Category Archives: software

Online ASCII PCB and schematics editor

Shaos is working on an online “old school” ASCII PCB and schematics editor. It’s open source, and based on SQLite + Hope on the server side, while the client uses JavaScript + a bytecode interpreter.  Currently it’s a shared sandbox with old good DOS ASCII and pseudographics “palette” (alternative Russian DOS codepage with some custom […]

PCB Visualizer – Free online PCB data verification service

PCB Visualizer is a free online PCB verification service. Basically you upload your gerbers, setup the design rule check (DRC), and you get a graphical representation of what your PCB will look like. It points out any problems that didn’t pass the DRC. Via Electronics Lab.

An open source electron tube catalog

Here’s your daily retro fix. Electrontubes is an open source database of old school vacuum tubes (electron tubes). It features pinout, footprint, and some basic information about each part. This is an open source electrontube catalogue. Its database contents base type, pin-out and some parameters of components. This database is refreshing continuosly. If you are […]

GNU Radio internals – how to use the framework

The availability of inexpensive SDR hardware such as the RTL-SDR and Funcube Dongle help to focus interest on the GNU Radio open source signal processing software. In this video from CCC Camp 2011 Marius Ciepluch delivers a case-study on how to analyze 802.15.4 (alias Zigbee) with USRPs on a real-time protocol (for send time verification, […]

embedXcode IDE covers multiple platforms

Rei Vilo has developed embedXcode, a Xcode 4 template for embedded computing boards, that supports Arduino, chipKIT, MSP430 LaunchPad, LeafLabs Maple and Wiring boards/platforms. “It relies on a set of modular makefiles, so adding support for a new board/platform is easy. The makefiles can also be used with any standard IDE, for example NetBeans. I […]

Confusion over SDR# vs OpenSDRSharp

As you may have noted in our previous posts, there exists an excellent piece of software written for use with the RTL-SDR dongle known as SDR#. If you’ve tried it you know it’s incredibly user friendly and provides immediate, full-featured use of the RTL-SDR dongle out-of-the-box. The only downside, of course, is that it’s developed […]

Installing Metasploit on Raspberry Pi

We like Irongeek’s recipe for installing Metasploit on the Raspberry Pi. He presents a simple straightforward install method to install Metasploit on his board running the Debian “wheezy” public beta. For those looking for something more, you may want to consider PwnPi, which is a Linux-based penetration testing dropbox distribution for the Raspberry Pi.

Component Organizer source code released

A while back we posted about an app, Component Organizer, that helps you organize datasheets, and app notes connected to various parts you may be interested in. Yesterday Msr let us know that he has released the source code. You can download it at github. He also added a tutorial to help contributors get started. […]

Freescale CodeWarrior Special Edition Software

If you develop with Freescale components, including the Freescale Tower System, you should note the availability of free downloads of the CodeWarrior IDE. These are Special Edition verions, which are fully functional free download versions of the CodeWarrior Development Studio with code size restrictions on the build chain. Freescale indicates that “Special Editions are pre-licensed, […]

Linux full screen problems solved with MPLAB X version 1.3

Microchip released the version 1.3 of their MPLAB X IDE, and it seems the full screen issue was solved for Linux users, as reported by Arhi. He also reports finding the Integrated Programing Environment installed with MPLAB X, apparently since v1.2. This is a standalone app for programing with PM3, ICD3, PICKIT 3, and Real […]

PhoneGap cross platform development using HTML5 + cloud

“PhoneGap is a standards-based, open-source development framework for building cross-platform mobile apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript for iPhone/iPad, Google Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm, Symbian, BlackBerry and more. Write a PhoneGap app once with HTML and Javascript and deploy it to any mobile device without losing features of a native app.” With PhoneGap you […]

MegunoLink tools talk to serial port devices

 MegunoLink is a utility to create a communication link between PCs and serial port devices such as the Arduino.  … useful tools that interact with an Arduino-style board (or other MCU with serial data). The software is called MegunoLink, from BlueLeafSoftware in New Zealand. Megunolink has many useful features, and we’ll run through them briefly […]

CircuitLab on iPad

We previously covered the CircuitLab circuit simulation software for the PC. The above video from Nerdkits demonstrates that the same browser-based CircuitLab schematic capture and circuit simulation tool now works on the iPad! UPDATE: As aptly noted in the comment, CircuitLab is a Javascript-based app and is available free for use on the iPad from […]

Ettus LiveUSB SDR environment

Ettus, manufacturers of the USRP line of SDRs, has announced the availability of a customized bootable USB drive for USRP/GnuRadio development. The LiveUSB SDR Environment is a 16 GB USB 3.0 drive with Ubuntu 11.10 (64-bit), USRP Hardware Driver (UHD), GNU Radio, OpenBTS and associated documentation preinstalled. Ettus notes that this drive is compatible with […]

Propeller GCC Beta enables programming in C and C++

Parallax has announced the availability of the Propeller GCC/SimpleIDE programming environment for the Propeller chip. “Now you can program your Propeller based application in C or C++! Parallax is proud to announce that it is moving into the beta phase for Propeller GCC – Parallax’s new open-source, multi-OS, and multi-lingual compiler that targets the Parallax […]

ROBOTC for Arduino public BETA released

The ROBOTC dev-team has released their first Public BETA of “ROBOTC for Arduino”. “ROBOTC is a powerful C-based programming language with a Windows environment for writing and debugging programs, and the only programming language at this level that offers a comprehensive, real-time debugger.” It has previously been released in a paid version for the the […]

Logic Sniffer client version 0.9.6 beta release

Jawi continues to develop the Logic Sniffer cross-platform client. A beta of the new version 0.9.6 is available to testers. This has the killer new signal display component demoed previously. Jawi’s open source client will soon outclass every commercial offering we’ve ever used. Here’s the change log:  New signal display component is in place! While […]

O’Reilly webcast: Hacking and Securing iOS Applications

O’Reilly is presenting a free webcast by Jonathan Zdziarski on the topic of Hacking and Securing iOS Applications on May 3, 2012, at 1 PM PT. Jonathan is the author of the O’Reilly book by the same title. In this webcast, Jonathan will demonstrate a number of ways to manipulate the runtime of App Store […]