SchmartBoard is giving away one new SchmartBoard SMT Arduino Prototyping Shield. To enter, visit the SchmartBoard giveaway page and fill out the registration form. You only need to enter once to have a chance to win every month that the contest runs.
Author Archives: the machinegeek
PICAXE-08 raincounter
eclectica has posted a circuit for a PICAXE-enabled raincounter. The device employs a 1mm/pulse rain gauge to measure rainfall. Pulses from the gauge’s internal reed switch are read by the PICAXE-08 MCU, which in turn stores the running count in EEPROM and displays the resulting measurement on a serial LCD readout. While the exact type […]
Open source GCC builds for ARM MCUs and MPU
viswa informs us of a source for “Completely Free Open Source GCC builds for ARM MCUs and MPUs. This seems to be maintained by the official team which maintains GCC for ARM. This is useful for ARM Cortex M / Cortex R processors.” Pre-built GNU toolchains from ARM Cortex-R & Cortex-M processors, together with source […]
The Retrobits Podcast
If you are into vintage computing here’s a podcast for you. Earl Evans of Retrobits has returned from a one-year hiatus to bring us more episodes of The Retrobits Podcast. This podcast is about all aspects of retrocomputing. Like he says, “if it’s got 8-bits, paper tape, BASIC in ROM… or if it’s just plan […]
Robotic motor control tutorial
Chris from PyroElectro has written a multi-part tutorial on building motor control firmware for a microcontroller, a PIC 18F252. This tutorial is based on his earlier robot chassis, but the principles relating to the use of a motor controller IC (SN754410) to move the motors at specific speeds and directions are of general application. If […]
3G/GPRS shield for Arduino
Libelium has introduced their 3G/GPRS shield for Arduino (3G + GPS). It enables connectivity to high speed WCDMA and HSPA cellular networks, and includes GPS. “The GPS module also makes it possible to perform geolocation services even in indoors as it can work in A-GPS and S-GPS modes, so the location given by the GPS […]
DIY Arduino 6-channel temperature monitor
Johnathan Hottell wanted a way to monitor and display the temperature readings at various points around the engine on his LB7 Duramax diesel truck. He developed this project for a six channel temperature monitor employing a bank of thermistors to monitor various engine locations. They are read each second by the Arduino’s analog pins, with […]
TI 2012 audio guide
Drone informs us that the TI 2012 Audio Guide is now available. It’s a comprehesive product selection document, covering all-digital Audio IC components as well as digital and analog Audio IC solutions from TI. Download your copy of this 57-page PDF from TI. Via the contact form.
IAR KickStart kit for TI MSP430FR5739
IAR Systems is offering the MSP-EXP430FR5739 Experimenter’s board as part of an IAR KickStart Kit. The kit includes Integrated TI MSP430FR5739 device, USB debugging and programming interface, 3-axis accelerometer, NTC thermistor for temperature sensing, 2 user input switches and a reset switch, 8 LEDs for output display. The board also provides for connectivity to the […]
Carambola controlled quadcopter
Saulius writes: “I have just tested in the air my latest quadcopter telemetry link using low-cost open-source wifi board. This link can be used not only to relay telemetry data but control SU(A)V from joystick and get video back to ground station.” The copter uses the Carambola low cost, open-source WiFi (21.5 dB / 2.4GHz) […]
GRCon2012 call for papers
The 2012 GNU Radio Conference will be held September 24-27, 2012, at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel near the Altanta, GA airport. The conference coordinators have posted a “call for papers” from prospective presenters. Visit this link to fill out and submit the form with your idea for a presentation. The deadline for submission of abstracts […]
Simple Arduino motion sensor – SMS messaging project
Here’s an easy open source motion sensing project by Matt Williamson which sends you an SMS message when motion is detected. The hardware consists of an Arduino and Parallax PIR sensor (Part No. 555-28027). This arrangement communicates via serial with a Python server on an attached computer, which then uses the TelAPI service to accomplish […]
AS3935 lightning sensor chip
Manuel Garbe and Drone both wrote in to draw our attention to this new “Lightning Detector” chip from Austriamicrosystems. According to the manufacturer’s press release, “[t]he AS3935 is a programmable Lightning Sensor IC that detects the presence and approach of potentially hazardous lightning activity in the vicinity. It detects intra-cloud activity as well as cloud […]
Simple optical theremin
Here’s a simple theremin-like device designed by Sacred and presented by Jameco. Unlike other theremins which vary the sound based on the user’s proximity to stationary antennae, this project uses two phototransistors and a 555 timer. The theory of operation is the variation of the sound based upon the amount of IR light reflected by […]
Homebrew electronic tubes
Ante Vukorepa draws our attention to this video of Claude Paillard, a French radio amateur (F2FO), making his own tubes (also known as thermionic valves) from scratch. “The video depicts the whole process, from winding the filament through making the glassware, assembly and vacuuming, to testing. Pretty awesome!” For more information on Claude’s activities as […]
RIP Chumby
According to Phil Torrone’s exclusive interview with Andrew (bunnie) Huang for MAKE, the age of Chumby is pretty much over, at least as far as official manufacturing and support are concerned. Chumby is the open source WiFi web app platform developed in 2006, before the release of the iPhone. It was one of the few […]
O’Reilly webcast: Hacking and Securing iOS Applications
O’Reilly is presenting a free webcast by Jonathan Zdziarski on the topic of Hacking and Securing iOS Applications on May 3, 2012, at 1 PM PT. Jonathan is the author of the O’Reilly book by the same title. In this webcast, Jonathan will demonstrate a number of ways to manipulate the runtime of App Store […]
Receiving Oregon Scientific sensors with RTL-SDR
Kevin Mehall got his RTL-SDR dongle and wasted no time in developing a decoder using GNU Radio for the 433MHz transmissions of Oregon Scientific remote temperature sensors (v1 protocol). These devices transmit on 433.9 MHz sending data packets containing the temperature data every 30 seconds. The transmitter uses On-off keying and the 32 data bits […]
O’Reilly video: Intro to Gestural Interfaces with the Microsoft Kinect
This webcast by Greg Borenstein presented by O’Reilly offers a solid introduction to building your own applications with the Microsoft Kinect. Beginners will find a wealth of information about the Kinect’s theory of operation and how to use the data it generates to work with Arduino, Processing and other frameworks. The importance of the calibration […]