We’ve been aware of USB dead drops for some time. But Carl Shroder’s article in IT World highlights seven other unusual places/devices where USB ports can be found.
Author Archives: the machinegeek
Advanced Arduino hacking
Maik Schmidt likes the Arduino, but like many of us he realizes the platform’s potential for advanced techniques beyond the IDE. In this article from the Pragmatic Bookshelf, he highlights the steps a beginner can take to learn how to develop software for the Arduino in a deeper way. Starting with how the IDE turns […]
STMicroelectronics MEMS pressure sensor
STMicroelectronics has announced a new silicon pressure sensor capable of providing extremely high-resolution measurements of pressure – and therefore also of altitude – in a compact, thin package. The LPS001WP is a tiny (3×5 mm) silicon pressure sensor with an embedded 16-bit ADC, SPI and I2C interfaces and a supply voltage range of 2.2 V […]
Spotify Radio project looks to put playlists on physical disks
Jordi Parra has been making progress on this prototype standalone music player that comes with RFID 8 tags that can be linked to Spotify music playlists. It can be for yourself, or to give as a present, giving you the chance to link music to the tags before giving it to that person, similar to […]
qrpTracker: Arduino satellite tracker
VE9QRP has developed qrpTracker, a satellite tracking program that works on the Arduino platform. Based on the Plan-13 algorithm of James Miller, it can provide real-time satellite location and azimuth / elevation data and doppler shift tuning for up to fifteen satellites using a single ATMega328. With a small additional EEPROM, dozens of satellites can […]
iPad/Kinect/HTML5 controlled toy car
Gaurav Manek likes to work with Arduino and experiment with different means of remote control. His latest project involves several new technologies relating to gesture- and web-based control. He writes: This project extends a simple remote-controlled car, allowing it to be controlled by an iPad or by hand gestures. This project builds on the Arduino […]
MAKE Oscilloscope tutorial
Here’s a short video tutorial posted recently by MAKE explaining the functions and uses of the the oscilloscope.
New Chumby released
Chumby hackers take note! The new “Chumby oo” has been released. It features a larger 800 x 600 display (8″ diagonal), allows management of content and subscriptions from the device and supports SD, MMC and CF storage media in addition to USB. The internals include a 800MHz Marvell ARMADA 166 processor with ROM stored on […]
Using the EUSART
The term UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) is the technical term for the good old serial port found on most MCUs. The term USART similarly refers to a serial port capable of handling both synchronous and asynchronous operation. Over the past few years, Microchip has been integrating an updated serial port into many of their […]
Laser Position Sensor
Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio has released the code and complete design files for his open source Laser Position Sensor (LPS) project. The project is based on the Freescale MC9S08JM8CLC and several Linear Technology LT1491ACS op amps. (Despite the references to Parallax in the LPS project documentation, this device is an open source project […]
555 timer Easter egg?
What’s in a name? David L. Jones of EEVBlog thinks he’s found an Easter egg in the performance characteristics of the 555 timer chip which reveals the basis of the “555” in its name. Build his circuit (schematic at video 13:25), fire up the scope and see if you agree!
Arduino-Lite: lightweight AVR library
The RoboPeak Project has developed a lightweight AVR library known as Arduino-Lite. The code is a lightweight high-performance firmware library for AVR MCUs developed based on the original Arduino project. In addition to the usual Atmega8, 168, 328 and 1280, it also supports the Attiny2313, Attiny26, Atmega48 and Atmega88. Its developers claim that compared to […]
Teardown of USB 3.0 Azio HDD enclosure
EETimes has posted their video of the teardown of the Azio USB 3.0 3.5″ HDD enclosure, one of the first devices using USB 3.0 (4 Gb/sec.), with a street price of about $25 USD.
App Note: Grid-connected solar microinverter using a dsPIC® DSC
In this advanced app note Microchip details the theory behind converting solar energy into usable electric power. Starting with a discussion of the electrical characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) cells, they move onto the tech behind inverters and the mathematics involved with their proper design and use. Finally a microinverter reference design is presented, using a […]
Tutorial: Arduino and IR control
Tronixstuff has posted a tutorial explaining how to implement IR remote control in an Arduino project. His demo uses the Vishay TSOP4138 IR receiver and his own downloadable IRremote library for Arduino. This segment is the latest in a series of Arduino tutorials posted by Tronixstuff.
Midnight deadline on MPLAB® X Beta Sweepstakes
Midnight Mountain Standard Time TONIGHT (March 31, 2011) is the deadline to enter the MPLAB® X Beta Sweepstakes! Microchip appreciates your feedback on MPLAB X and wants to reward you! Enter to win a variety prizes when you complete this sweepstakes form and you could win MPLAB X t-shirts, coffee mugs, playing cards and more! […]
Xilinx ISE WebPACK schematic tutorial
The large CPLD schematic library guide posted yesterday contains a lot of reference material to digest. You may be wondering just how to get started with writing program files using the Xilinx ISE WebPACK software package. We found this concise tutorial by Digilent, Inc. covering the basics of creating a CPLD program using the schematic […]
Keyglove Arduino/AVR-powered keyboard substitute
Here’s a keyboard-glove prototype in development by Jeff Rowberg. The Keyglove is a glove-based USB input device that provides full keyboard control, designed for wearable and mobile computing and to assist the disabled. According to Jeff: The Keyglove is a portable Arduino/AVR-powered glove that uses touch combinations (for keys) and an accelerometer (for the mouse) […]
Xilinx CPLD schematic libraries guide
When you get your CPLD development board, you’ll want to start coding! Programs for Xilinx CPLDs are most commonly written in Verilog or VHDL, and you will find examples on our CPLD page. A third way which is usually easier for beginners is schematic entry which you can do in the free Xilinx ISE WebPack. […]
Microchip introduces PIC16LF190X 8-bit PIC® MCUs with integrated LCD control
Microchip has announced an expansion of its 8-bit segmented LCD microcontroller (MCU) family with five new devices—the PIC16LF1902/3/4/6/7 (PIC16LF190X) MCUs. The PIC16LF190X family supports many general-purpose applications and enables the implementation of LCD into low-power and cost-sensitive designs, such as security tokens, smart cards, medical devices, home appliances, key fobs or any application involving a […]