Today we feature Squonk’s 3D model of the Little Wire AVR based multi-tool. As with our models it was designed in SketchUp with the eagleUp plugin, and rendered in Kerkyrhea. You can download the model from Squonk’s 3D warehouse collection.
Via the forum.
alexwhittmore has posted a detailed tutorial highlighting an open source IDE and toolchain for the STM32F4 dev board on Max OSX Lion. He uses Indigo R Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers (Mac Cocoa 64-bit), Sourcery CodeBench Lite Edition, STM32F4 DSP and standard peripherals library and the STM32F4 Discovery board firmware package.
Check out Alex’s website for links to these software tools and detailed instructions.
Max, Brittany, and Kathleen designed a gaming console extension for the MSP430 LaunchPad. It’s called the GamingPack, and it’s based on the similar Arduino shield Gameduino. It features a Spartan 3A FPGA which handles both video VGA output, and input from two NES controllers.
Based on the Gameduino, the GamingPack transforms your MSP430 LaunchPad into a full fledged gaming console complete with audio / video output and two Nintendo controller sockets. Just hookup your computer monitor, plug in a controller and you’ll be writing games in no time.
After optimizing your gaming hardware, you can start improving your gameplay using various codes and strategies. For a more complete overview of categories and entries, players can check this regularly updated GTA 6 cheat codes list online.
RichF tipped us about a free download from Saturn PCB Design Inc. It’s a collection of calculators to aid your with PCB design. Stuff like via resistance, trace current cappacity, differential pair inductance etc…
It incorporates many features that PCB designers and engineers are in regular need of like current capacity of a PCB trace, via current, differential pairs and much more. Please download our PCB Toolkit today for free and enjoy!
Via the forum.
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:
A Switch Mode Power Supply circuit collection from Linear Technology. It covers 12 basic SMPS circuit categories: Battery, Boost, Buck, Buck-Boost, Flyback, Forward, High Voltage, Multioutput, Off Line, Preregulator, Switched Capacitor and Telecom.
The SJS-ONE is a digital software synthesizer with a dual analog filter designed as a shield for the Arduino Uno. Its name is derived from the venue where it was designed, the SyltJam 2011, which is an annual LAN-party like weekend event for synth-geeks in Malmö, Sweden. The description of the original DIY version can be found here.
An updated version of the SJS-ONE is available as a kit from Devsound. According to the developers, “SJS-ONE is a software defined 8-bit mono synthesizer with a dual (series) MAX261, switch-cap filter, which we are, as far as we know, the only ones to use at this point in a DIY-synthesizer. The filter can be programmed to work as low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, all-pass or a combination of filter modes.
The synth works as an Arduino shield, meaning that people can hack and modify the firmware at will. At the moment we have two firmwares finished, one paraphonic, supersaw synth, and one drummachine/sfx synth. More firmwares are in development!”
All files on this open source project can be found on Github.
Some tips and tricks on how to reduce noise on PCB power and ground traces. It warns digital engineers that the analog nasties are lurking in power supplies, and can cause unexpected surprises for inexperienced PCB designers.
Many times electronic system failures are blamed on the parts when the real cause was human error. Of these human errors, the most common is poor understanding of analog in a digital world. All too often brilliant digital designers have never been taught analog techniques because engineering schools are reducing the amount of analog taught. Maxim, however, is an analog mixed-signal Company. In this application note we share some analog concepts that will help overcome common “human” error and improve analog circuits around the system.
Here is an app note from Microchip introducing the audio-specific features of the PIC32 MCUs. One of the features disused is the hardware SPI module that supports some standard audio communication modes.
In this application note, the available audio-specific features of the PIC32 MCU are explored to address these needs. The SPI module supports different standard audio communication modes and offers high bit resolution for high-quality audio applications. The flexible reference clock output feature of the PIC32 MCU can be used to provide the master clock to the analog front-end to generate the different sample rates. The PIC32 MCU also offers the USB Host and Device module with flexible PLL clocking schemes at low power.
In this video from the recent Notacon 9 conference, EFF activists Trevor Timm and Parker Higgins present on the widespread and increasing use of drones by government. Aspects of recent drone hacks are highlighted, security flaws noted, as well as the growing popularity of DIY civilian drones.
