FabISP – a home-built AVR in-system programmer

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David designed a home-built AVR in-system programmer. It’s built on the USBtiny and V-USB firmwares and uses a ATtiny44 microcontroller to communicate with avrdude over USB and a target microcontroller over the 6pin IDC cable.

The FabISP is an in-system programmer for AVR microcontrollers, designed for production within a FabLab. That is, it allows you to program the microcontrollers on other boards you make, using nothing but a USB cable and 6-pin IDC to 6-pin IDC cable. It’s based on the USBtiny and V-USB firmwares, which allow the ATtiny44 to perform USB communication in software. Programming can be done through avrdude.

Raspberry Pi Pandora streamer

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Here is a Pandora music player based around the Raspberry pi. It features a screen that provides basic user interface control, and displays the song title.

My basic justification for the project was that I listen to a lot of music on Pandora or Spotify while reading and doing homework, but having it up on the computer means I have an instant distraction any time I feel like checking email, news, or whatever.  Building a small, standalone player with just a screen to display song titles and a simple interface using a few buttons removes that temptation.

REDHAWK SDR software

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If you’re into SDR then you have probably heard of GNURadio, gqrx, SDR# and other software tools for controlling RF hardware. With the growing popularity of the HackRF platform and RTL-SDR dongle a new software tool has entered the scene: REDHAWK.

As explained by its developers, “REDHAWK is a software-defined radio (SDR) framework designed to support the development, deployment, and management of real-time software radio applications. To support the design and development of software applications, REDHAWK provides tools that allow development and testing of software modules called “Components” and composition of Components into “Waveform Applications” that can be seamlessly deployed on a single computer or multiple network-enabled computers.

The REDHAWK integrated development environment (IDE) provides tools to support development of REDHAWK software. The development and deployment of REDHAWK Applications are aided by graphical editors and drag-and-drop Waveform construction. The IDE allows users to interact with and control multiple running REDHAWK instances and applications.”
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Making wine in Shenzhen: Metal hex standoff kit

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Often it’s not clear exactly what connector, button, switch, or part is the best choice for a project. We end up making a last minute order of 1 or 2 of any likely candidate from Mouser or Digikey. That sets the project off by about a week while we dig through datasheets and websites, make CAD footprints, and wait for the order to be delivered.

To banish this annoying time sink we’re working with Oomlout to release complete kits of parts. Each set will be nicely labeled, well organized, and have open source datasheets, renderings, and CAD footprints for Eagle and KiCAD. We call it wine making because Ian hand plucks each part from Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen. We’re posting now to get your feedback, the final kit will be available in a couple weeks.

Previously we presented the Single row cable kit, Keyed connectors kit,  Double row IDC cable kit, and the Nylon hex standoff kit. Today we release our idea for the Metal hex standoff kit. Recently we upgraded all our projects to the standard PCB sizes, and designed the Sick of Beige acrylic cases for them. The cases are held together with hex standoffs and bolts. The idea behind this kit is to always have on hand the right standoff or bolt you might need for a project.

Head below to check out the contents, then please let us know what we forgot or what you find useless!

Continue reading “Making wine in Shenzhen: Metal hex standoff kit”

Arduino retro gamebox

Based on the Arduino Uno R3, five switches, three resistors, and a couple of casino trực tuyến RCA sockets this vintage video gamebox can run versions of old school favorites including Asteroids, Sudoku, Parachute and Space Invaders. The project was developed by Darren Yates at APCMag, and he estimates its total cost at around $33. The gamebox can only hold one game at a time in its EEPROM, so when you wish to change games you need to download it to the board using the Arduino IDE. AV output is via RCA jacks to your TV.

The games are specially adapted versions for the Arduino and their complete source files are available, including additional required libraries, allowing you to mod them or use as examples to guide you own game dev. (Code can be found here, under the “Project 07” heading.)

For project details, schematic and code links visit APCMag.

