Fcobcn built a nice case for the Bus Pirate v2go using a case he received some chips in.
Via the forum.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Switch AC appliances remotely with cellular control
Ezflyr built an AC relay switch that receives commands over the cellular phone network. An ADH8066 quad-band GSM cellular module handles the communication, while a PIC18F2550 controls the relays and reads temperature sensors.
The goal of this project is to remotely switch heaters on his aircraft, which requires a few hours of preheating before a flight to function reliably.
Via the fourm.
Defcon 19: Vulnerabilities of Wireless Water Meter Networks
Security researcher John McNabb presented this talk at the Defcon 19 (2011) conference highlighting vulnerabilities of wireless water meter systems. John managed a small water system for 13 years and draws on his experiences in this presentation covering water security systems and more importantly the hardware, software, topology, and vulnerabilities of wireless water meter networks and how to sniff wireless water meter signals.
The PDF relating to this talk can be downloaded here.
#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.
This week we have a guest PCB, the USB bit whacker 32. UBW32 is a development platform that allows you to control 78 pins of a PIC32 microcontroller from the USB port. TitanMKD sent us two of these boards for the free PCB drawer.
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:
- 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
Near field communication TRF7970A breakout board
Benjamin wanted to use the Bus Pirate with various near field communication protocols, so he designed this breakout board for the TRF7970A NFC chip. It has a 13.56Mhz on-board antenna, and a optional SMA antenna connector. Other devices can also interface with this board, all the IO pins of the IC are brought to a header.
Benjamin included the DP logo on the board, thanks for the love!
Via the forum.
RFIDIOt: RFID IO tools
RFIDIOt, which stands for RFID IO Tools, is an open source Python library for exploring RFID devices. It is intended to work with a range of LF and HF RFID reader hardware including both serial and PCSC devices. It’s the work of Adam Laurie, a Director of the security research and consultancy company Aperture Labs Ltd.
Read the details about RFIDIOt tools at the documentation page, and download the code here.
Open source SMT pick and place machine
Ever get tired of fiddling with tiny surface mount components using tweezers and a magnifying glass? The OpenPnP project that aims to be your sweet relief:
OpenPnP is a project to create the plans, prototype and software for a completely Open Source SMT pick and place machine that anyone can afford. I believe that with the ubiquity of cheap, precise motion control hardware, some ingenuity and plenty of Open Source software it should be possible to build and own a fully functional SMT pick and place machine for under $1000.
Via the forum.
nedoCPU-16: PIC16F87X breakout board
Here is a breakout board for the PIC16F87X microcontrollers. It has a onboard 5V power supply, a 20MHz crystal, and a reset button, while all the IO pins have been broken out into a single row header, so its easy to interface with a breadboard.The UART and ICSP programing header have been broken out on the top of the board.
As a bonus this board has a RS-232 level translator daughter board for easier interface with a computer serial port. The board can be built with the daughter board attached or without it.
Alexander is currently making a new redesign of the board.
Via the forum.
Eaglefree PIC18F2550 development board
Jose built a PIC18F2550 development board. It’s on a single layer with all through-hole components, making it friendly to DIY PCB etchers. It was designed using the Eagle free license constraints, and fits within the 10cmX8cm board format. The board features:
- 8 LEDs.
- 4 push buttons with pull-down 220Ω resistors.
- 2 potentiometers.
- 1 relay with an active LED indicator. For using the relay, you must provide an external power supply.
- 1 H bridge.
- 1 barrel connector for H bridge power supply.
- The board can be supplied from the USB or from an external supply (jumper selectable).
- 5V regulator onboard.
- ICSP port for PIC programming.
- Jumper for enabling/disabling programmer voltage. This allows for the programmer to be powered from the board supply, so we can have the programmer plugged to the board all the time.
Via the comments.
ProtoStack ATmega328 kit review and Arduino clone build
Here is a comprehensive review of the ProtoStack ATmega328 kit that Eric won in the 7400 contest. He was pleasantly surprised that Protostack included an USBasp AVR programer. The review goes into detail on how to build a Arduino clone on this development kit.
I managed to get my 7400 Logic PLL Based Switcher in the third place category of the Dangerous Prototypes Open 7400/4000 Series Logic Contest. Dangerous Prototypes had the neat idea to let the winners pick their own prizes from the many sponsor donated kits & parts; that way everyone gets something they want. I picked out one of the 3x ProtoStack ATmega328 Developments Kits they donated. I’ve been messing around with my Arduino Uno for a while and was looking to expand my Atmel AVR knowledge a bit and thought building up this kit and turning it into an Arduino clone would be a fun project. I figured I’d give a little review of the kit as I went along as well.
