Free PCB Sunday with a survey question

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.

Please note: this week we’re doing something different. We’re thinking about stocking up the PCB drawer and selling PCBs too. If PCB coupons were for sale, how much would you want to pay for a PCB? Should we include worldwide shipping in the price?

This week two random commenters who answer these questions will get a free PCB code. We’ll pick the winners Monday morning. Thanks for participating in our ‘market research’, it will help us gauge if this is a feasible idea.

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

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

Continue reading “Free PCB Sunday with a survey question”

DIY soldering paste stencils

erdabyz has been playing with different DIY soldering paste stencils:

I’ve always wanted to make my own soldering paste stencils. Some days ago I tried a method which should theoretically work, and it somehow did. I spreaded a coat of soldermasking ink (the only photosensitive, acid resistant thing that I have) to a piece of thick aluminium foil (the one that’s used to make disposable food trays) and I insolated it. The soldermasking ink adhered very well to the aluminium. I covered the back of the aluminium piece with some plastic tape to protect it against the acid and I etched the stencil using diluted ferric chloride (it reacts veeery violently with aluminium). The result was pretty amazing for being the first time. However, aluminium is so soft that the stencil was useless as it was damaged while spreading the paste.

The picture shows version 2.0 etched in a copper plate. Can you guess what project this is for?

Via the forum.

Logic Sniffer reviewed

My 2uF wrote a review of the Logic Sniffer:

So far the OLS has helped me a lot to find the right timings, to tweak the delays between the data bits that are needed to make it work. It was a very easy process. Just look at the graph and up or down the numbers a bit, until the peaks are dead on the center of the bits.

Now I need to make the existing code live with its new friend happily, which is a different matter and will require more OLS debugging ;-)

I highly recommend it!

Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping. In stock and shipping now.

TI launches new TIDeals site

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Texas Instruments has a launched a new microsite known as TIDeals.com. They promise to deliver “the latest MSP430 MCU products at hugh discounts every two weeks!” At this writing they appear to be compiling an email list prior to the launch of their first “deal” in about two days.

Hacking home automation X10 devices over power lines

X10 home automation devices control household systems over AC power lines. In the past their online pop-up ads were pervasive and hard to avoid and these devices are fairly common today.

Researchers Dave Kennedy, aka Rel1k, and Rob Simon, aka Kc57, revealed two X10 hacking devices at the recent Defcon 19 conference in Las Vegas.

The X10 Sniffer to determine what’s connected to the power network and monitor what the devices are doing, and the X10 Blackout, which can jam signals to interfere with the operation of lights, alarms, security cameras and other devices.

The researchers demonstrated the Sniffer and Blackout devices they designed that plug into a power socket inside or outside a house or even into an outlet in a house nextdoor, since signals can leak out from a house and carry for some distance. Kennedy said that while testing one of the devices from his house in Ohio, he picked up signals from home automation systems belonging to 15 neighbors.

These tools can be programmed with whatever system commands the hacker desires. The X10 protocol is publicly documented, and it can be easily implemented using MCUs. While we couldn’t find the Defcon device plans or code online, there is a fairly detailed Microchip app note on how to implement the X10 protocol using the PIC 16F877A including both schematic and source code. If you want to try an X10 hack, this app note looks like a good place to start.

Via Wired.

Replacing RIGOL DS1052E DSO rotary encoders

Markus did a repair on his scope:

yesterday I decided that it was about time to replace the bad performing rotary encoder for the time-base of my RIGOL DS1052E DSO.

The encoder seemed to work fine when I bought the scope, but after a few weeks it already started to change the time-base quite randomly when turning the knob.

So I bought two rotary encoders from ITead Studio. They have 20 pulses per full rotation while the original ones only had 12, but that was ok for me. The shaft is about 1 mm longer, but it does not make that big of a difference with the knobs on them.

Via the project log forum.

2A automotive step-down converter

rsdio writes:  maybe voidptr can use this in his Noob car blinking LED project…

MAX16974 High-Voltage, 2.2MHz, 2A Automotive Step-Down Converter with Low Operating Current

  • Wide input voltage range (3.5V to 45V) allows seamless operation from cold crank to load dump
  • Low quiescent current meets tight power budgets
  • High-frequency operation eliminates AM-band radio interference

Tokyo Hackerspace’s Geiger counter project update

Tokyo Hackerspace has continued to evolve their DIY networked Geiger counter project. Our friend Takyen, forum member and Thermal Tweeter case designer, has been involved in this project. Here’s an update via Make:

We joined up with Safecast (RDTN at the time) and since then, almost all the core members of Safecast Japan are now Tokyo Hackerspace members. The office is also inside Tokyo Hackerspace. We started up a joint project with Keio University to create a radiation sensor network across Japan. The goal is 300 nodes by the end of the year and 1000 nodes by next year. The NetRAD boards were modified to accommodate this and we added WiFi so that it would make deployment and cabling easier. All the data is open and since then, Yahoo Japan started publishing their radiation map using our feeds.

