Rynius writes:
Here’s my new mobile electronics bench featuring the ATX break out board. I’m hoping this will finally keep all my tools and wires consolidated and be pushed out of the way when needed.
I’m planning on setting up a nice solder station opposite the power supply. The variable one I have is a POS and either is too cool to melt the solder or heats up the handle and burns my hand. I have a nice drawer organizer for hacker tools in the works too.
Via the forum.
Mats informs us of GerrySweeney’s inexpensive Decade programmable resistor:
I bought this 7-decade resistor box from Gerry Sweeeney for $18. It’s a really nice little cheap tool – much cheaper than the models with switches or thumbwheels that usually are 5-10 times as expensive as Gerrys version.
Koolatron over at the Bitcraze forum re-program the Crazyradio over SPI using the BusPirate and this script, available at github:
I’ve knocked together a perl script to reflash a busted crazyradio over SPI using a Bus Pirate. This saved me from a firmware upgrade gone bad.
Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
panStamps are small open source wireless modules designed to add RF connectivity to sensors, MCUs and similar projects. The crew at panStamp is in the process of developing a new module based on the TI CC430F5137 SOC. Programming will be via the Arduino IDE, facilitated through a port being developed by the open sourceEnergia project.
Commercial release of this new line of panStamps is planned for September-October. For more info visit PanStamp.
Kerry D. Wong has posted an article: Using REF200 as 100uA precision reference
The simplest way to use REF200 is to utilize either of its two independent current sources. In this case we obtain a 100 µA reference current. Because REF200 has a built-in current mirror, you can obtain currents of 50µA, 100µA, 200µA, 300µA or 400µA easily.
Because the current reference is placed in series in the circuit in relation to the external component under test, there is no need for a switch to turn on or turn off the circuit. Thus when no external circuitry is connected, there is no standby current so we do not have to worry about batteries when the current reference is not in use.
Arduino quadcopter iPhone control:
This Arduino Quadcopter by Kyle Fieldus has iPhone Control, similar to the AR Drone you can tilt the phone to control the quadcopter. Touch OSC is being used to design the phone interface, there is also an Android version available. The system chain is a bit complex since the phone is sending the input data to the computer, the computer determines what should be done on the quadcopter and sends these commands to a computer tethered Arduino via USB. The computer tethered Arduino finally sends the commands to the quadcopter mounted Arduino via Xbee. All of the code and instructions will be made available as soon as this University project has been handed in and graded. You can see the first video here that was taken when the Xbee link between the two Arduinos was tested.
Via Hacked Gadgets.
Sick Of Beige basic case v1 (DP5031) is back in stock at Seeed Studio. A clear laser-cut acrylic project case kit that fits DP5031 PCBs (50mmx31mm)
Sick of Beige v1 DP5031 project case is available at Seeed for $3.
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.
Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week. In week 16 he came up with three different breadboard breakout boards each holding 12 tactile switches, the TripleButts:
Board #1 is the Full version. All the twelve switches are connected separately to their own pins on the headers. Twelve pins on the top and twelve pins at the bottom.
Board #2 is the Matrix version. The switches are connected in a 3×4 matrix with the four rows and three columns connected to the header on the bottom. The small headers close to the top is not connected anywhere and only there for making the board sit stable to the breadboard.
Board #3 is the Analog version. The switches are connected to a resistor voltage divider that have an analog output ranging from VCC to GND. Easy to hook up to and decode on an ADC pin on a microcontroller. The headers at the bottom is GND/Out/Vcc. The headers close to the top is connected anywhere and only there for making the board sit stable to the breadboard.
The white dots are for labeling the buttons for your own project. 0-9 and *# might not be optimal for every project you do, so I thought it would be better to just leave the labelling to the user.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator X is a popular (though not open source) program used by many aeronautical enthusiasts and gamers. (There’s even a free trial version.) One aspect of the simulator is to allow the user to enter an autopilot mode, whereby various modes can be controlled using a 3D point-and-click interface. Practical use of this feature can be tedious, so the crew at Area51staff decided to design an Arduino-based workaround.
“This easily replicable piece of hardware consists of a Atmel microcontroller which drives a 2×16 LCD display, a buzzer, one encoder and some buttons. The firmware allows the user, by means of a simple text-driven user interface, to visualize and set all the most common autopilot parameters, such as Altitude, Speed, Engagement, Track, Heading, Direction, and so on. Audible feedback is provided through a buzzer to indicate disengagement.
The firmware is written in C and communicates to the simulator through the Arduino′s built-in USB-to-serial interface.”
The project also includes a driver written in C#, allowing the device to communicate with the FSX program.
The firmware is an Arduino sketch which compiles and loads to the board using the standard IDE. If you get a compile error complaining about Bounce, you can find the library here.
For project schematic and code links, visit Area51staff.
Chris Eagle is a Senior Lecturer of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA and worked as a computer engineer/scientist for 28 years. In this video he gives a step by step introduction to the process of software reversing and vulnerability discovery.
Chris is a co-author of Gray Hat Hacking and has spoken at numerous security conferences, including Blackhat, Defcon, Toorcon, and Shmoocon.
This talk was presented at the Ohio Information Security Forum (OISF) held on July 13, 2013 at Miami Valley Research Park – Sinclair Learning Center, Dayton, OH.
hms made a simple recycled Bus Pirate case from a mint candy container:
Bus pirate v3.6 “sweet case”. Just have to drill some holes for the connectors.
Via Twitter.
Kasbah posted an update on his Nomech mini project we covered we previously:
So after some wrangling with the code I got the charging and discharging of the sampling capacitor working. CH1 is the slope pin which is used for discharging the sample capacitor (and then measuring the time it takes to discharge ).
These are the pulses on the drive side. This is what the bottom of the sampling capacitor looks like. You can see it charge up and then discharge when the slope pin goes high. Eventually I got the AVR interrupts to work and could actually measure the time to zero crossing. I took some measurements which I can use as a baseline as I add components and change the code. But there you have it. It is sensing touch so I am pretty chuffed! I am yet to discover how robust it is. Code is up on github too
Here is an application note from Atmel based on sensor driven BLDC control implemented on AVR microcontrollers.
This application note describes the control of a BLDC motor with Hall effect position sensors. The implementation includes both direction and open loop speed control.
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:
Recently we highlighted the TP-Link TL-WR703N in a post. Some makers have used a WiFi shield to allow an Arduino to communicate with this router, and others have used the router’s PCB as a shield bridging Ethernet to Wifi. Martin wanted to interface an Arduino with the router directly, so that it could be used to send sensor data. His post describes the PCB connection points for the RX, TX and ground pins needed for serial comms with the Arduino.
For project details, code and more, visit Martin Melchior’s homepage.
Got Processing? Then try out Nakul Rao’s Pong program. He has posted code for both a single player and two player version. He also had sketched for Pong_art versions which provide visual variations on the game.
You can find the project code on GitHub.
(NOTE: If you get an error when running this sketch regarding a missing file named “AgencyFB-Reg-48.vlw”, you can download the file from GitHub. Just copy it into the Processing sketch’s folder.)
Via the contact form.
Here’s an app note from Microchip describing how to implement data encryption routines on PIC24 and dsPIC microcontrollers and digital signal processors.
This application note discusses the implementation of two of these for PIC24 and dsPIC devices: Triple Data Encryption Standard (TDES) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Source code for this application note is available through the “Data Encryption Libraries” in the download section below.
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.
Drone writes:
Here are a series of short but informative posts by Jonathan Harris of ADI about interleaving ADC’s to increase sampling bandwidth:
Via the contact form.
