We are being spammed like crazy and the a kismet filter seems helpless to stop it. Until we can get a handle on it all comments with any links at all will have to be manually approved. So sorry for the inconvenience, we’re working on a custom plugin based on lessons learned from the forum […]
Category Archives: News
TI previews MSP430FR59xx low power MCUs
TI has announced the preview of the MSP430FR58xx and MSP430FR59xx family of ultra-low-power microcontrollers. This group consists of several devices featuring embedded FRAM nonvolatile memory, an ultra-low-power 16-bit MSP430 CPU, and different sets of peripherals targeted for various applications. The architecture, FRAM, and peripherals, combined with seven low-power modes, are optimized to achieve extended battery […]
An ad in 2600:The Hacker Quarterly
Special thanks to the machinegeek for arranging the most recent ad in the infamous 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. This ad is in the issue that hits newsstands now. 2600’s free ads are still the only advertising we do on a regular basis. We’re in good company in the 2600 marketplace, TV-B-Gone has an ad right […]
Digilent Design Contest US 2013
Digilent has announced their annual Design contest for 2013. The contest is divided by regions, so far only US and EU contests have been announced, but other regions are expected to follow as well. Basically you’re asked to design cool projects with Digilent gear which will be provided to you. Unfortunately the contest is only […]
Hackers get to poke at obsolete Peek devices
LinuxDevices reports that the now defunct Peek email service is offering free surplus hardware to hackers. “Peek has discontinued its low-cost, email-and-texting service but is challenging hackers to “build something great” with the leftover handhelds, according to The Verge. The Peek devices include a 2.5-inch screen, a QWERTY keyboard, an ARM7-based processor, and a GSM […]
xQFP breakout boards back in stock
xQFP breakout boards are back in stock at Seeed Studio. These boards make your QFP prototyping faster and easier. They’re available in 0.50mm, 0.65mm, and 0.80mm pin pitch for just $3.
The LED turns 50!
This month the venerable LED turns 50! The LED started life in October 1962 in a General Electric research lab in New York state and has progressed from the good ‘ol standby red to a multitude of colors today. You can view a short video by the LED’s inventor chronicling the device’s history on the […]
TI debuts Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad for $4.99 USD
Texas Instrument just released the Stellaris LaunchPad for sale for less then $5. It’s a LaunchPad series development board based around the Cortex M4 Stellaris family of digital signal processors. The Stellaris LaunchPad is the latest addition to the Texas Instruments LaunchPad ecosystem, an innovative portfolio of low-price evaluation kits and expansion boards that lets […]
Freescale debuts Kinetis L Series Freedom development platform
Freescale has inroduced their Freedom development board. The FRDM-KL25Z platform is enabled by Kinetis L Series KL1 and KL2 MCUs families built on ARM Cortex-M0+ processor. The board includes the MKL25Z128VLK4 MCU running at 48 MHz with 128 KB flash, 16 KB SRAM, USB OTG (FS), capacitive touch “slider,” MMA8451Q accelerometer and tri-color LED. The […]
Microchip expands USB portfolio with fifteen new 8-bit PIC MCUs
Microchip has announced the release of a new line of USB 8-bit PICs. The new devices range from 14 to 100 pins with up to 128 KB of Flash. According to the announcement, sampling should begin in early October. All feature internal clock sources with the 0.25% clock accuracy necessary for USB communication eliminating the […]
LatticeSemi offers discounted FPGA dev boards
Lattice Semi is offering the iCEblink40 Evaluation Kits for $19 for a limited time. The iCEblink40 boards feature the ultra low density iCE40 FPGA and come in two versions, the iCEblink40-HX1K and the iCEblink40-LP1K Evaluation Kits which differ in the number of I/O pins. Both boards offer 1280 logic look up tables and 64K bits […]
Texas Instruments power management reference design library
Texas instruments released the Power Management reference design library. It’s filled with schematics, design notes, gerber files, and any technical document you might need to get over 300 reference designs up and running. Texas Instruments PowerLab™ Power Management Reference Design Library contains hundreds of reference designs for any application. Each reference design contains supporting technical […]
Stellaris LaunchPad is another cheapie dev-board to get you hooked
Texas Instruments is set to release a LaunchPad development board for their Stellaris Cortex M4 based DSPs. The release date is set for 25th of September. If your register on their site, you’ll have the ability to pre-order these boards for $5. The cheapie dev-boards just keep on coming.
Backtrack5R3 includes Arduino hacking tools
The Backtrack5 crew has just announced Release 3 of their well known penetration testing Linux distro. Backtrack5R3 not only includes bug-fixes, but the addition of over 60 new tools – several of which were released in BlackHat and Defcon 2012. A new “Physical Exploitation” tool category has been added including the Arduino IDE and libraries, […]
What’s your personal definition of “hacking”?
Caleb Kraft from Hackaday writes, “we’re going to announce an international hack day on august 11th. I’ve asked a bunch of people to contribute their personal definition of “hacking”. Care to share yours?” Hackaday via the contact form.
Counterfeit parts found on P-8 Poseidon’s ice detection system
Uwe wrote to us about the counterfeit chips used in US Military hardware. It turns out that the ice detection system on a Boeing P-8 Poseidon was defective. The suspected culprits are used, and refurbished parts that were sold as new. remember the stories about ATmega328 fakes/duds about 2 years ago … when Seeed and […]
TI announces C2000 Launchpad release
Trey German from TI write: “We just announced the C2000 LaunchPad today and I thought it might be a nice addition to your blog. Its a sister board to the MSP430 LaunchPad and is pin compatible so boosterpacks will work with any launchpad. The board costs $17 and includes an isolated high speed USB debugger […]
Euro Electromagnetic Field conference/camp
David Croft writes: “Wanted to let you know about a festival that may interest some of your European readers – Electromagnetic Field taking place at the end of August for hackers and makers.” According to the emfcamp website, the event is a festival for anyone interested in “3D printing, DIYBio, knitting, electronics, Internet culture, space, […]
Fedora pays M$ boot tax to access consumer’s hardware
According to an article posted on BoingBoing, Fedora Linux has agreed to pay Microsoft what amounts to an access tax which will allow Fedora products to run on MS locked down hardware. A quiet announcement from the Fedora Linux community signals a titanic shift in the way that the computer market will work from now […]
EEWeb: Bus Pirate as low-cost JTAG programmer
Victor Joukov noticed this article on the EEWeb electrical engineering community about Programming With Low-Cost JTAG Tools, referencing the Bus Pirate. Notable is the Bus Pirate from Dangerous Prototypes. Originally designed as a tool to sniff, monitor, inject or bus protocols like SPI, its open platform has meant that the ‘community’ has developed an XSVF […]