Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

ddso-pcb-scan

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”

Week in (p)review July 12, 2013

Exercise12_W600

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

Bus Pirate v3.6 Sick of Beige v1 acrylic case v1 back in stock

Bus Pirate v3.6 Sick of Beige acrylic case v1 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Version 1 of the basic case is simple, cheap, easy to assemble, and fits our Sick of Beige standard PCB sizes.

Check out our tutorial on how to customize Sick of Beige cases.

Get Bus Pirate v3.6 acrylic case v1 for $3.

GPS clock prototyping, part I

gps_clock_prototype_0001

Kevin Rye has been working on his GPS clock project and wrote a detailed explanation on his blog describing the build:

The great thing about setting the time and date via GPS is that I won’t have to put any buttons on the clock. It’ll set itself, and appear to be completely autonomous. By removing the buttons needed for entering menus and setting the time and date, I can hopefully make the clock that much smaller. Ideally, I don’t want it to be any bigger than the display itself. In addition, shaving a half inch or so off the PCB should save a few bucks when it comes to getting the PCB made.

DIY RF Transceiver using MRF49XA and AT90USB162

DSC_0151
William Dillon has posted his initial work on a prototype USB RF data packet Transceiver dongle using the MRF49XA and an Atmel AT90USB162 micro controller.
He embarked on a journey exploring the development of packet formats and protocols, as well as types of error correction.

This open source project’s details, code links, schematic and photos can be found on William Dillon’s Alternet site.

OpenReflex, the open source 3D Printed Camera

F3WT50KHINNWWA3

Bozardeux wrote this Instructable detailing his OpenReflex, the open source 3D Printed Camera:

The OpenReflex is an Open-Source analog camera with a mirror viewfinder and an awesome finger activated mechanic shutter (running ~ 1/60°s). What’s more, it is compatible with any photographic lens. All the pieces are easily printable on any recent RepRap-like ABS 3D-printer without using support material! Everything should print in less than 15h and anyone should be able to assemble it within 1h. All parts are separate ( Film receiver, Shutter and Viewfinder ) to simplify builds and modifications. The source files are available under the CreativeCommon By-Sa license, feel free to modify them if you want a new feature, and don’t forget to share your improvements on the web. ;)

Wireless power and charging test and some reverse engineering

block_charger

Dimitar Kolev writes:

I test both, just with one LED for now (like 15mA) – they was working quite OK for distances up to 1-2cm, just some paper and thin air between TX and RX coils. With appropriate ferite it seems distance and coupling can be even better.
Just to fire further my interest, chip labels on board were erased, but fortunately I found a good picture where most of the labels were visible. Unfortunately no results after some googling, but finally I think I found the manufacturer of chips and some other wireless power/charging modules – it should be Elecoteq Electronics Website is only in Chinese, so I read what I can via Google translate. I found no datasheets, but for one there was some basic description

TI announces CC1200 sub-1 GHz transceiver

xCC1200

TI has announced the pending release of the CC1200, the newest member of their family of sub-1GHz devices. This component specs a data rate of up to 1Mbps and supports all the IEEE 802.15.4g FSK modes with hardware packet handling, as well as hardware AES security support. It purports to offer full flexibility on RF parameters to support all legacy systems and is a future proof solution for upcoming standards based on IEEE 802.15.4g. Operating frequency ranges will include 164-192 MHz, 410-480 MHz and 820-960 MHz, and supported modulation techniques are 2-FSK, 2-GFSK, 4-FSK, 4-GFSK, MSK and OOK.

You can download the 30 page PDF datasheet and request samples of the device in 32 pin QFN package from TI. Note that while TI is accepting sample requests, they have not yet released an availability date nor a component price. They are listing a CC1200 Development Kit for $299.

Talking Electronics Frequency Counter

powerup

John Boxall over at Tronixstuff has a detailed review of Talking Electronics’ Frequency Counter:

The counter works by using a multi-vibrator using a CD4047 to generate a square-wave at 50, 500 and 5 kHz, and the three trimpots are adjusted to calibrate the output. The incoming pulses to measure are fed to the 4026 decade counter/divider ICs. Three of these operate in tandem and each divide the incoming count by ten – and display or reset by the alternating signal from the 4047. However for larger frequencies (above 900 Hz) you need to change the frequency fed to the display circuit in order to display the higher (left-most) digits of the result. A jumper wire is used to select the required level (however if you mounted the kit in a case, a knob or switch could be used).

