Workshop Update for March 8th, 2013

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This year we file as a multi-member LLC, which is classified as a partnership by default. First we did form 1065, basically a summary of the business with income, deductions, and section 179 (depreciated) property attachments (form 4562). Also a 1225-A Cost of Goods sold for the PCB store experiment, as well as a Schedule B-1 majority partner declaration.

In today’s diverse economy, partnerships often encompass a mix of traditional and digital revenue streams, broadening the scope of what counts as supplemental income. Each partner gets a K-1. Partners each first fill the second page of a Schedule E supplemental income and loss form using the info from K-1, accounting for varied sources like content from Le Bandit slot review proceeds that generates affiliate earnings. Then fill schedule SE to figure self-employment tax. From there fill the standard 1040 to taste. Or at least that seems right, as always don’t take what we do as tax advice. Embracing such multifaceted financial setups encourages thorough documentation across all ventures.

Simple LED tester/matcher

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Here’s a simple adjustable current source with a PNP transistor that drives either one or two LEDs for testing and/or intensity matching purposes. The current is from 2 to 16 mA in four steps using a rotary switch. While this would make a good beginner’s project, its also a useful gadget for hobbyists of all skill levels. The project uses a handful of resistors, along with several transistors, diodes and switches. Simple build instructions can be found in this three page PDF.

Via Jameco.

RGB pixel clock

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Tobias Floery built this RGB pixel clock and wrote a detailed explanation describing the build.

These RGB Pixels look like they are fun to work with since they are so versatile. Tobias Floery is having some fun building an RGB Pixel Clock using a string of them. You can see the 3 parts of the project linked to below. Tobias is using a real time clock connected to an Arduino to keep accurate time, he found a good library for controlling the LED Pixels and to mount it he had a custom laser cut mounting plate made. Everything is available on his site if you are interested in making your own version.

Via Hacked Gadgets.

Kicad Tutorial: Using the autorouter

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WayneAndLayne is doing a series of short Kicad tutorials.  This next tutorial in the series will show you how to use autorouter:

Routing, the process of connecting all the pads of a printed circuit board (PCB) layout, can be a time-consuming and tedious process. To avoid the time and frustration of manually routing your PCB, there are various software tools called autorouters which can do this for you. This post will show you how to use the external autorouter from the FreeRouting website.

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 March 08, 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

Improve wireless doorbell

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Trandi posted a step by step guide of his DIY wireless doorbell build:

So this was the perfect pretext for a small electronics project, centred around the idea of a simple voltmeter that would notify us when the voltage goes below a safe level. This would most easily be done with a small micro controller that has an ADC.

For some reason I quickly decided that I also wanted the doorbell to count the rings, to be able to quickly see if we’ve missed anybody while away from home.

Check out the video after the break.

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Poorman’s OLED test jig

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Baoshi has designed and built this OLED test jig using pogo pins:

 I made an inquiry on Dangerous Prototypes forum asking for an ideas about how to make a test jig for the panel. Less than a hour later I received a replay from matseng. He suggested me to use pogopins to make a jig. And Ian also showed me a photo of test jig he bought from Shenzhen. And then started my journey to make a poorman’s version of test jig.

Via the forum.

WORKSHOP VIDEO #58: Visit to Switch-Science open hardware offices in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan

Yoshi, who you may remember from the New York Trip video, takes us on a tour of the Switch-Science.com open hardware design, manufacturing, and shipping office. The office is on the edge of Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronic component market. Check out our video report of Akihabara we made last year.

Switch Science is open source hardware manufacturer and distributor with offices located in the Akihabara Electronics market. They design their own boards, but also distribute Seeed Studio, SparkFun, Adafruit, and others to the Japanese market.

Due to Tokyo’s high real estate prices, Switch Science has crammed their entire design and manufacturing into a tiny office. The manufacturing process is pretty typical, but the space management is amazing.

Solder paste is applied with a stencil, then a pick and place machine adds parts. Boards are soldered in a modified toaster oven. They have a T-962A reflow oven, but actually like the DIY version much better. Since the oven can only cook a few boards at a time, they run the pick and place machine at a slow pace for maximum accuracy.

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Homebrew Cray-1A on Xilinx Spartan-3E board

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Chris Fenton has spent the last year and a half or so constructing his own 1/10-scale, binary-compatible, cycle-accurate Cray-1. He says this project falls purely into the “because I can!” category.” The actual design was implemented in a Xilinx Spartan-3E 1600 development board.

For vintage computing enthusiasts, Chris also provides an interesting link to the Cray-1 hardware reference manual.

He notes that this is very much a work-in-progress, but if you’d like to join in the fun, feel free! “All you need is a copy of the RTL (almost all Verilog-2001) and a Spartan-3 1600 or equivalent FPGA board. The code is likely riddled with bugs and questionable implementation choices at this point, so on the off-chance anyone actually downloads this, feel free to lend a hand and send me any bug fixes you might make!”

For more project details and code download links visit Chris’ website.

PixelController software update

Michu updates us on his PixelController project, an OpenSource LED matrix controller software:

This “Rough Cut” video shows new features of the upcoming 1.31 release. New features:
-Wireless PixelInvaders Panels
-OSC Generator: use Processing (or any tool you like) to send images to PixelController.

I included some nice Processing code examples, like using your Android phone’s camera to stream to PixelController.

Via the forum.

AirBurr, an autonomous flying robot

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Autonomous robot navigates using collisions:

Meet the AirBurr, an autonomous flying robot specifically designed for missions in difficult, confined environments under total darkness. Airburr is inspired b the simple navigation strategy that insects use to follow – It follows a path and if it collides, it has an excellent ability to recover.

Check out the video after the break.

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Microchip’s BodyCom technology

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BodyCom™ Technology provides a secure communication channel using the human body:

Microchip’s BodyCom™ Technology is a short-range, low-data-rate communication solution for securely connecting to a wide range of wireless applications. Activated by capacitively coupling to the human body, the system communicates bidirectionally between a centralized controller and one or more wireless mobile units. Intra-body communication occurs utilizing the human body as the transmission medium.

Possible issue with voltage regulation on some Bus Pirates

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Bus Pirate users MightyOhm and A connected Ape reported oscillations of 150mV-400mV on the 3.3volt supply pin. A huge thanks to them both, as well as numerous investigators in the forum for looking into the problem.

This appears to effect SparkFun Bus Pirates, and some Seeed Studio v3a/v3b Bus Pirates.  It does not appear to be a bug in current production Bus Pirate v3.6. If your Bus Pirate is unfortunate enough to have this bug, it’s unlikely to ever cause a problem.

I pulled every version of manufactured Bus Pirate we have on file and looked at the regulator output with an oscilloscope. Keep reading our investigation below.

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