Velleman K8062 DIY kit is one of the most successful DMX transmitters sold world-wide, but it is also one of the poorest performers. Velleman uses an antiquated slow speed USB protocol on a device that supports Full Speed USB. A community developed firmware upgrade that offers up to 80x times better performance is currently undergoing […]
Category Archives: kit biz
An introduction to STM32 development
If you got the free STM32F4 discovery kit this site dedicated to STM32 development might be helpful. Geoffrey provides tutorials and examples to get you started with your STM32 projects. Via the comments.
Free STM32F4 discovery kit in US/Canada
Martino tipped us to a free STM32F4 discovery kit giveaway. If you’re in the US or Canada please let us know if it works. i see a banner (bottom left) that says “Get a FREE STM32F4 discovery kit – limited promotion in USA/Canada”. Via the contact form.
TI F2806x Piccolo controlSTICK dev-board
TI has a new cheapie $29 development board for the F2806x Piccolo microcontroller: High-Efficiency 32-Bit CPU (TMS320C28x™) 80 MHz (12.5-ns Cycle Time) Floating-Point Unit Native Single-Precision Floating-Point Operations Programmable Control Law Accelerator (CLA) 32-Bit Floating-Point Math Accelerator Executes Code Independently of the Main CPU Embedded Memory Up to 256KB Flash Up to 100KB RAM 2KB […]
Making business with OSHW projects
Remo has posted his thesis about open source hardware. We covered this previously, but the thesis was not available publicly: In this website you will find my Master Thesis Open Source Hardware Fostering User Entrepreneurship: Empirical Evidence from Arduino Users and the abstract of a working paper I am going to present at OHS 2011: […]
0603 0805 resistor and capacitor kits at Adafruit
octal and several others tipped us to Adafruit’s new 0805 and 0603 resistor and capacitor books: Just to let you know that Adafruit is selling two new SMD parts kits in 805 and 603 sizes, each binder having both resistors and capacitor priced around 28 euros only The nice thing is that on each package […]
Comparing Adafruit and Gravitech microSD boards
jbeale compared the Adafruit and Gravitech’s microSD boards: The shape is a bit different, but both boards work as intended. Both have LEDs, but the Gravitech LED is on whenever a card is inserted (I think using the socket’s mechanical card detect switch) and the Adafruit LED blinks while data is transferred to/from the card, […]
Tellymate makes serial to video easy
The UK based crew from Batsocks develops and sells open source kits including breadboard related projects. We found a project they call the Tellymate which looks like a simple and easy way to provide plug-in video text output to any MCU project using just an ATmega8 and a handful of passive components. TellyMate is a […]
Sparkfun and Pololu 5V boost circuits
A product comparison from the forum: I recently compared two similar 3V -> 5V boost circuits, the Sparkfun #08999 5V out @ 100 mA (based on NCP1400) and the Pololu #798 5V out @ 200 mA (based on NCP1402). The details are below, but the executive summary is: the Pololu 5V boost circuit module has […]
TI Meta Watch
Drone writes: While I was (unsuccessfully) trying to order my $25 discounted TI Chronos watch today, in the TI eStore I noticed they have two new (to me anyway) watches that are just about to be released. These are called Meta Watches – see here: There are two models I found on the TI eStore […]
TI deals: EZChrono at $24.50 only
octal apparently followed up on our TI Deals discount site post and ordered this Chronos wireless watch for half off! He writes: Leave it to Texas Instruments to bring you the coolest development platform that harnesses the wireless capabilities of the CC430F6137 microcontroller. The eZ430 – Chronos development tool is all of that and MORE. […]
PCB store survey results
Yesterday we asked how much you’d pay for a PCB from the PCB drawer. We played with the numbers and our findings are below. First, answers to some common questions. Nothing will change with our weekly giveaways. We’d like to make boards available to people who want them, but don’t want to try to win […]
MPLABX Beta 7 now available
MPLABX IDE is now available: Beta 7 of Microchip’s cross-platform MPLABX IDE is now available. The IDE can be downloaded over at the MPLABX download page. Additionally, tutorials and help information for MPLABX are available here. In addition to MPLABX, the Microchip C compilers on the downloads page have all been updated. Updated compilers are: […]
3D printer startups
Make has a nice roundup of 3D printer startups. There’s interviews with Ultimaker, a new startup in the Netherlands, and Bre Petis from Makerbot. Via Make.
DARwIn-OP robot is open source
This robot kicking the beer can around in this video is known as DARwin-OP. This the result of an Open Platform Humanoid Project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States and developed by RoMeLa at Virginia Tech with collaboration with University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University and Robotis Co., based on the […]
Dangerous t-shirt prototype v1
Fan @ Seeed Studio holds up dangerous t-shirt prototype v1, size large. We’ve been talking about t-shirts for a while, and it’s finally happening. There was some initial concern that Chinese shirts run 1 or 2 sizes smaller than US shirts. Fan talked to a few printers about US-sized shirts and got this sample today. […]
The ultimate Nerd Apparel: iCufflinks
Adafruit has a knack for great publicity. Here’s their iCufflinks project at NYTimes.com: Nerdy cufflinks have been around quiet for a while: There’s the black 20-sided dice cufflinks that are based on the game Dungeons and Dragons, Microsoft Xbox branded cufflinks for videogame fans and cufflinks made from computer keyboards. But none of these can […]
Interview with Dangerous Prototypes at Open Source Hardware Junkies
Last week Ian did a Skype interview with Open Source Hardware Junkies. It’s up today, listen in if that’s your kind of thing: Need to figure out a chip…fast? Bus Pirate may be just what you have been looking for. Designed by Dangerous Prototypes, the Bus Pirate is a universal bus interface that can slash […]
Dangerous Prototypes: Interview with HotHardware
HotHardware has an interview with Dangerous Prototypes: Dangerous Prototypes is a two-year old organization with the stated mission of producing “one new open source project every month.” In its nearly two years in existence, DP has created about 30 projects, such as the Flash Destroyer. All are being sold by another interesting company, Seeed Studio. […]
Dangerous Prototypes: Interview with EDN
EDN published the first-ever article about Dangerous Prototypes. Open-source hardware suits kitchen-table start-up: Seeed Studio noticed an untapped need in the United States from engineers who have good ideas but lack the know-how and capital to start a production line. Seeed Studio’s first partner is Ian Lesnet, whose protocol debugger, Bus Pirate, became the first […]