American a pillar of Shenzhen maker culture

American_a_pillar_of__Shenzhen_maker_culture

Tully Gehan’s home is a maker’s space. The three-room Bao’an district apartment looks more like a factory than a living space.
There is a wall of blue boxes filled with electronics, dozens of paper cups with screws and bolts, and a laser-cutting machine in the corner.

Gehan, 41, from America, made his own knife rack and a wall-mounted drying rack customized to fit the bowls in his home.
He designs everything on the computer before using a laser cutter to make them.

“This is the beauty of being a maker — I make my own things,” he said.

Gehan, who has been in Shenzhen for five years, is well known in the city’s circle of makers. He used to work for Seeed Studio and co-founded the Chaihuo Maker Space. He’s made several products and is best known for his Doomsday Clock, which is sold Internet retailer Amazon. Continue reading “American a pillar of Shenzhen maker culture”

RePhone kit: World’s first open source and modular phone

rephone-ks-1

Seeed Studio has announced that RePhone, an open source and modular phone kit  is now being offered on Kickstarter!

With Rephone you can:
1.Create your own phone in minutes with the slim MODULES, accessible SOFTWARE, and customizable Phone Enclosures.
2.Hack anything around you, giving inanimate objects the power of cellular communication. Have a conversation with your pets, plants, toys, motorcycle helmets, robots, or drones through RePhone’s GSM and 3G functions.

RePhone is a set of tools and components that allows everyone including students, teachers, makers, hackers, geeks, artists, developers and engineers rethink, remix, redesign and remake the phone.
RePhone comes in three kits RePhone Core Module GSM + BLE, RePhone Core Module 3G and RePhone kit Create.

You can visit the Kickstart page for more info.

Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “RePhone kit: World’s first open source and modular phone”

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

IRToy-600x369

Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week:

  • Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch it every Sunday, right here on the blog
  • Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
  • Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs will be your friend for the weekend

Some stuff:

  • Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
  • Check out how we mail PCBs worldwide video.
  • We’ll contact you via Twitter with a coupon code for the PCB drawer.
  • Limit one PCB per address per month please.
  • Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.

We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

Software Spectrum Analyzer for the Rigol 1000 series oscilloscopes

1ghz_500mhz span

rheslip writes:

I came up with this idea after seeing Farhan Ashar’s spectrum analyzer design which uses some of the same bits and pieces I used in the Simple Scalar Network Analyzer. Farhan’s is a classic heterodyne SA design – the addition of mixers and filters in front of the power detector makes the analyzer frequency selective, vs the Simple Scalar Network Analyzer which is not. Both tools are quite useful to the RF hobbyist.
PyDSA takes a different approach – high speed direct digital sampling. This method is used in some inexpensive but quite powerful analyzers from Tektronix, Signal Hound and other companies. The bandwidth of such a device is limited by the sampling speed which according to Nyquist’s criteria must be at least twice the frequency we wish to analyze. To be useful for amateur radio work we would like to have a bandwidth of 100 MHz or more which means sampling at at least 200 MHz. Unfortunately, a 200 MHz sampler is not an easy thing to build at home…

Details at rheslip’s Open Emitter blog.

Photon headerless – SMD mounted

PhotonHeaderless

Carsten4207  writes:

Just wanted to share what a Photon soldered directly onto a PCB looks like
As far as what this is, this will replace my Honeywell Zoning Panel (HZ311) and will give me the ability to add variable dampers. This will also hookup to my HVAC’s motor (Evergreen IM) so I can adjust the speed according.

Via Particle (formerly Spark).

AC energy metering board using an Atmel 90E24 energy metering chip

acpowermonitor

Steve Rodgers writes, “Here’s my latest project.  Its an AC energy metering board using an Atmel 90E24 energy metering chip. The board can either take an ESP8266-12 and run a native C application, or the ESP8266-12 can be omitted, and an external microcontroller can be used to talk to the Atmel 90E24 energy metering chip. I have firmware to support both the AVR and the ESP8266. I built a really nice energy monitoring box using the AVR and a 12864 display.”

Project info at hwstar’s github.

Via the contact form.

 

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

IRToy

We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week two random commenters will get a coupon code for the free PCB drawer tomorrow morning. Pick your own PCB. You get unlimited free PCBs now – finish one and we’ll send you another! Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:

Continue reading “Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB”

App note: Soldering Tip Care and Use

A quick app note from Weller on soldering tip care. Link here (PDF!)

When it comes to soldering irons, you know that the tip is the most critical component. While the soldering iron holds and heats the tip and controls its performance, the tip is tasked with the most important job of transferring heat efficiently and reliably to the connection point. Inadequate or improper tip maintenance is a leading cause of soldering problems.

App note: “Is Your Soldering Equipment Speeding?”

an_weller_equipment_speeding

A technical note from Weller on how accurate your soldering tool reading are. Link here (PDF!)

With so many technological advancements, there is no excuse for incorrect measurement readings. For example, your automobile has a number of alternative methods to check the accuracy of the speedometer. You rely on those indicators to be accurate.  If they’re not, major problems can result.
Consider this question: Do you trust the accuracy of your soldering station temperature readings the same as you do your car’s speedometer?

