MCU controlled spot welder

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Hercules Trapierakis over at Electronics-Lab writes: “This project is a controller for a dual pulse spot welder that has some nice features that are controlled using a LCD interface.”

I always wanted a spot welder, so I decided to built one. I wanted to build a capacitance discharge one but I couldn’t afford for the capacitors at this time. So this is a controller for a dual pulse spot welder with some few extras:
– It has a zero cross detector. You could power the transformer at zero cross or dim the transformer if you like
– The transformer is triac controlled
– It has an hd44780 interface
– An spi interface for single thermocouple
– Peak detector of a current transformer
– Isolated foot switch
– Voltage monitor with opmaps
– An attempt to sense when the user tries to weld
– Single rotary switch for operation and single rotary encoder for setting up

Unbricking a TP-Link TL-WA801ND v2

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TasksOfOhm has posted a tutorial on how to unbrick TP-Link TL-WA801ND v2:

Experimenting with embedded devices is fun but things not always work as expected. Sometimes you just flash the wrong firmware. So did I. After having done so I furthermore realized that the bootloader in my TL-WA801ND v2.1 was the current one and therefore contains a bug (or maybe it was deliberately crippled?). The impact of this bug was that you’re not able to load something via TFTP from the bootloader. How to unbrick this device? Is it possible at all? To anticipate the answer: It is. But at intermediate level…
The very first step was to identify the flash chip itself. In the picture below I marked the flash on the PCB. It is located next to the UART header JP1 (unpopulated in this picture). It is a S25FL032A/P from Spansion.

LuxBlaster: Arduino controlled light sensor/response device


Techbitar writes,

LuxBlaster is an Arduino gizmo that detects and tracks the most intense light source then sends back an intense light in the same direction.

Beware, rude drivers. The LuxBlaster is coming!! When you drive at night, every once in a while a car will approach you from behind with its annoying high beam turned on. Most of the time, the driver of the car will remember to lower the lights. But on rare occasions you will run into some crazed driver who will blast his/her high beams from behind to prod you into shifting to another lane quickly even if you are following the speed limit. The smart thing to do is to let this rude driver pass. But just for fun, here’s the dream gadget that would have given those crazy drivers a taste of their own medicine.

Via the contact form.

STM32 Nucleo development series

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Alexander Czajor from ST writes:

ST has just released the STM32 Nucleo. This is a series of development tools that allow to quickly evaluate any STM32. These boards are extensible with Arduino, and they are supported by mbed. This makes them a good basis for any embedded community.

The main idea:

– A lean board
– Contains and STLink debugger/programmer (as all ST MCU evaluation tools do)
– Contains an STM32 in 64pin package
– Carries Arduino UNO v3 connectors
– Carries another connector called “Morpho” (and ST development)
– Has 2 Vreg and a couple of buttons and LEDs

Starting from there, every STM32 Nucleo board has the same layout making the each I/O pin of the contained micro available on the same physical location of the Arduino and “Morpho” connector. Many functions are common to all STM32 on the same pin location.
Continue reading “STM32 Nucleo development series”

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

STICKERS

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: Interfacing FT2232H hi-speed devices to SPI bus

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Simplify USB to SPI connectivity by using this app note from FTDI.

The FT2232H and FT4232H are the FTDI’s first USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (480Mbits/s) USB to UART/FIFO ICs. They also have the capability of being configured in a variety of serial interfaces using the internal MPSSE (Multi-Protocol Synchronous Serial Engine).

This application note introduces the SPI synchronous serial communication interface, and illustrates how to implement SPI with the FT2232H. The FT2232H will be used to write and read data to a SPI serial EEPROM.

App note: Interfacing FT2232H hi-speed devices to I2C bus

FTDI_AN113

Simplify USB to I2C connectivity by using this app note from FTDI.

The FT2232H and FT4232H are the FTDI’s first USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (480Mbits/s) USB to UART/FIFO ICs. They also have the capability of being configured in a variety of serial interfaces using the internal MPSSE (Multi-Protocol Synchronous Serial Engine).

This application note illustrates how to use the MPSSE of the FT2232H to interface with the I2C bus. Users can use the example schematic and functional software code to begin their design. Note that software code is provided as an illustration only and not supported by FTDI.

App note: A complete low-cost design and analysis for single and multi-phase AC induction motors using an 8-Bit PIC16 microcontroller

appnote

Here’s an application note (PDF!) from Microchip on driving a single and multi-phase AC induction motor (ACIM) using the PIC16F1509 microcontroller:

This document provides a detailed analysis of driving a
single and multi-phase AC induction motor (ACIM)
using the PIC16F1509 microcontroller. Laboratory data
is presented alongside the simulated data in an
extensive reasoning of the entire design. The purpose
of this application note is to show how to add speed
control and soft-start to a single and multi-phase AC
induction motor by using a three-phase inverter circuit.
A low-cost solution is delivered, complete with a bill of
materials (BOM), schematic, code and PCB artwork
files. After analyzing this document, the reader can
easily integrate the reference design and associated
materials into a competitive product. The design does
not include power factor correction because of the
low-cost initiative.

Single-lever and ultimatic adapter

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Sverre Holm writes:

Here’s an adapter that emulates both a single-lever paddle mode and the ultimatic mode. It is meant to go between a dual-lever paddle and an iambic keyer. The adapter has been implemented in an AVR Butterfly in C and it is compatible with Morse keyers such as the one in the Elecraft K3 and the K1EL WKUSB. The single-lever emulation is probably the most novel part and it is meant to make it easier to practice single-lever keying on a dual-lever paddle.

