mux blogged about his open source camera project:
This a quick update on my camera project (OpenMV)… I’ve finally received the long overdue PCBs today and assembled one. I haven’t written any code yet, but I’ve managed to get it into DFU mode and upload a blinky, it seems to be working fine so far, no smoke :) I will post another update or a video as soon as I get something cool running.
Visit sigalrm.blogspot for project details.
tin0 wrote a post on how to control your Xbox 360 RF Module with an Attiny45, we wrote about it previously:
Buying an Arduino or an Raspberry Pi for using your freshly harvested Xbox 360 RF Module is somewhat pricy and overscaled for this job. There are very cheap Microcontrollers out there which can communicate with ~130 Mhz over two wires and fetching the state of a button.
András Veres-Szentkirályi write about an interesting project
The Budapest hackerspace (hsbp.org) did some joint work with a local ham radio club and created an SSTV beacon housed inside a CCTV case that takes an image of its environment and transmits it using slow-scan television over ham bands. There’s currently one experimental device installed, and since all the plans, schematics and source code is available, we hope that others will join ranks. It’s fun to see live imagery transmitted by autonomous off-the-grid devices, and it’s also a way to attract people to embedded development and ham radio. On the other hand beacons not only make testing receivers easier, but help the ham radio community to defend their bands, as it provides regular traffic on the frequency.
Information about the build can be found on the group’s Wiki page, and the photos when collected will be displayed on Dropbox.
Via the contact form.
Bill Porter has written an article detailing the build of his BatBox project:
I had some high energy density batteries lying around and a recent string of power outages have been leaving me in the dark more often than I care for. So in true hacker fashion, I built something: BatBox, just like in Minecraft. My real life version can supply 5V USB power, 12VDC and 110VAC at 240W for about 2 hours. That’s enough to run my dual head desktop 4x longer than it’s current battery backup.
Visit Bill’s website for project details.
Gaurav Chaudhary writes:
This little project will demonstrate how you can build NEC protocol based Infrared Remote Control to use with various NEC Protocol IR receivers.
actually there are lots of projects out there to accomplish this task but i have to write my own code because of too many requests on this IR(infrared) Remote Control Relay Board with PIC 12F675 Microcontroller people keep asking “Where is the Transmitter for this” although you can use any NEC protocol based remote ,but i just wanted to build one by my self. so here it is.
Visit Gaurav’s website for project details.
In this presentation from the iSEC Open Security Forum, September 12, 2013 in Palo Alto, CA, Balint Seeber, Applications Engineer and SDR Evangelist / Ettus Research, provides an introduction on how to analyze and hack RF communications systems using open source software and cheap radio hardware. He describes, “The focus will be on how to use Software Defined Radio to create: a digital satellite demodulator for blind signal analysis, a souped-up Mode S aviation transponder/ACARS receiver with an Internet-enabled smooth-streaming Google Earth front-end, and a Radio Direction Finder. I will also touch on some other SDR applications (AIS, APRS, 802.11a, RFID, RDS & GPS).”
Davide Gironi posted the brushless sensorless version of his sensored motor driver for AVR Atmega we posted previously:
For this project, I’ve implemented a simple brushless sensoreless motor driver for AVR Atmega. The code i propose it’s not perfect, and can be improved, but for the needs i had it works.
The motor can be controlled in speed and direction (clockwise and anti-clockwise).
This project use open loop startup and bemf zero crossing detection method with ADC.
Speed change can be done only when motor is not running, ADC is used during spinning phase in zc detection so it can not be used during the motor spinning, but digital speed changing can be implemented.
Kerry Wong writes:
Arduino‘s (ATmega328P) PWM outputs via analogWrite can be conveniently turned into analog voltage levels through the use of simple RC filters. Since the PWM outputs are not isolated, using them to drive other devices directly could be potentially dangerous. This is especially true if the target circuit uses a higher supply voltage.
