The crew at Adafruit remind us of a handy serial port monitoring tool for Windows known as PortMon. PortMon is an old school Microsoft utility used for monitoring all serial and parallel activity on a system. While USB rules the day for most PC-peripheral communications, PortMon can help when reverse engineering serial devices by sniffing […]
Category Archives: tools
Farnell flux freebies
Farnell/element14 offered us free stuff to test drive advertise for them. We hardly ever buy from Farnell, but hey, free. We wanted something we could actually try out and evaluate in the workshop. There’s not much point in comparing capacitors from Farnell and Mouser. A couple types of flux seemed like a good idea: EDSYN […]
Electronics calculator
Chuckt found even more common electronics calculator spreadsheets. Via the comments.
Resistor divider calculator
Ultrasounder shared a resistor divider calculator spreadsheet: Don’t we all have had frustrations galore when we were trying to fine tune the resistor divider for our voltage feedback on PS and LODs? Well, my good friend Art Nace came up with this wonderful tool to calculate the best fit values for the resistors for dividers. […]
Radare2 open source reverse engineering software
Radare2 is an open source tool to disassemble, debug, analyze and manipulate binary files. Edd at Canthack has posted a detailed example demonstrating use of Radare2 to reverse shellcode. You may also want to check out the Radare talks and docs pages for more information on this tool. They have a 152 page book covering […]
TinyG embedded CNC controller
The Synthetos TinyG embedded CNC controller processes G code directly on a microcontroller without needing a PC: TinyG is a many-axis motion control system. TinyG components execute G code directly without the need for a general-purpose microcomputer. TinyG is meant to be a complete embedded solution for small motor control.
Multimeter recommendations
sqkybeaver on choosing a multimeter: …if you use eBay, for an entry i would recommend something like this with dmm (a second or third dmm is all ways good to have) this is as fairly accurate as a hobbyist would need. for a more advanced user I’d go with new BK precision 879B handheld dual display LCR […]
Boldport flow: Makefiles for FPGA projects
saardrimer writes: ‘boldport flow’ is a web-based tool that allows you to easily generate a build environment for your FPGA projects and run them on your machine. At its current form, it’s a Makefile generator with a web-based front end (now supporting Xilinx, FPGAs, and Linux). The “theory” behind the structure boldport uses is […]
Computer fan fume extractor
When soldering, it’s always a good idea to use a fume extractor. In this project, Jumper One shows how to take an old computer fan, a MC34063 and a handful of other components and make a portable battery operated variable speed fume extractor. He writes: I’ve got a new tool on my workbench – portable […]
DIY solder mask ink now at Seeed Studio
This enamel coats homemade circuit boards with the same type of green protective solder mask used on professional PCBs. We were discussing DIY solder mask in the forum, now Seeed has it for sale (or will soon). A three pack with red, blue, and green is only $6.50. Seeed has a how-to tutorial. The paint […]
Nonolith Labs CEE USB analog electronics multitool
Ian and Kevin from Nonolith Labs write: Our open-hardware startup just announced our first two projects, both of which are vaguely bus-pirate related. The CEE is a USB analog multitool. It can source and measure voltage and current on two channels, making it a mix of a power supply, multimeter, function generator, and oscilloscope. It’s […]
Introduction to switches
Make has an introduction to various switches: Easily overlooked, but elemental to electronics hardware, the manually operated switch is the simplest of electromechanical devices — and likely the most familiar. While the most basic switch is… well, quite basic, there’s a crazy-huge variety of switch types and sizes available to the electronics maker nowadays. Those […]
DIYLILCNC: Low-cost, open-source desktop CNC mill
Taylor Hokanson writes: Please check out our awesome, free, open-source table top milling design: the DIYLILCNC. Now that the first design has been vetted by an international community of builders, we’re ready to embark on version 2.0. The second generation plans will focus on user-submitted design improvements. Via the contact form.
Vacuum sucking pen for SMD parts
A cheap manual suction pen for handling SMD parts: Ah and wrt “suction pen” – I made the syringe with vacuum pump and it works but I don’t like it, I found then for 3.5$ a working device that does not require power and works like a charm :D I strongly suggest everyone get one […]
Soldermask ink for homemade PCB’s
erdabyz has been experimenting with soldermask on homemade PCB’s: I found it like a year ago, and I thought I had to give it a try. Bought a syringe and… my life has changed since then. Once you know how to use this stuff properly, your homemade PCB’s will never look the same. Via the […]
1:1 female jumper wires, secret weapon
1:1 female jumpers are handy for connecting pin headers between two devices. We use them with the Bus Pirate, Logic Sniffer, and Bus Blaster JTAG programmer. These were out of stock for a while, but Seeed has them in stock again at $5 for a wad of 50.
VMS004 delux USB microscope
Arhi tested out the VEHO Discover VMS004 Delux USB microscope: As expected – the “tripod” is crappy but could be used with some modifications… The unexpected “con” wrt this microscope is that it can only do 20x and 400x – nothing in between. Not really what I expected, but not too big of a problem […]
SchmartBoard announces SMT to DIP adapters
SchmartBoard announces their line of SMT to DIP adapters. These SOIC to DIP and QFP/QFN to DIP adapter boards are designed to assist breadboarders in using newer components not found in traditional DIP packaging.
TINA TI: Free SPICE-based analog simulation program
TI has a free SPICE-based analog simulation program: TINA is an easy-to-use, powerful circuit simulation tool based on a SPICE engine. TINA-TI is a fully functional version of TINA, loaded with a library of TI macromodels plus passive and active models. TINA-TI’s new version 9.0 has changes from Version 7.0 in the following areas: Schematic […]
Open source program reveals iPhone tracker data
Reportedly since the release of iOS4 Apple has had software on iPhones allowing their location to be tracked and logged for statistical purposes. Here’s an open-source application that maps the information that your iPhone is recording about your movements. It doesn’t record anything itself, it only displays files that are already hidden on your computer. […]