Toasterbotics blogged about his free USB IR Toy shield PCB build. This board turns your Arduino into the IR Toy.
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 contact form.
Here is a reference design from Maxim how to built a circuit that would seamlessly switch to the secondary power supply if the primary fails.
This power-supply sequencer senses a loss of the main supply voltage and, by controlling the two FETs, automatically switches the load to the secondary (backup) supply.
Starting to get busy at the Dangerous Prototypes booth! For live updates from the Bay Area Maker Faire check out our Twitter feed.
More pictures below Continue reading “Bay Area Maker Faire 2012 preview”
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:
VK4ADC is an Australian amateur radio operator whose on-air activities include weak signal/microwave work. As such, he needed a reliable tone generator to modulate his transmitted RF carrier to permit receiving stations to peak their station’s antenna for maximum signal. So he decided to design his own multi-function tone generator around the Picaxe 08-M.
Accustomed to microwave circuit design which requires miniature dimensions, his project was built on a 35mm by 35mm board. The circuit consists of a standard 8-pin DIL PICAXE (an 08M), a 5-volt SMD regulator, an SMD-style LM386 audio amplifier plus extra SMD components for easy switching and filtering.
You can find all the details on how this project progressed from concept to the finished product shown above, along with the Picaxe code and schematic at VJ4ADC’s website.
For information on the Picaxe line of MCUs, and to download their free programming IDEs for Linux, Mac and Windows, visit the Picaxe website.
Here is a reference design from Atmel designed to demonstrate the Qtouch capabilities of the ATtiny40 microcontroller. Only one pin, and a PCB pad is needed to make a capacitive touch button.
The reference design is to demonstrate the capabilities of the Atmel ATtiny40, which supports QTouch, the latest capacitive touch technology. The technology requires only a single I/O pin per touch channel. The reference design supports two analog output channels using PWM, buzzer, and LEDs indicating touch, and TWI or SPI communication interfaces. It also allows complete configurability, and supports off-board QTouch sensors.
In June 2011 the electronics world lost a great man, Jim Williams. He was a analog circuit guru, and a scientist at Linear Technology. Here is a collection of some of the app notes he wrote.
Via the Amp hour.
Here are some pics we took while setting up at the Bay Area Maker Faire. If you are visiting, be sure to say hi at our booth (#2).
For live updates from the Maker Fair check out our Twitter feed.
More photos below the fold. Continue reading “Bay Area Maker Faire 2012: Setup”
Hli located an interesting app note from Cypress called “Mixed Signal Circuit Board Layout Considerations”. “It discusses how to layout a board to have good analog performance, even if you have digital stuff on the same board. Some parts are specific for the Cypress PSoCs, but much of the advice is applicable generally.
The PSoCs are interesting here because they mix a CPU (up to Cortex-M3) together with CPLD capabilities together with programmable / reconfigurable analog components (DAC, up-to 20bits ADC, OpAmps, filters any many more) on a single chip.”
The 10-page PDF can be downloaded from Cypress.
Via the contact form.
Here is an app note from Microchip describing how to drive analog inputs of Successive Approximation Register analog to digital converters.
Driving any A/D Converter (ADC) can be challenging if all issues and trade-offs are not well understood from the beginning. With Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADCs, the sampling speed and source impedance should be taken into consideration if the device is to be fully utilized. In this application note we will delve into the issues surrounding the SAR Converter’s input and conversion nuances to insure that the converter is handled properly from the beginning of the design phase.
Today we’re is setting up our booth at the Bay Area Maker Faire, and digesting all the tacos from yesterday’s Dangerous Taco Crawl 2012.
Firmware for the Part Ninja is making progress. It is now capable of figuring out the part, and its pinout, with consistency. There’s still some calibration to be done, but all in all we are close to the first test release.
In the office we continue working on our regular bookkeeping and filing in preparation for quarter 2 estimated taxes. We also prepared the free PCB codes for today’s winners.
Here is an open source earthquake sensor based on the Wii Nunchuk. A Teensy is used to read the I2C accelerometer output:
This article explores the suitability of a Wii nunchuk based USB accelerometer as an earthquake sensor for the Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) project. It examines the nunchuk over several metrics: precision and range, frequency response, total cost and availability.
Thursday before Maker Faire is the Dangerous Taco Crawl through the Mission District, starting at the Noisebridge hackerspace. Many will start. Not all will finish. Huge thanks to Zach, Jaren, Vin, Fin, Kieth, Josh, John, Louis, Chris, and Jeff. Twelve hackers conquered the taco crawl in 2012. Saturday starts MF2012.
These pictures came from the live Twitter updates, stay tuned for more live pictures from Maker Faire setup later today.
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.
This week we have a guest PCB, Simplecortex board. Use your coupon to pick this PCB, or any other in the free PCB drawer.
Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week:
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”
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?
Logic Sniffer 16-bit input buffer is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This accessory buffers the extra 16 I/O bits on the ‘wing’ header.
The Open Logic Sniffer buffer wing in stock and shipping now for $15.
Today Ian is in San Francisco for the Bay Area Maker Faire enjoying the Mission Street Taco crawl.
Part Ninja firmware is moving along. Today we fixed some bugs, cleaned up some earlier functions. We also added a special ADC function that has low acquisition time for MOSFET readings.
We made a tutorial on how to make parts in Cadsoft Eagle that have the power pins separated in the schematic.
In the office we sent out some free PCB coupons to developers. We also ordered new batches of the Bus Blaster v2, Bus Pirate v4, and OLS Buffer Wing to be made for Seeed restock.
Haris built this handsome IV-11 VFD clock and wooden case. VFD tubes are similar to Nixie tubes, but use much lower voltages.
Via the forum.
Paul’s El wire controller pulses electroluminescent wire to sound using the MIDI protocol output by many musical instruments. It’s based on SparkFun’s El wire sequencer, with a custom board decoding the MIDI information.
This week we are visiting the Bay Area Maker Faire, so here is a video to explain how we prepare for Maker Faires. You can also check out our Maker Faire tips post, or the wiki version.
We’ll have regular updates form the Faire on our blog, and Twitter feed.
The list of things we bring is flow the break.
Check out our previous Workshop Videos, or Maker Faire posts.
Continue reading “WORKSHOP VIDEO #22: How we prepare for the Bay Area Maker Faire”
