak utility that runs on PIC microcontroller. PL3GrooPIC firmware works with the Diolan bootloader in the USB IR Toy, no changes required. We […]
Comments issues
There is an intermittent issue with the comments. Some users are seeing other user details in the comment box. We tried a full reinstall, disabling plugins, flushing the cache, etc, but the issue persists. We posted a support query in the WordPress forum, and have been hanging out in the IRC channel. No solutions so […]
FOR DEVELOPERS: Bus Pirate v4
An experimental Bus Pirate v4 prototype is now available for $50 at Seeed Studio. This batch of Bus Pirate v4 is intended only for developers and accessory designers. It comes on a green PCB to signify that it’s not ready for general use. It ships without a firmware, you must have a PIC programmer to […]
Bus Blaster v2 testing
We’ve just completed verification of the Bus Blaster v2 JTAG debugger. V2 is much more flexible than v1, and uses a programmable logic chip (CPLD) for the buffer. The logic chips in v1 were expensive to source and place, but v2 uses a $1 CPLD with a bunch less pins to solder and inspect. Bus […]
SparkFun BatchPCB marketplace
MichaelZ tipped us to BatchPCB: SparkFun BatchPCB Marketplace has some interesting boards for sale. Most of them are undocumented but some have some sort link to more info. Thanks McZ! Via the forum.
Eagle3D: New release version
Here’s a new release version of Eagle3D: There is a new release version of Eagle3D available. As development is now done on BerliOS the files are available there. With this release it is now possible to call POVRay directly from Eagle3D. This simplifies the creation of 3D images a lot as you do not have […]
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 […]
Setup a GPS receiver with the Bus Pirate
Krishna writes with a followup to his previous post, Using Bus Pirate to interface a MT3318 GPS receiver: …the idea is to change the settings of the GPS module so that we need not modify Bus Pirate settings each time we connect it to the PC. NMEA stands for National Marine Electronics Association. When you […]
5 improvised prototyping methods
Here’s 5 cheap breadboard prototyping tips and tricks that can make your life easier.
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. Happy New Year! This week we’re […]
Verify an oscillator with the Logic Sniffer
IPenguin shows how to verify a crystal oscillator is working using the Logic Sniffer. This should work with the crystal circuit on many microcontrollers. Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, including free worldwide shipping.
Purdue ECE477 projects
Chris writes: I stumbled upon this large collection of senior projects at Purdue and thought that there might be something you might like. These are great because they are fully documented projects. Its good to use to get a fresh idea or new outlook on a current project. Via the contact form.
Bus Pirate and Flashrom save another motherboard
Crawford rescued his motherboard using the Bus Pirate and FlashRom. A friend gave me a Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R motherboard, that had succumbed to the dread ‘infinite reboot’ issue. The Interwebs reported this was usually a bad bios, so I decided to re-flash the bios using the great write-up here. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for […]
All Hacker Spaces in the world get reseller pricing
Adafruit made an announcement for All Hacker Spaces around the world. They can get up to 40% off on kits and breakout boards. We’ll do the same. All Hacker Spaces can order via the Dangerous Prototypes distributor program.
Dangerous Prototypes: tireless support
Thanks! um, get some sleep… Via the contact form.
NEW PRODUCT: FT2232H breakout board
We have a new breakout board for the FT2232H USB2.0 high-speed IO IC. Breakouts are in stock and shipping now for $27. Read a complete overview of the design on the wiki. This board has the latest 5th generation FTDI FT2232H USB 2.0 IO chip. The FT2232 is a USB to serial converter like the […]