HamRadio2008 made a demonstration video of the Bus Pirate in I2C mode. He hooked up the Bus Pirate to a test board he built with various I2C devices on it. He then used the I2C mode 7bit address scan to find all the addresses of the on board devices.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Arthur entered his 74Clock into the Open 7400 Logic Competition. I uses a large 7 segment display and has a battery in case of power outage.
A clock is a useful thing, so let’s build one.
Via the contact form.
While browsing suppliers for FTDI chips at cheap singles prices, this offer caught our eye. Dontronics is selling FTDI FT232RQ for just AUD$2.45, which is near $2.50 USD. In many projects a USB to TTL converter chip is needed, and FTDI chips are the most common solution around. Both Digikey and Mouser sell the FT232R (QFN version) for $4.50, and this deal seemed attractive.
As per their statement, they had problems with a manufacturing company and there are several excess parts in their stock which they are selling at wholesale prices. At this time only 152 pcs are in stock, so grab a few chips for your present or future hacks.
Daniel built a charge pump voltage inverter for the Open 7400 Logic competition. It uses the 74LV14 Schmitt trigger to provide a clocked signal, which is then connected to the inverted charge pump circuit to provide a -5V supply.
Via the contact form.
This jacket just might save you from a DUI. Matt Leggett of New Zealand has designed a jacket that incorporates an Arduino-based alcohol sensor. A series of LEDs, stitched into the forearm, glow with an intensity varying with the amount of alcohol present in the wearer’s blood.
The idea behind this innovative piece of clothing is to provide an easy, visual way for wearers to gauge their intoxication levels before making potentially dangerous decisions, such as driving under the influence. The alcohol sensor, embedded in the fabric, detects the wearer’s breath and sends real-time data to the Arduino microcontroller, which then controls the brightness of the LEDs. If the LEDs glow dimly, the alcohol level is low; if they shine brightly, it is a clear warning that the wearer is too intoxicated to drive safely.
This technology could be a game-changer for nightlife enthusiasts, partygoers, and even bartenders who want a quick, non-invasive way to monitor alcohol levels. It can serve as a visual reminder to drink responsibly, helping to prevent potential DUI incidents by encouraging users to call for a ride home. Then, knowing where to turn for legal help is essential when facing charges that could impact your future. The legal process can be overwhelming, but working with experienced professionals like this drink driving lawyer Sydney can significantly improve your chances of success. See how strong legal representation can change the outcome of a case by visiting https://www.newjerseycriminallawattorney.com/hudson-county/.
As wearable tech continues to evolve, innovations like Leggett’s jacket highlight the potential for fashion to merge with safety and practical functionality.
Via Joe.ie via Arduino blog.
Snorre built a Logic E-reader for the Open 7400 Logic Competition. It is a e-reader build completely from logic chips and 2 eproms. The e-books are displayed on a old analog oscilloscope.
The front page says EEPROM instead of EPROM. I don’t have access to a burner right now, so i can’t fix it (ironically, if it did use an eeprom, i could).
Via the contact form.
Viswesr wrote to us about the EFM32 MCU from Energy Micro:
Recently, I discovered EFM32 MCU (ARM Cortex M3/0 based) from Energy Micro when looking for a very low power MCU. I was impressed on how this MCU reduces power consumption (refer: 10 factors that make the 10 factors that make the 32-bit EFM32 the world’s most energy friendly micro-controller . EFM32 employs independent low power peripherals which wakes up the CPU only when necessary. It has a Peripheral Reflex System (PRS) which connects events from one peripheral to another without CPU intervention. This is somewhat analogous to brain(CPU) and a spinal cord(PRS). Spinal cord has a limited decision making capability without brain’s intervention!!! The starter kits are prices at $69. It comes with a Segger debugger ! and a special energy monitoring feature which can measure very low current (from 100nA) using a precision current amplifier. I have seen other ARM Cortex M3/M0 MCUs, this is a very nice implementation. See the datasheets and you would be impressed. At the moment they are only available in QFN , QFP and BGA packages which make prototyping difficult, but, the inbuilt features will reduce overall bill of material when compared to other ARM Cortex M3 implementations.
Via the contact form.
Farnell is a last minute sponsor of the Open 7400 Logic Competition. They’re donated the flux syringe and springy metal soldering iron cleaner thing we reviewed here on the blog. Get your entry in soon and this and other cool hardware can be yours.
Jonathan entered his illogical Dickson doubler into the Open 7400 Logic Competition.