We also are using special versions of our Geiger counters mounted on cars to geotag Geiger data and create maps.

Free PCB coupon via Facebook comments #5 and #11


Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. The #5 and #11 people who comment on this post at Facebook get a free PCB. More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday.

This week we’re giving away two PCB codes. Be the first two commenters and you get the PCB. Pick your own PCB from the free PCB drawer.

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 the CoolRunner-II development board for $15 and XC9572XL dev-board  for $15.

Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook comments #5 and #11”

Calling all Bus Pirate v4 testers

Thanks to the hard work of Honken and JTR, the Bus Pirate v4 finally has a 100% open source USB bootloader.

If you have the v4 hardware, we could use your help testing the bootloader and new firmware. Test packages are available in the forum.

Thanks to JTR and Honken for their tireless work on this software.

There’s still a lot of work before Bus Pirate v4 is ready, but we just got one huge step closer

ArduinoDashboard app


ArduinoDashboard is an application for viewing analog and digital pin sensor values from an Arduino in real time. The app requires you to incorporate a function from ArduinoDashboard into your sketch and upload to the Arduino. You then run the ArduinoDashboard app on your PC which reads the pin status data from the board via 9600 baud serial. The data is displayed on a GUI as shown above.

You can download this app, source code and documentation at the LVL1 Hackerspace site.

Electronic circuit in a tattoo


UPI is reporting that researchers at Northwestern University have developed skin mounted electronic circuits. These devices which can either be attached with adhesive or temporarily tattooed could have applications in biomedical monitoring.

Of course, we imagine “big brother” types of applications for this tech will be just around the corner…

Thanks Chuckt! Via the Comments.

MPLABX Beta 7 now available

MPLABX IDE is now available:

Beta 7 of Microchip’s cross-platform MPLABX IDE is now available. The IDE can be downloaded over at the MPLABX download page.  Additionally, tutorials and help information for MPLABX are available here.

In addition to MPLABX, the Microchip C compilers on the downloads page have all been updated. Updated compilers are: C30 v3.30b, C32 v2.0, C18 v3.40, PICC 9.82, PICC18 v9.66. Head on over and check it out!

Via NBitWonder

Week in (p)review: August 12, 2011

Sorry for the slow posting yesterday and today. JTR released a working, open source USB bootloader for Bus Pirate v4. We’re testing and tweaking it on IRC.

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:

  • Open source USB stack updates!
  • Soldering videos
  • More site updates
  • App notes on the weekend
  • Free PCB Sunday
  • Free PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday
  • A new partlist post on Wednesday
  • Free PCBs via Facebook on Friday
  • Weekly roundup and preview every Friday

What are you hacking this week?

Downloadable source for hackerspace passports

Downloadable Source for Hackerspace Passports:

You mentioned the Hackerspace Passports Mitch and I designed and I wanted to give you a followup. We’ve released all of the source files used to construct it, including patterns, stamp designs, psd’s, the InDesign layout files, and full resolution illustrations. We’re hoping that people will customize, remix, and develop their own takes on the design so it can spread all the more wildly.

We wrote and requested this release because of all your great comments on the previous post.

Via Adafruit.

Arduino mindreading library


Chris from LVL1 Louisville’s Hackerspace has been working on hacking brainwave sensors using the Arduino.

Both the Force Trainer and Mattel MindFlex use a daughterboard from
NeuroSky that outputs serial data for values of ‘Wireless link’,
‘Attention’ and Meditation. Both of these devices have the same
NeuroSky board, so the *easy* hacking instructions work for both.

It’s really as simple as soldering a wire to the Tx on the NeuroSky
board to Rx serial on an Arduino. And solder ground on the NeuroSky
board to ground on the Arduino.

The Arduino Brain Library and the version using the SoftSerial can be downloaded from Github.

What’s your hackerspace working on?

Homemade PID controlled hotplate

Dillon Nichols made a DIY PID controlled hotplate:

I got lucky enough to get a free PCB from Dangerous Prototypes a little over a month ago. I finally finished assembling it last night. It was my first time soldering SMD components, but it was worth it. I also got to use my homemade hotplate for the first time with no problems. I used this solder paste. I really only used the hotplate for the TQFP (Thin Quad Flat Pack) PIC chip and it worked out very nicely. The rest of the components I hand soldered with a bunch of time, patience, and flux.