Zencart MOD: Limit Paypal to specific categories

Adafruit posts some Zencart zennieness every week. Here’s our first humble mod of the popular online store software.

Soon one or two popular PCBs will be available for a couple bucks from the PCB drawer. This is just a test, we don’t plan to go into the retail business.

We need a way to stop people from purchasing free prototype PCBs. It’s not that we don’t want to sell you prototype PCBs too, the logistics are just impossible though. Our first Zencart MOD limits PayPal payments to the for-sale boards, and keeps the prototype boards available via free PCB coupon only.

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SDR Sunday – monitor web SDRs and decode digital data


Want to try out software defined radio (SDR) before you buy or build a rig? Or do you just want to see what all the ham radio chatters about? Then check out the online SDRs available for your listening pleasure at WebSDR. This unique website lists dozens of online radios which you can click on to monitor signals on various amateur radio bands as received at locations around the world.

A WebSDR is a Software-Defined Radio receiver connected to the internet, allowing many listeners to listen and tune it simultaneously. SDR technology makes it possible that all listeners tune independently, and thus listen to different signals; this is in contrast to the many classical receivers that are already available via the internet.

You can read more about this outstanding project by following the background information link on their webpage.

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Logic Sniffer 3D-printed case

arhi made a 3D-printed Logic Sniffer case:

As you can see my design is as simple as it can be. It’s far from pretty but works. It does not have any “end stops” to prevent OBLS from sliding out of the case, it’s just “tight” enough so the OBLS is hard to move in/out. Worked for me so far but it is oversimplified and to be honest ugly :D (not to mention it is white so get’s dirty real easy).

More cool DIY cases here.

Via the forum.

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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A marriage proposal via a PCB design

Bill Porter proposed to his girlfriend, Mara Tuchman, in a very unique way via a modified PCB design.  This was carried out with the help of James “Laen” Neal from DorkpotPDX.

Mara had designed a PCB for a project and Bill had the brilliant idea to use it to propose.

This is her first time getting a circuit board professionally fabricated, so I helped her prepare the design to be sent off to Laen’s DorkbotPDX service. That’s when I had the eureka moment. I don’t know of anyone else who had proposed on a circuit board in the past! She would never see it coming. As soon as the email to Laen was sent with the design files I quickly sent him another email asking for a favor; could he add a message to the boards for me? He agreed.

 

You can see in the pictures following the circuit boards with the question in the silk screen. Laen also threw in a ‘gold PCB ring’ as well. I didn’t think Eagle had ring size conversions for drill holes!

This is a very clever way to propose and it is always nice to see makers help each other to make special things happen.

Via Twitter (@laen & @Bill_Porter)

New 7400 Competition sponsor: Tincantools

We are thrilled to announce that Tincantools has sponsored the Open 7400 Competition. they have graciously added the folowing to our pool of prizes.

Get your entry in and these and other cool hardware can be yours.

Pip-Boy 3000 game controller proto using Arduino

If you’re into the gaming scene, then you know that Fallout is a pretty popular post nuclear simulation game.

A fan of the game wanted to create a prototype of the game’s wrist mounted controller known as the Pip-Boy 3000. MyMagicPudding writes:

This is the first test of my attempt to build a working Pip-Boy 3000, complete with fully functional controls just as depicted in the game.

It consists of an HTC Desire HD as the screen and processor, and an Arduino Uno with a USB host shield running microbridge to act as an ADB host for the phone. The Arduino then sends button presses to the phone via TCP over USB.

The Pip-Boy is made from a cast shell with an HTC Desire smartphone fitted inside.

Unfortunately, with all the electronics stuffed into the shell makes it impossible for a gamer to actually wear the controller on his wrist, but it is a unique use of the Arduino.

And you think your Arduino projects are unusual?

Real-time energy monitor with Arduino and LabVIEW

Real-time energy monitor with Arduino and LabVIEW:

Arduino board that detects the led pulses and sends the data via the XBee module, and a PC that recive the data through a USB/Xbee module and processes the data with LabVIEW so you can prepare and study the consumption in a very instant.

Arduino sends two datas to the PC:
1 – Real time datas
2 – Average consumption measured in a time of 5 minutes.

Thanks Boris! Via the contact form.

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

You can get IR Toy v2 for $22.05, including world wide shipping.

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Week in (p)review: September 02, 2011

Facebook free PCB Friday is on the way. Don’t forget to share your current project in the comments or the forum.

Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week:

Coming this week:

  • Soldering videos
  • A new partlist post on Wednesday
  • App notes on the weekend
  • Free PCB Sunday
  • Free PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday
  • Free PCBs via Facebook on Friday
  • Weekly roundup and preview every Friday

What are you hacking this week?

HackPittsburgh to launch messages via balloon


The crew over at HackPittsburgh is planning on a balloon launch message project today:

This Friday (9-2-2011), join us as we celebrate the successful launch of our 4th balloon with more fun with balloons. We have often talked about sending a payload of ping pong balls up with our big balloons and then drop them with messages to people. Friday we are going to try this on a smaller scale. We will be making customized ping pong balls on a few of our egg-bots (egg-bot.com) and sending them up on biodegradable party balloons. There will be room for you to add a personalized message to each ball also.

We hope others will find our ping pong balls and read them. To add to the fun we have created a form for anyone who finds a ball to let us know where they found it (http://bit.ly/HckPGHAPP). We hope to create a map of found ping pong balls to track their travels once they have been found.

What’s your hackerspace up to?

Open source universal soldering station controller

Arhi posted v3 of an open source soldering station controller. Add an AC transformer from a cheap soldering station and you have a powerful pro-tool. Settings are entered by a rotary encoder dial, temperature and menu options are shown on a 16×2 LCD.

It works with most major soldering iron brands. Hakko (thermistor) or Solomon (K-type thermocouple) soldering pencils can be selected with jumpers. Replacement iron/handle assemblies are actually quote affordable (<$20), even quality stuff like Hakko.

Project files are available in the forum. A USB-upgradable version is also in development.

Announcing the Open 7400 Logic Competition

We are excited to announce the Open 7400 Logic Competition.

The competition brings awareness to open hardware and software, and fosters understanding of the basic building blocks of modern integrated circuits. And most importantly, we want to have fun! What can you create using individual logic chips?

Prizes include cash, hardware, development boards, and more. New prizes and celebrity judges will be announced in the coming days.

Our initial sponsors are Seeed Studio and Protostack:

Come visit us at 7400contest.com, to check out the prizes and rules. You only have until October 21, 2011, so get cracking!

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DIY Bus Pirate v3

Frithjof shares this picture of a hand-made Bus Pirate v3:

It really took a long time from printing the layout, over etching, applying tin and solder stop, soldering the parts, uploading the bootloader and finally uploading the firmware. But now it’s ready and it works!!!

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

USB Infrared Toy receive/transmit support for LIRC (Linux)

LIRC is a remote control decoder/transmitter program for Linux. The IR Toy has always been supported by LIRC’s IRman-compatable mode, but now there’s a patch for full receive and transmit support. Peter posted the test IR Toy LIRC driver in the forum:

I have finished work on a lirc driver for linux that supports receive and transmit in ir sample mode. I have just submitted the patch here.  Tested with irw, irrecord and irsend, working fine in my setup, ymmv.

The patch is available in the LIRC mailing list archive at SourceForge. Any testing reports would be appreciated.