Robson of Dragão sem Chama writes, “this time I want to share my Mega Drive flash cart made of old BIOS chips. I made it because my Sonic cart was not working since always. I used Arduino, Python and a bit of Processing (nice to show visual info) to program”
Via the contact form.
Check out the video after the break.
Continue reading “Fixing a Mega drive cartridge with old BIOS chips”
Francesco’s LSF0204 breakout board, a 4-bit, bidirectional, multi-voltage level converter:
I needed a small, fast and reliable multi-voltage level translator (mainly for connecting ESP8266 boards to the Arduino, got tired of resistor networks pretty quickly) so I built a breakout board for TI’s LSF0204(D).
Datasheet and info here.
The LSF0204 is a nice little chip. It can translate up to 4 signals to and from the following values:
1.0 V ↔ 1.8/2.5/3.3/5 V.
1.2 V ↔ 1.8/2.5/3.3/5 V.
1.8 V ↔ 2.5/3.3/5 V.
2.5 V ↔ 3.3/5 V.
3.3 V ↔ 5 V.
Design files on Github. Leftovers (PCBs only!) are available on Tindie.
Daniel over at Bench Talk /Mouser blog writes:
Most engineers cringe when they see an Arduino in my toolbox. Their reaction is partly due to the fact that Arduino is often viewed as being too easy to use or just not feasible. For the most part, they are correct, but that’s not what I’m here to debate about. What these people don’t realize is the powerful “shape shifting” tool that this low cost development board is. Here are three commonly overlooked uses for an Arduino:
- Digital Logic Analyzer
- AVR Programmer
- UART to USB
Kerry Wong writes:
I was quite intrigued by the S-Pen that came with my Samsung Galaxy Note 4. According to the specifications listed on Samsung’s site, the S-Pen supplied with Samsung Galaxy Note 4 he S-Pen supports 11 bits (2048 levels) of pressure levels and can be detected at a 15 mm hovering distance from the phone surface.
Kristofer at Android Authority had done a teardown of the S-Pen a couple of years ago (it was an older model, but the principal should be largely the same). And as we know the S-Pen works similar to an RFID which is passively powered from the electromagnetic field generated by the phone. I thought it would be interesting to dig a bit deeper to see what the communication patterns look like.
Because the S-Pen is powered by the RF field via inductance coupling, we can use a pickup coil to detect the signals passed between the pen and the pone without having to take apart either. To do this, I dissembled a small speaker and used the voice coil as the pickup device.
Helge of WeatherStation writes:
After some help from wolfmanjm and CosR1, I managed to get a separate Buydisplay based GSL1680 touch panel up’n running on an Arduino Mega (1280) with only minor modifications to wolfmanjms code.
The firmware is an integrated part of the sketch. Instead of using ram, it is put in the flash memory using PROGMEM. Some, to me, special memory magic is used to read the firmware from the sketch flash (Thanks to CosR1). There might be other ways, but I haven’t investigated further. From there it is easy to write the firmware to the GSL1680 though the I2C bus. Initialization of the GSL1680 is also a bit special. It needs some special sequence of operations. I’m not sure if the code is optimal in that regard, but it seems to be stable. Linux-sunxi.org has a wiki with some info. There is even some information on the internal firmware registers here (haven’t verified if this info is correct).
I’ve forked the original wolfmanjm/GSL1680 github repo to hellange/GSL1680 and checked in the modifications needed for Arduino MEGA.
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:
Some stuff:
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.
Anurag Mishra writes,
Recently I bought a new pair of Inline Skates. So an idea struck my mind. I modified my skates to give me some results. I wanted to measure the speed with which I am skating and if I get to know the surrounding conditions, that would be awesome. So, I brought an Arduino, an LDR, some LED’s, JHD 162a LCD display, HC SR04 ultrasonic sensor and a DHT11 temperature-humidity sensor.
A wheel of my skates has 8 spokes. I put a LED on one side of the wheel and a LDR on the other side. I am counting the number of pulses in one minute. These pulses are the blockages caused by the spokes to the LDR. Dividing the count by 8, I get the RPM and then Linear speed can easily be obtained.
While skating, a skate is not always on the ground, so I am measuring the RPM only when the skate is on the ground. This, I am doing with the HC SR04 ultrasonic sensor. I have explained this in my video.All the readings- Speed, temperature and humidity are displayed on the LCD display.
It is portable and battery powered. To make it look fascinating I have put some LED’s for head light, tail light.
A second video is available on YouTube.
The code is available on GitHub.
The project description is on my site.
Via the contact form.
Emil of Unwind.se wrote an article on how to use custom UART baudrates on a Bus Pirate:
I made Bus Pirate-baud rate to help when setting custom UART baud rates on the #buspirate. Easier than binary downloads.
Via Twitter.
Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
follower from rancidpacon writes,
I recently wrote a 15-page getting started guide for the $5 ESP8266 WiFi modules for Kiwicon 8, a local New Zealand hacker con. It’s available as both HTML and a PDF.