For more information on the use of drones in the United States, including a map of US government domestic drone bases, check out this WIRED article by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai.
To learn more about the efforts of the EFF in monitoring government drone activity in the US, as well as to access a list of agencies which have received FAA approval to operate domestic drones, visit Parker and Trevor’s EFF drone page.
Here is Texas Instrument’s application note on Ball Grid Array IC packages. It provides general information about BGAs, and the many versions of the same.
Leaders in the consumer electronics industry will be determined by their ability to deliver increasingly miniaturized products at lower costs. The Ball Grid Array (BGA) package achieves these objectives by providing increased functionality for the same package size while being compatible with existing Surface Mount Technology (SMT) infrastructure.
Today much of the day was spent answering emails, and forum support. We did receive our order of Dangerous Prototypes stickers in the meantime.
Bus Pirate demo board v5 firmware is being finalized. We caught a few hardware bugs on the board though, which might require another PCB revision.
Ian and Sjaak are meeting this weekend for a Dangerous Prototypes food crawl in an undisclosed location. Be sure to follow our Twitter feed for pictures.
Chicken built an ATX Breakout board free PCB. The ATX breakout board routes the -12, 3.3, 5 and 12 volt ATX outputs to screw terminals, each protected by a 1.25 amp resettable polyfuse.
If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer.
Via the forum.
Available for $13.80 at Seeed Studio.
As a follow up to the “One wire control of HD44780 LCDs” post, McLaren shared the Assembly source code for his project. Pick up the source in the forum.
Assembly language source file and hex file (for 12F683) attached… Allow approximately 60 msecs after power-up for LCD initialization before sending commands and/or data to the LCD. Default 57600 baud (can be changed in the firmware).
Via the forum.
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 a every week:
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”
DEFCON 20 is currently underway in Las Vegas and this year the electronic hackable badge is back! This year the badge is based on the Parallax Propeller P8X32A 32-bit multicore processor. “The badge features an infrared LED and receiver for badge-to-badge communication, a bank of eight LEDs for visual feedback and a USB circuit for data access and programming. Each attendee receives two PS2 adapters and a VGA connector so they can stop by DEFCON’s Hardware Hacking Village to turn their badge into a small computer system. Three AAA batteries can power the badge for the entire convention.”
For more details and updated badge hacktips, visit the Parallax Forum. Here’s a link to the video of the Parallax badge production line.
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon.
Coming up:
What are you hacking this week?
Andrew decided to write up a how-to on DIY BGA soldering. His article describes why it’s a bad idea to keep the vias unfilled with solder before reflow. Capilary force sucks up the ball of solder into the via, and there is no solder left to make contact between the IC and the pad.
After the rough cut I polished with 1200 grit sandpaper and wiped away the dust with a wet cloth. Upon looking under the microscope I saw that the failure I was hoping to demonstrate had indeed occurred – one of the balls had been sucked down into an uncapped via by capillary action, resulting in a complete lack of electrical contact. The ball at far right had been partially sucked into the via but the solder mask dam was big enough to keep it from going in all the way.
Via the forum.
Today we announce the recipient of the MSP430 LaunchPad. There were lots of great ideas for projects based on the MSP430 LaunchPad, thanks for your submissions.
Chris gets a MSP430 for his open source aquarium automation idea:
I’m busy with some Opens Source Aquarium Automation project (well, the first phase will only be to automatically do some chemical tests) and for that I pondered the PIC18F range, but this would make a very nice part of the automatic tester… Details on the project will be on my blog in a couple of days, for now I’m trying to figure them out myself and doing some sketchup work for it
Thank you for participating, there were a bunch of great ideas. As always feel free to share your projects in the forum.
Releasing the Sick of Beige standard PCB template and cases dominated the day. We made a video about it, showed off the standard PCB library, and presented the two initial SoB v1 case designs.
As a demo project for the Sick of Beige cases, toady we designed 2 protoboards on DP6037 (60mmx37mm) standard PCBs. One is just the standard PCB filled with a 0.1” pitch prototyping area, while the other features a footprint for the a MINI-B USB connector. Build up a circuit on the protoboard and stick it safely in a laser cut acrylic case for only $3. You can check out our other protoboards here.
