We played with the site theme a bit. There’s a temporary theme on the wiki right now. We sent a few projects out for a quote, including an acrylic case for the ATX power supply. WordPress, plugin, and server updates went smoothly today. In hardware design we fixed the little spelling mistake on the Part […]
Category Archives: Workshop Update
Workshop Update for July 12th, 2012
Like every Thursday we spend a lot of time in video production. We did manage to get the latest two versions of the Part Ninja in the free PCB drawer. Beware, the version 1b doesn’t support battery power supply, while version 1c does. We continued to work on the firmware documentation for the secret project. […]
Workshop Update for July 11th, 2012
We sketched a power up test helper to protect new circuits from going poof if there is a short, or other problem. We prepared for tomorrow’s workshop video, and we are preparing a Mouser order of standoffs in various sizes. We also scanned a few new PCBs for the free PCB drawer. We checked mispelled […]
Workshop Update for July 10th, 2012
Today we did some software, and server updates, and we confirmed we weren’t effected by the Linux leap second bug. We soldered a few extra Bus Pirate demo board protos. Tomorrow we’ll probably sync the old bug list with the new public tracker, and retire the list. ATX Breakout Board v1.1 Sick of Beige case […]
Workshop Update for July 9th, 2012
Today we finished building latest revision, and started testing the secret project firmware. We found a couple of bugs in our latest PCB design. The ‘DIR’ pin of the 74xx245 transceiver was connected to GND instead of being pulled high, and the ‘R/W’ pin of the LCD was left unconnected. We also organized in-progress projects […]
Workshop Update for July 6th, 2012
Today we built up some prototype PCBs that arrived. We also cleaned up some sales pages at Seeed, and booked tickets to New York for the Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire in September. We replaced FT230x chip footprint on a prototype board we build with the right footprint. We also fixed the PHY IC […]
Workshop Update for July 5th, 2012
Today is Workshop Video Thursday so we spent a lot of time in filming and editing. We still haven’t found a great solution for the screen capture software. Firmware development took a hit today, as we wasted most of the time following wrong assumptions. While implementing the final “menu activated” function, we somehow broke the […]
Workshop Update for July 4th, 2012
UPS package finally corralled, and will be delivered tomorrow. A 74HCT245 will complete a long-delayed final revision of a certain secret prototype. We prepared for tomorrows workshop video on serial port interfacing. We arranged a giveaway for a coming week, and perhaps the first sponsor of the 2012 Open 7400 Competition. Today we continued contacting […]
Workshop Update for July 3rd, 2012
We finalized part kit materials, and made a round of updates to Seeed sales pages, and the wiki. We also photographed some missing parts for the master part list wiki. Code for the secret project is close to first full function testing. Only one large function is left to be implemented. Today we mostly […]
Workshop Update for July 2nd, 2012
Today we added the ATX breakout board v1.1, and an earlier draft to the free PCB drawer. We ordered a second batch of the ATX board, thanks for making it a success. A DigiKey order with some CPLDs is stuck in UPS, we’re trying to figure out how to dislodge it. Little wire giveaway tomorrow […]
Workshop Update for June 29th, 2012
Today we finalized the partkit list. W e contacted all the suppliers and received wholesale quotes from them. We also verified some Bus Pirate bug fixes. We searched for, and wrote about 4 app notes for the weekend. They come from Microchip, Texas Instruments, NXP, and Linear Technology.
Workshop Update for June 28th, 2012
Video editing, and filming ate most of our day. We did get some time to finalize our part kit list. We found a few eBay suppliers offering good wholesale prices. SMD transistors, and diodes are a bit harder to find. We also made some tweaks to our partlist to accommodate easier-to-source parts. Secret project firmware […]
Workshop Update for June 27th, 2012
Today we cleaned up the workshop for tomorrow’s video, we checked some bug fixes on the Bus Pirate firmware (look for a new release soon), and started a Mouser order to be placed tomorrow. We also went over our partlist, and started gathering information on how much a basic kit of our most commonly used […]
Workshop Update for June 26th, 2012
Today we assembled an update to the IR Toy, and a secret project PCB. We prepared for the release of two new projects later this week. Completed website and server updates, Twitter and Facebook should both be connected to the blog again. The secret project gave us grief today. The LCD started spewing out garbage. […]
Workshop Update for June 25th, 2012
Today we made some site updates: The tracker now allows ready only, WordPress publish bug fixed by deactivating (non functioning) Google+ integration plugin. We also sent two new project sales pages to Seeed, which should be up in a day or two. Work on the secret project firmware continues. Today we implemented a buffer that […]
Workshop Update for June 22nd, 2012
Today we soldered some of the latest PCBs that arrived. We organized some bug reports on the new tracker. Ran some IR Toy remote recordings with a logic analyzer attached to see if there are intermittent errors, none found yet. We continued working on the secret project firmware. Today we implemented a buffer, it is […]
Workshop Update for June 21st, 2012
Today we chose the winner of the Simplecortex giveaway. We finished the Bus Blaster v4.1, and added it to the next batch of PCBs we’ll get from Seeed. We also continued to route a minimal version of the DP Badge, which will have the user only solder the LEDs he wants to light up. The […]
Workshop Update for June 20th, 2012
Finnair gave us almost-free tickets to Chongqing, China. We still had an entry left on our China visas so we hopped on a plane and spent the weekend. The pic above is of a LED shop, every big city in Asia seems to have a few. The pic below the fold is of a sign […]
Workshop Update for June 19th, 2012
Today was mostly documentation day. We wrote another Eagle tutorial, this time on how to make plated holes for your PCBs. We will run it tomorrow, as our regular “HOW TO” post. We also continued with some renders of a soon to be released product. We spent lots of time editing the render in Photoshop, […]
Workshop Update for June 18th, 2012
Today we worked on the 3D model and rendering of the XC95144XL CPLD breakout board. Later we also made some renders for soon to be released product. We continued routing the Bus Blaster v4 board. We optimized some signal trace lengths, and added ground vias near decoupling caps. We also fixed some silk labels.