Dobot: Robotic Arm for everyone, Arduino & Open Source

dobot

Here’s an interesting open source project on Kickstarter the magical robotic arm, Dobot:

Designed for DESKTOP. Arduino-powered, 4-axis parallel-mechanism robot arm with High Quality. For makers, educators, and everyone!
We are six engineers who built a 4-axis high accuracy, high repeat precision, stepper motor, Arduino-based, desktop robotic arm called Dobot.

You can visit his Kickstart page for more info.

Also check out project’s Instructables and Github page.

Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

BP

Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:

Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”

HC508 Amiga 500 accelerator card

IMG_20150904_124108

A HC508 Amiga 500 accelerator card project from mc68k:

 Finally, the project has reached a stage when complete system tests are possible The integrated CF + IDE allows running the complete OS 3.1 with WHDLoad.
Key feaures:

  • 68HC000 CPU running at 50 MHz (100% MC68000 compatibility)
  • 40 pin IDE connector for HDD, CD ROM etc.
  • Integrated CF connector
  • 8 MB Fast RAM (1 wait state)
  • 512k FlashROM for Kickstart (1 wait state)
  • Utility for disabling / enabling every module separately (XCPU, XRAM, XROM, IDE)

Project info at Amiga projects blog.

Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “HC508 Amiga 500 accelerator card”

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

IRToy-600x369

Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week:

  • Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch it every Sunday, right here on the blog
  • Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
  • Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs will be your friend for the weekend

Some stuff:

  • Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
  • Check out how we mail PCBs worldwide video.
  • We’ll contact you via Twitter with a coupon code for the PCB drawer.
  • Limit one PCB per address per month please.
  • Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.

We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

Data logger deluxe version

lucky-resistor-1

An update on LuckyResistor’s data logger project we covered previously:

Just to let you know the deluxe version of the data logger is almost done. The hardware is ready and tested – currently I finish the menu based software for the data logger.

  • Menu based control with 5 capacitive inputs
  • Record, view records, send records to serial, erase all, settings
  • Wireless charging

Project info at LuckyResistor’s blog.

 

Screw it, lets go live! Dev site launch

fullsize_distr

Dirt cheap SLA 3d prints, custom color PCBs, and not-ripping-you-off pogo test pins are now available at dev.dangerousprototypes.com! We built a bunch of new, no nonsense, instant pricing services modeled after the simplicity of DirtyPCBs.com, please help us test them!

  • Dirty SLA 3D prints – $0.95 per gram for beautiful white SLA 3D prints. Upload your .STL file for an instant quote. Production time is generally 48 hours, but please allow 3-4days for the first few order. For reference our 5cm x 5cm Bus Pirate v5 case prototype is about $20.
  • Dirty PCBs – FR4, flex, and aluminum PCBs! 2,4,6,8, and 12 layers! Custom silk and solder mask colors (+$50)! We’ve located the dirtiest suppliers of +/-10 piece protopacks of every combination available. A massive update to the Dirty PCBs offerings, though some common stuff is more expensive to avoid a rush of orders in the new system.
  • Pogo test pins – Yeah, other people might charge you more for 10 than we do for a bag of 100! These are P100 series 1mm diameter pogo test pins from SEG market second floor. Don’t forget sockets, available in solderable, wire wrap, and crimp!

Dirty PCBs was born at the first Hacker Camp Shenzhen, new dirty services were a common joke over the next four camps: sourcing, cables, SLA, assembly, Tang, etc. Unintentional Tsing Dao fueled market research meetings led even the thick among us to realize that hackers want cheap services and products from China.

Continue reading “Screw it, lets go live! Dev site launch”

Directional coupler

DirectionalCoupler

Flathagen blogged about his DIY directional coupler:

It is simple to construct the directional coupler. The transformers are FT50-43 toroid cores with 32 turns of 24 AWG enamel wire. The primary winding is simply a piece of RG58 through the torioid (i.e., one turn). Different designs use different toroids and number of turns. I settled down on a design found in Arduino projects for amateur radio.
I used a aluminum box and BNC connectors. I used copper clad boards as shielding here and there. I did not have any 50 ohm resistors in my junk box so I used two 100 ohm resistors in parallel. They are all 2W resistors, which is totally unnecessary and overkill.

Project info at Flathagen’s DIYcrap blog.

App note: Understanding latch-up in advanced CMOS logic

an_fairchild_an600

Another old app note from Fairchild Semiconductor about CMOS latch-up. Link here (PDF!)

Latch-up is a failure mechanism of CMOS integrated circuits characterized by excessive current drain coupled with functional failure, parametric failure and/or device destruction. It may be a temporary condition that terminates upon removal of the exciting stimulus, a catastrophic condition that requires the shutdown of the system to clear or a fatal condition that requires replacement of damaged parts. Regardless of the severity of the condition, latch-up is an undesirable but controllable phenomenon. In many cases, latch-up is avoidable.

Latch-up has long been a bane to CMOS IC applications; its occurrence and theory have been the subjects of numerous studies and articles. The applications engineer and systems designer, however, are not so much concerned with the theory and modeling of latch-up as they are with the consequences of latch-up and what has been done by the device designer and process engineer to render ICs resistant to latch-up. Of equal interest are those precautions, if any, which must be observed to limit the liability of designs to latch-up.