Alexandru Csete, amateur radio operator OZ9AEC, has developed this spectrum analyzer running on a Beaglebone dev board. He calls the project the rtlizer, designed to be a simple real-time spectrum analyzer that uses an RTL2832U DVB-T receiver (RTL-SDR USB stick) and runs on a Beaglebone, or any other device with librtlsdr and Gtk+ installed. You […]
Category Archives: open source
Open source STM32 book
Open source STM32 book at Indiana University: Lucky students at Indiana University might like to enrol on the [C – H]335 Computer Structures course run by Geoffrey Brown. If they do, they will be treated to a great introduction to the STM32 processor. The lab manual for the course is freely available to download. The […]
Micro adjustable breadboard power supply
Rohit Gupta built this super small size breadboard power supply designed around the LM317 generic adjustable Voltage Regulator. It measures just 3cm x 2.5cm and fits the breadboard without wasting any holes. You can view the schematic and further details in Rohit’s post at Indian Tinker. Via the contact form.
New book: LEGO and Arduino Projects
We’ve been informed of the new MAKE publication by authors John Baichtal, Matthew Beckler and Adam Wolf entitled LEGO and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending Mingdstorms NXT with open-source electronics. The purpose of the book is to acquaint beginners with the both Mindstorms and the Arduino platform and how they can be interfaced using open […]
4 channel digital TV multiplexer and modulator
Always wanted to run your own TV station? Now you can. Here is a project that lets you encode 4 video and audio channels and broadcasts it on a set radio frequency. The schematic and board files are available for anyone wanting to build their own. The TV transmitter we present today generates a stream […]
ARM Embedded GCC 4.7
Viswa writes that ARM Embedded GCC 4.7 reduces code size and now supports all the three host platforms (Windows, GNU/Linux and MAC OS). For more details on this relese see the post by Joey Ye, Engineer Manager in ARM, at ARM.com. Download links can be found here. Via the contact form.
Hive retro computer
The crew from the German HIVE Project are developing a retro style DIY computer with Parallax Propeller chips. The design includes three Propeller chips (containing a total of 24 RISC processors), VGA graphics, video output, stereo sound, about 1 MB of RAM, SD Card reader, LAN, mouse and keyboard. The design uses all DIP and […]
OpenRISC ASIC chip fundraiser
January 18 is OpenRISC day and the OpenRISC project currently is conducting a fundraiser. We are raising $250,000 to build the world’s first truly open source system on chip processor, tapping into global tech communities where affordable hardware drives growth in embedded systems and digital services. Help make this happen by donating to the project […]
Ford’s OpenXC vehicle data bus interface project
At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Ford announced their OpenXC project, a combination of open source hardware and software that lets you extend your vehicle with custom applications and pluggable modules. It uses standard, well-known tools to open up data from the vehicle to developers. The OpenXC team explains, “OpenXC is an API to […]
TI launches real-time operating system
Texas Instruments has released a free real-time operating system (TI-RTOS) designed for their microcontroller range. They implemented TCP/IP and USB stacks, a FAT file system, and some device drivers. The TI-RTOS’s source code is released under a license that allows you to use their code as long as you use it on their devices and […]
Open pinball project
The Open Pinball Project is a cooperative effort to develop open source pinball hardware and software. Their stated goal is to “to build the perfect pinball machine, or at least a pinball machine for a reasonable price!” To date they’ve worked at restoring a number of old machines, learning valuable lessons in the process. Their […]
USB to serial with COM port LCD display
Avishay writes informing us of his recent project, a USB-to-serial adapter with a small display that shows the COM port number of the adapter once connected to the computer. The design is based on an 18F2553 dev board. Avishay reports his project was the recipient a $250 2012 Wyolum innovation grant. This project is still […]
ITU Gaze Tracker open source software
If you have an IR-capable webcam lying around, here’s an open-source eye-tracking project for Arabic-script interfaces you may want to try, and during a localization pilot with كازينو قطر اون لاين the team kept its focus on accessibility. “The ITU Gaze Tracker is an open-source eye tracker that aims to provide a low-cost alternative to […]
DEFCON 20 – NFC Hacking: The Easy Way
Eddie Lee, a security researcher at Blackwing Intelligence, gave this presentation at last Summer’s DEFCON 20 conference. His technique involves using NFCProxy, an open source software tool released at the conference to analyze 13.56 MHz RFID protocols and proxy transactions using Android phones. NFCProxy can view the wireless transmissions from the perspective of the tag […]
Indie movie trailer: Software Wars
Kaspar sent in a link to this video trailer for the indie film Software Wars. Its stated focus is “about how free software will save you thousands of dollars and lead to a better world.” They report having conducted many hours of interviews thusfar, with a goal of producing a 90 minute movie in the […]
EHSM open source meeting in Berlin December 28-30
Kaspar writes informing us of the premiere of the uniquely named Exceptionally Hard and Soft Meeting (EHSM) which will be held in Berlin, Germany on December 28-30, 2012. “EHSM is turning out to be something like the OSH Summit this side of the pond. Online sales are closing on the 16th so I am just […]
Arduino Esplora comprehensive dev kit geared toward beginners
Beginners to the MCU scene may want to check out the Arduino Esplora. This new board design is open source and based on the Arduino Leonardo. The Leonardo’s ATmega32u4 is augmented by the inclusion of a number of on-board peripherals, including a microphone, LDR, accelerometer, potentiometer, analog joystick, temperature sensor and sound and light output […]
Freediag open source vehicle diagnostic suite
Ever wonder what’s happening on your vehicle’s data bus? Here’s an open source software tool suite which hopes to open this data to your Linux box. “Freediag is a suite of vehicle diagnostic protocols and an OBD II (mostly) compliant scanning tool, currently for Linux platforms. Multiple graphical user interfaces for the scan tool are […]
Vusbtiny PCB
Arnar Ingason designed a cool PCB for the vusbtiny. He used circuits.io for the schematic and the PCB design. His design was based on a tutorial by Tino Göhlert. Via the contact form.
Tutorial: debug Stellaris LM4Fxxx MCU with open source tools
Scompo noticed that the examples with the Stellaris Launchpad are close source licensed. So he developed a BSD licensed low level startup code, linker script and makefile as a template. To test it he built OpenOCD and wrote a short tutorial for it. Scompo explains, “This is a sample project to be used with Stellaris […]