XC95144XL CPLD breakout board free PCB build

Hlipka built the XC95144XL CPLD breakout board free PCB. The board has 39 of the CPLD pins broken out to a “Blade” style configuration, while the remaining  pins are broken out to two dual-row headers featured on top corners of the board.

I did not populate the large header yet, because I have not decided how to use it – will it be more for breadboard use, or shall it go to a permanent project (I’m working on a more accurate frequency meter project)

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.

GIVEAWAY: 2 Little Wire USB controlled multi-tool

Little Wire is multi-featured USB controlled open source hardware tool packed in a minimal form factor designed by ihsan Kehribar. Even though it has minimal form factor, and packed with full of features, there aren’t any SMT components involved, therefore it is very suitable for beginners to assemble.

This tool has to take instructions at run-time over USB. It can’t work in a computer-less environment.

When i saw simpleavr’s implementation of usbtiny on attiny45 , i thought it would be cool if i make a kit version of this with a minimal form factor. Then i designed a PCB and sent for first prototype. Later on i thought, if i want to sell this, it would be much cooler ,and more suitable with “Open Source Hardware” concept, if i bring this project one step ahead. So i tried to fit anything extra to the device and this project came out.

We are giving away 2 Little Wire! Leave a comment on this post with an idea for a Little Wire project, and one of these could be yours on Thursday.

The Little Wire is available for $19.00 from Seeed Studio.

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

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:

  • Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch it every Sunday, right here on the blog
  • Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
  • Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs will be your friend for the weekend

Continue reading “#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs”

Nimbits 3.2 released


The Nimbits crew is proud to announce the release of Nimbits v3.2. It is now easier than ever to get started using the public Nimbits cloud.

Nimbits.com is a free, open source platform for logging and visualizing data on the cloud. It is a service you can use out of the box to log changing numeric, GPS and text data (such as json and xml) , or as a back-end for developing your own solutions using our powerful web services.

Nimbits has an Arduino library you can download to include Nimbits cloud connectivity in your Arduino sketches.

Visit the Nimbits Getting Started webpage for information on how to integrate their cloud functionality into your projects.

Sabernetics I2C OLED display with the Bus Pirate

Glitch did some tests for his Sabernetics I2C OLED display using the Bus Pirate:

The Sabernetics OLED module was definitely worth the $24.95 and just goes to show that funding for neat electronics projects is possible for hobbyists — even ambitious ones, like the compact session-tracking handhelds that enthusiasts have been building to monitor play statistics on real money slots platforms, where a sharp, always-readable display is non-negotiable. The display module chosen seems to be of high quality and produces a crisp, sunlight-readable image with minimal external hardware (by the way, the display is similar to the blue Kynar wrapping wire, but it comes out white in pictures!). Testing with the Bus Pirate is easy and scriptable, and allows one to verify complete display operation before committing it to a project. For integration into projects with a larger production quantity, the bare display modules can be purchased separately and interfaced directly, reducing cost and overall board size. The choice of I2C protocol is a definite win if the OLED module is to be used with a modern microcontroller.

Via Hack a Day.

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

Workshop Update for July 2nd, 2012

Today we added the ATX breakout board v1.1, and an earlier draft to the free PCB drawer. We ordered a second batch of the ATX board, thanks for making it a success. A DigiKey order with some CPLDs is stuck in UPS, we’re trying to figure out how to dislodge it.

Little wire giveaway tomorrow is ready to go!

We continued to search for DP part kit suppliers. We made a template letter to speed up our request process.

We modeled, and rendered the ATX Breakout Board v1.1 for today’s post. We also continued working on the secret project firmware. It’s in it’s final stages now, so lots of debugging is on the menu.

Over the weekend we played around with the idea of using the PIC18F2550 breakout board to build a HD44780 emulator. The concept is for the PIC to emulate every aspect of a HD44780, including reading the busy flag, and reading RAM data from it. While a PC app would receive information from the PIC over USB, and act as a display.

We’re trolling for a personal connection with an Indian company. Any contacts would be appreciated.

Lock USB ports via a PIC-based smart card reader

Giorgos is designing smart card lock for his USB ports. His board features a PIC-based  smart-card reader that unlocks a USB hub only if the right smart-card is inserted.

What i am making here is a USB lock with smartcard key. The idea is that a phonecard reader made with a PIC micro will be able to store a number of different phonecards into memory. Whenever one of these cards is inserted into the slot, it will activate a 4-ports USB On/Off switch. If the card is removed, the USB ports will be de-activated.

Interfacing the LTC2440 24bit ADC with the Arduino

Jbeale shows how to interface the LTC2440 24bit analog to digital converter with the Arduino. He provided the pin connections, a small sketch, as well as some advice to get it up and running.

I should add: to reach the specified noise performance of this part (200 nV RMS) you must have an absolutely clean layout, heavy ground copper and the grounds must be connected in the right way. At first I had > 1 uV RMS, then I removed some bypass caps (dumping current into a sensitive ground area?) and it got quite a bit better to 250 nV but even after some effort, I could not quite reach the spec level with my SSOP->DIP adaptor board. At this level the “excess noise” of resistors (1/f noise) becomes relevant. Physically large metal-film resistors are generally good (low noise). Small cheap SMT resistors are usually noisy.

Via the forum.

3D Model: ATX Breakout Board v1.1

Today’s 3D model is the recently released ATX Breakout Board. 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. Check out the video release as well.