PCB a Week 21: Tindog SMD soldering practice

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Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week.  In week 21  he came up with Tindog an SMD soldering practice board shaped like a dog:

A 8-pin SOIC is about the easiest SMD IC to solder so I had to come up with a project using one of those, and also not having too many other parts. Since I’m selling my stuff at Tindie I figured that it could be fun to use their logo as the outline of the PCB. The logo have three colored dots on it – a nice fit for three LEDs.

Via the forum.

Arduino based sensor shoes assist visually impaired

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Student and developer Denver Dias has posted an intro to his undergrad project in Engineering: a walking aid for the blind.

The walking aid consists of a pair of shoes attached with ultrasonic sensors on the sensing side. The information, obtained from these sensors, is used to form a virtual map of the surroundings. This information is processed and fed to the user via the sense of touch. He used the Arduino Mega 2560 for processing and created a custom shield as a mega-connector to the rest of the contraption. Feedback is provided to the user via vibrating elements placed in the trouser pockets.

Denver will be releasing the open source project build details in a series of posts. For info and updates on this developing project, visit his RevRYL blog.

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

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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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Arduino and the XOBXOB IoT Platform


John Boxall of Tronixstuff has posted on the XOBXOB Internet of Things Platform.

“The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a new platform – XOBXOB (pronounced “zob-zob”) that gives users (and Arduino users in particular) a method of having remote devices connect with each other and be controlled over the Internet. At the time of writing XOBXOB is still in alpha stage, however you’re free to give it a go.”

Via the contact form.

CreepyDOL WiFi surveillance project debuts at Blackhat/DEFCON

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CreepyDOL, the Creepy Digital Object Locator, is a distributed tracking system that uses low-cost hardware sensors, a robust communications system, and simple observation to give near-real-time identification of humans and tracking capabilities to anyone. It’s goal is to develop hardware and software for passive surveillance of WiFi data and draw inferences regarding human behavior therefrom. The project was the subject of presentations at the recently concluded Blackhat and DEFCON conferences in Las Vegas.

The hardware, estimated to cost approximately $57, “consists of a Raspberry-Pi, two USB WiFi chips (Ralink RT5370, which is supports monitor mode, Master (AP) mode, and injection while being physically small; if space was not an issue, the TP-Link WN series of USB WiFi adapters, using the Atheros chipset, would also be a good alternative for slightly more money), a USB hub which also provides power to the Raspberry Pi, an SD card to serve as non-volatile storage, a USB power adapter, and a case.”

The white paper from the Blackhat presentation is available as a 7-page PDF, and the presentation slides are also available as a 26-page PDF.

Brendan promises to “release the source code, some binaries, disk images, VMs, parts lists, sketches—all at once, as soon as I can; I’m aiming for the end of August, but that date may slip.” We eagerly await…

Details on the project’s background, as well as slides (no audio) from the conference presentation can be found on Brendan O’Connor’s blog.

App note: Protect Your Designs from malware with the DeepCover MAXQ1050 secure microcontroller

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Here’s an app note from Maxim describing how to protect your embedded systems from Malware with DeepCover MAXQ1050 Secure Microcontroller:

Malware injection has become a critical threat to embedded systems. Implementing an asymmetric cryptography-based secure boot is the best protection against this class of attacks. This application note describes the key principles of such a secure boot and explains how to implement it with the DeepCover® MAXQ1050 secure microcontroller.

SARRRO – Ultrasonic anti-collision robot build

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 Ultrasonic anti-collision robot by Gavin Hannah:

I’ve also coined a name for my project. SARRRO, which stands for Search & Rescue Reconnaissance Rover.  I’ve updated the site title to reflect this.  From now on, I will be referring to my project as SARRRO rather than just “project” as I have been doing.

Via Hacked Gadgets.

Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

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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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Week in (p)review August 09, 2013

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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

BareDuino micro

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Niek designed this BareDuino micro, that is available at github:

For some Arduino projects, you don’t actually need that many IO pins. That’s exactly the case when I tried to build a simple RGB throwie that would cycle through colours. I was looking for a cheaper alternative to the Arduino UNO’s ATmega328P when I stumbled across this post by MIT’s High-Low Tech lab. They developed a library for programming the 8-pins ATtiny45/85 from the Arduino IDE. It’s a very smart solution to use permanently in some low pin-usage projects, but you still need to hook up individual wires from your programmer to the ATtiny to be able to program it. That’s when I came up with the idea of the BareDuino Micro.

Graphical cheat sheets for ARM dev boards

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Gordon Williams has developed cheat sheets for ARM dev boards. He writes, “I got pretty frustrated working with ARM development boards – every time I’d choose a pin for some function I’d find out that it was used for some peripheral on the board – so it either wouldn’t work or it would break something else! So I just compiled a graphical cheat sheet for the boards. For example, here’s one for the STM32F4 Discovery. If you hover over an item (for instance ‘MEMS’) a tooltip will tell you what the pin does.

The full list of boards I’ve done so far is at Espruino.

I’ve done them for the STM32VL, F3, F4, Olimexino, and the 3.2″ LCD boards you get from eBay.”

Via the contact form.

Making wine in Shenzhen: Nylon hex standoff kit

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Often it’s not clear exactly what connector, button, switch, or part is the best choice for a project. We end up making a last minute order of 1 or 2 of any likely candidate from Mouser or Digikey. That sets the project off by about a week while we dig through datasheets and websites, make CAD footprints, and wait for the order to be delivered.

To banish this annoying time sink we’re working with Oomlout to release complete kits of parts. Each set will be nicely labeled, well organized, and have open source datasheets, renderings, and CAD footprints for Eagle and KiCAD. We call it wine making because Ian hand plucks each part from Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen. We’re posting now to get your feedback, the final kit will be available in a couple weeks.

Previously we presented the Single row cable kit, Keyed connectors kit, and the Double row IDC cable kit. Today we release our idea for the Nylon hex standoff kit. Recently we upgraded all our projects to the standard PCB sizes, and designed the Sick of Beige acrylic cases for them. The cases are held together with hex standoffs and bolts. The idea behind this kit is to always have on hand the right standoff or bolt you might need for a project.

Head below to check out the contents, then please let us know what we forgot or what you find useless!

Continue reading “Making wine in Shenzhen: Nylon hex standoff kit”

Atmel AVR Dragon hardware review

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Kenneth Finnegan did a review of the Atmel AVR Dragon hardware:

 One of my good friends at Atmel, Paul Rako, recently sent me a sample of the AVR Dragon (Atmel store page), which is a in-circuit serial programmer (ISP) and On-Chip Debugger (OCD). The ISP functionality is familiar to most hobbyists in the AVR embedded programming scene; through the standard 2×3 pin header, you can erase the flash memory on an AVR and download new program code onto the chip. A typical example of an ISP programmer, and what I’ve been using exclusively up until now, is the wonderful, if sometimes a bit flaky, AdaFruit USBtinyISP.

The Laser-Wielding robot that roams landfills to sniff out methane gas

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Researchers at Orebro University in Sweden have developed a mobile methane-sniffing machine, the Gasbot:

Cue the robots. Researchers at Orebro University in Sweden have developed a gas-sniffing, mobile robot that uses laser beams to find gaseous areas and an algorithm to map them. Researchers are calling the Gasbot “a big leap forward” for automating the gas monitoring process.

The Gasbot, which is funded by the robotics research institute Robotdalen, is equipped with two lasers, a GPS, and a remote sensor. The Remote Methane Leak Detector sensor doesn’t require direct interaction with the substance to measure it, like traditional sensors do. Instead, the laser beam can sniff out and localize leaks in its path.

Via Motherboard.