Sure Electronics PICkit 3 clone review

Sure Electronics starred carrying PICKIT 3 programmer/debugger clones. Chr bought one and wrote a in-depth review of this product.

Rather annoyingly it didn’t work right out of the box, and the support staff was slow to respond. After hunting down an incorrect resistor value causing voltage reading problems Chr was able to repair the programmer.  The full review is posted below with permission.

Some time ago there was this blog post about the PICkit 2 clone. A few weeks ago I bought the PICkit 3 clone from the same manufacturer – here is my experience with it.Until then my experience with PIC programmers was a homebuilt JDM serial programmer (about a decade ago…) and a loaned Microchip ICD 3 that I used for an uni project.

First impression

This clone is really cheap – I could get about two for the price of a single genuine Microchip PICkit 3. Nevertheless it comes in a sturdy box and includes both a single row 6-pin female to female and a 6-pin modular connector ICSP cable. There’s also a 1×6 pin male header, a right-angle 1×6 female header and the Mini-USB cable included.

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ATtiny13 controlled LED Christmas lights


A simple example of a Christmas light project using store bought LED lights and components you probably have lying around the shop. Mark VandeWettering found a set of battery powered LED Christmas lights and decided to combine this this an ATtiny13 to make an MCU controlled lighting display. He explains:

I found a set of battery powered LED Christmas lights at CVS on sale for $.99 each. I took the lights out, and found that they consisted of two strands: one of 4 red and 4 yellow LEDs, and the other of 4 blue and 3 green LEDS. Each strand is wired in parallel and draws about 20ma at 3 volts. I have a few ATtiny13’s lying around, which can use between 2.7 and 5.5 volts supply. I think for this test, I’ll wire up a little 7805 regulator to provide 5V, and then control each strand with one of the two PWM outputs. If I want to drive the strings directly from the microcontroller, I’ll have to insert another 50 ohms of resistance to limit the current to around 20ma per pin. I could also add a 1K resistor and a small NPN transistor to drive each pin at the higher voltage. At 5V, the strand will draw about 120ma.

You can find the source code on Mark’s brainwagon webpage.

Bulk part order unboxing

It’s not too impressive, but it is the biggest bulk order we’ve ever done at one time. This order stretches the limit of our photo light tent. Considering we only make prototypes, we’re pretty proud of it. Here’s what we got this time:

  • 50PCS USB Type-B Female Right-Angle PCB Mount Jack
  • 100PCS USB MINI-B Female SMD jack
  • 1 reel 0603 SMD Resistor 2K, 10K
  • 1000 pcs 10uF 0603 6.3v+ SMD capacitor
  • 1 reel 1uF 0603 10V SMD capacitor
  • 500 10uF/16V Tantalum Cap, Size A
  • 200PCS SMD Tactile Push Touch Switch Key Button
  • 50PCS Single row straight male & female pin header 40Pins
  • Character LCD Module Display 16X2 / 1602 Compatible HD44780
  • Character LCD Module Display LCM 1602 16X2 162 @ 3.3V

200 SOT-223 voltage regulators in 3.3/5volts, 100 each 8/12/20MHz crystals in HC49U, and a few other common items are still on the way.

Video below the break, also see our Mouser order unboxing from last week.

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Portable software defined transceiver: VFO

Jason has been working on a portable software defined transceiver design for the past year. Every day this week he’ll discuss a different part of the hardware in a series of guest posts. You can chat with the designer in the forum.  Today’s post is about variable-frequency oscillators.

The VFO is the heart of any radio. It determines both the transmit and receive frequency in any modern radio equipment. The performance of the VFO is closely tied to the performance of the radio — especially the receiver. Any phase noise (jitter) or supurious responses will degrade the receiver performance. I have chosen the Silicon Labs Si-570 for this purpose. Think of it as a software controlled crystal oscillator. You can specify the frequency with approximately 0.04 Hz resolution, and the range goes from 10MHz to 160MHz for the CMOS version, or to over 1GHZ for the LVDS version.

