eagleUp 4.2 released

eagleUP v4.2 was released. This is a new and popular program for exporting Eagle PCBs to use in Google Sketchup:

Version 4.2 has been released. It simplifies the configuration and detects wrong settings so that it’s much more reliable. It should be more stable on OS X platform as well.

Concerning the parts, there are a few tutorial on the blog explaining how to import and export in mechanical formats. Useful for connectors and other big parts.The warehouse is extending, slowly. You can always send in your own parts ;-)

Via the comments.

ESC Boston


Sheldon B. writes reminding us of the upcoming ESC Boston, scheduled for September 26-29, 2011 at the Hynes Convention Center.

This is fun! ESC Boston, 2 days for free, need to preregister, I went a few years ago.

While the conference registration is pricey, there is the little known Exhibits Pass which gives access to many aspects of the convention for FREE on September 27-28, 2011. Register today.

Via the contact form.

SimulAVR


SimulAVR is an open source simulator for AVR 8-bit Attiny and ATmega microcontrollers.

SimulAVR can be used either standalone or as a remote target for avr-gdb. When used in gdbserver mode, the simulator is used as a back-end so that avr-gdb can be used as a source level debugger for AVR programs.

The core of SimulAVR is functionally a library. This library is linked together with a command-line interface to create a command-line program. It is also linked together with interpreter interfaces to create libraries that can be used by a interpreter language (currently Python / TCL).

The latest version 1.2.7 can be downloaded in tar.gz from the GNU.org site. For SimulAVR documentation and information on other downloads can be found on the project’s webpage.

CPLD breakout board v1a prototype

A video of the Xilinx XC9572XL v1a and Lattice LC4032 v1 CPLD development board builds and power up test.

Due to a technical problem most of the soldering video was lost.

In this video:

  • Xilinx XC9572XL and Lattice LC4032 CPLD development board builds
  • A jab at Altera
  • XC9572XL power up test and programming

Don’t forget there are PCBs for both of these boards in the free PCB drawer if you want to build your own.

Tomorrow we’ll probably post a build video for the IR Toy Arduino shield.

Partlist Wednesday: Ferrite beads

Every Wednesday we highlight a component from the updated partlist. This week: Ferrite beads.

We usually use ferrite beads as a power supply filter. You’ll find them on the USB supply in circuits with an FT232 USB->serial converter chip, like the Bus Pirate, and on the ethernet interface of the web platform.

For general purpose digital prototyping we just get something with a sufficiently high current rating and under 330ohms of impedance. When we moved to all 0603 parts, we picked up a few hundred of this 1.5A ferrite bead.

Some circuit might require a more carefully chosen bead, but most of our projects with run fine without the bead at all. If a specific bead is needed, the datasheet will usually list it.

The single NPN transistor audio preamp

Hack a Week’s new project this week is a single NPN transistor audio preamp:

Here’s a great little project that goes well with the LM386 audio amp. It’s a good first time transistor project because it’s simple and demonstrates the common emitter class A amplifier circuit with only six components in the signal path.

Flashrom 0.9.4 released

Mattias inform us of the release of flashrom 0.9.4, which works with the Bus Pirate :

Flashrom is a utility for reading, writing, erasing and verifying flash ROM chips.

Flashrom is designed to flash BIOS/EFI/coreboot/firmware/optionROM images on mainboards, network/graphics/storage controller cards, and various programmer devices. It can do so without any special boot procedures and from your normal working environment.After over nine years of development and constant improvement, we have added support for every BIOS flash ROM technology present on x86 mainboards and every flash ROM chip we ever saw in the wild.

Forum: New look preview

Here’s a preview of the new forum theme. We’re having a few problems getting it on the live site, you might notice some strange layout issues.

When all the sites are synced, we’ll make a big list of changes and do them all at once. If you hate something, or find a problem, please add it to the site update forum.

The forum mobile site update is in progress. It will be minor. We’ll try to add a manual mode switcher, something not supported by the MOD used.

Free PCB coupon to RT #2 & #11 @dangerousproto

Every Tuesday we give away some extra PCBs via Twitter. This post was announced on twitter. The #2 and #11 person to retweet it get free PCBs. Thanks for the heads-up on auto-retweeters JT!

