By electrochemically plating vias, Bearmos takes home-etched PCBs to the next level. His constant current source, with we covered earlier, is used in the process. I just finished writing up some of the details on DIY plated through holes. This is what the simple constant current source was designed for. This process was slightly adapted […]
Category Archives: DIY
DIY double sided PCB with soldermask
Retromaster has honed his PCB making skills to get professional quality boards at home. He’s successfully made double sided PCBs with 8 mil trace width, with 6 mil clearance. In his guide he describes how to etch the PCB with toner transfer, how to use mechanical vias, and hot to apply soldermask paint.
DorkbotPDX is organizing an SMD soldering workshop
DorkbotPDX, a hackerspace in Portland, is organizing an SMD soldering workshop on the 29th of January. No tools or prior experience is necessary. For $8 you’ll get a kit to assemble in their shop. Learn how to work with surface mount technologies. This workshop is suitable for newcomers to SMT as well as more experienced […]
Nomis: Simon game clone on ATTiny85
Christopher Woodall from HappyRobotLabs wrote in about his recent project, Nomis, a Simon clone made using an ATTiny85. It uses up 4 pins, 3 for LEDs and 1 for buttons (ADC input). The write up can be found here. Everything is completely open source (except for the EAGLE CAD limitations of course, which kind of […]
Telephone FM transmiter, AKA phone bug
If you ever wondered how those phone bugs from spy movies work, here is the schematic for your very own. This simple FM transmitter uses a phone line to both power the device and receive the audio signal. Just hook it up to the phone line you want to monitor and tune your FM radio […]
DIY clock based on 4000-series logic ICs
Terry built a LED bar display clock using only logic ICs: Although I’m way too late for the 7400 contest, I had built a chips-only digital clock from 4000-series IC’s The time was displayed by columns of LEDs i.e. first columnt was 1-12, and the led for that hour would be lit. The next column […]
Open hardware multimeter concept
EEVblog has a video about DIY multimeters. A few months ago the EEVblog forum talked about designing their own multimeter, so Dave made a video about his ideas on the subject. We’ve also toyed with the idea of an open source digital multimeter, but ready-made devices are so cheap and ubiquitous it hasn’t become a […]
DIY ATmega programing adapter using a IC testing clip
H used an IC testing clip to make a simple adapter for programing ATmega microcontrollers on the fly. IC test clips are tools used to grip ICs and provide easy connection to the pins. I’ve got a different use for it though. If you develop a circuit using an Atmega chip (like, say, a circuit […]
Test Nixie tubes with a flip of a switch
This Nixie tube tester has an 11 position switch to change the displayed digits. A simple device for testing and/or healing Nixie tubes of IN-18 type. An 11-pole switch is connected in series with a 50 KΩ pot (+ 470 Ω resistor for safety), powering from an 180V DC source. Normal operation at 2 mA […]
Christmas LED card built and shared
Drew picked up our old blinking Xmas card project. He got the PCBs just in time to complete the project before Xmas. I finally assembled a couple and am off to give them to my parents and grandparents at Christmas Eve We’re glad our project brought some joy during the festivities. This project is no […]
XRF 863.8 MHz radio to Ethernet Bridge
Jobytaffey is designing an Ethernet to radio bridge. This prototype uses an ENC28J60 for ethernet, and an XRF radio module. The XRF module is a UART-controlled 863.8 MHz transceiver with 250 Kbps transfer rates. Via Flickr.
DIY Santa Claus Singer with Flyport
Stefano has completed work on a holiday project known as the DIY Santa Claus Singer with Flyport. It is built around an animated Santa Claus decoration with the control switch bypassed with an NPN transistor. The switch is controlled over the internet via the Arduino/ethernet shield combo which responds to Twitter messages. Part one of […]
PICqueno32 DIP pinout sticker
Schazamp made some pinout stickers for the PICqueno32 DIP project. The silkscreen pinouts on the bottom of the PCB become obscured when mounted on a breadboard. So Schazamp decided to make pin legend that he could stick to the top, and side of the board. Grab the document to print your own stickers from the […]
LED mod car gauge cluster
Garrett and his friend were annoyed by the classic amber lighting of the gauge cluster on his friend’s Chevy. They decided to replace the light bulbs with white LEDs. He was nice enough to write up a full tutorial of their endeavor with lots and lots of pictures. Via the forum.
DIY PIC16F883 breakout board
Phil made a DIY breakout board for the PIC16F883 microcontroller. The board uses a surface-mount single-layer design, and the parts are nicely spaced. It’s an easy board to make at home using the DIY toner-transfer method of PCB etching. You can download the source files and other design data from his site. Via Jumperone.
The LiveLight Project: open source ambilight solution
Juha Kuusama writes to inform us of LiveLight, a cool DIY ambilight project. This is a homebrew ambilight system by SunWind that has 9 PWM controlled RGB channels which drive RGB LED strips that are mounted in the back of a 40″ Sony Bravia. All the parameters can be reprogrammed to match your taste. The […]
Arup’s DIY fine-pitch soldering technique
Arup started building his Nokia LCD breakout boards and shared his soldering technique for the 0.5mm pitch connector. First he aligns and fixes the connector in place with a bit of sticky tape. Next he applies some flux. Now the interesting part is that when he solders the connector he doesn’t use any additional solder. […]
Little Wire – minimal AVR programmer and more
The Little Wire is an open source AVR programmer that’s packed full of features: An AVR programer Four digital GPIO pins ADC with 10 bit resolution Two parallel hardware PWM outputs An USB interface A SPI interface It is built to be DIY friendly by using all through hole components. It is also an open […]
Papilio One upgrade
Jason decided to upgrade his Papilio One board by replacing the onboard FPGA with a more powerful version. Ok as you may have seen i have the Papilio One 250 board. I decided to do a upgrade instead of buying the 500E version. I decided to buy just the IC (FPGA) alone and desolder my […]
iPod FM transmiter
Electronics-DIY has instructions on how to build a simple portable FM transmitter that would allow your iPod to broadcast music over radio waves. It is simple to build and fits into a mouse case. It works quite easy, there is a power switch on the bottom to turn it on and tune your radio and […]