Author Archives: the machinegeek

Hackers get to poke at obsolete Peek devices

LinuxDevices reports that the now defunct Peek email service is offering free surplus hardware to hackers. “Peek has discontinued its low-cost, email-and-texting service but is challenging hackers to “build something great” with the leftover handhelds, according to The Verge. The Peek devices include a 2.5-inch screen, a QWERTY keyboard, an ARM7-based processor, and a GSM […]

TI Bluetooth SensorTag kit

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player TI has announced the availability of their Bluetooth low energy SensorTag kit. With a downloadable SensorTag App and sample applications, the kit removes the barriers to entry for smartphone app developers who want to take advantage of the growing number of Bluetooth low energy-enabled smartphones and tablets. The kit lists […]

ToorCon 14 badge

Attendees at the recent ToorCon 14 conference in San Diego were provided this RF-enabled badge. Containing the same CC1110 radio circuit as the popular IM-Me, it’s a sub-1 GHz wireless transceiver controlled directly from your computer. The badge was designed by hardware maker Michael Ossmann, a Colorado-based engineer whose freelance embedded work has stretched across […]

Training module: Austria Microsystems AS1130 LED driver chip

Digi-Key has a training module on using the Austria Microsystems AS1130 LED Driver chip. The AS1130 can drive 132 LEDs with one chip via the “Crossplexing” technique similar to Charlieplexing. The AS1130 features include a built-in scrolling function. The 38 page PDF datasheet is available here. Drone via the contact form.

AVR/V-USB combo tool hacks Win 7

András Veres-Szentkirályi, IT security expert, OSCP, GWAPT, writes, “I’ve built a device that acts as a USB HID keyboard, enters a script as a series of keystrokes into a PC, which can extract itself into an executable. This in turn can send files on the PC back to the device using the NUM/CAPS/SCROLL lock LED […]

Webcast today: Arduino controlled robots

O’Reilly is offering a free webcast on Making Arduino Controlled Robots. The one hour presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (yes, that’s today — short notice) at 10 AM PT and features Michael Margolis, author of the Making an Arduino-Controlled Robot. The presentation focuses on sensors and motor controllers in Arduino projects with […]

TI multicore programming guide

TI has released their Multicore Programming Guide. Their announcement states, “To meet the ever-increasing processing demand, modern System-On-Chip solutions contain multiple processing cores. The dilemma is how to map applications to multicore devices. In this paper, we present a programming methodology for converting applications to run on multicore devices. We also describe the features of […]

Tutorial: Arduino as barebones AVR programmer

Michael Holachek of HCIL Hackerspace has produced this 10 minute video tutorial that explains how to program a barebones AVR with an Arduino. This is a well explained how-to with clear video will be helpful to newcomers and Arduino veterans alike. Go to Michael’s website for code, resources, and more. Via the contact form.

Tutorial: STM32 boards and TFT LCD touchscreens

Zizzle has completed a tutorial for working with the STM32 boards and the TFT LCD + touch screens that you see on Ebay. He reports, “I’ve made a download Ubuntu Virtualbox image with the toolchain, OpenOCD, Eclipse and an example project.” He notes that the Bus Blaster was very helpful in his research. The video […]

I2C communications and Android applications

Here’s an open source project by Dimitar Gamishev which demonstrates how to communicate using I2C in Android applications. As shown in this project Dimitar uses this code with an A13-OLinuXino running Android to drive relays and read ADCs and GPIOs on a connected MOD-IO board. Tsvetan Usunov via the contact form.

R-Pi ARM-side source for BCM2835 SoC graphics driver released

The Raspberry Pi crew reports that the VideoCore driver code which runs on the ARM is now available under a FOSS license (3-Clause BSD to be precise. “The BCM2835 used in the Raspberry Pi is the first ARM-based multimedia SoC with fully-functional, vendor-provided (as opposed to partial, reverse engineered) fully open-source drivers, and that Broadcom […]

PirateBox wireless local fileserver

David Darts, Associate Professor of Art Education and Chair, Department of Art and Art Professions wanted to facilitate anonymous file sharing in his NYU classes. He was aware of the deaddrops project and wanted to design a WiFi based portable version which would operate separate from the Internet. “PirateBox is a self-contained mobile communication and […]

HackRF open source SDR

At the recently concluded Toorcon conference in San Diege, CA, developers Michael Ossmann and Jared Boone released the latest version of the HackRF board. “The HackRF project is developing an open source design for a low cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) transceiver platform. SDR technology allows a single piece of equipment to implement virtually any […]

TI EMI/ESD protection guide

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) isn’t something you usually think about until after you’ve accidentally zapped a sensitive component and can’t figure out why it looks OK but isn’t working. Similarly, electromagnetic interference (EMI) usually isn’t taken into account unless it begins to negatively impact a new wireless design. TI has released a 41-page PDF entitled System […]

SquareWear open source controller board

Ray reports he’s just finished working on a new open source wearable electronics controller board called SquareWear. It’s small (1.6″x1.6″) and has built-in USB port (used for programming the microcontroller, USB serial communication, and charging battery). It also has 4 on-board MOSFETs for switching high-current load (up to 500mA). The board is based on Microchip’s […]

Lean, efficient I2C LCD Arduino library

Sam from lincomatic has released his new I2C LCD Arduino library. Known as LiquidTWI2, its a lean, high speed I2C LCD Library representing an extension of the work done by FalconFour on his LiquidTWI library, with the addition of support for Arduino 1.0+ and for Adafruit RGB LED Shield (MCP23017-based). Via the contact form.

Magnetic loop antenna controlled by Arduino

This video by Ricardo Caratti demonstrates his method for controlling a Magnetic Loop antenna with an Arduino. The antenna’s tuning capacitor is adjusted using a stepper motor interfaced with the Arduino equipped to read IR commands sent from a compatible IR remote control. This allows the tuning capacitor to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Due to […]

uJ – a Java VM for microcontrollers

Dmitry Grinberg wanted to design a way to program MCUs that would be easy for beginners who don’t necessarily understand details of C such as pointers and memory management, yet don’t want to rely on common alternatives such as Arduino or PICAXE. He developed uJ: a Java VM for microcontrollers. “It implements the entirety of […]

GUINO Arduino GUI visualizer/debugger

madshobye devised this graphical debugging console for Arduino while serving as an artist in residence at Instructables. He wanted a graphical means of visualizing what was occurring in an Arduino program. “It can be a tricky task to debug and visualize realtime data on the Arduino board. You are usually stuck with the standard serial […]