3d printed portable arcade controller

Facelesstech has published a new build:

So I recycled the Arduino pro micro off of one of my old controllers, In doing so I messed the pin 16 up so I had to use one of the analog pins instead. The wiring was quite simple really. I ran a ground wire round all the buttons, burning off the silicon where needed. Next I wired up the 5v and GND for the 6 button because they light up, Again I just ran a 5v loop around them and then tapped off the GND wire using some sold core wire to make it look neat.

See project details on Facelesstech blog. Project files are available on GitHub.

Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading “3d printed portable arcade controller”

Building an ATmega 1284p based data logger

A detailed instructions of how to build an ATmega 1284p based data logger:

In this tutorial, a logger is built using a 3.3v Moteino MEGA with a 1284p CPU @ 16Mhz, w 4K eeprom,16K SRAM for variables & 128K program space. Considerably more than the 328’s 1K eeprom, 2K ram & 32K progmem. Also has a spare serial port for GPS/NEMA sensors.

See the full post on Underwater Arduino Data Loggers blog.

Tandy 1000 upgrades / PS2-Tandy keyboard adapter

Vintage computer Tandy 1000 upgrade @ smbaker.com:

A Tandy 1000 was the second computer that I owned, the first was a Tandy CoCo. Note that I keep a slightly different mental “computers that I owned” list and “computers that I used list”. There are a few computer I was able to gain access to and play with perhaps before the Tandy — computers like the Convergent NGEN, and the IBM 5150.
Owning computers is fun, but modifying computers is even funner, so I set about to modify the Tandy 1000. A few modifications were necessary — for example I didn’t yet own a Tandy keyboard, so I had to make myself an adapter to use a PS2 keyboard on the Tandy 1000. With the keyboard sorted, the Tandy turned into a late-night card-game machine for me — mostly a five-card draw poker sim that, in hindsight, was the obvious on-ramp to the real money poker sites I’d find on the internet years later when broadband finally showed up.

More details on Dr. Scott M. Baker blog.

Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading “Tandy 1000 upgrades / PS2-Tandy keyboard adapter”

App note: Probing oscillator output

This application note from SiTime gives practical guidelines for the effective probing of oscillator output, shows common mistakes and explains how to identify and avoid potential probing issues. Link here (PDF)

Electrical engineers often use oscilloscopes for purposes ranging from checking simple, lowspeed digital signals to accurate waveform and jitter measurements. They need to use probes to directly access arbitrary signals on a PCB. Probes can, however, put extra load on a signal or distort the waveform displayed on a scope. Therefore, probing should be done carefully.

App note: Definitions of VCXO specifications

App note from SiTime about Voltage controled crystal oscillator (VCXO) specification, Link here (PDF)

VCXO are frequency control devices that allow change of output frequency as their input voltage varies. In selecting a VCXO for any application, a number of device performance specifications must be considered. This application note attempts to clarify the key VCXOspecific performance specifications, and to illustrate some of the tradeoffs associated with using a VCXO in an application.

Tiny transformer inside: Decapping an isolated power transfer chip

Ken Shirriff writes:

I saw an ad for a tiny chip1 that provides 5 volts2 of isolated power: You feed 5 volts in one side, and get 5 volts out the other side. What makes this remarkable is that the two sides can have up to 5000 volts between them. This chip contains a DC-DC converter and a tiny isolation transformer so there’s no direct electrical connection from one side to the other. I was amazed that they could fit all this into a package smaller than your fingernail, so I decided to take a look inside.

See the full details at righto.com.

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

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.

 



12V 25A power supply

Stynus blogged about his 12V 25A power supply:

To test my LED Stair Lighting Controller boards I needed a 12V power supply that can deliver a lot of current. For this I chose a SP-320-12 from meanwell. However with the screw terminals it is not easy to use on a lab bench, also there is no display to monitor the output current. Therefore I build an enclosure around the PSU, and added a volt and ampere meter.

See the full post at en.elektronicastynus.be.

App note: Integrated supercapacitor charger

Application circuit of supercapacitor ENYCAP(TM) power management from Vishay. Link here (PDF)

The MAL219699001E3 demonstration circuit is a fully transparent power management solution with a regulated 2 W output and integrated power backup. It provides a DC/DC regulator with a wide power input range from 4.0 V to 20 V and adjustable regulated output between 3.3 V and 5.0 V.