My entry demonstrates how you can use the internal protection diodes and back powering to power a 74HC14 at a voltage “double” (minus diode drops) that of the primary power supply. This method was tested on a 74HC14 and a 74HC595, but it should work on any IC that uses clamping diodes for I/O protection.
Via the contact form.
HamRadio2008 demonstrates the Bus Pirate in UART mode. He is using a PIC18F45K20 MCU to read temperature data from a I2C sensor and then sends it over the UART to the computer serial port, via the MAX232 RS232 level converter. The Bus Pirate is used to monitor the UART signal coming from the board to the MAX232.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
John’s second entry into the Open 7400 Logic competition is a working computer with serial I/O and a lights ‘n switches front panel.
He built a 8bit CPU with a single accumulator, basic arithmetic (+,-,&,~,<<,>>), conditional branching and subroutines, as well as 1KB of RAM. After building and testing that it works, he unfortunately had to decommission it, since the hardware used to construct it had to be returned to the University. He built this computer entirely out of logic gate ICs, with the exception of a EEPROM and RAM chips, using a proto-board and lots of wire wrapping.
…After five iterations of the test program (over a period of about two minutes) the CPU was powered off and torn apart. It probably has the record for the shortest operational life of any computer system in history.
Via the contact form.
irrenhaus gave us a rundown on Frankfurter Buchmesse book fair he visited earlier this year. Here is what attracted his interest and ours:
The art installation is the mainly interesting thing:For rows of 34 thermal printers each. All 136 thermal printers were printing – guess what – twitter messages.
It was impressive – an impressive waste of paper :)
You can check out the thermal Tweeter project we did a couple of months back for a DIY version.
Via the forum.
Arup entered his USB device not recognized design into the Open 7400 Logic Competition. It uses a logic chip to stimulate a USB host just enough to get a “Device not recognized” response from Windows. Once the prank succeeds a “1” is displayed on a 7 segment display.
Via the forum.
Felixls and Suky designed a PICKIT2 clone (machine translation) that works with both 3.3v and 5v devices. Using a 3.3v voltage regulator they have access to both the 5V USB and a 3.3V power supply. Simply by moving a jumper you can chose which supply will power the board and PIC.
Via the forum.
Reminder to all those interested in entering their projects into our Open 7400 Logic Competition: Entries must be received by October 21, 2011, 6AM GMT. You only have 24 hours left to send your entry in.
Entering
Entries can be posted on in our forum, on your personal blog, or even a handy how-to site like Instructables. When you’re ready, please submit a link to your project via the contact form.
Prizes
Bruce sent us a picture of his free Bus Pirate v3c PCB build.
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.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Giuseppe built his CMOS digital clock two years ago and decided to enter it into the Open 7400 Logic Competition.
By using a 2Mhz quartz crystal and a 21bit counter he managed to make a 1Hz clock signal which drives his design. Implementing 2 binary counters programed to count to 60 he managed to get minutely and hourly pulses. The time is displayed on a 7 segment display. A schematic is available on his site.
Via the contact form.
Here is a video from Hive 13 that shows how an Android tablet is used to control a glass block LED matrix via a wireless connection. After installing a LED matrix behind a glass block wall in their bathroom, hackers at Hive 13 are figuring out a way to control them. After some initial struggles they came up with Wireless control of the matrix with a Android or IOS enabled device.
John entered his four digit RPN calculator into the Open 7400 Logic Competition. This is the fist of two entries he made while attending “Digital Hardware Lab” courses at the University of Utah. It is a 4 digit RPN calculator that can add and subtract, designed entirely out of logic ICs.
The first few weeks of the first class were spent doing simple labs, mostly to teach students how logic worked, how to use the tools, how to debug, and how to write up your designs. Then you launched into the meat of the class: Design a four digit, stack-based (a la HP RPN) calculator that could add and subtract. Sounds simple, right? Well, remember you’re doing everything with gates and latches. Scanning and debouncing the keyboard matrix, multiplexing the LED digits, managing the stack and computations. By the end of the quarter you had filled three boards with chips.
Via the contact form.
Markus decided to reuse an old Commodere 64 Competiton Pro joystick, so he added a USB adapter to it. The retro joystick uses a simple interface over the D-SUB 9 connector, using one connection for each movement direction and one connection per button.
He used a PIC24FJ64GB002 microcontroller to translate the native joystick interface to the USB. The schematic and a small tutorial on how to build your own are available.
Via the forum.
