The Bus Pirate v4 Acrylic case kit v1 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This fits the earlier Bus Pirate v4 models which comes in the non-Sick of Beige PCBs.
You can get one for $3 at Seeed Studio.
Testing a MAX7219 LED array with Bus Pirate
Frank over at RaspberryAlphaOmega writes:
After thinking about how to drive the MAX7219 LED array I built yesterday, it occurred to me that maybe this is an ideal time to get to the bottom of how to use the Bus Pirate board that I failed to use with a MCP3002 ADC chip. This time I was determined to get it working.
Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Executive Decision Maker Pro
Bertho shared his Executive Decision Maker Pro in the project log forum:
Making decisions is a hard thing to do, so it seems to most of us. The creation of the original Executive Decision Maker has really relieved me of the most of the heavy duty mind-gymnastics and enabled exceptionally good results at incredible speed.
It is about time that others can join the club and be relieved of the heavy burden of decision making. Now you can with the Executive Decision Maker Pro. The Pro version comes as a kit, or for the really lazy, with an assembled PCB. The assembled unit is (WxLxH) 110x156x60mm in size.
For more information visit the project’s Tindie site.
Via the forum.
Detecting the Perseids meteor shower using RTL-SDR
Amateur radio operation EB3FRN demonstrates how he used an RTL-SDR dongle tuned to a distant VHF transmitter as a passive radar receiver to view the echoes produced by the meteor’s ionization. The signal he received was from the Graves radar system on 143.050 MHz, using a VHF ground plane connected to the dongle. He displayed the scatters using Baudline.
Via RTL-SDR.com.
Build an Arduino shield for Quadcopter – Arduino adapter
Oscar built his own Arduino shield for Quadcopter:
I have been searching for ideas of making a Quadcopter Arduino flight controller Adapter to sit my Arduino nano board and the GY80, also have some header pins for motors and receiver to make the cabling tidy. There are a lot of Arduino shields people have designed for the Quadcopter.
USB Infrared Toy v2 back in stock
USB Infrared Toy v2 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. You can use it as a remote control with your computer, view infrared signals on a logic analyzer, capture and replay remote control buttons.
You can get IR Toy v2 for $22.05, including world wide shipping.
Automated irrigation system using MSP430 and relay board
arduinoversusevil has posted details on automating irrigation system with the MSP430:
It took about 3 hours to get most of the water out. Standing next to a noisy compressor, chooching a lever back and forth is no fun. This year, I got smrt. I dug through my junk bins and found a metric shit ton of timer relays to do the grunt work for me. Unfortunately, despite being robust AND expensive, nothing off the shelf fit the bill.
LaunchPad to the rescue! I hooked up a relay board to my air solenoid valve, and wrote a little code. Now I’m sitting pretty while my machines do the work!
uCAN: A protocol stack for microcontroller networking
Nick Johnson over at Arachnid Labs writes:
I’m working on an idea that I’ve been pondering over for a while: a simple, low cost option for networking low power microcontrollers for hobbyist projects, art installations, interactive exhibits, hackspaces, etc etc. There are a few options around, but nobody’s specified something to build an ecosystem around; radio is widely varied and problematic in many installations, and Ethernet is too expensive and high-overhead for small embedded projects.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, the plan is to use existing standards to specify a stack – physical, electrical, protocol and API – that multiple makers can produce compatible products for.
Via the forum.
GNU Radio LiveDVD
A new release of the GNU Radio LiveDVD has been announced. Release 2013-0926 is based on the Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 64-bit operating system and is a bootable SDR environment suitable for demonstration and experimentation, contained on a read-only medium.
This release now includes GNU Radio 3.7.2, gqrx v2.2.0-25, gr-air-modes, gr-iqbal, gr-osmosdr v0.1.0-11, hackrf v2013.07.1-16, osmo-sdr v0.1-7 and rtl-sdr v0.5.0-4.
The live DVD can be downloaded using this torrent link.
#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.
