As previously posted, the ARISSat-1 amateur radio satellite remains inside the International Space Station awaiting its anticipated release into orbit this July. According to the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) website, the ARISSat-1 satellite aboard the International Space Station will be on the air using the station’s external antenna, starting on Monday, April 11, at […]
Category Archives: News
Open Compute Project provides Facebook blueprint
Want to examine the tech behind Facebook? Well, now you can. The Open Compute Project was first released by Facebook in 2011. In addition to open software tools, the project also makes available plans for servers and data centers. Technical specifications and CAD drawings (DXF and SolidWorks parts/assemblies) are provided for the servers and data […]
Commodore announces new Commodore 64, VIC Computer
Anyone who remembers computing “back in the day” might be interested to know that Commodore has opened a Web store where consumers can buy a modernized Commodore 64 and two new versions of the VIC, now redesigned as a “keyboard computer”. The new Commodore 64 costs anywhere from $250 for a “barebones” configuration for modders, […]
An ad in 2600:The Hacker Quarterly
Special thanks to the machinegeek for arranging our first ad in the infamous 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. This ad is in the issue that hits newsstands tomorrow. We’re in great company. Notice the TV-B-Gone ad in the lower right.
Open Hardware logo chosen!
The Open Source Hardware Summit has posted the winning logo design. It’s “Golden Orb” by Macklin Chaffee. You may start seeing it on our projects soon. Some of our projects and software are “more open”, such as the Bus Pirate and our development boards that are public domain. All our other (wholly owned) projects are […]
Seeed Studio adds support for new credit cards
Now you can pay with your American Express or JCB credit card at Seeed Studio. Seeed already supports MasterCard and Visa. Seeed still recommends PayPal, expecially for your large orders. With Paypal there is no spending limit and the service fees to customer and retailer are the lowest.
SparkFun’s Shenzhen tour, part deux
SparkFun made a second trip to Shenzhen, China. Seeed Studio is located here, as well as some impressively massive electronics markets: After checking out a handful of factories on the geek tour in 2009, it was time for me to return to China to visit some of the factories that make goods for SparkFun. …half […]
FPGA startups: a brief history
The FPGA manufacturing business has seen many players come and go over its brief history. Unlike the microcontroller industry, where many of the early manufacturers are still in business, the PLD arena has been whittled down to just a few of its early competitors. This article by Eric Esteve posted on SemiWiki chronicles the business […]
STMicroelectronics MEMS pressure sensor
STMicroelectronics has announced a new silicon pressure sensor capable of providing extremely high-resolution measurements of pressure – and therefore also of altitude – in a compact, thin package. The LPS001WP is a tiny (3×5 mm) silicon pressure sensor with an embedded 16-bit ADC, SPI and I2C interfaces and a supply voltage range of 2.2 V […]
TI to acquire National Semiconductor
TI is buying National Semiconductor. We hope that means TI’s quality sample program will soon include National’s parts: Texas Instruments has signed a definitive agreement to purchase National Semiconductor in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion. This merger will unite two industry leaders who have a common commitment to solving your analog needs. Both […]
New Chumby released
Chumby hackers take note! The new “Chumby oo” has been released. It features a larger 800 x 600 display (8″ diagonal), allows management of content and subscriptions from the device and supports SD, MMC and CF storage media in addition to USB. The internals include a 800MHz Marvell ARMADA 166 processor with ROM stored on […]
Midnight deadline on MPLAB® X Beta Sweepstakes
Midnight Mountain Standard Time TONIGHT (March 31, 2011) is the deadline to enter the MPLAB® X Beta Sweepstakes! Microchip appreciates your feedback on MPLAB X and wants to reward you! Enter to win a variety prizes when you complete this sweepstakes form and you could win MPLAB X t-shirts, coffee mugs, playing cards and more! […]
DSO Quad arrived at Seeed Studio
The new DSO Quad handheld oscilloscope arrived today at Seeed Studio: We’ve received 300 sets of DSO Quad this afternoon! Next we are going to assemble all parts together, test and pack them. All these things will spend about 3 more days, so it is possible we can start ship them out on next monday!
Microchip introduces PIC16LF190X 8-bit PIC® MCUs with integrated LCD control
Microchip has announced an expansion of its 8-bit segmented LCD microcontroller (MCU) family with five new devices—the PIC16LF1902/3/4/6/7 (PIC16LF190X) MCUs. The PIC16LF190X family supports many general-purpose applications and enables the implementation of LCD into low-power and cost-sensitive designs, such as security tokens, smart cards, medical devices, home appliances, key fobs or any application involving a […]
Vote on the open source hardware logo
Back in February we posted on the quest for an Open Source Hardware Logo. After receiving over 129 submissions, the Open Hardware Summit appointed a committee and whittled the pack down to the final ten. Check out the ten finalists and vote here now! The deadline is April 5, 2011.
Open Source Hardware Bank
The Open Source Hardware Reserve Bank is a new program whose mission is to fund and invest in Open Source Hardware. It helps open source projects achieve scale discounts at low quantities of production, where most DIY happens. The objective of the bank is to break-even, and sustain and grow Open Source Hardware. Check out […]
Update from TI on earthquake damage to factories in Japan
rsdio writes: Everyone on the web – and even on the street! – is talking about Japan’s multiple disasters. Here is some news from the technical front: After a preliminary assessment, Texas Instruments … today said its manufacturing site in Miho, Japan, about 40 miles northeast of Tokyo, suffered substantial damage during last Friday’s 8.9 […]
Citizen Science Quarterly Vol 2 call for articles
Citizen Science Quarterly is a new magazine for the scientist in all of us, dedicated to the belief that anyone can and should be able to do Science. With their first issue at the printers and also available for digital purchase, they are now seeking articles for Volume 2. Jacob from CSQ says: The theme […]
Processing releases Processing.js v1.1
Processing.js is the sister project of the popular Processing visual programming language, designed for the web. Processing.js makes your data visualizations, digital art, interactive animations, educational graphs, video games, etc. work using web standards and without any plug-ins. You write code using the Processing language, include it in your web page, and Processing.js does the […]
Zypad WL1500 wearable wrist computer
Eurotech has introduced the Zypad WL1500 , a wearable wrist computer that is based on the Marvell PXA320 processor with 128MB mobile SDRAM and 128MB mobile Flash. The platform includes a wide range of built-in wireless resources including WiFi, Bluetooth (or optional substitute Zigbee), GSM/GPRS/CMDA/EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA radio module support (optional, exclusive of each other) […]