Single chip provides 3D images inside the heart and blood vessels

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Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new medical imaging technology that provides 3D imaging from inside the heart and blood vessels:

The device integrates ultrasound transducers with processing electronics on a single 1.4 millimeter silicon chip. On-chip processing of signals allows data from more than a hundred elements on the device to be transmitted using just 13 tiny cables, permitting it to easily travel through circuitous blood vessels. The forward-looking images produced by the device would provide significantly more information than existing cross-sectional ultrasound.

Via  Electronics-Lab

Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

buspiratev38

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. 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”

Arduino network uptime monitor with Twitter updates

Arduino net monitor

Steve from Hackshed.co.uk has posted project details on their Arduino network monitor. They use an Arduino, an Arduino Ethernet Shield, the Twitter Library and the ICMP Ping Library by Blake F to monitor the network and send updates via Twitter. He reports, “It was actually surprisingly easy; we had the Twitter posting code from the previous project and we found an Arduino ICMP library so that we could test a ping to the hosts and see if it was responding or not, we added this to our task scheduling code and the rest just fell into place.”

Via the contact form.

Week in (p)review February 21, 2014

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Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon.

Coming up:

  • Free PCBs via Facebook on Friday
  • App notes on the weekend
  • Free PCB Sunday
  • Free PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday
  • Weekly roundup and preview every Friday

Inductive loop vehicle detector v2.1

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Trax of Elektronika.ba has written an article detailing his inductive loop detector that uses PIC microcontroller and Colpitts oscillator with a large coil buried in pavement to detect vehicles:

Inductive Loop Detector works by detecting an inductance change in wire loop (coil) that is buried in road. It does that by measuring the frequency of the internal oscillator which powers the mentioned coil. When a metallic object moves over the coil it changes its inductance and that in turn changes the oscillator frequency which is measured by the microcontroller. It is used for vehicle access control at door and barrier controls, for monitoring the occupancy and for vehicle counting in parking garages, for traffic light installations and traffic controllers, for direction and speed detection of vehicle traffic (if dual channel version is used), in car-wash plants, etc.

Via the contact form.

How to: compiling Arduino Caterina with new VID/PID

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Compiling the Arduino Leonardo bootloader (aka Caterina) is a required step in making your own Arduino Leonardo-compatible board available to others. Steven Casagrande has written this post detailing what you need to do in order to make your derivative board valid for sale.

Via the contact form.

A look into the Open Source Hardware Community

OpenSource

Simone Cicero over at Open Electronics writes:

AS you may know, just few weeks ago OSHWA published the results from 2013 Open Hardware Community survey. You can find original datasheets and everything here. Despite raw data is good, I thought it was good to spend some time looking at the data trying to gather more insights, when possible, still keeping in mind that the survey samples a very limited and polarized (OSHWA centric) chunk of the community. But we need to start from something in a way.

Simple SMD LED tester

SAMSUNG

Peter over at Electronics-Lab posted an article describing how he designed and built his simple SMD LED tester:

This project is a simple LED tester and LED polarity checker. It can be used to check 1206, 0805, 0603 and 5mm LEDs. All parts are readily available and they are very cheap. Usage is very simple. Just press the tack switch to first check the battery is good. The blue led will turn on. Now you are ready to test your leds and check their polarity.

Another better component storage

component storage

Here’s another better way to store your electronics components by Nick of Arachnidlabs:

I think I’ve found a better way to store those parts, though. I sourced some 3” x 5” antistatic bags for a pittance, lasercut a box to hold them in, and printed off some simple labels to keep track of what’s in each one. Here’s the end result.
So far, it seems to work pretty well, allowing me to store a lot of different parts in only a very small amount of space.

Via the contact form.

HP 6113A teardown And calibration

HP6113A_Inside

Kerry Wong writes:

A couple of weeks ago I did a teardown of HP 6181C — a precision DC current source made in the late 70′s and early 80′s. This time around, I am going to show some pictures of an HP 6113A precision DC power supply and do a basic calibration using my Keithley 196 multimeter.
I bought this HP Harrison 6113A DC power supply on eBay a while ago. This series of precision power supplies were made way back in the late 60′s and early 70′s. It consists the following models: 6110A (0-3000V, 0-6mA), 6111A (0-20V, 0-1A), 6112A (0-40V, 0-500mA), 6113A (0-10V, 0-2A), 6116A (0-100V, 0-200mA). Among these five models 6113A has the highest output voltage resolution (100 µV). Even by today’s standard, this specification is still quite impressive and can only be found on some of the most expensive power supplies.

Listening to D-STAR digital voice with DSD 1.7


Brazilian amateur radio operator PU2VLW has written a post (in Portugese) detailing how to use DSD version 1.7 to decode amateur radio D-STAR digital voice transmissions. (Google translate may be helpful.) DSD can be downloaded as source from GitHub.

His setup uses a Windows machine running SDR# to receive the D-STAR signal using an RTL-SDR dongle, and uses a physical audio out cable to connect the Windows PC’s audio out to the Ubuntu 10.04 box running DSD 1.7.

Here’s a related post detailing how to get DSD 1.7 up and running entirely on Windows.

Via RTL-SDR.com.