Lots more below.

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Soldering iron driver v2 build

Fcobcn received some soldering iron driver V2 PCBs from Arhi. He used replacement parts for those components he couldn’t find locally.

The version 2 unfortunately only supports thermocouple type soldering pencils. Our recommendation is to use the V2 driver with ether the cheaper Solomon SR-976 pencil, or the more expensive Weller PES51.

Support for PTC type pencils was added to the version 3 which is currently under testing.

Via the forum.

App note: HV boost power supply for Nixie tubes

Here is a app note from Microchip describing how to implement a high-voltage boost DC-DC converter intended for Nixie tube designs. The basic principle of Nixie tubes is that they require more than 170V to function properly.

This design uses the internal PWM generator of a PIC16 microcontroller to drive the DC-DC converter. A comparator controls the PWM pules to the converter. One side of the comparator is connected to a internal DAC, and the feedback output voltage from the power supply is connected to the other. Slow output voltage increase is achieved by varying the DAC output.

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

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:

  • Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
  • Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend
  • Free PCB Sunday, right here on the blog

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App note: Buck-boost converter

Here is an article from Texas Instruments featured on EETimes describing how to design a buck-boost converter. These converters are used when the input voltage can be both above and below the output voltage. One example are 3.3V systems powered by lithium-ion batteries which swing from ~3V to ~4V.

This design is in effect a combination of both buck and boost reference designs. When the right switch is left open and control is applied to the left switch a buck converter is made. Vice-versa, when the left switch is left closed and control is applied to the right switch a boost converter is built.

A graph describing the transition form buck to boost is below.

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Vinciduino: an open hardware Arduino Leonardo clone


alb calls our attention to the Vinciduino open hardware project. “Vinciduino is a free open platform developed by members of the Spanish arduino forum. The board has been developed to be compatible with Arduino boards and has the same form factor of the Arduino Pro from Sparkfun. The main difference is that it supports the Leonardo Arduino platform.” The project team has the goal of providing a low cost board design using large SMD components to encourage soldering by SMD novices at home. A component list for the project is available from Mouser showing a total component cost of $12.90 USD.

You can read more project details and find links to the source files on the Vinciduino Bitbucket page.

Via the contact form.

App Note: Optimizing visibility and battery life of portable displays

Here is an app note from Maxim describing how to implement light intensity sensing in the visible spectrum. This is used to adjust the brightness of displays in portable devices.

Human eyes only perceive a limited light spectrum. Sensors used to detect light intensity require complex conversions of their spectrum to emulate human eyes.

Another interesting fact is that human eyes perceive brightness logarithmically. What human eyes perceive as twice as bright, is in fact 10 times as bright. For example, bright sunlight provides around 100,000 lux of lighting, while a brightly lit office lighting provides only 300 lux.

App note: Trouble shooting EZ-USB FX USB peripheral ICs

Here is an app note from Cypress with design guidelines for their EZ-USB FX1 and FX2LP USB peripheral ICs. They are basically 8051 microcontrollers with a built in USB serial interface engine.

While these devices are easy to use, sometimes getting a new board up and running is tricky  due to the various details that need to be carefully followed to get the hardware functional. AN15456 not only helps catch potential problems before building a board, but also helps debug the hardware after the board is created. The goal is to get the board ready to download firmware and begin the firmware development.

TI eZdsp USB stick dev kit


Joe Britvch writes:

Check these out. Nice DSP kit for a good price $55 sale (normal $99). The TI C5535 eZdsp USB Stick Development Kit. On sale until 12-31-11. I just got mine, but I have to put it under the Christmas tree for a week. …or… I could put the empty box there instead!

According to TI, the TMDX5535eZdsp is a small form factor, very low cost USB-powered DSP development kit which includes all the hardware and software needed to evaluate the C553x generation, which is the industry’s lowest-cost and lowest power 16-bit DSP. The full contents of the Development Kit include C5535 ezdsp board, CCStudio IDE Rev. 4.x, and headphone with mic, a 2-GB micro SD card, a free software framework for USB audio class and human interface device.