Cloning a 6502 Apple-1 in just 930 logic gates

Turning 930 logic gates into a working 6502 Apple-1 clone:

Two years ago, the Gigatron arrived on the retrocomputing scene. It needs just 930 logic gates (packed into 33 standard 7400-series ICs) to create a computer that beat ‘complex’ 1980s home computers like the VIC-20 in terms of both CPU power and graphics. Without microprocessor, graphics, or even an ALU chip, the machine can do this sort of thing with effectively only half of the transistor count inside the 6502 CPU alone. Quite a feat, but more importantly, the hardware is simple enough so that anyone can figure out how it works. Read about it in my previous post

See the full details on Obsolescence Guaranteed blog.

Making an unusual and beautiful single-digit clock

A DIY single-digit clock using Arduino Nano, RTC and 3D printed 7-segment digit:

Generally at whatimade.today we post original projects we dream up ourselves. Today’s post is a little different. We’re going to describe how we constructed Mirko Pavleski’s single-digit clock. We made it because it’s a fun project, wonderfully impressive to look at, and a great design. Not only is the idea original, Mirko’s stl files for 3D printing are excellent, and his coding for the Arduino is very, very, sophisticated.

See the full details at whatimade.today.

Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading “Making an unusual and beautiful single-digit clock”

Reverse-engineering the audio amplifier chip in the Nintendo Game Boy Color

Ken has written an article on reverse engineering the audio amplifier chip in the Nintendo Game Boy Color:

The Nintendo Game Boy Color is a handheld game console that was released in 1998. It uses an audio amplifier chip to drive the internal speaker or stereo headphones. In this blog post, I reverse-engineer this chip from die photos and explain how it works.1 It’s essentially three power op-amps with some interesting circuitry inside.

More details on Ken Shirriff’s blog.

Broadlink smart bulb conversion to open source

VikTak writes:

Many of the current bulbs on the market are based on the same chip, the ESP8266. These bulbs are very easy to “hack” and replace the firmware in them with the likes of my ActoSenso or the more widely known and used Tasmota. However, not all bulbs use the same chip. One of my bulbs turned out to have a Broadlink BL3336T-P WiFi module in it. This chip is not open source and not well documented (like the ESP8266 family), so anyone trying to write new firmware for it must first figure out what exactly the chip does and how exactly it does it. This is not an impossible task – some have managed to make great progress on figuring out the inner workings of it, but it is a slow, hit and miss process.
In this article I will show a different approach: I replaced the WiFi chip along with its PCB and other parts that drive the LEDs and designed a new, drop-in replacement based on the ESP8266 chip.

See the full post at diy.viktak.com.

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

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.

 

NRI G-13.mft parallel coin acceptor to Serial adapter

David has been working on an ATmega based USB serial adapter for the NRI G-13.mft coin validator:

The NRI G-13.mft by Crane is a versatile and high secure coin validator. It can be programmed using the propretary WinEMP software and PC interface, or event it has some DIP Switch that can be used to program the device. Unluckily it does not come with a UART interface. But it features a “machine tester” I/O interface we can use to track the inserted coins.

See the full post on Davide Gironi’s blog.

Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading “NRI G-13.mft parallel coin acceptor to Serial adapter”

App note: Design of a 100W active clamp forward DC-DC converter for telecom systems using the NCP1562

Another DC-DC converter design using ON Semiconductor’s NCP1562 PWM Controller. Link here (PDF)

The NCP1562 PWM controller contains all the features and flexibility needed to implement an active clamp forward dc−dc converter. This IC operates from an input supply up to 150 V, thus covering the input voltages usually found in telecom, datacom and 42 V automotive systems. One can also note that the NCP1562 can be used in mains related applications (e.g. desktop, server, flat TVs) as it can be supplied by an auxiliary power supply

App note: Power-handling capabilities of inductors

App note from Coilcraft on how to calculate the power dissipation of an inductor. Link here (PDF)

Inductors are not typically rated by power, however an approximation of the power-handling capability of an air core or ceramic core chip inductor can be estimated using the data sheet specifications for current and resistance.