Category Archives: how-to

Preheating plate + tinfoil = almost reflow

Andrew Tergis presents an interesting method of reflowing SMD components using a preheating plate and tinfoil (to catch infrared energy). He also uses a Fluke temperature probe attached to the PCB to more accurately monitor temperature. This gives newcomers to reflow an idea of the pitfalls involved. Vladimir via the contact form.

How-to: build an 8×8 LED cube kit

Chris from PyroElectro presents this post explaining the process for building an 8x8x8 LED cube (that’s 512 LEDs) from a kit. This is essentially Chris’ review of the Jameco 8×8 LED Cube Kit. He explains both how to build the LED cube and how to make the electronics that control it. Visit PyroElectro for more […]

PirateBox wireless local fileserver

David Darts, Associate Professor of Art Education and Chair, Department of Art and Art Professions wanted to facilitate anonymous file sharing in his NYU classes. He was aware of the deaddrops project and wanted to design a WiFi based portable version which would operate separate from the Internet. “PirateBox is a self-contained mobile communication and […]

Magnetic loop antenna controlled by Arduino

This video by Ricardo Caratti demonstrates his method for controlling a Magnetic Loop antenna with an Arduino. The antenna’s tuning capacitor is adjusted using a stepper motor interfaced with the Arduino equipped to read IR commands sent from a compatible IR remote control. This allows the tuning capacitor to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Due to […]

HOW-TO: Access Bus Pirate v4 on-board I2C EEPROM

Bus Pirate v4 has an on-board 24xx64 8Kbyte data storage chip called an  EEPROM (IC3). It can be used to store various settings and preferences, but cooler, the EEPROM’s I2C interface can be accessed from within the Bus Pirate’s I2C mode. First time users can get familiar with the Bus Pirate without any added components! […]

Stellaris Launchpad hack adds LiPo capability

Philipp Stenkamp wanted to power his Stellaris Launchpad with a spare LiPo battery, but found as shipped this wasn’t a plug-and-play operation. “The Launchpad expects 4.75-5.25 VDC on VBUS, nothing that a single cell LiPo could provide. I know that the system voltage is 3.3 VDC and that the voltage regulator on the board has […]

Bus Pirate and DS1307 realtime clock interface

jokkebk from Code and Life wrote this short how-to on interfacing the Bus Pirate to communicate with the DS1307 realtime clock. A good description showing beginners how to connect a BP to components or breakout boards and establish communications quickly and easily. Want to simplify hardware hacking? Get your own Bus Pirate for about $30.

BrewPi open source brewing controller

Here’s an interesting project to automate your home beermaking process. “BrewPi is an open source fermentation controller that runs on an Arduino (for now) and a Raspberry Pi. It can control your beer temperature with 0.1 degree precision, log temperature data in nice graphs and is fully configurable from a web interface.” The Arduino is […]

Easy to build spirit detector

Halloween is just a few weeks away so why not be prepared with your own easy to build spirit detector! The simple circuit described in this post by fritsl from Let’s Make Robots uses only three BC517 transistors and three resistors connected to an LED, antenna and 6-volt power source to build a device capable […]

PCB manufacture using Oracal vinyl film + laser printer

Drones refers us to this short but informative video demonstrating the manufacture of PCBs using a laser printer and vinyl stickers. He notes that the video shows laser printed toner being 100% transferred to a PCB using Oracal brand 651 adhesive vinyl film which is relatively inexpensive and widely available from online distributors and and […]

ATTiny2313 controls Numitron tube

Kenneth Finnegan has posted details on controlling Numitron tubes using the ATTiny2313 MCU. Numitron tubes are filament display devices which require only 2-3 volts instead of the much higher voltages required by Nixie tubes and VFDs. He uses an Allegro A6278 LED driver (which he found in his parts collection and no longer manufactured, but […]

Via options: Tenting, capping, plugging, or filling

From comments on our earlier Poision via effect in manufacturing post, Bearmos shared an article about via options in PCB manfacturing: On the PCB side of things, here’s an article from a PCB fab that goes over a couple of the via options: via tenting, caps, and plugs (PDF!). This just landed in my inbox […]

Gaining experience with schematic and PCB work

Wardy gives some advice on how to improve your schematic and PCB design skills. His advice is to clone consumer products with available schematics. He provides links to a few examples to get you started. Using a realistic design will confront you with the kind of obstacles that present themselves to the original designers themselves […]

Temperature and relative humidity logger with the chipKIT Uno32

Here is another chipKIT Uno32 tutorial on a PC-based temperature, and humidity logger. The examples are simple enough for electronics novices to get started. This project is about building a PC-based temperature and relative humidity logger using the chipKIT Uno32 board and the DHT11 sensor. The project setup requires no additional wires (other than the […]

Web browser Arduino interface tutorial

Luca wrote another tutorial on interfacing the Arduino with a ENC28J60 Ethernet controller. This tutorial covers how to control an Arduino through a web browser. This is his 7th tutorial in the ENC28J60 series, if you are interested in Arduino web interfaces check out the earlier tutorials as well. When I published my first example about using […]

AVR based intelligent temperature monitoring and control system

Shawon designed, and built an AVR based intelligent temperature monitoring and control system. He documented both the hardware, and the firmware on his blog, with in depth descriptions on how everything works. Controlling temperature has been a prime objective in various applications including refrigerators, air conditioners, air coolers, heaters, industrial temperature conditioning and so on. Temperature […]