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 a every week:

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Week in (p)review July 13, 2012

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
  • Parts on Monday
  • New 3D model on Monday
  • Free PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday
  • USB stack tutorial on Wednesday
  • Workshop video on Thursday
  • Weekly roundup and preview every Friday

What are you hacking this week?

Unboxing of the Meizu MX Android phone and gaining root access with the Bus Pirate

Adam unboxes the Meizu Mx and gets root access using the Bus Pirate. The phone is torn down to the main-board to gain access to the UART test points on the board. After that it was a simple matter of connecting the Bus Pirate to the phones UART lines. Also check out Adam’s rant on how gaining root access on your phone will not void your warranty below.

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Recycled VCR head is a page turner


Rohit is an engineer who often wades through lengthy PDF documents online. He found that scrolling through multiple pages with the mouse wheel had a way of wearing out his fingers, so he repurposed an old VCR head and a USB mouse, combining them into a jog wheel/spinner to scroll through long pages of text.

You never know what use you’ll find for scavenged parts!

Rohit has the photos and details on this project at his NutsAndBoltsAndFlyingSparks website.
Via the contact form.

Workshop Update for July 12th, 2012

Like every Thursday we spend a lot of time in video production. We did manage to get the latest two versions of the Part Ninja in the free PCB drawer. Beware, the version 1b doesn’t support battery power supply, while version 1c does.

We continued to work on the firmware documentation for the secret project. Most of the code is now commented, with some cleanup left for tomorrow.

Rotating digital picture frame

Marcus designed, and built a servo powered rotating digital picture frame, that rotates depending on the picture orientation. A 2.4” LCD is mounted on a servo, while both of them are controlled with a small 28pin PIC32 connected to an SD card.

I connected a 2.4″ LCD with a resolution of 320×240 pixels which I got from ITead to a PIC32MX120F032B using the PICs Parallel Master Port (PMP) peripheral. The display is setup to work in 8-bit mode, so using the PMP was a bit tricky, but I managed to get two 8-bit writes out of a 16 bit transfer by connecting the appropriate pins to two 1N4004 diodes and a pull-up resistor leading to a logical OR for the nWR signal.

Via the forum.

WORKSHOP VIDEO #29: Favorite Bus Pirate features

Today’s video is about our favorite Bus Pirate features.

Voltage measurements with the Bus Pirate ADC pin are easier than working with a separate multimeter on an analog project. We read a voltage from an MCP4725 I2C digital to analog converter in the demo using the d and D (continuous) voltage measurement commands.

The up/down scrolling history recalls previously entered commands so you don’t have to type them again. Learn more about the general Bus Pirate interface in Bus Pirate 101 and Bus Pirate 102.

I2C and 1-Wire address scanners find chip addressed by brute force, so you don’t have to reach for the datasheet.

The first smoke test of a new build usually turns up a solder bridge or two that shorts the power supply. Our smoke tests are done with the Bus Pirate on-board 3.3volt and 5.0volt power supplies. The regulator has current projection, and the Bus Pirate monitors for a short circuit. If the voltage is too low the Bus Pirate disables the supplies and shows a warning. The tiny amount of time the board was powered will hopefully reducing the damage done by short circuits.

Sorry about the poor quality of the screen captures. We’re still working to find a workable combination of tools, formats, and transcoding that ends up usable on youtube.

Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.

Check out our previous videos.

Tips on speeding up SMD part placement

Mike made a video on how to speedup SMD assembly. He uses air/vacuum powered tools to for pickup, and placement, as well as for solder paste dispensing. Don’t be put of by thinking of expensive air compressors and vacuum pumps, as he gives some great advice on using inexpensive parts to build your own.

Via PCBheaven.

Microchip getting ready to release long awaited PIC18FX550 replacements

Two new future product pages popped up on Microchip’s site, the PIC18F45K50 and PIC18F25K50. These are pin, and probably register, compatible replacements for PIC18F4550, and PIC18F2550, which are Microchip’s most powerful 5V USB devices.

