Rich Olson of Nothing Labs has posted a presentation on 3d printing in “alternative” filaments besides PLA. He writes, “I specifically cover soft PLA, Taulman Nylon 618, PET, Taulman “T-glase” (PETT), Layoo-d3, Laybrick and bri-tech PLA 45. The presentation gets into optimal print settings / tips for each filament. I also briefly touch on casting prints in low-temp metal / urethane.”
Via the contact form.
Philip posted an update on his component size and silkscreen reference board we covered previously:
After the reference board went over well, I also made a set of smaller boards to show the different soldermask colors. The boards all have a very similar front with exposed pads, traces and silkscreen both on copper and off copper. The back is different for each board and I tried to copy most of the examples from the card over. The boards are also in different thicknesses and have both HASL and ENIG finishes.
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”
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon.
Coming up:
Davide Gironi has written an article detailing his brushless sensored motor driver for AVR Atmega:
For this project, I’ve implemented a simple brushless sensored 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.
Using this library, the motor can be controlled in speed and direction (clockwise and anti-clockwise).
The running step for the motor are defined as default, anyway user can change it to fit any motor. Below you can find the commutation sequence (for clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation) i’ve used
Check out the video after the break.
Continue reading “A simple brushless sensored motor driver for AVR Atmega”
Baystray points out another ST dev board sample offer. Its the 32L100CDISCOVERY Discovery kit featuring the STM32L100RC MCU.
The order page indicates that as of the time of this posting free samples are available!
Via the contact form.
F4GRX blogged about his simple noise generator project:
After some talks on the Electrolab hackerspace Mailing list, I had the idea to try random number generators. I came across this idea after realizing that good “really random” numbers are of extreme importance for online security, as they are used in SSL, GPG, and lots of other security algorithms.
rng posted an update on his Razen PCB CAD tool we posted previously:
Razen is now in open beta for Windows, Mac and Linux. I received a bunch of useful suggestions from people testing the alpha versions, and have improved Razen significantly since I first posted it.
If you’re interested in giving it a try, the latest version is always available on the download page. I’d appreciate any bug reports, feature suggestions, or just general comments and questions.
Via the forum.
Codebender is a web-based programming tool for Arduino. ” Traditionally, you would need to install an IDE, which includes all the necessary software, find and install the correct drivers, set permissions, etc. It can take 10-60 minutes. Or it can be a total mess.
With Codebender, you can program your Arduino straight from your browser. No need to find, install, update and manage libraries and drivers. codebender does that for you. Just install our browser plugin and follow our Getting Started guide. From having an Arduino, to having a programmed Arduino. In mere minutes.”
Best of all, its open source.
For more information or to start programming visit Codebender.
Alex over at InsideGadgets has written an article detailing the build of his programmable power supply:
A small programmable power supply with 4 digit segment display using an ATtiny84 to allow 3 programmable voltages and ability to adjust the voltage higher or lower. Output range is 0.3V to 12.5V.
One of the things I bought is a small plastic pan tilt kit. I got it on Ebay. It didn’t come with the servos. But I still had some small Micro 9G servos that fit the kit. To try it out I hooked up the little servos to one of my Bajduinos. I then wrote a sketch to control the pan/tilt kit with a simple analog joystick. The kit is ideal to mount a small webcam on it. Well that was my original plan. But I recently bought the official Raspberry Pi camera board. The camera fits perfectly on the kit
My goal is to control the pan/tilt kit over wifi through the Raspberry Pi and an Arduino. But that is a project that will take me some time. Need to learn some python first.
Manuel Garbe draws attention to a new inductance-to-digital converter chip known as the LDC1000 from TI. This should eliminate the need for Hall effect sensors and magnets, providing contactless sensing with immunity to non-conductive interferences.
Here’s a link to a good explanatory article from EDN.
The datasheet can be downloaded from TI.
Via the contact form.
Zofz posted an update on his ZofzPCB gerber viewer we posted previously:
ZofzPCB Gerber Viewer takes the Gerber file data from your CAD/CAM files along with a little additional information and transforms it into a 3D image with colours used to differentiate nets, customisable stackup dimensions and an Autopilot function that lets you sit back and enjoy the ride through your design.
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.
Hemal Chevli blogged about his transistor tester project:
It has mega-8 as the brain, lcd to show specs of the transistor like which pin is which, what type of transistor it is eg NPN,PNP, N-MOSFET,P-MOSFET, etc., many components can be tested like different types of transistor, diodes, resistors etc, the good thing about this is that it also shows which leg is which, no need to open the data sheet
TasksOfOhm built a free USB LCD backpack PCB. This board controls LCDs with up to 16 interface pins at 3.3 volts or 5.0 volts. This includes common HD44780 character LCDs and larger graphical LCDs.
Got it working. It wasn’t an electrical problem but a software one. I used the software from another built that was running the PIC with a 20 MHz crystal while I intended to run the board at 16 MHz. Therefore I had to adjust some settings in order get the oscillator set up correctly. Additionally some header were still missing. Below the nearly complete board. One header is still unpopulated.
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.
mkarlsson ported the Open Bench Logic Sniffer code to run on Pipistrello LX45:
FYI, I have ported the Demon 3.07 code to Pipistrello LX45 FPGA board with the following changes:
1) The sample buffer size is increased by a factor of 8 from 24kB to 192kB
2) The interface is changed to serial (Pipistrello uses a FTDI 2232H High-speed USB chip)
3) The baud rate is increased from 115200 to 921600 to reduce the data upload time
4) The meta data has changed to indicated Pipistello implementationI believe this is the largest buffer size of any of the “SUMP” implementations. It runs great with the latest JaWi OLS Java client.
Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.
In this presentation from the recent Defcon 21 conference, Zoz Brooks provides an overview of the current state of civil driverless vehicles and what hackers or miscreants might do to mess with them. Topics covered include common sensors, decision profiles and their potential failure modes that could be exploited.
While many remember Zoz as co-host of the Discovery Channel show “Prototype This!”, he’s also a robotics interface designer and rapid prototyping specialist. He is a co-founder of Cannytrophic Design in Boston and CTO of BlueSky in San Francisco.
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:
Luca Dentella has just published his latest project, an Arduino-based door lock you can open using time-based OTP codes (compliant to the RFC 6238). “The simplest way to generate those codes is the use of Google Authenticator, a free mobile app. I’ve also prepared a simple webpage you can use to configure (scanning a QRCode) the app with the same secret of Arduino…”
For details and Arduino code link visit Luca Dentella’s blog.
Via the contact form.
