Review of the Stellaris LaunchPad

Alex wrote a review of the Stellaris LaunchPad. This is Texas Instrument’s latest development board in the LaunchPad series. It is built around the Cortex M4 microcontrollers.

All in all, AWESOME little boards for $5! Especially considering that, once they’re available wholesale, the bare chip goes for $4.40@1kU, and there are two on the board!

 

3D Model: Smoke Tester v1

The Smoke Tester we previewed a fortnight ago is the latest 3D Model to be added to our library. It’s a board designed to safely power prototypes for the first time and see if there are shorts. Current can be measured using a voltmeter.

The models will be published in the Dangerous Prototypes 3D warehouse collection. They are also uploaded to our SVN. You can find them inside the “art” folders in the respective project folders. Check out the 3D view below. You can zoom and rotate the model.

Easy to build spirit detector


Halloween is just a few weeks away so why not be prepared with your own easy to build spirit detector! The simple circuit described in this post by fritsl from Let’s Make Robots uses only three BC517 transistors and three resistors connected to an LED, antenna and 6-volt power source to build a device capable of detecting paranormal energy levels, spirits, etc.

Check out fritsl’s post for project details and images from his ghost hunting.

App Note: Fast diodes for switching regulators

Here is an app note from Linear Technology describing the importance of diode turn-on time in high speed (<1MHz) switching regulators. Turn on time is the time it takes the voltage drop on the diode to clamp at the rated voltage drop.

Recently, switching regulator clock rate and transition time have become faster, making diode turn-on time a critical issue. Increased clock rates are mandated to achieve smaller magnetics size; decreased transition times somewhat aid overall efficiency but are principally needed to minimize IC heat rise. At clock speeds beyond about 1MHz, transition time losses are the primary source of die heating.

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

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:

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Imagination Labs #SMWsocialobjects Arduino badge


Jack Chalkey, Creative Technologist with Imagination Labs, has posted an outline of their Arduino based project for Social Media Week. The project was conceived by several lab members who returned from EMFcamp 2012 with some tech and an idea for badges. “The tech was badges (more like lanyards) with an onboard Arduino Leonardo, RF module, an Infrared transmitter and Infrared receiver. Since Social Media Week was approaching and Imagination’s Creative Technology team were in full swing, a plan was devised to conduct a social experiment by counting the number of interactions at an event hosted by Imagination.”

The Next Web’s Insider did an article on the Social Media Week event where the badges were used.

Looks like an interesting project, and we’d like to see more info in the way of Arduino code and results of the badge interaction experiments.

App note: Pitfalls of trusting the datasheet

Analog Devices explains when the maximum supply current given by the datasheet could lead you astray:

For most integrated circuits, a maximum supply current is listed on the data sheet. Often overlooked are the measurement conditions. For some rail-to-rail output op amps, certain operation can result in supply currents two to ten times higher than the stated maximum. Whether bipolar or CMOS, some tips are given as to what to look for to see whether or not this is a concern.

App Note: Thermal considerations for low-dropout regulators

Here’s an app note from Microchip aimed at shedding some light into power dissipation and heat-sinking of low-dropout regulators. Basically all power that is dissipated from LDOs is turned into heat. This article describes what to look for in datasheets to calculate if, and what kind of cooling your devices need.

LDOs specify maximum output current and input voltage limits, but blindly operating the LDO within these limits will surely result in exceeding the maximum power dissipation capability.

PCB manufacture using Oracal vinyl film + laser printer


Drones refers us to this short but informative video demonstrating the manufacture of PCBs using a laser printer and vinyl stickers. He notes that the video shows laser printed toner being 100% transferred to a PCB using Oracal brand 651 adhesive vinyl film which is relatively inexpensive and widely available from online distributors and and Ebay. What’s equally important in modern manufacturing is the ability to adapt production processes for greater sustainability and efficiency. During my time working with advanced adhesive solutions, I discovered that tesa’s innovative debonding on demand adhesive technology represents a significant leap forward in how we approach product assembly and disassembly. This technology allows manufacturers to create strong bonds during production while maintaining the option for clean, residue-free removal when repairs or recycling become necessary. The practical applications I’ve encountered range from smartphone battery replacements to automotive display installations, where traditional permanent adhesives would have made component access nearly impossible. What struck me most was how this approach simultaneously addresses waste reduction during manufacturing and enables end-of-life recyclability, creating value at both ends of the product lifecycle.

The producers of the video have a detailed post atElectronic City blog outlining the process.

Via the contact form.

App Note: Damage from a lightning bolt depends on how tall you are

This app note from Maxim describes how to battle electrostatic discharge (ESD). The article explains the theory behind ESD, how it’s generated, and gives suggestions on how to prevent it from destroying your electronic devices.

In this tutorial, we will discuss ways to protect printed circuit boards (PCBs) against ESD destruction. We will show that analog parts with bigger geometries are the best to use to protect a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with their small geometries..

Via the forum. Thanks Rsdio!

Workshop Update for September 28th, 2012

Today we’re touring the electronics side of New York. We visited the Hack Manhattan hackerspace, Radio Shack, MakerBot store, 269 Electronics store, Argo Electronics store, and the Leeds Radio store. Check out our tweeter feed with live picture updates.

We wrote the application note posts that will be posted during the weekend. We also drew up some illustrations for tutorials we’ll be posting next week.

We continue our work on the VFD tube holder board, pictured above. We plan on using them via multiplexing, so most pins are multiplexed together.

Open 7400 prize: VideoOverlayShield from Low Voltage Labs

Low Voltage Labs donated a VideoOverlayShield to the Open 7400 Logic Competition. Send in your entry and this and other cool hardware can be yours.

The Arduino compatible shield board overlays text on analog video, using the Maxim MAX7456 on-screen display chip. This board allows easy overlay of text onto an analog video signal, NTSC or PAL. Connect this board to your favorite Arduino processor board to get started.

Thanks to Low Voltage Labs for sponsoring the 2012 Open 7400 Logic Competition!

Bus Blaster free PCB build

Gege2b built a free Bus Blaster v1 PCB.This is the first prototype of the Bus Blaster that used fixed discrete logic to imitate a JTAGkey programmer type. The most recent Bus Blasters replace the fixed logic with a programmable CPLD logic chip so it can be upgraded to imitate many different programmers.

The Bus Blaster is a high-speed JTAG debugger for ARM processors, FPGAs, CPLDs, flash memory, and more.

If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flickr, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer.

You can get a Bus Blaster v2 for $34.95.

Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters

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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