STMicroelectronics has introduced the M24LR04E-R 4-Kbit Dual Interface EEPROM with RFID. “The M24LR04E-R device is a dual-interface, electrically erasable programmable memory (EEPROM). It features an I2C interface and can be operated from a VCC power supply. It is also a contactless memory powered by the received carrier electromagnetic wave. The M24LR04E-R is organized as 512 […]
Author Archives: the machinegeek
Takeoff on vintage HP printer hack displays stock prices
This HP Printer Display Hack by Chris Miller is a simple background application that periodically checks the current price of a selected stock and sends it to the display of HP (and compatible) laser printers. It is a takeoff on the 1990s hack that used HP Job control language to change the text on the […]
Energy Micro EFM32 design contest
Energy Micro is conducting a design contest based on their EFM32 product line. The contest is looking for great low power design ideas based on an EFM32 and is open for entries until October 31, 2012. From those entries an Energy Micro jury will then select up to 40 submissions that will receive a free […]
Try hacking your own Defcon 20 badge mockup
If you didn’t get to DEFCON 20 this year you can still try you hand at badge hacking. This year’s badge featured the Parallax Propeller chip and they’ve now released essential files that allow you to create your own functional replica badge. Links have been provided for the schematic, firmware, and code examples using the […]
Freescale RF engineering tools app V1.0
If you need to do RF related computations on a regular basis, now there’s an app for that! Freescale has released their FREE RF Engineering Tools App V1.0. “The RF Engineering Tools app is a compilation of calculators and converters that can assist the typical RF designer, university student, professor and other members of the […]
Microchip expands USB portfolio with fifteen new 8-bit PIC MCUs
Microchip has announced the release of a new line of USB 8-bit PICs. The new devices range from 14 to 100 pins with up to 128 KB of Flash. According to the announcement, sampling should begin in early October. All feature internal clock sources with the 0.25% clock accuracy necessary for USB communication eliminating the […]
LatticeSemi offers discounted FPGA dev boards
Lattice Semi is offering the iCEblink40 Evaluation Kits for $19 for a limited time. The iCEblink40 boards feature the ultra low density iCE40 FPGA and come in two versions, the iCEblink40-HX1K and the iCEblink40-LP1K Evaluation Kits which differ in the number of I/O pins. Both boards offer 1280 logic look up tables and 64K bits […]
DIY photoplethysmographic pulse sensor
Raj has posted a tutorial about a DIY photoplethysmographic sensor for measuring heart rate from fingertip. “The sensor measures the little variations in the blood volume inside finger tissue and outputs a digital pulse which is synchronous with the heart beat.” The sensor used in this project is TCRT1000, which is a reflective optical sensor […]
Tuitwall displays Tweets on LED matrix
tuitwall is a project that will allow you to show Tweets in a LED matrix. It’s based on an Arduino, an ethernet shield, a LED matrix that has its controller, a Holtek HT1632C and a PHP backend that interfaces with Twitter. Its designer Santiago Reig explains: “The webpage, written in PHP, allows a user to […]
GNU Radio internals – how to use the framework
The availability of inexpensive SDR hardware such as the RTL-SDR and Funcube Dongle help to focus interest on the GNU Radio open source signal processing software. In this video from CCC Camp 2011 Marius Ciepluch delivers a case-study on how to analyze 802.15.4 (alias Zigbee) with USRPs on a real-time protocol (for send time verification, […]
Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad evaluation board pre-orders open
The TI estore now has the Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad eval board available for pre-order at the promotional price of $4.99! Orders should begin shipping around September 25, 2012. Go to the TI estore for more info and to place an order.
Project Gado: open source robotic scanner
Project Gado was inspired by the work of the RepRap and Makerbot developers and was originally launched in 2010 as part of the Johns Hopkins University Center For Africana Studies’ East Baltimore Oral History Project. Their aim is to create a powerful, durable open source robotic scanner for sensitive archival materials which can be built […]
RadioBlock adds RF comms to your embedded project
Here’s an interesting project we found on Kickstarter. Known as RadioBlock, this device promises to provide a simple “radio building block” for your embedded projects. The blocks have a four pin connector, two for 3-6 Vdd and ground, and two for TTL serial comms. The RF link consists of an IEEE802.15.4 Atmel RF231 module and […]
DeepSec 2011: intelligent Bluetooth fuzzing – why bother?
Security researchers Tommi Mäkilä and Jukka Taimisto of Codenomicon gave this presentation at the DeepSec 2011 conference discussing ways to sensibly test Bluetooth stacks. Their talk presents the number of ways in which Bluetooth attacks have been attempted with varying degrees of success. They also present a discussion on fuzzing techniques and creating intelligent fuzzers […]
A look at the Teensy 3.0 testbed of nails
SJaak refers us to this article by Paul Stoffregen about how they test new Teensy 3.0 boards using a “testbed of nails.” Essentially the Teensy 3.0 crew has developed this testing interface which gives them a way to test every new board by bringing it into contact with the test jig’s pins. The result is […]
ATTiny2313 controls Numitron tube
Kenneth Finnegan has posted details on controlling Numitron tubes using the ATTiny2313 MCU. Numitron tubes are filament display devices which require only 2-3 volts instead of the much higher voltages required by Nixie tubes and VFDs. He uses an Allegro A6278 LED driver (which he found in his parts collection and no longer manufactured, but […]
4000 series CMOS 24-hour clock
Easton Elliott made this 4000-series CMOS 24-hour clock as a final high school electronics class project. Rather than using a MCU he chose to use CMOS IC’s including a 4060 and 4013 to generate the 1Hz signal. The writeup and documentation can be found on Easton’s geekness website. Via the contact form.
DeepSec 2011: patching vehicle insecurities
In this talk from the DeepSec 2011 conference Constantinos Patsakis and Kleanthis Dellios discuss their theory for developing more effective automotive security anti-theft systems. They explain: “In order to patch known security breaches and create a more extensible in-vehicle computer system, we propose the use of a TTP (Time-Triggered Protocol) entity inside the vehicle, which […]
LED audio frequency analyzer using Stellaris Launchpad
Jordan is a software developer for Texas Instruments Stellaris team. While he’s not working on the Launchpad project, he was able to snag a rev0 board a few months ago, which led to this project. He informs us he’ll be updating his blog with a few other project ideas in the future, and releasing the […]
DIY 6502 computer using block transfer engine
Andre Fachat has written a post on his 6502.org blog detailing his DIY 6502 computer build. “I have built a DIY 6502 computer, which is mostly TTL logic only except for 65xx chips and ROMs, but the most TTL-ish part is the blitter: A block transfer engine that DMAs memory area from one location to […]