Erl shared his voltage reference project in the forum:
I had almost 6 x 6 cm left over on a 10 x 10 board I was ordering from Seeed Studios, so inspired by the Mr. Ref voltage reference project, I made something similar.
It’s based on the MAX6126 2.048 V reference, uses 3 AAA batteries for power, and fits in the Dangerous Prototypes Sick of Beige 60 x 60 mm case.
This video demonstrates the new G400-D System on Module (SoM) by GHI Electronics:
The all new G400-D System on Module (SoM) hosts a 400Mhz ARM9 processor and 128MB DDR2, making it capable of running full blown operating systems like Android. The SoM comes standard with Microsoft’s .NET Micro Framework (NETMF) and GHI’s premium libraries, no licensing and no royalties. NETMF allows G400-D to be programmed using the freely available Visual Studio Express, in C# and Visual Basic. With full debugging capability built-in using a USB cable there is no need for costly JTAG and IDEs.
A group from the University of Oulu (Finland) has developed and released a set of open source tools for auditing RFID signals. They describe,
We have provided in this toolkit a systematic analysis for the RF protocol of RFID systems. The tools are either written for the Gnuradio software and the USRP software radio hardware or for post processing the extracted data. USRP provides the flexibility of supporting any modulation and frequency (the basic module supports frequencies 0-30 MHz).
You can find project details and download links on their University of Oulu webpage.
Here’s an interesting project the Chipper – ATtiny Programming and Prototyping Shield built by Ben Rothschild:
As a high school senior and electronic enthusiast, I recently built a programming shield for 10 different types of ATtiny chips that can be used with either an AVR programmer or Arduino Board. Some of the features on the PCB that I designed include:
- 100% Arduino compatible
- Program ATtiny 85/45/25/15/13 84/44/24 2313/4313 chips
- Debug your program with 2 LEDs and a broken out sensor port
- Compatible with either an Arduino board or AVR programmer
- House sensors on the proto area of the board with access to broken out power and ground
- Reset a chip mid-program with the reset button
Via Hacked Gadgets.
Asgard posted his Rapper project in the forum:
What this is, is a small device that records a command sequence for a TV remote control, then emits the same sequence when activated by a pulse detected in a piezo transducer. Such pulse can be as simple as rapping your knuckles on the table where the Rapper is placed. Typically the Rapper would record the mute control for the TV, so that you can run to get the phone without having to hunt down the remote control for the TV. Cute, eh?
Maker Faire is a hands-on experience, and there’s something for all ages. Here’s a few kid friendly projects we spotted.
Continue reading “Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire 2013: Kid friendly projects”
We’re getting 10 to 20 spam comments a minute. I locked down links in comments. Sorry for any spammy comment notifications going out. No idea why a kismet isn’t working. Could be a hack. Will reinstall WordPress shortly.
We started using a professional sourcer for our kits. Will have a full report when we get results.
Another batch of SMD breakout boards is designed. The one pictured above is of a 0.5mm and 0.65mm pitch 80pin QFP package. The two different pitched footprints are on opposite sides of the board.
The ATX breakout board bench power supply is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This board recycles an old computer PSU into a handy bench tool with 3.3/5/12/-12 volt supplies.
You can get one for $14 at Seeed Studio.
You can also get a Sick of Beige case for your ATX breakout board for $4 at Seeed.
Want a comfortable workplace or livingroom with green walls that clean and freshen the air and helps you reduce your stress? Check out this green walls –FreshWall by Fresh Effect:
We’re a Finnish start-up company which specializes in active green walls which can purify air 100x better than traditional green walls. Few years ago we were in a need for easy way to get our green walls use GSM network to communicate with our servers. In the very first prototype we used ethernet shield for Arduino as we thought GSM is hard and problematic to do right. However we quickly found out that ethernet connection (or WLAN) wouldn’t work in the long run as it’s always hard to find ethernet wires close to our installation location. So we started thinking about using GSM. Back then we tested several options but once we found the breakout module for SimCom900 from Open-Electronics.org we didn’t look back. Open-Electronics also provides great library for the GSM shield to get started on the coding!
Via Open-Electronics.
The ChameleonOS dev group has posted the latest version of their open source ROMS for Android devices. They describe:
Chameleon OS (or ChaOS for short) is a custom Android ROM that gives the user more control than they can experience on any other Android ROM. Starting with a CyanogenMOD base, we customize each piece to give ultimate control while maintaining the simplicity we all love about Android.
Even with all of the features we’ve currently implemented, ChaOS will continue to mature with even more refined settings and features. We will be completely open source and will welcome developers to join us, whether it be by maintaining a device or utilizing our gerrit review. Even if you’re not a developer, your voice will not go unheard. We will continually poll our users for the most wanted features and do our best to implement them.
Visit the Chameleon website for more information or to find the ROM download for your device.
MobileWill shared his project USB LED Matrix controller board in the project log forum:
I displayed some projects next to Ian at the World Maker Faire Dangerous Prototypes booth, and I’m working on turning one of those projects into an Open Source Hardware product. I’m building a USB LED Matrix controller board and one of the goals of the project is to be able to mount multiple displays next to each other to form a wider or taller display. I’m having trouble adding mounting holes onto the board in a spot that won’t interfere with the LED Matrix display, or add a gap between adjacent displays.
Via the forum.
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.
Robots and automation are always favorite projects. We found cell phone controlled robots, cnc milling machines, 3D printers galore, and much more. Check out a few projects below the fold.
Continue reading “Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire 2013: Robots and Art”
Once again Seeed Studio sponsored the Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire. A bunch of open source hardware is on display and available for purchase. Here’s a bunch of kits based on the Arduino.
Continue reading “Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire 2013: The Seeed Studio Booth”
This weekend was the second Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire. Shenzhen has the world’s largest electronics component market, the makers here have access to resources and tool most of us can only dream about. You know there’s going to be some amazing projects. This year the Maker Faire was in central Shenzhen, in the trendy and fashionable Overseas China Town. OCT is also the location of Shenzhen’s hackerspace, the second in China.
Today we’ll run just a tiny selection of the projects we spotted at the faire. A huge thanks to DP photographer Sjaak for all these great pics!
We finished up all the models and renderings for the Bus Pirate Edu kit. Now we’ll concentrate on writing up the documentation required for each exercise, as well as assembling the booklet that will accompany the kit.
VHF FM Aircraft Receiver is a superregenative receiver developed for listening to FM transmitters but also tunes the aircraft band and the top portion of the FM broadcast band. Receives both AM and FM (107mHz to 135 MHz). You can use this receiver with the any FM transmitter. The receiver is amazingly simple using only one transistor for the receiver section and one IC for the audio section. This circuit is a self-quenching regenerative RF receiver also known as a superregenerative receiver.
Via Circuit-Zone.
“Presented here is XR2206 function generator with multiple waveform selection and a frequency readout display. The diagram on the right shows the internal workings of the XR2206 in the form of a block diagram. Essentially the chip contains A VCO (voltage controller oscillator), wave shaper and buffer. The XR2206 frequency generator diagram frequency of the VCO is set with a capacitor and a resistor. The capacitor sets the frequency range whilst a variable resistor can be used to vary the frequency in the set range. The frequency is defined by ƒ = 1/(RC).”
Via Circuit-Zone.
Freescale Semiconductors has posted their Medical Applications User Guide. This 116 page PDF outlines the MCU, RF, sensor and display technologies offered with specific emphasis on their implementation in developing medical applications. Included are block diagrams of medical devices and overviews of contemporary medical electronics technologies.