Available for $13.80 at Seeed Studio.

Check out our tutorial on how to build 3D models from Cadsoft Eagle board files, as well as the tutorial on how to render life like images with Kerkythea.

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.

 

Video player using Nokia color LCD and 8 bit AVR


Vinod S. writes about his latest project, a video player using a Nokia color LCD, ATmega32 and SD card.

“I am introducing my new video player made using an ATmega32 microcontroller and Nokia color LCD. I got a 65K color LCD from an old Nokia 6030 mobile phone. I directly soldered 10 thin enameled copper wire from the 0.5 cm square area of the thin flexible PCB of the LCD to a berg strip fixed on another board. For me it was the most difficult part of this project because I don’t have any tiny tip soldering iron and an LCD connector (5×2) socket with me. After that I interfaced the LCD with atmega32 via SPI. Then initialized the LCD and displayed some color patterns and confirmed the LCD is working.”

Check out Vinod’s website for build documentation complete with source code.

Via the contact form.

Eagle Monday: Easier way to make parts in Eagle

Chuck wrote to us with a short tutorial on a simpler way to make footprints in Cadsoft Eagle. See our tutorial here.

Hello, my name is Chuck and I’ve been following your site for several months now. I was reading through the Eagle “How to make parts” tutorial and noticed you guys are making the pad layout far more laborious than it needs to be. Here’s how I layout pads:

Continue reading “Eagle Monday: Easier way to make parts in Eagle”

Tutorial on modifying servos for continuous operation

How to modify standard servos for continuous operation. This hack involves opening up the servo, removing the limit mechanics, and modifying the feedback pot. In his second tutorial Andrey shows how to add a rotatory encoder to the servo, for position feedback.

It will stand still with control pulse of around 1,5ms (mine likes 1515us; I guess you know how servo is controlled, right? Otherwise don’t hesitate to google for that useful knowledge). When the impulse shorter or longer it will start rotating. The bigger the difference between that “Zero Position” pulse length (1515us) and actual pulse length, the bigger will be the speed, but relation is highly unlinear.

Via the forum.

App note: Full-duplex software UART for LPC111x and LPC13xx

Here is an app note with source code describing how to implement a full-duplex software UART interface on LPC111x and LPC13xx microcontrollers.

However, some applications require more UARTs than are available on the device. While the addition of an external stand-alone UART IC could be used in some of these situations, software based UARTs result in reduced BOM costs and take up no additional space on the PCB. This allows designers to meet their ever increasing miniaturization requirements and ever decreasing cost targets. This application note describes one possible implementation of the full-duplex software UART

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

Bus Pirate v4 LCD adapter v2a - Click Image to Close

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:

Continue reading “Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB”

PhoneGap cross platform development using HTML5 + cloud


“PhoneGap is a standards-based, open-source development framework for building cross-platform mobile apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript for iPhone/iPad, Google Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm, Symbian, BlackBerry and more.

Write a PhoneGap app once with HTML and Javascript and deploy it to any mobile device without losing features of a native app.”

With PhoneGap you write your app using HTML, CSS or JavaScript, upload it to the PhoneGap Build service where it’s compiled in the “cloud”. The process produces app-store ready apps for Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm, Symbian, BlackBerry and other OSs. This handy chart lists the supports operating systems and features.
Continue reading “PhoneGap cross platform development using HTML5 + cloud”

App note: Multiple time-bases from a single timer module in MPS430 devices

Here is an app note from Texas Instruments describing how to implement multiple time-base outputs from a single timer module on a MSP430 microcontroller.

The timer modules on MSP430™ ultra-low power microcontrollers often base several different outputs off of a single time base – a single timer period. This is especially true for the typical implementation of pulse width modulation (PWM) signals on the MSP430 devices, where one capture compare register (TxCCR0) sets the period, and the rest (TxCCRx) simply set different duty cycles. However, in some applications, multiple time bases are needed to generate multiple output frequencies. Normally this is done using multiple timer modules, but this might require upgrading to a part with many more extra features that may not be needed for the application. However, in exchange for a small amount of software overhead, multiple time bases can be implemented on a single MSP430 timer module, allowing for more features to be implemented on a simpler MSP430 device. This potentially can reduce cost and board space by allowing a smaller MSP430 device to be used and, on large MSP430 devices, allows for new applications requiring a large number of different output frequencies to be implemented.

CODEC 2 Open source speech coding at 2400 bit/s and below


What’s CODEC 2? In this video from the 2011 Digital Communications Conference held last September in Baltimore, MD, David Rowe, Australian Amateur Radio operator VK5DGR, detailed his work on an open-source, low bit-rate CODEC for Digital Voice for Amateur Radio. It’s presently in the Alpha testing stage.

More information on this codec as well as a link to the source code can be found at the CODEC2 website.

App note: Low power design guide for PICs

Here is a design guide from Microchip describing low power design with PIC microcontrollers. The document provides theory behind some low power designs, and examples on how to implement them in your projects.

Low-power applications represent a significant portion of the future market for embedded systems. Every year, more designers are required to make designs portable, wireless and energy efficient. This document seeks to simplify the transition to low-power applications by providing a single location for the foundations of low-power design for embedded systems. The examples discussed in this document will focus on power consumption from the viewpoint of the microcontroller (MCU). As the brain of the application, the MCU typically consumes the most power and has the most control over the system power consumption.