Video: Deploying software updates to ArduSat in orbit


Jonathan Oxer VK3FADO gave this presentation at the recent 2014 Linux conference in Perth, Western Australia. The ArduSat project aims to give hobbyists, students and space enthusiasts an opportunity to design and run their own experiments in space. “By choosing a standardized platform based on the hugely popular Arduino hardware design, ArduSat allows anyone to develop and prototype experiments at home using readily accessible parts and all based on a simple open source software environment.”

Here Jonathan outlines the challenges and technology involved in uploading firmware to an orbiting ArduSat.

Via Southgate Amateur Radio Club.

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

buspiratev38

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:

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App note: PCB design for 10/100 switches and PHY

PCB_design_10_100_sw_phy

Design guide on PCB layout from Micrel on 10/100 switches and PHY

This application note is intended to assist customers in
designing products that comply with both EMI and ESD
standards using Micrel’s 10/100 family of Ethernet
products.
The printed circuit board (PCB) is the single most
important factor that affects EMI, ESD and overall
performance. In order to meet these requirements depend
on good design practices. The goal here is to minimize
digital and common mode noise as well as to provide
shielding between the PCB’s internal circuitry and the
external environment. These PCB design practices should
apply to the entire PCB design, not just to Micrel Ethernet
products.

App note: Troubleshooting switching power supplies

troubleshoot_SMPS_micrel

Having problem with your switching power supply design? Or just curious on common switching power supply failures. Here’s a good resource from Micrel on troubleshooting power supplies.

This application note provides insight on troubleshooting and
taking measurements in switching power supplies. Specific
measurements include output ripple, line and load regulation,
efficiency, and transient response. Troubleshooting and
measurement of flyback and forward converter transformers
are also covered.
Common measurement mistakes are also demonstrated,
including using uncompensated scope probes. The final topic
is an in-depth example of troubleshooting an off-line flyback
power supply. Off-line flyback topologies involve all dc-dc
converter circuit blocks, plus the ac front end, thus cover most
troubleshooting problems.

The Drinkmotizer – a Raspberry Pi drink mixing robot


Cabe Atwell wanted a way to have a robot serve up a mixed drink efficiently and economically. He developed the Drinkmotizer, which uses a Raspberry Pi in combination with an Arduino to construct the dream project of many a maker. What makes this drink mixing robot different from other designs? Cabe says this machine builds for just over $1,300 USD which makes it less expensive than the others.

The user clicks on a drink icon on the touchscreen which is interpreted by the R-Pi. The Arduino receives the serial drink protocol (Recipe) from the Raspberry Pi and controls the motor routine based on the recipe. The Arduino receives the values separated by commas. We use the Serial.parseInt() function to place each comma separated value into an array. We then parse out the array and assign individual variables. Once these variables are assigned, we check the values of these variables and move the motor accordingly to each drink module position. The positions are fixed and have a set number of steps in order to move the motor until the cup is directly under the pour spout. The program will check the number of shots in the recipe and dispense the first shot then wait about 4 seconds for the drink module chamber to refill and pour the second shot before moving on to the rest of the recipe. The program also checks whether or not there is any more drink modules left to pour when executing the recipe. When no more drinks are left to pour, the program considers the drink complete and returns to the first position (home). The number of steps are added when the platform passes under the drink dispensers. When the program considers the drink complete, it takes the total number of steps added at its current position and moves the motor, that many steps, in the opposite direction. The platform returns to the exact place when it started the drink.
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electric imp-Controlled 120VAC relay switcher

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Dillon Nichols blog about his electric imp-Controlled 120Vac relay switcher build:

    I bought an electric imp about a year and a half ago when they were released. I loved it’s simplicity and made a few temporary projects involving it but wanted to keep it for something more advanced. After all this time, I decided it’s better just to use it for anything rather than leave it just sitting in a box in my room, so I’ve made an internet-controlled 120VAC relay switcher for it and an “app” for my iPhone to switch it remotely. I’m sure there are other ways of accomplishing this project, but I was able to build the whole thing using parts I already had on hand. This blog post will be a high-level overview of what I did to make it.

Vacuum fluorescent display alarm clock

VFD-Display-Weather-Time-Email

Vacuum fluorescent display alarm clock by Andrew Rossignol:

I have been working on this fun little project for the last couple of days. I ordered this VFD display from Noritake as a free sample. I am quite grateful for their generosity and I decided to put this display to good use.
I have written a driver in C# that implements a partial selection of the commands available from this display. The driver is object-oriented with property accessors used to set configuration parameters of the display.

I put all of this together into a sample application for a smart alarm clock that I would like to build eventually. The sample application gets my unread e-mail from Gmail and weather data from Open Weather Map. I am also attacking the 16 custom characters that reside in ram to display a few simple animations.

Overclocking the STM32F4

Untitled

mux writes:

I’ve been doing some tests with the STM32F407 to see how fast it can go, STMicro has released an almost identical one that runs at 180MHz, is it a marketing thing ? will they release a 200MHz version in a few months? who cares, anyway, I was able to run the STM32F407 at 240MHz without any “obvious” problems, in addition to overclocking, the code listed below lets you set some different frequencies, which could be useful for frequency scaling.

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:

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Free PCB Store restock: Prototype Bus Pirate probe cables

probecables-both

Bus Pirate v3 probe cable (yellow and white) labels are available now in the free PCB drawer.  A prototype probe cable for the Bus Pirate with male pins that fit in a breadboard. Each lead is labeled with a white or yellow printed shrink tube. Fits Bus Pirate v2go up to Bus Pirate v3.5.

