Chuckt tiped us to the BlackJack SolderWerks Hot Air System in a followup to our Aoyue 852 hot air station tool post: This is a cheaper smd hotair / re-work station in the United States. Several people on the forums say it works. Don’t buy too many of them because I want to get it […]
Category Archives: tools
TOOL: Aoyue 852 hot air station
Our favorite tools have a new home on the wiki. Each week we’ll muse a bit about one of them. Have your own tool review? We’ll post that too! The Aoyue 852 is a dedicated hot air rework station. Hot air is probably the easiest way to remove soldered parts from a PCB, especially large […]
Diy Superprobe
Ben Ryves built his own version of the superprobe. having no need for some of the standard features he has modified the source for additional functionality. there is an excellent video of Ben demonstrating his superprobe after the break.
Infosec: using fuzzers to find vulnerabilities
Infosec Resources has a free online tutorial, An Introduction to Fuzzing: Using fuzzers (SPIKE) to find vulnerabilities. While not directly related to microcontrollers, this resource provides a hands-on guide to using open source Linux tools to find vulnerabilities in code on a networked Windows machine. To fully participate in this demo, you’ll need two machines […]
Logisim: graphical design and simulation tool
Logisim is an open source educational tool for designing and simulating digital logic circuits. With its simple toolbar interface and simulation of circuits as you build them, it is simple enough to facilitate learning the most basic concepts related to logic circuits. With the capacity to build larger circuits from smaller subcircuits, and to draw […]
555 based fuel injector tester
Makerdino shared his 555 Based Fuel Injector Tester in the project log forum: I’ve posted this one elsewhere but it’s a work in progress so I figured I’d share it here. I spent about four hours today reworking the schematic and the next step is to make a PCB, solder up the components to it […]
Logic Sniffer: Multi-platform tool update
robots has released an update to his new multi-platform tool for the Logic Sniffer. Source code is available in robot’s GIT repository. Give it a test this weekend if you have a chance. Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.
PinguinoM: Arduino Network Monitor
This project by Paul Ameson utilizes the Arduino and BlinkM to monitor the status of your PC’s internet connection. This project, known as the PinguinoM, communicates via USB with a PC running a Python script. The Arduino board is loaded with the Communicator sketch from ThingM and changes the BlinkM according to the status communicated […]
Rapid app development with AVR App Builder
Imagecraft has released the demo version of their ICCV8 C compiler tool for Atmel AVR microcontrollers. The demo version is unlimited for 45 days, and code limited thereafter to 64K, non-commercial use only. One helpful feature in this IDE is the App Builder. This tool allows for quick setup of peripherals on a number of […]
DIY pre-cut solder stencils
Sjaak found a bunch of pre-cut solder stencils for surface mount chips. Multi-purpose Sony Ericsson cell phones Samsung cell phones Motorola cell phones Multi-purpose Multi-purpose Multi-purpose Multi-purpose Nokia cell phones Multi-purpose Thanks Sjaak! Via the forum.
Logic Sniffer update tool testers needed
robots posted a brand new multi-platform update tool for the Logic Sniffer. It updates both the firmware and bitstream from a single application: I am looking for volunteers to test it. Please just someone who has access to Bus Pirate, or other means of pic flashing. I have included several measures to protect the bootloader. […]
Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile
The Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security (CAESS) published a very detailed paper outlining the use, and potential for abuse of modern automotive embedded electronic control systems. Central to their work was the development of Carshark, a software tool for hacking the CAN bus on modern vehicles. (No, we do not know of site where […]
MHV AVR tools – a WinAVR alternative
Noting that WinAVR has been marked as inactive, Make Hack Void, a hackerspace crew from down under, has devised their own alternative: MHV AVR Tools. They also are working on MHVLib – an efficiency oriented library for AVR microcontrollers.
$20 fuel injector tester
If you’re into DIY auto maintenance, here’s a project for you. Fuel injectors are made up of a coil of wire which opens a valve when energized, basically an electronic solenoid valve. These can wear out and to diagnose them properly requires more than just applying 12 volts and listening for a click. Dino, a […]
Vsprog SWD working on STM8 and STM32VL embedded debugger
Serial Wire Debug is a new two-wire JTAG debugging protocol used by several low pin-count LPC and STM32 ARM chips. Adaptation of SWD by open source debuggers like OpenOCD has been slow. Bingo succeeded in adapting the open source Versaloon firmware to do SWD programming on the cheap STM8S-Discovery and STM32VL-Discovery boards. Congratulations! We hope […]
Attiny2313 based LAN cable tester
Vasilis Stergiopoulos has built a RJ45 LAN cable tester. The circuit was originally designed to use a 555 and 4017 IC, but Vasilis has published the schematic and source code in assembly for using the Attiny2313 instead. The Attiny2313 produces successive outputs at port D, where the LAN-cable is connected. If a straight cable is […]
Seeed’s DSO Quad available for preorders
After the successful DSO Nano Seeed is finishing development of new pocket scope called DSO Quad. Engineering samples started shipping in late December 2010, now the beta testing run is available for preorders at $159. Be aware that the actual shipping is scheduled for March. DSO Quad has two analog inputs up to 36 Msps, […]
Virtual USB analyzer
The Virtual USB Analyzer is a well documented free and open source tool for visualizing logs of USB packets, from hardware or software USB sniffer tools. It provides a graphical visualization along with raw hex dumps and high-level protocol analysis. The Analyzer is NOT a hardware USB analyzer or USB sniffer: it is an interface […]
Digilent Electronics Explorer board
Digilent has come out with an electronics design workbench they call the Electronics Explorer Board. * All-in-one circuit design station * 4-channel, 40MSa Oscilloscope * 4-channel voltmeter * 2 programmable reference voltages * 2-channel Arbitrary Waveform Generator * Triple-Output Power Supply (two programmable) * 32-Channel Logic Analyzer * 32-Channel Pattern Generator * Discrete digital I/O’s […]
MPLABX C18 now available for Mac OSX
The MPLAB C18 Lite (mplabc18-v3.37a) compiler for PIC18 MCUs is now available for the MPLAB X Mac OSX version. Microchip released a new version of MPLAB X Beta IDE Beta Ver. 4.1 for Win32, as well. Thanks IPenguin! Via the forum.