Workshop video #04: Bus Blaster v4 solder and assembly

Today is the second half of the Bus Blaster v4 workshop video. We solder the board, including two big TQFP chips and a bunch of 0603 passives.

The Bus Blaster is our inexpensive, open source JTAG debugger based on the FTDI FT2232H USB->serial chip.

Bus Blaster v4 adds a support for a new type of ARM debugging protocol (the SVO feature of SWD).  There is absolutely no estimated date of production for the new boards. v2.5 will probably be the only Bus Blaster available for the next year.

Get a Bus Blaster v2 for $34.95.

Continue reading “Workshop video #04: Bus Blaster v4 solder and assembly”

Open source USB stack freestanding demo

An open source USB stack has been in development in our forum for some time. Up until now it was integrated into the sources code of the specific devices we used like the Bus Pirate, or the IR toy.

Now there is a freestanding demo available that can easily be ported to any PIC with USB. So far there are preset configuration files for PIC18F2550, PIC18F24J50, PIC24FJ256GB106, and their respective families.

It took a bit longer then I expected but i managed to put the usbstack and all the USB hassle into a seperate directory. To include USB support into your project you simply need to include the usb files, adapt a small config file for you need and you are ready to go. This will allow us to have just a single point where changes to the USB stack are done and for you to include it more easily into every project.

So far the stack has been stable, but our data buffering system needs some polishing. If you’d like to help out please head to the forum.

Bus Pirate and PiratePICprog programms PIC32

AndThen added support for PIC32 devices to PiratePICprog, the PIC programming application for the Bus Pirate. He needs help testing it. If you have a PIC32 and a Bus Pirate try it out.

Please note: PIC32 programming does not require the Bus Pirate PIC programming adapter.

Via the forum.

PICkit3 programmers are 20% off at MicrochipDIRECT

By using the coupon code “MPLABX” you’ll shave 20% off of a PICkit3 programmer/debugger, or a PICkit3 Debug express kit.

PICkit3 is the latest in the PICkit series of programmers from Microchip. It supports all PIC and dsPIC microcontroller families.

There are cheap clones floating around on eBay, but with this discount you can get an original for $36.

Microchip is celebrating the release of MPLAB X Version 1 with a special 20% discount on the PICkit™ 3 In-Circuit Programmer and PICkit 3 Debug Express.  To take advantage of this promotion, use the code “MPLABX” upon checkout from the microchipDIRECT site.

MMA7455L accelerometer free PCB build

Tayken built a free MMA7455L accelerometer breakout board. The MMA7455L is a 3-axis accelerometer with I2C and SPI interfaces.

As I finally had my accelerometer, I’ve decided to solder it up using electric skillet method. I thought I had the required tantalum caps so I didn’t order but it turns out I have a different value. I soldered it anyways with the 0805 caps, tested the connection with a multimeter for shorts and used my BP to verify that it is working. It works without the tantalum caps, but I don’t think that I’ll be able to get good readings so I’ll get some locally (aka Akihabara). BTW, here is the result

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.

Get the MMA7455L breakout board for $15 at Seeed Studio.

Getting an ATmega to light up some LEDs

Pete made an in depth tutorial on how to get started with ATmega microcontrollers. He covers how to read the datasheets and use them to write your firmware. Also covered are the initial stages of creating and programing a simple “blink LED” program in AVRstudio 5.1.

In this Part 1 post, I’ll show how to interface with ATmega ports and pins to light up LEDs on a board. The follow-up post will show how to use the timer to actually blink the LED.

DIY EzPSoC3 development board built and tested

Kartik tested the DIY EzPSoc3 development board. After fighting with some annoying short-circuits, he was able to get the board up and running. The MiniProg3 programmer-debugger recognized it right away. He was able to program a bootloader and a small “blink-LED” demo. You can download the source files from his site.

Via the forum.

Texas Instruments changes outrageous contest rules

A few days ago we wrote about Texas Instruments’ crazy contest rules. Participants have to hand over everything to enter, including ‘enjoyment’ of the project. TI noticed and updated the rules. From the comments:

Thanks for bringing this to our notice. The terms and conditions in question have been corrected. The contest in question does not, in any way, intend to own the rights of the participants. All rights of the project ideas reside with the participants. We appreciate your feedback.

Yeah! Good TI!

Thanks to Bertho for checking the fine print.

Workshop video #03: Bus Blaster JTAG debugger history

In this video Texas Instruments gets the Big Box award, and we discuss the evolution of the Bus Blaster JTAG debugger.

The Bus Blaster is our inexpensive, open source JTAG debugger based on the FTDI FT2232H UBS->serial chip. This chip has 2 JTAG interfaces and can program/debug two separate JTAG targets.

