A new internet controlled lighting project called SplashLight is being developed. It has 4 relays to turn lights on and off, and 3 PWM outputs to drive RGB LEDs. The core of the project is a Cortex M3 uC with an Ethernet PHY/MAC from Texas Instruments. The project includes iPhone, Android, and web applications to […]
Category Archives: dev boards
Energy micro EFM32 “Tiny gecko” starter kit
Pedantine attended a seminar organized by Energy Micro about their new EFM32 Gecko processor that uses a Cortex M3. All attendees received a EFM32 starter kit. The cool thing about this starter kit is that power consumption is constantly monitored. The debugging software shows how much power each line of code consumes. Via the comments.
PSoC3 custom board
Kmmankad is working on a development board for the PSoC3 chip. The PSoC3 is a mixed signal system on a chip developed by Cypress. Because he found the PSoC3 First Touch Kit too constricting, and the DVK kit to cumbersome and costly, he decided to build his own. It is designed to open source hardware […]
Logic Sniffer: add-on board
Madworm made a Logic Sniffer add-on board, it has dip switches to allow users to pull up or down any of the 16 channels. It also has jumpers for selecting different pull up voltages. He is currently working out which resistors would work best for his purpose. Via the forum.
BoardX: multi-processor miniature motherboard
The BoardX is an open source miniature motherboard that works with a bunch of different processors. Kevin writes, “We’re producing an open source miniature motherboard similar to Arduino, except that processors come as add-ons and are not restricted to using one or a specific family.” In addition to various MCUs, the project also includes add-on […]
EFM32 MCU ARM cortex M3/0 based
Viswesr wrote to us about the EFM32 MCU from Energy Micro: Recently, I discovered EFM32 MCU (ARM Cortex M3/0 based) from Energy Micro when looking for a very low power MCU. I was impressed on how this MCU reduces power consumption (refer: 10 factors that make the 10 factors that make the 32-bit EFM32 the […]
E-book reader for the microtouch
Rossum built an e-book reader for the microtouch. He wanted to use the common e-book format epub. But unfortunately since the format is actually a compressed set of text, html links and images, it was too much for the 8-bit microcontroller to handle. To overcome this he developed a transcoding tool (epubgrider) to decompress the […]
Source code for the EvalBotADK USB host driver released under GPL V2
TitanMKD has finished up his USB host driver for Android open accessory on EvalBot. He added an external power supply for host applications that can now draw up to the 500mA specified by the USB standard. He also provided an example of it communicating with the DemoKit. Image by Français: CC BY-SA
Backwoods logger mini – Open source and on sale
The backwoods logger mini from Big mess o’wires is a thermometer and altimeter for logging your cross country hikes. It is an updated version of the backwoods logger classic. A production test run of pre-assembled units is available for sale. All the PCB files, as well as the source code are available. It measures temperature […]
I2C controled 8 relay driver switches plug-in devices
Megabug posted his I2C relay driver board for controlling 8 outputs. It controls 8 relay switches in which one pin of each switch is common, while the other pins are available through 8 screw type headers. It uses the PCA9554 8bit I2C port expander to drive a ULN2803A buffer which in return drives the relay coils. All buffer input […]
STM32L-Discovery board and ChibiOS/RT
Getting started with the STM32L-Discovery board and ChibiOS/RT: This article will explain how to get started with the recently released STM32L-Discovery board using ChibiOS/RT. This board is really cheap (around 12$) and is an excellent evaluation platform for the STMicroelectronics STM32L family. Thanks Giovanni! Via the contact form.
More Vinculum II woes
Peter adds his input on our FTDI VNC2 Vinculum II toolchain issues post. He is having issues with the speed of the 1.4.2 toolchain, as well as issues with the debugger and compiler. His was most annoyed with being unable to get a keypad to work over the USB host mode, when a full PC keyboard […]
Procyon Cortex M3 development board now available
Procyon, the biggest of teho Lab’s Cortex M3 development boards, is now available for $72. Brian has been posting development updates in the forum, it’s great to see this board in production: It has a massive 16 MB SDRAM, the ability to host USB devices (or be a USB device), Ethernet to get connected over […]
MSPism: Nordic 2.4 + MSP/MSP mini battery board
Brian shared a MSP + ISM radio design with onboard battery. It was designed to work with this module. It uses MSP430G2553 mcu in conjunction with the Nordic nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz transceiver chip. The design also incorporates headers compatible with Digi XBee radio and a CR1225 battery holder.Tthe programing of the chip can be done from the […]
Review: VPN1513 GPS receiver module
The VPN1513 GPS Receiver Module is a newly released combination GPS receiver and Parallax Propeller mini dev board. It uses a SiRF Star III chipset capable of tracking up to 20 satellites. The module supports both “raw” output mode for raw NMEA 0183 strings and the default “smart” mode for specific user-selected data through a […]
TI’s free evaluation PCBs
TI has a good part sample program, and now they have free bare boards for development with their small analog devices: SOIC8 SOIC8 SOT23 SOIC14
Multimedia demo at the Transfer Summit
Drone writes: Here’s a link with a video that shows the Raspberry-Pi alpha hardware playing a 1080p video. The video also gives you a good view of the board itself. Via the contact form.
TMP103 and TMP006 evaluation kit winners
Today we announce the winners of the TMP103 and TMP006 evaluation kits. There were lots of great suggestions, thanks for your submissions. Congratulations to Benny Boy, his idea for the TMP006: Beekeepers can use infrared thermometers to locate (roughly, see www.beesource.com/forums) where a colony in a wall has built. Would be nice to hook the […]
SerialCouple thermocouple adapter v1
Kenneth Finnegan has been working on thermocouple adapter called SerialCouple: The SerialCouple line of boards are simple, easy to use single-channel thermocouple adapters, meant to be an interface between a thermocouple and a computer or other embedded system. Shown in the pictures are the model one boards, which are meant to be plugged into FTDI-like […]
STM32L discovery kit Linux programmer patch
From the comments on our STM32L Discovery and ULINK2 post: A few days ago, a friend gave me a stm32l discovery kit As in the stm32vl kit, there is an embedded stlink. However, this is the version 2, and the linux stlink programming tool is not working. After some checks, one of the reason is […]