This week we’re giving away two PCB codes. 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, right here on the blog
  • 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

Continue reading “Free PCB coupon to RT #2 & #11 @dangerousproto”

Free webcast: OSCON 2011

OReilly is sponsoring a free webcast entitled, “OSCON 2011: Take-aways, Trends, and Highlights” on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 10 AM PT. Presenters will discuss their observations from the recently concluded OSCON 2011 event in Portland, OR.

In this event wrap-up, OSCON co-chairs Edd Dumbill, Sarah Novotny, and Laurel Ruma will identify and discuss the trends and announcements that emerged from the event and how these will impact the tech world in the year to come. We’ll build plenty of time for interaction, so bring your own ideas, insights and questions, from both the conference and beyond.

Register for this webcast at the OReilly website.

SID player VHDL core

d18c7db was inspired by Markus’ SID audio file player so he implemented a SID player in VHDL:

I spent some time this weekend and got some initial sounds out of my board. I’m using a Papilio FPGA board with a SID core written in VHDL. The sounds coming out sound 90% correct, the tunes are definitely recognizable :) but it’s early days, I still need to fix a bunch of things.

Via the forum.

OsmocomBB: open source GSM software


Osmocom stands for Open Source MObile COMmunications. The crew developing the OsmocomBB (baseband) software project presented the above talk at the DeepSec conference last November in Vienna, Austria. As they describe their efforts:

OsmocomBB is an Free Software / Open Source GSM Baseband software implementation.

It intends to completely replace the need for a proprietary GSM baseband software, such as

* drivers for the GSM analog and digital baseband (integrated and external) peripherals
* the GSM phone-side protocol stack, from layer 1 up to layer 3

In short: By using OsmocomBB on a compatible phone, you are able to make and receive phone calls, send and receive SMS, etc. based on Free Software only.

You can read about their progress and obtain code downloads from the OsmocomBB webpage.

Slides from this presentation are available for download from the DeepSec site.

PICqueño32 power up test and first program

Today we did the first test of the PICqueño32 hardware. See the previous video of the build and PIC chip replacement.

Learn more about the PICqueño32 on the wiki, and don’t forget there are PCBs in the free PCB drawer if you want to build your own. We’ll give away two free PCB coupons on Twitter later today.

In this video:

  • Power up test with a Bus Pirate
  • First USB connection
  • Bootloader programing with MPLAB
  • First test with the Arduino IDE

USB adapter for Wii Classic game pad

frank26080115  made a USB adapter for a USB Wii Classic Controller:

This project will show you how to create a real USB game pad using a Wii Classic Controller. The Instructable (full step by step instructions) is here

Once the adapter is working, the Wii Classic Controller registers as a standard HID gamepad on any PC. Forum members have reported using it with Steam titles, retro emulators, casino apps that support controller input, and various browser-based games. The analog sticks and trigger buttons map cleanly, making it a surprisingly versatile budget controller.

A demonstration video is here

Via the forum.

Small Bus Pirate clone

Greeeg made a small Bus Pirate clone:

I’ve been quite happy with my sparkfun Bus Pirate. After seeing this project I decided I would attempt to redesign the bus pirate to be as small as possible, whilst still maintaining full functionality.

My final design turned out to be about %50 smaller than the sparkfun version. Some alterations were needed, these involved replacing the FTDI IC with a QFN package PIC18F14k50. The Main PIC is also using a QFN version. This could be made smaller by using combined LEDs (RGB / RG /etc), resistor arrays, smaller header, micro usb socket. I’m more than happy to provide the eagle/gerber files if anyone really wants them, but half the fun was making the layout.

If anyone has a smaller design I’d love to see it.

Via the forum.

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

Bus Pirate: DS28EA00 temperature sensor demo

wortelsoft demonstrates the DS23EA00 1-Wire digital thermometer using the Bus Pirate:

The DS28EA00 is a, 1-wire temperature sensor. It features selectable 9/10/11/12 bit resolution with a typical accuracy of ±0.5°c, alarm function and user-programmable upper and lower trigger points. Special to this sensor are the two io pins which can be used for sequence detection or as general IO. The GPIO pins can be used for sequence detection (in which order are the sensors connected on the 1-wire bus) or as general purpose io pins. The pins are only capable of sinking 20mA maximum, so when connecting for instance a led make sure the current limiting resistors are large enough to stay well below this maximum.

Thanks wortelsoft, a free PCB code is in the mail!

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