Via the forum.
New beta release of the OLS client
Jawi has been working hard on the Logic Sniffer OLS client. After the first beta release two issues were identified and fixed. He is now proceeding with the second beta release. If you’d like to help out, please download and test the OLS client for the Logic Sniffer.
Via the forum.
MAKE Holiday Kit-A-Day Giveaway
MAKE has started their 2011 MAKE Holiday Kit-A-Day Giveaway. To celebrate the release of their latest publication, the Make: Ultimate Kit Guide 2012 (and its companion website), they’re giving away one of the cool kits reviewed in the issue each day during the holiday season.
Check out the MAKE giveaway webpage for each day’s prize and entry rules.
Good Luck!
ITead Studio mystery X-Mas gifts
ITead Studio started a X-mas mystery gift campaign. First 100 to follow their Facebook page or RT their Tweet will receive it. As the title states the content of the gift package is a mystery but they did drop us this line:
not only the physical gifts but also you will get a discount coupons as well
Via the forum.
PixelInvaders: LED matrix panel
Michu built a LED matrix panel that is controlled by his PixelController software we blogged about. The panel consists of 64 individual RGB modules. The modules have three RGB LEDs on them controlled with a LPD6803 serial shift register LED driver. The color range is 15bit deep, or 5bit per basic color.
By connecting them in strings you can control any individual LED by sending serial data in sequence they are connected on the panel. Or by using his software and a Arduino as USB to serial link.
The panel is built from matted white acrylic making for a very impressive look.
Via the forum.
App note: Software real time clock and calendar.
Here is an app note from Microchip that provides information on how to implement a real time clock and calendar on the PIC16f18xx series of microcontrollers.
It uses an external 32.768KHz crystal that drives the Timer1 resource of the uC. The neat thing about a 32.768Khz clock source is that it can be divided by counters to output exactly 1 sec. An added bonus is that the Timer1 can work during sleep mode, thus saving power.
This design uses the I2C protocol to interface with other devices. Microchip provided source code for PIC16F18XX and PIC16F19XX devices.
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:
Parallax KickStart tutorials
Anticipating an increase in interest in their products now carried at Radio Shack and other retailers, Parallax has posted a number of useful tutorials on their Getting Started with Parallax Wiki Google code site. Designed to bring beginners up to speed with coding and interfacing peripherals with the Propeller multi-core MCU, the Basic Stamp module and the Arduino Uno, these short tutorials, dubbed KickStarts by Parallax (not to be confused with the unrelated Kickstarter project site), “are basic, no-frills coding samples, made so you can get started, fast. Each example takes no more than a few minutes to set up and try.”
Whether you’re new to Parallax products or a veteran Propellerhead, these KickStarts are a good source of quick pinout info and interface code for Parallax MCU’s and sensors, and include information on connecting these products with Arduino. Much easier than wading through the Parallax main website when you just need basic tech data.
App Note: Low-Cost Electric Range Control Using a Triac
While this app note is intended to replace mechanical thermostats, we’re not really interested in that part of it. What does interest us is how to build a controller that interfaces with loads on the mains power line. The neat thing about this design is that it is powered from mains, using a capacitor, zener diode, and two 5W resistors to drop the voltage to 5V.
The app note describes how to detect zero crossing and control the power applied to a load through a triac. As a side note, if you replace the potentiometer part of the circuit with a IR receiver you could easily make a light dimming control circuit that would fit inside lighting fixtures.
This circuit uses live mains voltage, so be sure you know what you are doing before building it.
MS announces new Kinect for Windows hardware
Microsoft has announced they will be making a special edition of the Kinect available designed especially for Windows hackers. The new Kinect will include optimized hardware components and firmware adjustments to better enable PC-centric scenarios. The unit will complement the Kinect for Windows SDK. MS reports:
Simple changes include shortening the USB cable to ensure reliability across a broad range of computers and the inclusion of a small dongle to improve coexistence with other USB peripherals. Of particular interest to developers will be the new firmware which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision, with graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters. “Near Mode” will enable a whole new class of “close up” applications, beyond the living room scenarios for Kinect for Xbox 360.
No pricing info was released. The device is anticipated in early 2012.
App note: GPIO Expander Provides Charge Pump for Blue LEDs
Adding blue LEDs to a interface panel looks cool. The down side is that some blue LEDs require more than 3.5V to work, which can be a hassle if your design works on 3.3V.
This app note from Maxim explains how to implement a charge pump on their I2C GPIO expander ICs using the built in pulse-width modulator. With this design you can built a full interface panel with only one IC and a few discrete components, and remotely connect it to a mainboard using only 3 microcontroller pins.