After announcing last fall that they were re-entering the electronics kit business, it is now being reported that Heathkit Educational Systems has officially ended operations. According to the ARRL, it appears that the company discontinued operations in March or April, 2012, having previously laid off most of their workforce last December. This is certainly sad […]
Category Archives: News
RIP Chumby
According to Phil Torrone’s exclusive interview with Andrew (bunnie) Huang for MAKE, the age of Chumby is pretty much over, at least as far as official manufacturing and support are concerned. Chumby is the open source WiFi web app platform developed in 2006, before the release of the iPhone. It was one of the few […]
2011 US tax deadline is today
The US tax deadline is today, who ever hasn’t filed their taxes yet, better do it quickly. You can also check out how we do taxes for Dangerous Prototypes.
Open Source Hardware Association announced
Open Source Hardware Association Announced! Open Source Hardware Association. The Open Source Hardware Association is Coming Soon! It will be a non-profit organization (status pending) working to spread the love of open source hardware. We’re working out details, and as soon as we know, you’ll know! Check back at oshwa.org for upcoming news. And here’s […]
Atmel launches new University Program
Atmel launched a new University Program Website to support the academic community Educators and students can share study materials, and members can get a 50% discount any of the development tools through Digi-Key and Mouser. Read more about it below.
0.5mm pitch xQFP breakout boards back in stock
0.5mm pitch 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.
MIME celebrates 20th anniversary
March 11, 2012 is the 20th anniversary of the first use of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) protocol. The MIME standard is the foundation of all email attachments and it was first used on March 11, 1992 by Nathaniel Borenstein, pictured above. So when you attach a zipped up load of docs to your […]
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.
FTDI’s new X-Series of USB device chips
FTDI just released a new series of their USB to serial device ICs. The X-series is an upgrade on the R part used in the Bus Pirate and formerly in Arduinos. It features better transfer rates, lower power consumption, needs fewer discrete components, and has high power USB charging capability. FTDI is delighted to announce […]
Xilinx free online Xcell Journal
Xilinx has released Issue 78 of Xcell Journal, their free online publication for embedded system and programmable logic developers. Each issue of Xcell has articles targeted at developers from every skill level, from beginner to expert. You can check out individual articles from this issue or download past issues back to 1988 at the Xilinx […]
Jail breaking is not a crime petition
You bought it. You own it. Tell the Copyright Office: let me install whatever software I want on my phone, tablet, or video game system. bunnie Huang, author of Hacking the Xbox, is standing with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to defend users’ right to jailbreak. Will you sign on to bunnie’s letter to show the […]
Apple fails to ban Samsung Galaxy Tabs in the Netherlands, again
Last year Apple successfully sued to stop the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia and most of Europe over copyright and patent disputes. In Australia the injunction was based on the “pinching” input jesture, which Apple “owns”. Over the past six months the vast majority of the cases have been dismissed on appeal. […]
Google tracking expands, threatens privacy
Google appears poised to commence a program of tracking all users across all their services. The company will not allow you to opt-out. For example, they will pair info gained through their email service with search logs, ostensibly to target ads better. Of course such info is individually identifiable and stored for at least 9 […]
MakerBot announces The Replicator
Bre Pettis from MakerBot Industries reveals their latest product offering, The Replicator! The MakerBot Replicator is the ultimate personal 3D printer, with dual extrusion (2-color printing)–and a bigger printing footprint, giving you the superpower to print things BIG! Assembled in Brooklyn by skilled technicians, the MakerBot Replicator™ is ready within minutes to start printing right […]
Welcome to (another) new server
Happy holidays from everyone at Dangerous Prototypes! If you see this post, you’ve arrived at our new server. It has even more power to serve up new prototypes. This is also a test of the blog, Twitter, and Facebook integration. Support is available on Christmas, just give us a shout in the forum.
Support is available on Christmas
I2C giving you the Christmas blues? Need help upgrading your new Bus Pirate or Logic Sniffer? Support is available on Christmas, just give us a shout in the forum. Happy holidays from everyone at Dangerous Prototypes!
Get up to speed with First Spin podcast
If you are new to the Parallax Propeller MCU you may want to check out First Spin. It’s an audio podcast for that teaches how to use the Parallax Propeller to persons with no prior programming experience. You can listen to or download the pilot cast here, and follow the ongoing lineup of episodes at […]
Digi-Comp II: vintage mechanical computing device
Digi-Comp was a fully functional binary digital mechanical computer, which sparked many future engineers’ imagination in the early 1960’s. The crew at Evil Mad Science recently revived the game with a larger than life version displayed at several Maker Faires. It uses billiard balls on a 4′ x 8′ deck to simulate electrical pulses moving […]
Arduino 1.0 released
The Arduino team has released the official version 1.0 of the Arduino IDE. New features include changing the file extension for sketches to “.ino”, new toolbar icons, the Serial class (as well as other classes inheriting from Stream, like EthernetClient, SoftwareSerial, Wire and more) now contains functions for parsing incoming data, support for DHCP and […]
MS announces new Kinect for Windows hardware
Microsoft has announced they will be making a special edition of the Kinect available designed especially for Windows hackers. The new Kinect will include optimized hardware components and firmware adjustments to better enable PC-centric scenarios. The unit will complement the Kinect for Windows SDK. MS reports: Simple changes include shortening the USB cable to ensure […]