Open Source Nixie clock project
ezflyr shared us his Nixie clock in the project log forum:
For anyone that’s interested, here is a picture of my Nixie Clock prototype! I had the hardwood base made out of Maple by a local cabinet shop for $30, and the Acrylic cover was sourced from a company that specializes in display cases for about $15. The clock is working extremely well, and really looks nice, especially in low light conditions!
Via the forum.
DEFCON video: Live Free or RFID Hard
In this talk from the 2013 DEFCON conference, Francis Brown and Bishop Fox provide practical insight into how RFID proximity badge systems work. They highlight the real world difficulties encountered in reading RFID prox cards with conventional readers, and what you’ll need to build out your own RFID physical penetration toolkit. They use an Arduino microcontroller to convert commercial RFID badge readers for long range hacking.
Hardware details, schematic, code links and more can be found at Bishopfox.
Fan Controller free PCB build
Sandman333 built a free Fan Controller PCB.
If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer.
NoLoop galvanic isolator
Bertho shared his NoLoop galvanic isolator in the project log forum:
I had a problem some time ago with a nasty ground-loop and that cost me the USB port on my old laptop. It took me a while to realize what had happened and it was a generic problem we all run into more often than we think. Time to solve this particular problem once and for all and make generic isolation for Serial and SPI ports.
For more information visit the project’s Tindie site.
Via the forum.
Teardown: Teledyne LeCroy HDO4024 12-Bit oscilloscope
Sebastian voided his warranty and bravely went where others fear to tread, dissecting the Teledyne LeCroy HDO4024 12-Bit oscilloscope. He produced this post detailing his findings.
Via the contact form.
Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB
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:
- Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
- Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend
- Free PCB Sunday, right here on the blog
- Check out how we mail PCBs worldwide
Arduino teams with Intel to produce Galileo
Massimo Banzi has announced the latest release in the Arduino line: the Galileo.
Galileo is a microcontroller board based on the Intel Quark SoC X1000 Application Processor, a 32-bit Intel Pentium-class system on a chip (datasheet — 920 page PDF.) It’s the first board based on Intel® architecture designed to be hardware and software pin-compatible with Arduino shields designed for the Uno R3. Digital pins 0 to 13 (and the adjacent AREF and GND pins), Analog inputs 0 to 5, the power header, ICSP header, and the UART port pins (0 and 1), are all in the same locations as on the Arduino Uno R3. This is also known as the Arduino 1.0 pinout.
Galileo is designed to support shields that operate at either 3.3V or 5V. The core operating voltage of Galileo is 3.3V. However, a jumper on the board enables voltage translation to 5V at the I/O pins. This provides support for 5V Uno shields and is the default behavior. By switching the jumper position, the voltage translation can be disabled to provide 3.3V operation at the I/O pins.
The Galileo is expected to be available in late November, 2013.
Open source Halloween LED projects
Eric Thompson of Lowvoltagelabs. sends in these two Open Source Hardware projects for Halloween:
I thought October might be a good time to share a couple Halloween related circuit boards that I have designed. Both of them were designed using KiCAD and I have released them as open source hardware so people can make their own versions.
The first one is a pumpkin shaped PCB with a 10mm flickering LED. It can be used to light up your pumpkin instead of a candle.
The second one is new for this year, it’s a ghost shaped PCB with flashing green LEDs for eyes. Makes a great necklace for Halloween night.
Via the contact form.
App note: Hardware security ICs offer large security returns at a low cost
An application note from Maxim: Hardware security ICs offer large security returns at a low cost
In the face of security vulnerabilities in health and safety applications, governments and industry leaders have focused on security weaknesses in the design and protection of electronic devices. This article explains how using hardware security ICs dramatically reduces the risk of unauthorized access to vital devices, peripherals, and computer systems at a low cost and with minimal impact on designs.
Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters
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:
- Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, get free PCBs right here on the blog comments
- Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
- Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend
- Check out our video on how we mail PCBs worldwide.
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”