It provides details on: how to make the hardware connections using an FTDI Board or Arduino (with suitable disclaimer); how to communicate with the module; using AT commands to act as a client, server or AP; and, updating the firmware.
The con brought in a shipment of 100 of the modules which sold out extremely quickly and the guide provides a one-stop-shop for how to get started with the modules.
Via the contact form.
A teardown of the lightning connector by Ramtin Amin.
Via Hacked Gadgets.
Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Apple lightning connector hacked”
Demodulating the Qi standard wireless power charger app note(PDF) using MC56F8006 digital signal controller from Freescale Semiconductor.
Wireless power is becoming more and more popular today, through which a number of electronic items like mobiles, laptops, media players, can be charged without cords or wires. It is beginning to show great potential in the consumer market.
Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has developed a standard called Qi, which defines the types of inductive coupling and the communications protocol to be used for lowpower wireless devices. Qi creates interoperability between the Power Transmitter and the Power Receiver. As a regular member of WPC, Freescale has its own Qi-compliant low-power wireless charger reference design for the customers now.
This application note aims to describe the Qi communication data demodulation design for wireless charger transmitter with MC56F8006 digital signal controller (DSC) including Qi communication interface, demodulation circuits design, and demodulation software design.
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:
An app note(PDF) from Freescale Semiconductor on 5-16V, free positioning multiple primary coils “Qi” compatible wireless power transmitter.
Wireless power transmission system transfers electrical power from transmitter to receiver without any wire connection. Due to safety, freedom, reliable, convenient and long life, wireless charging is popular, and widely used in everything such as toothbrushes, LED candles, remote controls, medical equipment, mobile phones, and other equipment.
This paper describes a Freescale low-power wireless transmitter solution (TX) compliant to the “Qi” standard of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), using single-stage fullbridge resonant inverter topology on Freescale ultra low cost MC56F8006 DSC device.
Intersil’s application note (PDF!) on building a battery operated auto ranging DVM with the ICL7106:
This application note describes a technique for auto-ranging a battery operated DVM suitable for panel meter applications. Also, circuit ideas will be presented for conductance and resistance measurement, 9V battery and 5V supply operations, and current measurement.
An application note from Silicon Labs on Infrared gesture sensing (PDF!):
Touchless user interfaces are an emerging trend in embedded electronics as product designers seek out innovative control methods and more intuitive ways for users to interact with electronics. Active infrared proximity motion sensing can solve this challenge. Silicon Labs Si114x proximity and ambient light sensor products are ideally suited to touchless gesturing applications such as page turning on an e-reader, scrolling on a tablet PC, or GUI navigation. The Si114x features up to three LED drivers and has the ability to sense gestures within a 7 to 15 cm product interaction region, assuming a hand as the detectable object. This document will discuss in detail how Silicon Labs implements motion sensing using infrared technology. There are two primary methods used for gesture sensing – position-based and phase-based. Position-based gesture sensing involves finding gestures based on the calculated location of an object while phase-based gesture sensing is based on the timing of the changes in signal to determine the direction of an object’s motion.
An update on Lukas’ stand-alone inductance meter project we covered previously:
From a high-level point of view the new software is very similar to the Arduino sketch I wrote for the Inductance Meter Shield. If you look a bit closer, you’ll notice some differences for several reasons:
- This project uses an entirely different microcontroller: A PIC 16F1932 instead of the Atmel Atmega328
- This code is written in C (for the MikroC for PIC compiler by Mikroelektronika), not Arduino-style C++
- The display I’m using here comes with a I2C interface rather than the familiar Hitachi interface
Free shipping on this CNY holiday at Seeed Studio:
This is a notification that let you know we are going to Chinese New Year holiday soon.
Yeah….Happy Chinese New Year!
The holiday start on : 2/14/2015 ~ 2/25/2015 (UTC+8)
24/7 Online Store, if you place an order(Fusion service included) during the holidays, you can enjoy:
1) FREE registered airmail shipping for all orders
2) FREE express shipping over USD150.00 (UPS, FedEx, DHL, EMS are included)
Please be notice: Distributors are not included in this promotion.
All orders placed afterwards Feb.13th(Included), will be shipped starting from 2/26/2015.
This is guideline to let you know how to get and redeem free express shipping coupon code once order over USD150.00.
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”
Pico-Kubik, the tinniest quadruped robot with Micropython on board by Radomir Dopieralski:
This is the fourth quadruped that I’m building, after Kubik, µKubik, and Nano-Kubik. This one literally fits in the palm of your hand (you can see it next to a LEGO brick on the photo). It’s going to run on Micropython on a VoCore board, and possibly carry a webcam.
Via the contact form.
Ch00f wrote a post on his blog detailing his PrintSnap instant camera assembly:
So the task was to produce a portable camera that can print images instantly using an optical module and a thermal printer. Of course, processing a decent image quickly requires far more processing power than what’s available in an 8-bit AVR, so unless I wanted my instant-pictures to take weeks, this was the perfect project to get me started on ARM.
Check out the video after the break.
