USB-MSD bootloader for the KwikStik development board

Mark made a USB bootloader for the Kwikstik development board. We covered this board in April, and they’ve promised us 5 to give away when the next batch is in.

I have added K40 (including KwikStik) support to the uTasker project. See the following for details:

It includes a USB-MSD boot loader for the KwikStik, an SLCD demo as well as an SLCD simultor (see the video and docs for details and check out the binary and executables, run the simulated SLCD and modifiy the script file for other types) on the SW-demo page.

Thanks Mark! Via the comments.

Free PCB coupon to RT #2 & #20 @dangerousproto

Every Tuesday we give away some extra PCBs via Twitter. This post was announced on twitter. The 2nd and 20th 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 & #20 @dangerousproto”

Farnell flux freebies

Farnell/element14 offered us free stuff to test drive advertise for them. We hardly ever buy from Farnell, but hey, free. We wanted something we could actually try out and evaluate in the workshop. There’s not much point in comparing capacitors from Farnell and Mouser.

A couple types of flux seemed like a good idea: EDSYN FL22 Flux 5ML and Fry Powerflow Flux 50GM. Flux helps solder flow better, and keeps it out of places you don’t want it. Don’t even try to solder without copious amounts of this magic goo. Flux is a product we can use a lot and give an honest opinion about.

Our current syringe of flux is surplus from an old Philips factory. According to the label it expired in 1991. It’s the first and only syringe we’re ever used, and there’s still lots to spare. The flux still works great, though the spout is starting to crust over. We tried to replace it with a flux pen but it was disappointing.

This flux will get a workout on our next couple prototypes. We’ll let you know know if it’s our new go-to product, or if we’re back with old crusty.

Lattice announces Diamond release 1.3


Lattice Semiconductor has just announced Lattice Diamond® release 1.3, updating their FPGA design software environment. They write:

This release further builds on helping FPGA designers reach their goals for cost sensitive and low-power applications. In addition to its industry-leading Power Calculator, Lattice Diamond 1.3 software now aids migrating a design to a lower cost device as well as improving design resilience with clock jitter analysis. Other new software enhancements include support of complex multi-file simulation testbenches, a more intuitive synthesis constraint flow, and a significant speed-up of the download of large trace data and complex trigger configuration for on-chip debugging.

You can download your copy (1.8 GB) from the Lattice website.

OpenPicus WIFI development board giveaway

OpenPicus gave us a Nest starter kit WIFI development platform to give away.  Leave a comment on this post with a project idea, and it could be yours on Thursday.

OpenPicus is working on open source wireless hardware and a free application development platform. The current WIFI hardware has a PIC 24FJ256GA106 microcontroller, and an MRF24WB0MA module provides the wireless.

An Arduino-like IDE has libraries and frameworks to simplify wireless development. If you have the grit to develop a wireless app without a proper debugging tool, then the firmware can be updated over USB via a bootloader in the PIC.

They sent a press release through the contact form. We asked for a sample, and got one. It sat in the lab waiting for a review that never happened. Now it’s time to give it away.

If you want to buy an OpenPicus, check out their crazy number of distributors.

New WinLIRC version released

dukey has a new version of WinLIRC, Windows infrared receiver software that works with the USB IR Toy:

the new version of winlirc is live, with some fixes to the irtoy usb plugin as promised. Since you guys love DIY hardware you should check out the audio receiver. I finally got a chance to sit down and debug it properly as I was getting unpredictable results with some hardware, but finally nailed the issues and getting really good results with it. It’s pure simplicity is mind bending. All the magic is done in software :)

Via the forum.

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

FPGA bitstream security broken


Researchers in Germany have released two papers detailing how security of the bitstream on Xilinx FPGAs can be compromised.

The first paper (11 pages) discusses power analysis attacks and extracting keys from Virtex-II devices.

The second (3 pages) describes an analysis of the Virtex 4 and 5 bitstream encryption mechanism.

Via Slashdot.

Soldering PICqueño32 dev-board prototype

A video of the PICqueno32 prototype build and test process. About 70 minutes of soldering is reduced to 5 minutes.

First the big chips go down. This board has a 64pin TQFP PIC32 and a 28pin SOIC FT232 USB->serial chip. We had to salvage the FT232 from an old Bus Pirate prototype.

Next the small passive components are soldered. A spot of solder goes on one pad of every part. Parts are soldered in place on one side. When all the parts are on the board the remaining sides are soldered at once.

Connectors, headers, and through-hole stuff goes on last.

We’ll try to document all future prototype builds. The first test was rough, but it gave us ideas for next time.

STATUS UPDATE: PICqueño32 v1.0

PICqueño32 is our knock-off the Arduino-compatible chipKIT Uno32.

Earlier this summer Microchip and Digilent released a 32bit, PIC 32 development board. Yeah, it’s in the shape of an Arduino. What sets it apart from others is the open source compiler that works with the Arduino IDE and existing Arduino programs.

We decided to make a chipKIT-compatible board to get a closer look at the platform. This is the first prototype and it will take some revisions to perfect the design. It’s going to be hard to compete with Digilent’s $27 price, but we might make a batch eventually.

PICqueño32 has the same basic circuit as the ChipKIT Uno, but we used our own partlist and made it way more dangerous:

  • Arduino shield form factor, works with most existing shields
  • Bigger, human-friendly FT232 USB->serial chip
  • Stripped-down power supply design
  • Designed entirely within the free version of Eagle
  • ChipKIT-compatible header placement
  • CC-0 from-scratch remake (CC BY-SA during development)

The original design has a fairly complicated power setup, so we simplified it to something easier for ordinary hackers to reuse in a project. USB or external power are toggled by a jumper. That will probably be an auto-select in the final design.

A build video will go up in a minute.

Schematic and PCB are on the PICqueno32 v1 wiki. Continue reading “STATUS UPDATE: PICqueño32 v1.0”

Rosserial library for Arduino released


Michael Ferguson and Adam Stambler have released the rosserial library for Arduino.

This is a new library for connecting the Arduino platform to ROS, allowing an Arduino to directly publish and subscribe to ROS messages. There are also demos ranging from controlling servos to using an Arduino and rxplot as an oscilloscope to reading temperature sensors into ROS.

In addition to support integration with the Arduino platform, the rosserial library provides a general point-to-point transport for ROS communication over serial, which is intended for hardware that cannot support the full ROS TCP/IP network stack. This library can be used to easily integrate a wide-variety of low-cost hardware into ROS.

For more details and downloads, visit the Ros website.

Via ShowUsYourSensors.

Video: DSP/SDR basics


Here’s Jeri Ellsworth’s latest video, explaining the basics of DSP and SDR for beginners, and how to build a digital direct conversion receiver (SDR) using sampling detectors and FPGA DSP processing. (If you want to skip the silly cat portion of the video, start at 1:25.)

The links referred to in the video are below:
Useful direct conversion receiver links.
http://www.flex-radio.com/Data/Doc/qex1.pdf
http://www.flex-radio.com/Data/Doc/qex2.pdf
http://www.flex-radio.com/Data/Doc/qex3.pdf
http://www.dspguide.com/pdfbook.htm

NOTE: This last link is a searchable online book entitled, “The Scientist and Engineer’s Guide to Digital Signal Processing”, by Steven W. Smith, Ph.D. Very deep tech, but worth looking at.