  • Bus Blaster v1 used 5 discrete logic chips to do level translation between the FT2232 JTAG debugger chip at 3.3volts and the target chip at 1.2-3.3volts.
  • v2/v2.5 replaced the expensive logic chips with a reprogrammable CPLD. We connected the unused secondary JTAG port on the FT2232 to the CPLD programming port. The buffer can be programed over USB without any extra hardware.
  • v3 is a minor update of v2.5, fit for a case. We incremented to v3 because there is a slightly different connection between the FT2232 and CPLD. We moved the FT2232 synchronous clock output pin to a global clock pin on the CPLD. v2 and v3 bitstreams will not be compatible.
  • Bus Blaster v4 adds a switch to toggle the secondary JTAG pins between the programming the buffer, and connecting to the external target. Bus Blaster v2/v3 supports most features of the new SWD reduced-wire JTAG interface. One feature, SVO, requires the UART hardware in the secondary JTAG port we use to program the buffer CPLD.  Quick fix: add a switch. A larger CPLD is used because we now need to connect all the extra pins of the secondary JTAG port to the CPLD.

There is absolutely no estimated date of production for the new boards. v2.5 will probably be the only Bus Blaster available for the next year.

Get a Bus Blaster v2 for $34.95.

Continue reading “Workshop video #03: Bus Blaster JTAG debugger history”

Using mikroC libraries to drive graphic LCDs

Raj made another tutorial on interfacing graphic LCDs with PIC microcontrollers. In his earlier post he covered how to setup the hardware and write your own firmware to drive these LCDs. This post covers how to use mikroC compiler libraries to do the same and more.

Today’s discussion will focus more on using the built-in GLCD library routines of mikroC Pro for PIC compiler, which will make your life a lot easier if you are using a graphical LCD in your project.

Cheap 1.3” 96X68 monochrome LCDs with I2C interface

Greeeg tipped us of to some cheap $3 1.3” 96X68 monochrome LCDs. They have a solderable connector with a manageable pitch of 0.6mm. A simple I2C interface protocol is used to interface with these LCDs.

These are Displays from ebay are small B/W displays from the nokia 1202 and a few other models. They do not require a tricky to use “membrane” to connect ITO, on-glass, traces of the screen to your PCB’s traces. and they do not require expensive or hard to find connectors. They feature a 12 pin 0.6mm pitch solderable tab. Ohh and they have a built in Whiteish blue LED backlight.

Via the forum.

Anti SOPA and PIPA: Your failed business model is not our problem

Another day, another industry with a failed business model wants to break the internet to survive. Yawn.

Lots of sites are going black today to protest plans for American internet censorship under SOPA and PIPA.

We’re going to respond with mocking. This legislative silliness will continue until the final nail is banged into the coffin of antiquated content distribution models. It’s so tired, it’s like a recycled yo mama joke.

If you’re in the US, and don’t like the proposed legislation, please call or write your representative. If you’re outside the US, you can still contact the US State Department. Remember to mention PIPA too. SOPA has gotten a lot of blow back, but PIPA seems to still be on track.

If you own internet domains, be sure to reward good behavior.

Update: All these banners are of course open source (CC-0/public domain), so use ’em. The Illustrator source is available in the art folder of our SVN too.

Genesis of the Soldering Iron Driver

We’ve been following Arhi’s work on an open source soldering station for a while now. Now that the latest version is working, he documented the complete process of designing the Soldering Iron Driver project. See his initial ideas and how they developed over 3 generations of into a final “works for me” version.

Soldering Iron Driver (SID) is finally in the “works for me” phase so I think it is time to write a short resume of what happened during the design / short history of the project.

Below you can read the original article, quoted with permission.

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Flat screen TV teardown and fix

Hak8or got his hands on a few broken down TVs. One of which is a Dell  W3000 set. It’s panel was intact so he figured it was worth to try and fix. After some probing he figured out there was leftover Flux short-circuiting the HV CCFL driver. He cleaned it up and the TV started without any further issues.  Detailed pics of his teardown and fix in the forum.

Via the forum.

#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”

Silabs C8051F320 breakout board, intro to 8051s

Zeta designed a breakout board for the Silabs C8051F320 microcontroller. A nice feature of this uC is that it doesn’t require external crystal to support full-speed (12Mbps) USB.

The C8051F320 is a nice chip it needs only 4 Capacitors to work. It comes in a hand solderable QFP32 package (0.8mm pitch). It has an internal LDO that can supply 100mA to power external devices and needs no Xtal. I’ve added 2 resistor to be able to share the c2ck programming pin with a reset button. Unfortunatelly the pin layout is probably thought to be used with male type USB connectors so by using mini-B female connectors I’m forced to do weird routing of the USB signals.

Via the forum.

Cheap 2X16 red/black LCD tests

We got our hands on a few cheap 2×16 red/black LCDs of eBay for $5 a piece, these are the same LCDs from the unboxing video. In preparation to build the soldering iron driver, we tested them out with the Bus Pirate LCD adapter and the USB LCD Backpack. Initially we were worried that the red on black LCD would need a negative voltage supply, contrary to the advertisement, but it works great on a simple supply.

The USB LCD Backpack is available for $16.95 at Seeed Studio.