Autonomous printing with your RepRap

FT1078_2

Autonomous printing with your RepRap:

One of the main characteristics of 3D printers is their printing slowness: even if of 3Drag mechanic parts are able to exceed the speed of 100 mm per second in printing, an object still requires tens of minutes if not hours to be completed. In fact, as you have a bit more challenging fill or a massive object you easily get to one hour printing time, while those who are accustomed to print multiple parts in one printing batch, organizing them carefully on the printing plate, know that a print like that can take the whole night.
The solution to this problem lies into adding stand-alone printing features: an SD card containing the file to be printed, an LCD panel to display the status, menus and commands, and lastly a system for selection and input. All devices that can be connected to an Arduino board: our printer, like many other RepRaps, sports Arduino at the heart.

Via Open Electronics.

TL-WR702N as Arduino shield

tp-shield

Dirk has written an article detailing how to make a simple Arduino wireless shield using  the TL-WR702N wifi router:

There’s always the need for cheaper Arduino equipment and there’s always the need for wireless activities in your project. But an Arduino wireless shield costs much. Everyone of us has got an ethernet shield. They are good but not wireless. Well. Let’s see if we can improve this. At first you need an ethernet shield and a wireless router TL-WR702N. (both 30-35€ that’s half as much as the wireless shield here in Germany costs)

Via Lucadentella.

Altera’s free online technical training courses

alteracourse
Altera is making available a group of free online technical training courses covering the various aspects of FPGA design. Topics include the basics of programmable logic design, Verilog and VHDL basics, as well as introductory and advanced courses on the Quartus II IDE.

You can check out the course listings at the Altera online training resources page.

PCB a Week 15: Twittorama

LongAndThin

Mats continues his challenge of designing one PCB every week.  In week 15 he came up with 14 segment display- Twittorama:

Displaying tweets isn’t anything new, but most I’ve seen have a small display and scrolls the tweets. I want the full 140 characters to be visible simultaneously. So I put 10 of the displays (20 characters) on a pcb with a heap of shift registers, resistor arrays and some n-fets.

Then I just daisychain 7 of the modules to get up to the 140 characters. Adding one more unit, placed on top of the 7, will give space to display the name of the sender as well.

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

ddso-pcb-scan

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.

MSP430G2553 sensorless BLDC motor control development

msp430_bldc_brushless_motor_control

Tribes over at the 430h forum has been working on a sensorless BLDC motor controller using a MSP430G2553:

My current project is to build a controller for a sensorless BLDC motor using a MSP430G2553. I want to realize trapezoidal control with Back-EMF/zero-crossing detection. I plan to detect zero-crossing with the Comparator(CA2/3/4 vs. CA1) and generate PWM using Timer1. Timer0 will be used for things like 30° delay before commutation.

Via 43oh.

Seeedstudio BareDuino Nano — smallest Arduino yet

BDN_03
Seeedstudio has announced what may be the smallest Arduino compatible board yet. The BareDuino Nano was designed by 15 year old maker Niek Blankers from the Netherlands, and sports the same processing power as Arduino Uno in a 21×14 mm footprint and includes an FTDI programming interface and on-board voltage regulator. The board’s pin spacing is 1.27mm.

The BareDuino lists for $18.90 from Seeedstudio.

Raspberry Pi level shifters and monitoring

ISO wRPi

Stuff4Pi posted his ConvertPi, a Raspberry Pi GPIO full level converter & monitoring, in the project log forum:

I would like to introduce my first Raspberry board: a GPIO bi-directional level translator (3.3V <-> 5V):
– This is an in-between expansion board that you plug in the RPi P1 connector which gives a bi-directional level shifter for each GPIO (x 17)
– The board also acts as a monitoring as each GPIO has it’s own LED for visualization of its state. The LEDs are buffered meaning that they don’t have any influence on devices you may connect to the GPIOs
– Finally, there is a mini (micro!) prototype area with replication of the 5V GPIO

You can find project details on Stuff4Pi website.

BLiVIT project update

P01-109M_BLiVIT_photo_assy1

Asgard posted an update on his power charger and supply regulator project  we covered previously, the BLiVIT:

Testing continues. I have validated the power flow switches and the battery charger/management.The measured idle current draw from the Li+ cell is 23.4uA. With the Powah-1 module and the 10Meg load resistance inherent in my scope the current flow is 3.5mA.
With the BLiVIT idle and the USB plugged in the flow back into the cell is approx 770mA (initial charge only). This current winds down as the cell is charged, until the maintenance mode is achieved. I am validating that as of this time. The isolation section also works perfectly, creating a +/- 5V square wave at the isolation transformer secondary, which is rectified into a constant +5V. The downstream switching regulator has to be tweaked, but when that is correct I will call it good all around.