App note: Practical guide to implementing Solar Panel MPPT Algorithms

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An application note from Microchip:  Practical guide to implementing Solar Panel MPPT Algorithms (PDF!)

This application note describes how to implement
MPPT using the most popular switching power supply topologies. There are many published works on this topic, but only a tiny portion of them show how to actually implement the algorithms in hardware, as well as state common problems and pitfalls. Even when using the simplest MPPT algorithm with a well-designed synchronous switching power supply, it can be expected that at least 90% of the panel’s available power will end up in the battery, so the benefits are obvious.

Bay Area Maker Faire 2013: Preview of booths and exhibits

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Here is a short preview of some booths and exhibits we visited at the Bay Area Maker Faire.  New part kits ready to show at Maker Faire tomorrow.  Follow the pics live with our twitter feed.

More photos below the fold.

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Cutting a stencil with Silhouette Cameo

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2blmaster shares his experience cutting a stencil with gerber2graphtec using the Silhouette Cameo:

I just received my Silhouette Cameo after I got excited reading *this* thread :) I use it together with the great gerber2graphtec tool
In principle it works as expected and according to what is promised here :)

But trying to print “large” (~10×10 cm²) stencils, I always find a “spot”, where the rectangular shapes are “distorted”, and not repeated exactly in the different cutting passes… (gerber files are okay!)

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 May 17, 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
  • 3D model on Monday
  • Eagle parts and tips on Tuesday
  • Free PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday
  • A new tutorial on Wednesday
  • Workshop video on Thursday
  • Weekly roundup and preview every Friday

Internet census maps usage via network of open embedded devices


A security research group has completed an Internet census revealing interesting facts on usage. According to the abstract by the crew from Carna Botnet,

While playing around with the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) we discovered an amazing number of open embedded devices on the Internet. Many of them are based on Linux and allow login to standard BusyBox with empty or default credentials. We used these devices to build a distributed port scanner to scan all IPv4 addresses. These scans include service probes for the most common ports, ICMP ping, reverse DNS and SYN scans. We analyzed some of the data to get an estimation of the IP address usage.

Their conclusions were the result of data from the 420,000-node botnet taken over a 24 hour period. The GIF above is produced by Carma Botnet and shows an animated world map of 24 hour relative average utilization of IPv4 addresses observed using ICMP ping requests. If you’re on the look out for great websites to visit, you may use directories like 세상의모든링크.

The Internet Census 2012 report can be found on Bitbucket.

Via PSFK.

Get in touch with your things – Souliss

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Get in touch with your things – Souliss:

The future of lights goes through LEDs because compared to standard lights they’re tiny, easy to control and consume low power. But what we were missing until now was a powerful yet straightforward hardware controller for everyone willing to use LEDs and strips on Arduino compatible boards, especially if planning to use many of them. Also, You cannot spend your time pointing an IR remote to every corner, looking for the IR receivers that you may have placed around your home; using a lot of remote controllers is messy, too. Finally, we think that an Android tablet or smartphone is the best remote controller available, as it is always with you; also, they’re becoming pretty cheap.

Via Open Electronics.

Check out the video after the break.

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RGB LED driven by PWM using Netduino

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Embedded-Lab is doing a series of tutorials for the Netduino. The Day 7 tutorial of a series is RGB LED color formation using Pulse Width Modulation:

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a digital method of delivering a varying amount of power to a load, and hence can be used to control the brightness of an LED or speed of a DC motor. Controlling the power, we will make this tutorial colorful using a Red Green Blue (RGB) LED. Each segment (lead) of an RGB-LED will get a PWM signal via RgbLed class allowing us to illuminate the RGB-LED with any color defined by RGB. This class can also generate random colors. Using the RgbLed class, some standard colors can also be sent to a RGB-LED.

Spindicator clone with pulse and trail effect

In this video Viktor demonstrates his Spindicator clone with pulse and trail effect project:

Although my “original” Spindicator itself was just a clone of this one, mine was well received by the geeks around the world! :) A fellow diy tinkerer made an even better one with PWM control (very cool, indeed!).

Recently, I was asked to do something similar for a custom XBOX 360 enclosure project.

TI Deal: MSP430 ZIF socket target board

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TI is offering the MSP-TS430PW24 24-pin target socket board for $30 while supplies last. The board normally retails for $89.

The MSP-TS430PW24 is a standalone ZIF socket target board used to program and debug the MSP430 in-system through the JTAG interface or the Spy Bi-Wire (2-wire JTAG) protocol. The development board supports all MSP430AFE2xx Flash parts in a 24-pin TSSOP package. No coupons are necessary and, as always, international shipping is free with the TI eStore.

For more information visit TIDeals.

Tutorial – Arduino and MC14489 LED display driver

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John Boxall over at Tronixstuff has a series of Arduino tutorials.  This chapter fifty-one of a series will show you how to use MC14489 LED display driver ICs with Arduino:

Recently we’ve been looking at alternatives to the MAX7219 LED display driver IC due to pricing and availability issues (stay tuned for that one) – and came across an old but still quite useful IC – the MC14489 from Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor). The MC14489 can drive five seven-segment LED numbers with decimal point, or a combination of numbers and separate LEDs. You can also daisy-chain more than one to drive more digits, and it’s controlled with a simple serial data-clock method in the same way as a 74HC595 shift register. Sourcing the MC14489 isn’t too difficult – it’s available from element14, Newark, Digikey, and so on – or if you’re not in a hurry, try the usual suspects like Futurlec.

Taco Crawl 2013 Thursday before Maker Faire

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Every year before Maker Faire we spend a day in San Francisco to visit the Noisebridge hackerspace, Instructables, and other open hardware/DIY/hacker friendly people. Noisebridge is located in a neighborhood called the Mission District, and it has dozens of delicious Mexican taco shops called taquerias. We try to eat a carne asada taco at every shop, but there’s so many it’s an impossible challenge.

If you’re in San Francisco for the Maker Faire early please join us for the Dangerous taco crawl from Noise Bridge hacker space through the Mission District on Thursday the 16th. We’ll meet at Noise Bridge near the 16th and Mission Street BART stop at about 6pm. If you can make it please give us a shout via the contact form.

Make gave us two free tickets for friends, we’re going to give them away at the taco crawl. If you don’t have tickets yet let us know on Thursday and we’ll give you our extras.

Route map below the fold. Hit us up on the contact for for a cell number if you want to track us down after the crawl is under way.

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Magic wand project for kids

Here’s a how-to on making a magnetic magic wand toy by DIYHacksAndHowTos:

This Magic Wand project can be used to get someone young interested in electronics since instead of simply doing something practical this project appears to be magic. The project uses a magnetic reed switch and a magnet embedded into a magic wand to turn things on just by bringing the wand close to them. There are a ton of possibilities here such as hiding the magnet between your fingers and amaze your friends that you have the ability to turn on the items just by the force of your hand and they don’t.

Thanks for the tip Jason.

Via Hacked Gadgets.

Low cost PCB through-hole plating

Ricardo Trombetta shared a tutorial on how to plate the holes using copper hypophosphite pyrolysis to activate the holes:

This video shows how to activate a PCB holes surfaces before electroplating. The holes are activated using a low cost copper hypophosphite based solution and the electroplating is made using an acid bath that is copper sulfate based.

Via the forum.

Simple component size and silkscreen reference board

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Philip posted his simple component size and silkscreen reference board in the project log forum:

since I kept checking old projects to figure out which silkscreens worked, and which didn’t, I made myself a simple reference board.  I also included some common SMD component sizes, just to keep me from thinking 0402 was a viable default size.

Via the forum.