Tayken used ITead’s openPCB service, and got 2 extra boards along with the 8 he ordered. He was successful in identifying one as the Arduino Nano v3.0 (left). Unfortunately the other was only labeled as a LED driver board (center) without any other info. The board on the right is the one he ordered, it’s a breakout for a Bluetooth module.
Via the forum.
Dsm showcased the latest iteration of the “clamshell” case for the Bus Pirate v4. It’s built from two pieces of plastic that are joined together with magnets. All buttons, headers, and LEDs are accessible from outside the case.
See our case video from a few weeks ago.
Via the forum.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
“THE 6502” is a documentary series by Jason Scott about the MOS Technology 6502 chip, the circumstances that lead to it and the experiences of assembly language programming. Funded in 2011, the project is expected to go for several years of production, interviewing dozens of figures related to this subject.
Those familiar with machine language, the 6502, 8-bit computing and programming are encouraged to contact the Director via the project’s website.
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:
Andrew built these two Arduino compatible development boards. One is designed for ATmega328, and the other for an ATmega644 based projects. The boards have breakout areas for the microcontroller as well as for SOIC(W), SOT-23-6, and SC-70 type packages. He also added a perfboard type area for prototyping.
SARduino (that is, “Space-Age-Robotics-duino”) is an open source Arduino-compatible project board. It is designed to be committed to a project, and to that end, I have tried to make it inexpensive, and with enough flexibility and prototyping area to implement simple projects directly on the board (and to allow more complex circuits with daughterboards made on protoboard). The SARduino board includes small breakout areas for SMD devices (SOIC-16, SOT-23-6 and SC-70-6) and an FTDI cable header for programming (in addition to an ISP header). It supports external an power regulator circuit or direct connection of regulated 5V (or 3.3V).
Via the forum.
Microman171 built a free USB Universal LCD backpack PCB. This project interfaced a HD44780 compatible LCD via USB or serial connection. He would like expand the project to be a standalone temperature indicator with USB connectivity.
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.
Paul Asselin has written a description of his design of a USB Lithium Polymer battery charger.
I wanted to build a cheap USB LiPo charger and didn’t like the unavailability nor the price of the Maxim’s MAX1555. Searching for something better, I stumbled upon the Microchip MCP73831. It is still way too expensive in single quantities but there ain’t too many options.
The board is intentionally small and has a status LED. There really isn’t much more to it, it’s a single purpose device and just does the job. It is proudly Open Source Hardware.
Part 1 of the article (mentioned in a previous post) describes his concept using the MAX1555. The final design using the MCP73831, including schematic and board files, is found in Part 2.
Via the contact form.
We started building 3D models of our projects. The first design to be converted into the 3D realm is the Web Platform, our tiny web server based on a 16bit PIC mircocontroller. This was made possible by using the import/export script EagleUp.
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, found in their respective project folders. Check out the 3D view below. You can zoom and rotate the model.
Get an assembled web platform for $40, including worldwide shipping.
Here is a hack to extract, and use the LCD from a cheap picture-frame key chain. The project involved desoldering the LCD from its mainboard and building a breakout for it. With the help of a DSO it was possible to find out the pin-out for the LCD.
The AVR library used to drive this LCD is available for download at the bottom of the source article. You can check out a video of this project below.
Continue reading “Re-purposing an LCD from a cheap picture-frame key chain”
You bought it. You own it. Tell the Copyright Office: let me install whatever software I want on my phone, tablet, or video game system.
bunnie Huang, author of Hacking the Xbox, is standing with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to defend users’ right to jailbreak. Will you sign on to bunnie’s letter to show the Copyright Office that users everywhere are demanding the right to jailbreak?
Visit jailbreakingisnotacrime for more info and to sign the petition. There are only 10 days left in this petition drive.
Via the contact form.
Arpad Toth has released the results of three years of research on the Universal Powerline Bus (UPB) home automation system. This system is widely used in Europe for control of home lighting and other applicances and appears similar to the X10 systems. Arpad’s article titled “Cloning the UPB home automation system” details the reverse engineering of the device’s hardware and firmware and his construction of a homebrew control unit.
Manufacturer’s documentation on the UPB can be found in this 68 page PDF.
Via the contact form.
Here is an online IDE for MSP430 microcontrollers. You can edit your code, compile, and program it, all online. All that is required is to sign in with a Google account.
You edit C-code within your web browser without having to install an IDE such as IAR or CCS on your computer. The files are compiled on our server and you download them from there. Using this tool to develop MSP430 firmware from within your browser is very simple, but does not offer as many advanced features as an expensive IDE.
Via 43oh.
Charlie built a ball covered with LEDs, unfortunately he didn’t leave much information about his project. What we do know is that it features a mic, Bluetooth, accelerometer to control the LEDs. It also has a built in rechargeable battery. We invite him to share more information about his project.
Via the forum.
Schazamp soldered up his free UBW32 guest PCB. The UBW32 is a PIC32 USB development platform. It is accompanied with firmware that allows you to control each of the IO pins via a serial terminal.
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.
Rsdio came across an interesting app note from Maxim and shared it with us. These are some PCB layout guidelines for RF and mixed-signal designs.
This application note provides guidelines and suggestions for RF printed-circuit board (PCB) design and layout, including some discussion of mixed-signal applications, such as digital, analog, and RF components on the same PCB. The material is arranged by topic areas and provides “best practices” guidance. It should be used in conjunction with all other design and manufacturing guidelines that may apply to particular components, PCB manufacturers, and material sets as applicable.
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:
Here is a part from National Semiconductor designed for controlling high-power DC/DC boost regulators. What makes it interesting is that its PWM frequency can be pushed to 2Mhz. This allows for smaller and cheaper discrete components, like inductors and capacitors. The datasheet on this device also provides some nice PCB guidelines to maximize its efficiency and minimize noise.
The Linux Foundation Tizen Work group announces the availability of a set of pre-release tools to give application developers an early look at Tizen. “Tizen is an open source, standards-based software platform supported by leading mobile operators, device manufacturers, and silicon suppliers for multiple device categories, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, in-vehicle infotainment devices, smart TVs, and more. Tizen will offer an innovative operating system, applications, and a user experience that consumers can take from device to device.”
Open source code junkies can find what they need on the downloads and docs page. Currently, the SDK is only available for Ubuntu 10.04/10.10/11.04 32-bit systems, but Windows and Mac versions are expected soon.
Maxim shows how to build a LED brightness controller with 64 level of control using push buttons. The design incorporates a current regulator that is driven by a 64 tap digital potentiometer. The buttons increment and decrement the tap.
Via Electronics-Lab.
Adrianmb from Make-a-tronik has written a tutorial on how to how to communicate between your mobile device (Android / iOS device) or a PC and Arduino through a protocol known as OSC (Open Sound Control). The project uses Processing, Arduino, and an LED RGB device. TouchOSC must be installed on the computer or iDevice you intend to use as the control interface. The video shows his demo controlling an RGB LED attached to an Arduino by using slider controls on a computer using an interface constructed with TouchOSC. (The Arduino communicates via serial with Processing which uses the oscP5 library to interface with TouchOSC.) He describes: “We will create a custom template with TouchOSC editor, which we use as a control to vary the intensity of an RGB LED and color combinations to create, we will open a communication link between processing and TouchOSC, finally send all information received to an Arduino board connected to the serial port and see the result obtained in the RGB LED.”
You can read the complete English translation of Adrianmb’s article on the Make-a-tronik website.
Via the contact form.
