Category Archives: project logs

Output driver for a 10 MHz Rubidium frequency standard

Arhi is designing a 10 MHz Rubidium frequency standard output driver: Frequency standards have stable frequency output but they usually have 50 R impedance sine output with some low Vpp values (100 mV or 400 mV or in best cases 1 V). Most devices that require frequency standard (frequency counters, frequency generators etc etc) have […]

Super Boost 3.6A USB charger based on LM2700

Scrawny 500mA USB charger insufficient for your hunger for power? Try this 3.6 amp USB charger based on the LM2700 boost switch-mode IC. This design is inspired by the Minty Boost but it fixes some of the issues that I had with it. The Minty Boost is limited to 600mA due to the LT1302 chip. […]

Single-sided Little Wire AVR programmer

FloHimself designed and built a Little Wire AVR programmer/tool. I’ve seen this project on the frontpage and thought I’d like to tinker with this a bit. For that reason I’ve designed a simple single sided version of the board in Fritzing… Little wire is am ATtiny-based open source AVR programer that’s packed full of features: […]

FireHero – Arduino and guitar play with fire

Chris Marion has developed an impressive and dangerous project: FireHero. It uses a complex propane system and some electric valves coupled to an Arduino controller that hooks directly into a “guitar” – a Guitar Hero input device, hence the project name “FireHero”. The result is that the notes played directly affect the flames. Now that’s […]

Lessons learned with an external clock / USRP1 interface

In order to use even a high-priced SDR for GSM experimentation, an accurate clock source is indispensable. According to the GSM standard, a clock with “absolute accuracy better than 0.05 ppm for both RF frequency generation and clocking the timebase” is required. This means that with a standard USRP1 with frequency accuracy of 2.5 ppm, […]

Atari Pokey sound emulator on a PIC32

Marcus got an Atari 6502 CPU and the POKEY sound chip emulator running on a PIC32 development board. He stored around 2.5 hours of old school 8bit music in the flash. I successfully compiled the ASAP (Another Slight Atari Player) library [1] for a PIC32MX795F512H. ASAP emulates a 6502 CPU and the famous POKEY sound […]

Open source solar data acquisition system PCBs

Arup got some PCBs made by Seeed of the open-source data acquisition system he designed. The system uses solar panels, and rechargeable batteries for power. An ATmega32 microcontroller reads, and stores data onto a SD flash card. Data ca also be viewed via a character LCD. Via the forum.

Arduino RFID time clock

FRIC at ivoidwarranties has developed an Arduino addiction. So when his company needed a replacement time clock he wasn’t content to settle for a substandard commercial unit. In the true hacker spirit he designed his own superior time clock system using Arduino and a Stronglink SL018. The SL018 is an RFID reader/writer that interfaces via […]

DCC 2011: FUNCube project development

The FUNcube Dongle is a SDR receiver on a USB dongle which currently sells for $125 GPB. It uses the same E4000 tuner found in the $20 RTL-SDR dongle we’ve posted about previously. The developer is Howard Long, G6VLB, who chronicled the FUNCube’s development in the above video from the 2011 Digital Communications Conference hosted […]

QuickPSoC3 v2 – PSOC3 mini development board

Kartik revised his EzPSoC3 board into the new quick QuickPSoC3. These boards are mini development platforms for PSoC3 system-on-chip ICs from Cypress. Here is a list of features on the new board: Longer pads(almost 3x) so it makes soldering the SSOP part easier for beginners. Widened power tracks to 70mils Arranged pins(see top-left) such that […]

Standalone version of the open source sentry gun controller

Bob designed a standalone version of his Sentry Gun controller. The first version was built as a shield for the Arduino, while the new board has the shield’s hardware and an Arduino compatible MCU on the same board. The Sentry Gun autonomously tracks, aims, and shoots at targets using a webcam, and servos connected to […]

Build a low speed scope with a PIC18F2550 and a graphical LCD

Steve build a low speed scope from a PIC18F2550 microcontroller and a graphical LCD. The MCU takes 60k samples per second from it’s analog-to-digital converter. It proceeds to process the signal and display it and some basic information on the screen. Steve left the source code, and the schematic on his site. Using the PIC18F2550 […]

Human birdwings project: the only thing real was the Seeeduino

UPDATED: The Human Birdwings project is an elaborate hoax, the brainchild of possibly one Jarno Smeets, an alleged mechanical engineer from the Netherlands. His stated goal was to build a set of functional human birdwings similar to those conceived by Leonardo Davinci. Tinito was watching the above installment from the 14-video series and discovered that […]

USB development board with a custom scriptable language

SigLab is an open source USB development board that takes commands from a small program that runs Python-like scripts. The hardware is basically a PIC18F2550 breakout board, but the firmware makes it easy to get started using the familiar desktop scripting language. SigLab is a combination of open hardware and FOSS (free and open source […]

Breakout board for the Stellaris ARM Cortex 3 microcontrollers from Texas Instruments

Emeryth designed a breakout board for the Stellaris ARM Cortex 3 microcontrollers from Texas Instruments. It supports either LM3S3748 (USB device/host) or LM3S6938 (Ethernet). The LM3S6938 requires and additional Ethernet daughter board. He based his design of Texas Instruments evaluation boards. You can download the source files from his site. Via the forum.

Extending the RAM memory of a PIC microcontroller

Dilshan designed a RAM memory extender for PIC microcontrollers. The circuit uses some logic ICs and SRAM memory modules to extend the data memory of a PIC. The designer provided source code for this project written for the MikroC compiler. With this given schematic user may be able to address RAM space up to 192KB. […]

Digitally adjustable precision reference driven via PWM

This simple circuit that converts a 5V PWM signal into a variable precision reference voltage with a rang of -2.5V to +2.5V.  Many designs, like a digitally controlled power supply, programmable dummy load, etc, require a Digital to Analog Converter to supply a stable reference votlage. This circuit is cheaper and requires less pins from […]