Author Archives: the machinegeek

TI CC3000 WiFi shield for MSP430

TI announces the CC3000 SimpleLink Wi-Fi Module boosterpack for Tiva C Series and MSP430 MCU LaunchPads. The TI CC3000 module is a self-contained Wi-Fi solution that enables internet connectivity for a wide variety of embedded applications. According to the datasheet, the module includes a 802.11b/g integrated radio, modem, and MAC supporting WLAN communication as a […]

R-Pi based Volvo S80 replacement nav system

Reinis has been working on this Raspberry Pi based project for some time. It’s about replacing stock navigation system for Volvo S80 (which does not, and will not have maps for my home country). It had a nice motorized display and buttons on steering wheel for control. I really did want everything to be as […]

PC-based heart rate monitor using Arduino and Easy Pulse sensor

Raj writes that he’s just finished a new PC-based heart rate monitor using Arduino and Easy Pulse sensor (see previous Easy Pulse post). This project takes the sensor’s analog photo-plethysmography (PPG) output and feeds it into an Arduino ADC channel which converts it into digital counts which are then transferred to the PC through a […]

Open Zigbee sniffer

Lubomir Mraz and his fellow Wislab crew members have released the documentation on their open multi-platform, multi-band wireless sensor network analyzer. Known as the Open Zigbee Sniffer, the RF device interfaces with your PC via the Ethernet interface. It includes protocol dissectors for IEEE 802.15.4, Zigbee, 6LoWPAN and Atmel LightWeight Mesh, covering the 2.4GHz and […]

HackRF based radio spectrum analyzer

Jared Boone displayed this project at the recent Maker Faire. This project is built around the HackRF, a software-defined radio transceiver. I programmed it to sample 20MHz of radio spectrum from an antenna, do a frequency analysis on the data, and display the results on a Noritake vacuum fluorescent display. I added the tuning wheel […]

Custom standalone programming fixture

Bryan Duxbury writes, ” I designed and built a custom standalone programming fixture for an upcoming manufacturing project. Fun with lasercutting, PCB design (hooray SeeedStudio!) and pogo pins!” Bryan’s design uses the Arduino Uno hardware with programming code based heavily on the AdaLoader project. Visit Bryan’s blog for project details and links. Via the contact […]

DomiCopter pizza-delivering drone

A few years ago Joe Grand presented his team’s pizza delivering robot on an episode of Prototype This. (See the video here.) The idea was cool but never caught on with any major pizza chain, probably due to the use of a ground based robot, which would be difficult to reliably navigate in unpredictable urban […]

Mounting an SD/MMC via parallel port using Linux

Vinod has been experimenting with mounting an SD/MMC card connected to the parallel port of his Linux desktop machine. He recounts, “For the last few days I was engaged in a mad project; I was trying to access an SD card directly via the parallel port of my desktop PC with Linux. At first, I […]

Carambola2 portable Dropbox uploader

Saulius has been working on this project to use the Carambola2 dev board for portable Dropbox uploading. This eliminates the need for a PC, allowing pictures from a webcam be to uploaded directly using the dev board’s built-in WiFi. Sometimes it’s overkill to use computer with 200W power consumption for 24/7 to do small task […]

Open Hardware Summit 2013 call for papers

The Open Hardware Summit 2013 has issued a call for papers. The Open Hardware Summit is a venue to present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware and its relation to other issues, such as software, design, business, law, and education. This year’s summit will be held September […]

DEFCON 20 video: DIY electric car

In this talk from DEFCON 20, IT security professional and robotics enthusiast Dave Brown presents his thoughts on the DIY electric car. Dave’s views result from his experience designing and building his “Voltswagon”, a retrofitted 1974 Volkswagen Beetle. The PDF of the presentation slides should be available soon in the DEFCON media archive.

Open souce electronics design with Oregano

Linux Journal has posted an article describing the installation and use of Oregano. Oregano is an electrical design and engineering tool for Linux which allows for schematic design and simulation of electronic circuits. The actual simulation is performed by Berkeley Spice, or GNUcap or the new generation ngspice. Oregano is licensed under the terms of […]

Open source book: Nature of Code

If you are interested in the interaction between the natural world and how it can inspire the generation of code based graphical representations, you should check out Daniel Shiffman’s new ebook The Nature of Code. Dan is the author of Learning Processing and teaches a course titled Introduction to Computational Media. NOC serves as a […]

Hand-tracking Anti Tetris game on DE2 board

Tian Gao from Cornell’s University’s EE program developed what he calls an AntiTetris game using the Altera DE2 FPGA board. The project was part of the final requirements in Cornell’s ECE 5760 Advanced Microcontroller Design and system-on-chip Spring 2013 course. “In this project, I built a video game “Anti Tetris” on Altera DE2 board. The […]

A20-OLinuXino DualCore Cortex-A7 prototype update

Tsvetan writes to update us on the status of the A20-OLinuXino. They now have their A20-OLinuXino DualCore Cortex-A7 prototypes working fine using Allwinner’s double core A20 which is almost pin to pin compatible with A10. For more info visit the OLinuXino webpage. General information on the open source software and hardware OLinuXino can be found […]