Skyler Schneider at Cornell University has produced a very comprehensive description of a falling sand game project using an Altera Cyclone II on the DE2 dev board. The Verilog source code listings demonstrate the level of coding required to produce dynamic video representations in a gaming environment. Via Hack a Day. Schneider’s project is a […]
Category Archives: code
Plumbing: Parallel programming for the Arduino
Concurrency.cc has introduced Plumbing, a Creative Commons licensed introduction to programming the Arduino using the programming language occam-pi. The tools are open source and facilitate parallel processing within the Arduino. The most recent versions for Windows, Mac and Linux are available for download. Check our the free PDF book download.
How to write a flash bootloader for the PIC16 and PIC18
Here’s an application note with comprehensive information on how to write your own bootloader for the Microchip PIC16 and PIC18 families. Microchip also has provided a link to the code development software. Good reading for both the beginner and experienced coder.
Arduino on an FPGA
Talk about going full circle! Gadget Factory has coded an Arduino core into a Spartan 3E on the FPGA ButterFly platform. This expands your prototyping opportunities, and provides beginners with a familiar FPGA core to build on. Via Embedds.com
Fritzing
If you want to try your hand at creating an illustration or PCB of your electronics project, check out Fritzing. It’s an open source GUI based program that allows users to document their prototypes, share them with others, show them in a presentation, and create a pcb layout for professional manufacturing. Windows, Mac and Linux […]
TI Lauchpad composite video
Naturetm has published the details on how to produce composite video using the MSP430 found on the TI Launchpad. Just two resistors added to the Launchpad and their source code will get you monochrome NTSC video in 192×40 res! Via Hack A Day.
Small CPU core on a FPGA
Here is the paper James Bowman presented at EuroForth 2010 detailing his project to build a small 16-bit CPU core Forth machine on a Xilinx FPGA. This 200 lines of Verilog code could be helpful to anyone studying FPGA project design. Via Hack a Day
Robotic toy car controlled via cellphone
Electronicseverywhere demos a project using a cellphone interfaced via an MT8870 DTMF decoder with an Atmega16 to operate servos controlling a robotic car.
Implementation of DES algorithm using FPGA technology
Arnaud Lagger has published some interesting work on the use of FPGAs in encryption. Unlike other docs we’ve seen, this analysis is both comprehensive and detailed, including an appendix with the VHDL source code. Definitely worth the read for anyone interested in encryption using FPGAs.
Claymation pointer tutorial
Learn the basics of pointers in a three minute clay animation. Via Adafruit.
Button debounce code
Push buttons don’t give a clean on/off signal to a microcontroller. The value bounces around a little, which can cause a program to see a whole string of button presses instead of one. There are lots of techniques to clean up the signal and ‘debounce’ the button, both in hardware and software. Hack a Day […]