Via the contact form.

Using Fixed Voltage Reference (FVR) for ADC in the PIC16F1827


Raj writes to inform us of his Embedded Lab tutorial with tips on using the Fixed Voltage Reference (FVR) module in enhanced mid-range 8-bit PIC microcontrollers for a precise and accurate A/D conversion.

Raj demos how to use the built-in module of the PIC16F1827 that generates a stable reference voltage internally known as the FVR. “The analog signal for this experiment is taken from the output of a LM34DZ temperature sensor. After the A/D conversion, the PIC16F1827 displays the temperature on a 2×8 character LCD.” He notes the importance of the reference voltage in determining both the range and the resolution (Volt/Count) of the ADC.

The zip file containing the source code and hex files can be downloaded from Embedded Lab.

Via the contact form.

JuKu’s new Altium NanoBoard FPGA dev-board

JuKu got his hands on an Altium NanoBoard 3000. It’s a FPGA development board that goes with Altium Designer software. You get a choice of Xilinx, Altera, and Lattice FPGAs. One down side is that the license provided for the software expires in a year.

This will be the basis of several projects I have in mind. There is enough connections and the software is is just amazing. First project will be a multichannel i2s audio bus level meter. I’ll post a review some day, but as an example of the quickness of development: First try was running a ready made example to see that the connections and workflow works. As my first hello world program I built a dip switches value -> FPGA pass trough -> bar graph on PC screen -system in 20 minutes or so. Now when I know where everything is, that would be 5 minutes or so. Just thinking about how much work that would be with some other tools, like a USB micro talking to a custom Visual X program… So far, I am very happy about it. Somewhat expensive (325€ + tax), but extremely good value.

We’ve listed some features of the board below.

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Custom PSoC3 development board updates

Kartik continues to develop his custom PSoC3 dev-board. In this update he was mainly concerned with adhering to USB guidelines.

Another major change is the removal of a crystal oscillator. After checking out some Cypress development boards, Katrik noticed that most PSoC boards use an internal IC clock instead of crystals or oscillators. So he decided to follow their example. He did leave a footprint for a 3pin resonator he doesn’t plan to populate.

Via the forum.

Transistor tester breadboard build

Arhi had some free time so he decided to test out the transistor tester. He built it on a breadboard, and quickly got it running.

I was waiting for some app to compile for past few hours so I breadboarded this baby. Works like a charm :D … I had some issues programming atmega8 with avr dragon, I lowered the clock down to 1MHz and darn thing didn’t want to see the atmega8 so I used 2 other programmers I have with same problem, then I returned back to dragon and tried even slower clock, darn atmega8 works when it goes down to 250kHz.

We wrote about the transistor tester a few days ago. If you’d like to join a quest to make our own version head to the forum.

Via the forum.

PreenFM open source FM sound module


According to its developer, French software engineer Xavier Hosxe, “PreenFM is a set of electronic components and C++ files that, when put together become a Frequency Modulation sound module.” It’s designed around a Leaflabs Maple Mini (available from Seeedstudio) and a collection of supporting components including EEPROMs, optocouplers, shift registers and op amps complemented by an LCD display and a slew of buttons, switches and discrete components.

You can find links to the schematic, code and supporting docs at the preenFM documentation page.

Bus Pirate week, day 5 – measure a capacitor and parts unboxing

This week is dedicated to Bus Pirate development. Today we hacked the Bus Pirate to do crude capacitor measurement. You could use any microcontroller to do this, but one nice thing about the PIC24FJ is that it has a 32bit timer to measure large value capacitors. In the video:

  • How to measure capacitors with the Bus Pirate (or any uC)
  • Parts unboxing and discussion

Here’s some links mentioned in the video:

Don’t miss:

Grab the latest v6 firmware release candidate here.

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:

  • Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, get free PCBs right here on the blog comments
  • Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
  • Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend

Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.

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