JJSHORTCUT writes: I wanted to show you my latest project because it was all made possible by the Logic Sniffer!
Today I finally got the chance to show you one of my latest projects, the automation of my bedroom, a domotica controlled room. In this post I will guide you trough the process I went through making this possible
Via the contact form.
Get your own Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.
Freescale has announced a Make It Challenge for users of the Kinetis MCU.
Participants will compete by developing an innovative embedded application design using one of the Freescale Kinetis product families. 32-bit Kinetis MCUs represent the most scalable portfolio of ARM® Cortex™-M4 MCUs in the industry. Participants must complete a short online training class and pass a quiz. Participants will then submit a design paper and compete to become one of the ten semi-finalists. The selected ten semi-finalists will have the opportunity to select from discounted tools and create their own unique design, for the chance to win cash prizes, including a trip to Austin, Texas and complimentary admission to FTF 2012.
Read the Official Rules and register for the challenge today.
Markus has updated his hybrid SID player again. The new version has the classic stand-alone mode, with a new networked mode that pulls SID auto from a PC:
Beside the disadvantage of not being stand-alone, the ‘Network SID Device’ mode has several benefits:
- Newer tunes containing samples are only released in RSID format which the TinySID library used in stand-alone mode cannot play. ACID 64 plays them nicely.
- ACID 64 sends the cycle information together with the register values, so it is possible to write the registers of the SID at the precise time. The new firmware is cycle exact.
- Easier tune selection due to the larger PC screen and richer GUI program. Also the STIL information can be viewed.
- ACID 64 has a nice song position slider to jump to an arbitrary time-position in the tune.
Via the forum. Continue reading “Hybrid SID player update”
USB Infrared Toy v2 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Back orders will ship immediately.
You can get IR Toy v2 for $22.05, including world wide shipping.
David made 8 Logic Sniffer case designs for a project he calls Yet another Logic Sniffer case:
I’ve noticed a number of Open Bench Logic Sniffer case designs on the Dangerous Prototypes site. I recently decided to design the yaobls (Yet Another Open Bench Logic Sniffer) case in order to gain some experience with the tool chain that I want to use to fabricate case prototypes for another project.
As an experiment I created eight yaobls case variants by changing some parameters. These were uploaded to the Shapeways site. If you are interested, you can order your own copy in a variety of materials. The yaobls case in red strong & flexible SLS nylon was quoted to arrive in just eight days. The Shapeways site allows you to view and rotate the yaobls case variants in 3D.
A rendering of all 8 case designs is after the break. Note that this case is not yet open source…
Thanks David! Via the forum.
Chris from PyroElectro writes to inform us of his new wireless project:
It takes a standard hobby R/C radio transmitter/receiver system and interfaces it to a PIC microcontroller to control a Motor and LED brightness. Named the Quick and Easy Wireless system for it’s off-the-shelf style.
Project details including schematic and C code can be found here.
Via the contact form.
When we setup the phpBB3 mobile theme for the forum we edited the code to exclude a few large-screen devices. We noticed that the browser detection script is taken from non-commercial licensed junk code. The mobile detection script author wants $50/year for these 10 lines of highly resource intensive preg_match statements. Come on! That is totally incompatible with the GPL licensed mobile theme too…
We made a new public domain replacement in 10 minutes, we hope it will help any other forums using this theme. It is much more efficient, and totally free. It is almost a drop-in replacement, but it lacks device reporting (you won’t get the ‘from my android phone’ privacy invasion) and isn’t 100% correct for old devices.
We think it is *way* more efficient in two ways: 1. We don’t use pregmatch for simple matches ($50/year for this – really man?) 2. We get the common easy mobiles first, THEN we try to kick out any known desktops before doing more intensive mobile searching.
It will probably take some tweaking to get it right. If you find problems please let us know.
Thank you for supporting Dangerous Prototypes. Your purchases at Seeed Studio and our distributors made this open source code possible.
Documentation and download links are on the wiki: Replacement mobile browser detection for mobile themes
The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science(PLOTS) provides this detailed tutorial on hacking a Canon Powershot A490 digital camera to allow it to record images in the infrared light spectrum. The mod involves opening the camera and removing the infrared light filter. To view only infrared light, replacing it with a piece of exposed color photographic film taped over the front of the lens which filters most visible light but allows infrared in.
Such a modded camera is useful for studying the amount of infrared light reflected by plants, which is thought to be an indicator of their health.
Here’s a how-to on debugging the STM32 discovery board with a Ulink2 programmer.
From the comments on the STM32 cheapie Discovery dev board post. Thanks Marko!
oakkar7 made a DIY Logic Sniffer case.
Via the contact form.
Get your own Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.
Bus Blaster v2 now supports goJTAG via a new PicoTAP-compatable buffer. goJTAG is an open source GUI for experimenting with JTAG devices:
goJTAG software allows users to study boundary-scan techniques, to carry out their own experiments, to perform diagnosis, and much more. The software environment comes with a built-in example project, and users can create their own projects with descriptions of boards, chips, cluster logic, and so on.