Fortunately, it is quite easy to isolate the PWM output using an optocoupler. The following schematic shows how we can build such a fully isolated DAC
In this presentation from the September 29, 2013 session of the Derbycon conference in Louisville, KY, David Schuetz, Senior Consultant with Intrepidus Group, demonstrates the use of the R-Pi as a media center and content server. He devised the project as a way to entertain his children on car trips, now that they’ve graduated from DVDs to their own networked gaming and entertainment devices. The hardware consists of a Linksys WUSB54GC wireless adapter, putting a DLNA server on the R-Pi, and serving content from the Pi to AppleTV.
David has links to the code and documentation posted on Github.
(DangerousPrototypes acknowledges the work of Irongeek in producing and posting this and other presentation videos immediately after the conference.)
Boris Landoni from Open Electronics writes about a new open source bluetooth shield for Arduino:
Here’s an application to control the brightness of an RGB LED strip wirelessly (via Bluetooth) using a smartphone. The whole project is presented in a dedicated Bluetooth shield for Arduino and a RGB shield.
XC9572XL CPLD development board are back in stock at Seeed Studio. CPLDs are programmable logic gate arrays which allow you to build custom logic devices simply by programing them.
Get the XC9572XL dev-board for $15 and CoolRunner-II development board for $15.
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.
jechavarria writes:
Hi! I want to share with you my last design. It’s a breakout board for the SIM900 GSM module. Fits in a 50×50 mm board, and has an IO connector with many of the signals you need to control it. Also, as the board is designed to work with a battery, it also includes all the necessary components to charge and manage it. The internal power supply is 3.0V, so external controller must be work at this voltage. Here’re a couple of photos of the board
Visit Jechavarria’s website for project details.
Via the forum.
Joe Grand presented on the JTAGulator at this weekend’s Derbycon conference in Louisville, KY. We previously posted about Joe’s JTAGulator, which is an open source tool which assists in identifying on-chip debugging (OCD) and/or programming connections from test points, vias, or component pads on a target piece of hardware.
The JTAGulator is available from Parallax for $159.99.
(DangerousPrototypes acknowledges the work of Irongeek for producing and posting this and other presentation videos immediately after the conference.)
Steve at Big Mess o’ Wires writes:
I finished building my 7400 computer, and posted some demo videos here
Via the forum.
Dave VW shared his project mbedR3uino in the forum:
The mbedR3uino is a vertical shield adapter for the mbed prototyping platform. It provides compatibility with standard Arduino shields including the pins added to Arduino Uno R3 to make shields more independent between main boards. SPI, UART, I2C, Analog, Digital, and PWM pins are wired to appropriate places for Arduino shields, and battery, CAN pins have extra jumpers. This adapter expands upon the (now extinct) mbed workshop board that already provides Ethernet, USB, and SD for the mbed, with the SD SPI pins available as a set of jumpers.
Via the forum.
Edouard informs us of FriedCircuits.us grand opening and by using the coupon code “OPENTEN” you’ll have 10% off :
Over the past few months, we have diligently worked toward creating a one-stop-shop that offers tools & parts for sale as well as detailed documentation. There we hope to provide new products, tutorials and share FriedCircuits related projects.
Fear not! This here blog will remain active, and host most of MobileWill’s personal projects and such. After all, it is through this blog that we were able to grow many ideas and tools that helped launched our FriedCircuits tindie shop (which we still plan to support)!Speaking of supporting – we’d like to thank all of our supporters for helping us succeed to where we are now. As a thanks, we are offering 10% off to the first fifty customers!
Dilshan Jayakody has written an article detailing his open hardware project the USB random number generator:
This project is about USB port base true hardware random number generator and it is design around the avalanche noise which occurred in reversed biased P-N junction.
This random number generator is design using commonly available electronic components. The core component of this system is Microchip’s PIC18F2550 microcontroller. The noise source is 2N3904 (Q1) transistor and LM386 low voltage power amplifier is used to amplify the incoming noise signals. This peripheral is design to work as a self-powered USB HID device.
Kerimil has created another app for interfacing mobile phones and microcontrollers through Bluetooth. This time it’s a simple phone controlled RGB LED. The Arduino sketch/code can be found in his Arduino Forum post. The Android .apk file can be downloaded from Google docs, as well as a zip file containing the Android source.
Via the contact form.
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:
