SimpleLink ultra-low power wireless MCU platform

TI

Allie informs us of TI’s new SimpleLink ultra-low power wireless platform for Bluetooth Smart, 6LoWPAN, ZigBee, Sub-1 GHz and ZigBee RF4CE

Today, TI is helping manufacturers throw out the battery for their IoT devices with its new SimpleLink ultra-low power wireless MCU platform. This new wireless MCU family brings a first to the industry, a single-chip that supports multiple wireless connectivity standards with identical RF design – Bluetooth Smart, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Sub-1 GHz, ZigBee RF4CE and proprietary modes up to 5Mbps.
The new easy to use SimpleLink ULP platform is the lowest powered MCU in the industry with an integrated ARM Cortex-M3 MCU, radio, Flash/RAM, analog-to-digital converter, peripherals, sensor controller and built-in robust security on chip.

Via the contact form.

For more information visit www.ti.com/simplelinkulp.

 

Programming Arduino Pro Mini with Bus Pirate

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Dana Harding writes:

Program an Arduino Pro Mini 328 [sparkfun] board using a Bus Pirate.
I tried setting up the Bus Pirate as a transparent bridge for UART to use the Arduino boot loader. I got as far as manually sending 0x30 0x20, and receiving a 0x10 0x14 – establishing communication over UART… But couldn’t get the Arduino IDE to actually upload a program to it.
It turns out – version depending – that avrdude can use the buspirate as an SPI programmer.

Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.

Arduino Uno R3 graphics accelerator shield uses no pins

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Andy Brown has written an article detailing his Arduino graphics accelerator open source project:

This project brings together the knowledge that I’ve gained over the last few years to bring you a graphics accelerator for the Arduino Uno R3 based on an ARM Cortex M0 core attached to a 640×360 LCD from the Sony U5 Vivaz cellphone.

Via the contact form.

Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading “Arduino Uno R3 graphics accelerator shield uses no pins”

DirtyPCBs: HDC1000 temperature and humidity sensor breakout, with Arduino library

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Francesco Truzzi published a new build: a breakout board for the TI HDC1000, a tiny (8BGA) temperature and humidity sensor

The boards were again fulfilled by DirtyPCBs, perfect for this kind of small projects.
So here are the pictures of my board and here are the features:

  • Address selection jumpers: ADR0 and ADR1 are tied to GND by default but you can jump them to VCC in order to change the address of your sensor (default:0x40)
  • I2C pull-ups to VCC for SDA, SCL and DRDYn. If you don’t want to use the latter, just don’t solder the resistor and leave it floating
  • 3-5V input, logic 5V tolerant (3.3V recommended)

Via the contact form.

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

KHOS-2-3-4-5-6P 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.

1mm pitch flex cable passthrough

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Kuzyatech has a new project posted, a Flex (FPC) 1mm cable passthrough breakout:

By popular demand, the breakout/passthrough combination boards family now includes a 1mm pitch variant
This version handles up to 30 signals which seems to be a practical limit of most 1mm FPC connectors. Each signal is numbered and brought to a 0.1mm spacing header for easy connection to your favorite logger/analyzer/scope.

For more information visit the Kuzyatech’s site. It’s also up on Tindie.

Clocked 8-bit random pattern generator for CMOS synth

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Michael of Acidbourbon built a clocked 8-bit random pattern generator and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly:

The idea behind this circuit is really simple:

  1. Build a white noise source
  2. Amplify the noise until it has CMOS/TTL logic level (0V=Lo, 5V=Hi)
  3. Use a clocked flip flop to sample the high frequency noise at a fixed rate (with a low frequency clock signal).

And then you should get a random sequence which changes at a fixed rate. If we use a shift register (a chain of flip flops), we can produce a multitude of binary random signals, which all toggle to the same rhythm.

Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Clocked 8-bit random pattern generator for CMOS synth”

STM32CubeMX GCC Makefile project

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Baoshi writes:

Writing peripheral initialization code is probably the most tedious work in embedded development. It always successfully stops me from starting a new project. I believe engineers at STMicroelectronics share the same pain. Therefore they created STM32Cube firmware and STM32CubeMX graphical configuration tool, which turns numerous key strokes and page flips into just a few mouse clicks. STM32CubeMX is free software, but the initialization code it generates require compiler tools carrying hefty price tags, IARARM, Keil ARM-MDK, and Atollic TrueSTUDIO, to name the few. Fair enough these compilers do offer free editions with limited functionality. But I still prefer unrestricted, free tool that is easily scale-able for my current and future projects. Just like the GNU Make and ARM GCC toolchain I described in Opensource STM32 development.

App note: The effect of pan material in an induction cooker

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A good read on induction cooker and the effects of pan material used, app note(PDF) from ON Semiconductors.