Week in (p)review January 31, 2014

dp-stickers

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

Chinese New Year in Shenzhen the world electronics capital

Shenzhen wasn’t a town 30 years ago, it was barely a village. Almost nobody is from Shenzhen, people come here to make money and send it to family in other parts of China. Over the Chinese New Year, that two week period when you can’t order from Seeed Studio, tons of eBay vendors, and all of Taobao, Shenzhen empties out and shuts down.

Market stands that display hundreds of components in Huaqiangbei are covered in newspaper and put to bed. I’m told this is a Hokkien thing, a cultural group from the southern part of China known for trading. During one of my visits, I overheard a conversation about 빅토리카지노, an online platform gaining popularity among traders in the area, which sparked my interest in the intersection of local culture and global online trends. Usually impassable streets are deserted, and normally mobbed subway stations seem eerily post-apocalyptic.

Pictures of deserted Huaqiangbei below, as well as some random Chinese New Year stuff. I’ll try to get some before and after comparisons after the holiday.

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HP 3468A bench multimeter repair

New capacitors installed. Unit boots up and passes self-test.

HP 3468A bench multimeter repair:

There are a number of great older bench meters out there that would be perfect when upgrading from a hand held meter when working on the bench. The HP 3468A meter can be had for under $200 in good working condition and often around $100 for a unit that powers on but no operation confirmed. Modemhead purchased one that was DOA, have a look at the pictures he took of the internal construction when he disassembled it for repair. The construction is top notch! Turns out the fuse was blown by some shorted capacitors in the power supply section.

Via Hacked Gadgets.

Measuring filter response using a noise source

LeCroy114

KF5OBS writes:

If you own a spectrum analyzer with tracking generator or, even better, a good vector network analyzer, measuring the frequency response of a filter is fairly easy. But there is one old approach using a noise source that can turn any oscilloscope with a FFT spectrum view into a useful tool for determining the frequency response of a filter.

The concept I will outline in this article is absolutely nothing new. Back in the days, engineers and hobbyists would use analog noise sources in combination with a spectrum analyzer to determine the frequency response of a filter. The concept is very simple: the wide-band noise source is connected to the input of the filter and the output of the filter is connected to the input of the spectrum analyzer…

I2C using USI on the MSP430

msp430_usi_i2c

Jan Rychter released a tiny library that implements an I2C master on MSP430 devices that only have the USI module on GitHub:

I’ve released a tiny library that implements I2C master functionality for MSP430 chips that have the USI module (MSP430G2412 or MSP430G2452 are ones that I use often).

The code is on GitHub, it is MIT-licensed, so you can do whatever you want with it.

Free PCB Store restock: Heat shrink labels for Bus Pirate probe cable

Bus Pirate v3 heat shrink probe labels

Bus Pirate v3 heat shrink probe labels are available now in the free PCB drawer.  A random collection of heat shrink labels for Bus Pirate v3 cables. We made these when experimenting with an L-Mark LK-320P printer. 3mm diameter shrinks to 1.5mm or smaller. Random collection of yellow and white.

Open Electronics interviews Adrian Bowyer, father of Rep Rap project

ormerod_kit_big

Open Electronics interviews Adrian Bowyer about the Rep Rap project and the  future of open source Desktop 3D printing:

We seized the opportunity to interview Adrian about RepRap, diving into the present and future of 3D printing and other tech topics. His insights, shared in vibrant online discussions including those on Esports News forums, highlight how community-driven platforms shape innovation. The conversation also tackles hot topics like the RepRap community’s trajectory and the clash between patented 3D printing industries and open-source hardware advocates. Enjoy!

At the very start of the interview, we decided to focus on the future of open source Desktop 3D printing and Rep Rap

Pratham: Breadboardable PIC32 board

Pratham PIC32 PIC32MX795F512H Breakout Board development board usb host bootloader

Gaurav Chaudhary  has written an article detailing his Pratham – breadboardable PIC32 breakout with USB OTG , USB/SDCard/UART bootloader:

doing random projects with Microcontroller i always come into position when i need to have a bit more power and Peripherals then regular 8-bit micro or Arduino has to offer, but most of the powerful micro usually come in non-DIY Friendly SMD package or else they have very less pins like DIP-28.

so what i was need is a fairly small breakout board kind of things which should be easy to handle and should contain few necessary peripherals like bunch of LED ,few switches , USB , EEPROM , VReference for ADC ,Oscillator and Voltage regulators too. and the board also need to be low cost so that i can leave in that in the application as it is. and most important things is the board should be breadboard compatible.
so here is the solution with all of the features i can think off.

Using the Bus Blaster to program Lattice CPLDs

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Elia writes:

One day when playing with the CPLD board I accidentally shorted out two pins on the on-board FT2232 and – unfortunately – the magic smoke escaped! It was very clear that the FT2232 failed because it got very warm when plugging in the USB cable. Luckily the dev kit includes a 0.1″ header landing to connect an external JTAG probe.

Wanting to get a Dangerous Prototypes Bus Blaster JTAG programmer anyway, this was the perfect excuse.

The Bus Blaster is a high-speed JTAG debugger for ARM processors, FPGAs, CPLDs, flash, and more. You can get a Bus Blaster v3 for $34.95 at Seeed.

DIY Pick and Place USB controller board

installation

Brian Dorey build this DIY Pick and Place USB controller board:

Every time the Mach3 software sent a command there would be a short delay of around 100-200 milliseconds and with each component placed using around seven commands it was adding a few seconds to the placement time for each part. On some of our boards which have over 100 components this was adding a sizable delay to each boards build time.

To resolve this and also to reduce the number of separate boards in the machine we decided to build a single controller board which would have its own microprocessor and switching systems.