More about the PicoTAP buffer here, upgrade instructions here, download it here. Thank you roglio for the suggestion.
For anyone trying to get started with the Bus Pirate in .es, the first Bus Pirate introduction tutorial is now available in Spanish. Thanks fcobcn, a free PCB code is in the mail!
All translations are appreciated. The wiki is open to anyone with a forum account.
For those who didn’t get in on the MachXO2 price break back in April, Lattice Semi is making the MachXO2 Pico Development Kits available again for $29 through December 31, 2011. (Regular price is $49.)
Every Wednesday we highlight a component from the updated partlist. This week: resistors.
If you don’t have a cheap resistor kit with common values, head to eBay and get one now. It’ll prevent last minute part orders and project delays. Sjaak likes this kit from MDFLY because it comes in plastic pages, only $15. Many of the kits on eBay come with a free capacitor kit too, search for “resistor kit”.
These are the most common values in our projects, we buy them by the reel:
Choosing a size deserves some consideration because you may be stuck with a stock of parts for a while. 0805 is a lot friendlier to new solderers, but 0603 isn’t much more difficult. We settled on 0603, and are migrating all active projects to that size. The parts are generally cheaper than 0805, and cost a lot less. 0603 is also easier to locate and route next to a SSOP or TQFP chip.
We like to use resistors rated for at least twice the current needed. 0603 resistors are typically 1/16 to 1/8 watt. If that’s not enough, reach for a larger package, use multiple resistors, or use a resistor array.
Common resistors are easy, but the exotic arrays and SMD potentiometers are harder to deal with. Frequent requests for the 10K resistor array on the Bus Pirate inspired the partlist update.
Resistor arrays or networks are several resistors stuck together. They are a lot easier to solder than it might appear. Double check the size. 0603 can mean several 0603 resistors stuck together, or several resistors the size of one 0603 resistor. Arrays also come in convex (solder on the points, as in the photo) and concave (solder in the indentations), but we’ve been able to use the parts interchangeably.
Standard through-hole potentiometers are 6mm. They come with the legs bent into several different configurations, but they can usually be contorted to fit for hand prototyping.
Surface mount potentiometers come in lots of sizes and shapes. We have experience with 4mm (Dangerous DSO) and 3mm (#twatch). 3mm is a bit difficult to solder and a real pain to adjust. They generally feel cheap and fragile. 4mm is a bit tougher and a lot easier to solder, though adjustment is still a bit temperamental.
This is meant as a summary of what we use, not an essay on resistors. Please share your experience in the comments.
DigiKey is offering several of their TechZone electronics magazines available free online. One publication which looks interesting is the Microcontroller Solutions Magazine. Its not a glorified advertisement or catalog, but contains articles on both basic and advanced MCU topics such as “Understanding Microcontroller Performance Analysis Techniques” and “Developing Next-Generation Human Interfaces Using Capacitive and Infrared Proximity Sensing” found in the current issue.
You can check out this publication and others available for e-subscription at Digikey TechZone.
Authors take note, as Digikey TechZone is also accepting article submissions. You can get their Media Kit here.
Over the last few days we’ve been experimenting with a new site theme. You may see it click on and off a few times before it’s completely ready.
We’ve been using a slightly modified Tarski theme since the beginning. The new look isn’t a drastic departure, but it does have some new stuff:
A bunch of little changes are still in progress. If you notice any bugs, annoyances, or just hate the new design, please hit us up in the comments below.
Oakkar7 is a fan of PIC microcontrollers and the MPLABX IDE who recently received his new Open Bench Logic Sniffer. He wanted to create a project to test both MPLABX and OBLS.
He writes:
The idea is simple. To create an 8bits signal generator with PIC. The software project is developed by MPLABX and target hardware is PIC16F628A. I used this PIC because it is cheap and fast (20MHz clock) in low end controllers series.
This should be a good beginners project illustrating important concepts in using MPLABX and the Logic Analyzer. You can read the step by step details on Part 1 of this project (installing MPLABX and programming the PIC) at oakkar7’s blog. Part 2, testing with the OBLS, is forthcoming.
Via the contact form.
Tayken designed a stand for the Thermal Tweeter. We’re getting it cut now, stay tuned for pictures of the final build. Thanks Tayken!
You can get Web Platform for $40, including worldwide shipping.
Schazamp does a step by step heat sink analysis for the Schazamplifier:
I’d like to understand thermal design enough to figure out what kind of heat sink this device requires and determine with some level of confidence whether a particular enclosure design will function to dissipate heat adequately for the amplifier.
Feedback is appreciated.
Via the forum.
For anyone trying to get started with the Bus Pirate in .ru, the first Bus Pirate introduction tutorial is now available in Russian. Thanks Nick, a free PCB code is in the mail!
All translations are appreciated. The wiki is open to anyone with a forum account.