Induction heating is a well established method of generating heat in metal goods and has been used for decades. The induction cooking market is well established, but little has been written regarding the properties and interactions of the induction coil when a pan is placed on it. It can be seen that any metal pan will have losses due to eddy currents; however, those losses are small compared to those in pans with magnetic properties.

The type of magnetic material does not have an appreciable impact on the losses; however, the losses increase with frequency for all pans. Pushing switching frequencies higher will reduce the cost of the coil, resonant capacitor, and increase the efficiency of the unit. As switching devices advance in switching speeds, frequencies for these types of cookers with also increase to take advantage of these improvements.

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

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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: Using the DAC as a function generator

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A function generator from an C8051 DAC application note(PDF) from Silicon Labs

This document describes how to implement an interrupt driven multifunction generator on C8051 devices using the on-chip digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

Four different waveforms expandable to any periodic function defined in a table.
– Sine Wave (Table Defined)
– Square Wave (Calculated)
– Triangle Wave (Calculated)
– Saw Tooth Wave (Calculated)
* Allows selection of the frequency and amplitude of waveform at run time.
* An interactive interface with a PC using the serial communications port and HyperTerminal or an equivalent program.

App note: Adding an ADC to the Raspberry Pi

 

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Adding an ADC to the Raspberry Pi app note (PDF!) from  FTDIChip:

This application note will show how to connect the RPI-Hub-Module to the Raspberry Pi and install FTDI drivers to control the module. The application note will then explain how the module may be used to read values from an external ADC device over the SPI interface.

App note: USB HID bootloader for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5LP

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An application note on USB HID bootloader for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5LP from Cypress:

AN73503 describes how to implement a USB bootloader for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5LP devices by using the USB Human Interface Device (HID) class. It also shows how to build a Windows-based USB host program. A PSoC Creator project and an example host program are included.

DirtyPCBs: C64FC 16K edition ready

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Stian Søreng writes:

A stack of release candidate 3 boards of the C64FC are on my desk, and a few changes have been made since RC2. We’re talking 16K support, software switches to select 8K/16K cartridge, cart disable support, bugs fixed and patched.
I also want to give a good shoutout to DirtyPCBs for their excellent service on this run. 9 days (!) after the order was submitted, a set of high-quality boards were on my desk. This is by far the fastest and cheapest service I have ever used.

Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

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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”

Daft Punk Thomas helmet (RGB LEDs + iPhone App)

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Marc made this cool DIY Daft Punk helmet and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly:

It wasn’t until June of 2014 when I was browsing through Sparkfun’s New Product Post and I saw some LEDs that caught my eye. Now, I know the WS2811/2812 LEDs have been the craze for the past few years, but I have been out of the loop for a while. For my last LED project (Mau5head 2.0 for Deadmau5) completed in 2012, I designed custom flexible PCB strips that held 5mm SMD LEDs at a 10mm pitch. Each pixel had its own LPD-6803 controller IC, which I had to order custom from China in a QFN-16 package to get it small enough. It was a 6-month long project. Maybe some day I will write up a post about it.
These days, WS2811 LEDs have built-in controllers and apparently come in all shapes and sizes. When I saw the 5mm thru-hole LEDs on Sparkfun, I immediately thought about the Thomas helmet. This was the missing link I needed to make a really awesome display for Thomas. I called Shaggy and told him to get sanding. With the goal of bringing it to DragonCon 2014, we had to hurry.

Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Daft Punk Thomas helmet (RGB LEDs + iPhone App)”

Mobile radio power controller ( MRPC )

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Pete made a mobile radio power controller  and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly:

Before I began the installation of my Yaesu FT-8800 in my car I knew I wanted automatic power ON / OFF.  This is a feature that I have always felt was lacking in my other mobile rigs as I am forever leaving my ham radio on long after I have departed the car.

Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading “Mobile radio power controller ( MRPC )”

Power playground project

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Spacewrench over at Dorkbotpdx published a new build, a Power Playground project:

It’s a PMOS/NMOS H-Bridge with FETs that can handle 3 amps or so, plus a SPI current sensor, some switches & a rotary encoder (not stuffed yet), and a 7-segment display, all controlled by a Teensy-3.1 running FreeRTOS.
I made this because I’m always running into battery, power, inductor and transformer issues I don’t have any experience with. The idea is to use the H-bridge configuration and current sensors to experiment with moderate-current PWM, motor control, power-line synchronization, battery charging and discharging, etc.

 

Android ping pong ball levitation

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Jacob writes:

This demonstration results in the levitation of a ping pong ball on a cushion of air. The purpose of the demonstration is to highlight the features of the PONTECH Quick240. Specifically and most excidingly the interface to an android tablet using the Android ADK. All of the source code controlling this application is open source and available for download on GitHub.

Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Android ping pong ball levitation”