Seeed Studio goes above and beyond to make our projects a success. Thanks guys! The two LCD adapters v2 I received from Seeed about 2 weeks ago were missing the the cables, too. I never reported this to Seeed. To my surprise a little box with 2 connector cables from Seeed was in my mail […]
Author Archives: Ian
Bus Pirate: Miniscope v3
miniscope is a free PC oscilloscope application that now supports the Bus Pirate via a DLL plugin. It’s intended to be GPL, but it looks like the source isn’t yet available. That’s the second o-scope software for the new Bus Pirate continuous ADC binary command. We’ve also requested Bus Pirate support in a third, the […]
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate v3 prototype
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 an updated […]
Week in (p)review: October 17, 2010
Here’s some highlights from the past two weeks, in case you missed them: A USB Infrared Toy as a USB->serial bridge for an RFID reader Design a Dangerous Prototypes t-shirt for fame and prizes Bus Blaster power up test passes Logic Sniffer 101 introduction and overview Bus Pirate hardware v4 first firmware Three USB LCD […]
NASA workmanship standards
NASA has standards for circuit modification. How many do you violate? We think “SMT components mounted on leads” is a great way to mod a board, but our stuff isn’t in space…
Laser cut cases for Bus Pirate and Logic Sniffer
usecide made custom laser-cut cases for the Bus Pirate and Logic Sniffer. Inkscape SVG and CAD DXF files are available if you’d like to laser cut your own. See other cases too. Thanks usecide! Via the contact form.
Infrared Toy case from phone outlet
Killy posted pictures of his IR Toy case made from a phone surface outlet. There’s more DIY cases here. Get the IR Toy for $20, including worldwide shipping.
Bus Pirate: Wii Motion Plus demo
jjshortcut interfaced the Wii Motion Plus controller with the Bus Pirate. I did some development with my bus pirate and now I’m able to read my Wii motion plus with my Bus Pirate over I2C What are you hacking? Let us know via the contact form. Get a Bus Pirate for $30, including worldwide shipping […]
EAGLE open XML format for schematics, PCBs
CadSoft is developing new open, XML-based file formats for the Eagle schematic and PCB editor. This means easier version control, something we gripped about earlier today, and better interoperability among CAD applications. The CadSoft EAGLE development team is developing a new format for schematic, layout and parts libraries that is XML, this means every object […]
How-to: Export parts from Eagle libraries
The Dangerous Prototypes Eagle parts library has most of the parts used in our projects. It’s got just about everything we use on a daily basis. We keep it in SVN so everyone has the latest version. Eagle stores footprints in a binary file, so SVN can’t merge differences if two people make changes at […]
Preview: USB LCD backpack prototypes
Soldered prototypes for the FT232-based USB LCD backpacks. Check out the design on the wiki, and follow development in the forum.
MHVBoard Arduino clone with USB
The MHVBoard is an Arduino clone based on the Metaboard. It has a USB connection, but it doesn’t use an FT232R chip or a USB AVR. It uses the V-USB library to bitbang low-speed USB directly from the microcontroller. Via the contact form.
Flash ADCs, USB battery chargers
rsdio tipped us to some interesting parts and application notes. First up is a tutorial on fast parallel analog to digital converters: Flash analog-to-digital converters, also known as parallel ADCs, are the fastest way to convert an analog signal to a digital signal. Flash ADCs are ideal for applications requiring very large bandwidth, but they […]
Bus Pirate v4 firmware v5.9
Bus Pirate firmware v5.9 now compiles for hardware v4. All major new features are supported, even if they don’t work on the first prototype hardware version (shown above). This development is a major step forward, but it’s still going to be a long time before the v4 hardware is ready for general use.
Bus Pirate v4 hardware self-test
Bus Pirate v4 just passed the hardware self-test. A test firmware will be available soon. So far we’ve implemented: USB connection Main IO pins Hardware I2C On-board EEPROM, with I2C edit mode v4 hardware self-test Function button Extra axillary pins New LEDs Next we’re going to address a bug in the pull-up voltage select circuit. […]
Logic Sniffer 101 overview
There’s a new Logic Sniffer 101 overview on the wiki. You’ll learn about: The three main operating modes What the LED indicators mean The pin numbering scheme You can order the Logic Sniffer at Seeed Studio for $45, including worldwide shipping. Don’t forget that Seeed now has probe cables for $6 each. You need two […]
Bus Pirate v4 firmware alpha – alive!
Bus Pirate v4 is alive! Bus Pirate firmware v5.9 is running on the new Bus Pirate v4 hardware with direct PIC-based USB connection. It started out slow because USB support is hacked into replacements for the existing serial port functions, but the latest SVN version is working great. BPv4 doesn’t pass the self-test yet, but […]
Dead bug FM transmitter
This simple FM transmitter circuit is made from through-hole parts on a scrap of circuit board. A nice example of dead bug prototyping. Did you know NASA has dead bug standards? Via Hack a Day.
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate EEPROM 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’s free PCB is a […]
From the comments: EPROM Programmer
Chuck shares his experience programming 1702 EPROMs for the 8008 with an Pro-Log M900 EPROM Programmer: I thought I’d share a little known thing about [the 1702 EPROM]. When you erase most eproms they go to FF and the the process of programming discharges the bits that you want to be ’0′ The 1702 worked […]