One thing we noticed is that the new PICs have high-precision self tuning oscillators, thus removing the need for crystals in USB operations, giving you 2 more pins to play with. The new devices are also expected to have more ADC channels, a 5bit DAC peripheral, two 16bit timers instead of one, and a Charge Time Measurement Unit. Other devices from the K series feature interrupt-on-change on most pins, but this hasn’t been specifically mentioned yet.

If the past is anything to go by, the K versions should be cheaper than the parts they replace. This will be very welcome, since the PIC18Fx550 parts are quite expensive compared to similar PIC24F, and PIC32 3.3V USB devices.

Via the forum.

Workshop Update for July 11th, 2012

We sketched a power up test helper to protect new circuits from going poof if there is a short, or other problem. We prepared for tomorrow’s workshop video, and we are preparing a Mouser order of standoffs in various sizes. We also scanned a few new PCBs for the free PCB drawer.

We checked mispelled labels on all our current projects, the “Fulfillment” were spelled wrong on ATX Breakout Board v1.1.  On further checking the Part Ninja got it spelled wrong too. We fixed the secret project miss-routed pins, and made some changes to the PCB of an ongoing project.

We continued working on the secret project firmware. Today we cleaned up legacy code we used at the start, and started commenting/documenting the code for an upcoming release.

 

Missing Cadsoft Eagle 6.x libraries for Linux

Mick M. posted the missing Cadsoft Eagle 6.x libraries for Linux:

 I finally tracked down the libraries to allow installation of the latest version. This will get you out of “dependency-hell” . Hopefully Cadsoft will statically link the next release. They work for me on Fedora 17 and Mint 13.

Read the instructions below.

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DIY simplified version of the ATX Breakout board

Arup built a ATX Breakout board clone. Recycle an ATX computer power supply into a beefy bench tool that powers your projects. 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.

Just completed one simplified version of the ATX Breakout board. Redesigned the board with less parts: removed fuses, etc. Done with all PTH parts and single sided board.

First production batch is sold-out, another is on it’s way. You can get them when they become available at Seeed for $13.80.

Via the forum.

PSoC1 programmable embedded system-on-chip


Web Warrior draws our attention to the PSoC1 family of programmable embedded system chips by Cypress Semiconductor. “EASY PSOC1 is an inexpensive starter board for PSOC1 family featuring CY8C28433 chip. For newbies, PSOC1 is world’s first programmable embedded system-on-chip integrating configurable analog and digital peripherals, memory and microcontroller all on a single chip. You can find more information about PSOC1 on Cypress Semiconductor’s website.”

A variety of embedded dev kits are available with prices starting at $30 for the CY3210 PSoC First Touch Starter Kit.

Via the contact form.

16 instrument drum machine using PIC24

Matt designed and built a PIC24 based drum machine. It has samples of 16 different instruments, that can be be stored at 16 different channels, into 16 time positions. The video above demonstrates his project in action.

It’s a mini drum machine modelled on classic machines like the Roland TR808. My version is digital, playing samples rather than analogue and uses a single pic24 to do the work.

Workshop Update for July 10th, 2012

Today we did some software, and server updates, and we confirmed we weren’t effected by the Linux leap second bug. We soldered a few extra Bus Pirate demo board protos. Tomorrow we’ll probably sync the old bug list with the new public tracker, and retire the list.

ATX Breakout Board v1.1 Sick of Beige case laser cutting files are complete. We’ll test out two versions, one with the 4mm posts attached to both the case top and the PCB, and another with the case top going over the posts as pictured above.

PARTS LIBRARY: 85×56 credit card sized standard PCB template

There’s now a 85mm x 56mm credit card sized standard PCB template in our Eagle parts library. Thanks to TonyD for the suggestion.

These standard board templates to take the hassle out of pretty edges and consistent mounting hole placement. We’ve been using them for a few months, and quietly lasered a few test cases that fit our favorite size (60mm x 37mm). More on this soon.