Computer fan fume extractor

When soldering, it’s always a good idea to use a fume extractor. In this project, Jumper One shows how to take an old computer fan, a MC34063 and a handful of other components and make a portable battery operated variable speed fume extractor. He writes:

I’ve got a new tool on my workbench – portable fume extractor. It’s 92mm fan that works from 4 AA batteries and has a variable speed. Mobility is a really good thing, especially when you’ve got a tons of equipment and cables on a bench you can drown in.

The schematic is available on the Jumper One website.

Via Make.

Protostack ATmega168A kit + USBasp programmer giveaway

Protostack gave us an ATmega168A development board and USBasp programmer to give away.  This is the latest version of the AVR through-hole development board, it has with a flexible power supply and huge prototyping area.

We’ve watched the Protostack board evolve over several years, and it just keeps getting more refined. The introductory tutorials are really good too, and cover a lot of basic microcontroller concepts that apply to any platform. Check out some of the tutorials:

Have an idea for this board? Leave it in the comments. On Thursday we’ll give away the board to a commenter on this thread.

Get the Protostack ATmega168A kit for $19.80, and the USBasp programmer for $16.

More photos below the fold.

Continue reading “Protostack ATmega168A kit + USBasp programmer giveaway”

New PIC 24EP256 16bit, 60 MIPS

Nexus tipped us to Microchip’s new PIC24E general purpose microcontroller:

Microchip’s PIC24E general purpose microcontroller family features the highest speed 60 MIPS core with excellent performance and code density. It offers superior ADC performance, enhanced CAN communication, easier graphic display interface through 8-bit parallel master port and up to 15 DMA channels for extensive data movement. These devices are available in various packages and with extended (125°C) temp option.

Microchip is fighting like crazy for the space between ARM and low-end 8bit microcontrollers. We really like the small 16bit PIC 24Fs like the 24FJ64GA002 in the Bus Pirate. Moving from an 8bit uC to a PIC24F was a huge upgrade for lazy developers like us. 8K (really!) of RAM is enough to run a proper SD card FAT file system without a ton of hacks. A big advantage of the 24FJ64GA002 type chips over ARM is that they tend to be much cheaper, starting around $2 in 1s, and they’re available in low pincount packages.

This new 24EP line seems to bump into ARM and PIC32 territory in speed, cost, and features. PIC32 hasn’t caught on like a wildfire, to say the least, but the 16bit line always had the price advantage. These new chips rival ARM in price, but lack the widespread support and standardized (open source!) toolchain. If we needed high-speed, DMA, etc, in a project today, we’d probably go ARM.

  • 41 user-definable Timer/Counters
  • – up to 9 16-bit Timers/Counters
  • – 16 Input Capture
  • – 16 Output Compare/PWM

That’s a killer feature if you need it though. Maybe there’s a targeted application for this chip.

Via the contact form.

Schamplifier mini chip amp

schazamp shared the Schamplifier:

I am working on my own version of the Squelette mini chip amp, as presented in Make Magazine #23.  My ambitions for this project are relatively unbounded, but knowing the trouble I have with follow-through, I am trying to start small and get a working stereo amp with a single input and potentiometer volume control in an enclosure, and I can leave the integrated WiFi radio, IR remote control interface, smart phone remote control interface, integrated digital tone and volume controls, blinkenlights, and mind-control interface projects for later on.

Via the project log forum.

Dangerous Prototypes: Partlist inventory

In a rare feat of organization, our revamped partlist inventory has every component used in our projects. Check it out the next time you’re trying to decipher a vague free PCB schematic that’s still in development.

It’s inspired by Adafruit’s partlist, but with mostly surface mount parts. It’s full of notes about stuff we always forget, and a package thesaurus with dimensions. Parts we order in bulk are bold.

The page was made from our order history, so most stuff is linked to Mouser. We think Mouser is generally cheapest for the parts we use at prototype quantities. There’s no bias though, we’ll include any other vendor references from the forum. If you notice any parts missing, or have references for alternate sources, please let us know.

Massive DIY video game, controller, more

Chris made a mutant video game controller, console, and more, all wrapped up in a small project box. Check out the list of features:

Propeller Board USB, Net Server, BlueSmirf Bluetooth, X-bee, DeadOn RTC, Lipo and onboard charger, On board USB-FTDI-Serial for both Prop and LCD,  4 gigs of SD card space (2 cards), IR in and out (for data and “TV remote” –also a TV be gone), 2 PS/2’s for Keyboard and Mouse, NES joystick connection, Video out, Dual-boot eeproms, Joystick, One bad-ass LCD (Touch, SD card, vid and pic ready, WAV player)

The highlight of this new TX is obviously the LCD. I have bragged about these screens for a while now and I will keep talking them up… You are getting a 3.2″ touch-screen, a full-on microcontroller (I/o, serial, i2c, SD card –a real microcontroller), WAV player, with the ability to display panels, buttons, sliders, text, full graphics, pictures and video. These screens are amazing and even more so at way less than 100 bucks. Use this guide with streets of rage cheats if you love playing video games like Streets of Rage. Open-world FPS players often test deadside cheats to gain better map awareness.

One step XSVF file generation for CPLD

If you’re using one of our CPLD Development Boards you need to have a file in XSVF format to download to the board using the Bus Pirate loaded with the BPXSVFPLAYER firmware. We’ve posted a method to convert SVF files to XSVF format, but Xilinx has included a handy way to produce “One Step XSVF” files in their Webpack ISE development environment. As they describe it:

The One Step XSVF procedure creates an XSVF file without having you specify a file name and without having you specify the programming instructions to be executed on the selected device. The procedure creates an XSVF file containing a bitstream and commands to erase, program, and verify a device in your Boundary Scan chain. The file produced, named default.xsvf, is placed in your iMPACT project directory.

TO CREATE AN XSVF FILE IN ON STEP:
Double-click Boundary Scan in the iMPACT Flows panel.

In the Boundary Scan window, select the device for which you will create an SVF file. This means right-click on the window and go to the folder containing your current project’s files. Then double-click on the “.jed” file for your current project.) This will open a graphic showing your CPLD chip.

Left-click on the CPLD chip icon in the window to highlight the chip. Right click to display a drop down menu. Select the “One Step XSVF” option. The file will be created and the “Expressxsvf Succeeded” graphic will be displayed.

An XSVF file named “default.xsvf” is created in your project directory.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the file produced by this process is named default.xsvf and will be found in your iMPACT project directory. You will probably want to rename the file from “default” to something more descriptive. Then simply follow the BPXSVFPLAYER instructions to download to the CPLD board!

Adapted from Xilinx Webpack ISE 13.1 software help topics.

DIY solder mask ink now at Seeed Studio

This enamel coats homemade circuit boards with the same type of green protective solder mask used on professional PCBs. We were discussing DIY solder mask in the forum, now Seeed has it for sale (or will soon). A three pack with red, blue, and green is only $6.50.

Seeed has a how-to tutorial.  The paint is cured with a UV lamp or sunlight. Apply paint, cover with plastic and use a marker to black out areas that should be uncovered, expose for 10 minutes, wash with solvent.

PIC 24F development board for beginners

Microchip has a new PIC 24F development board for microcontroller beginners. The documentation makes this board stand out. It includes introductory guides to pulse-width modulation, analog-to-digital converters, and other peripherals:

The MX PIC24 Module includes an onboard PIC24FJ256GB110 16-bit microcontroller from Microchip that features 256 KB Flash program memory and 16 KB RAM.  The module also includes 32 KB on-chip EEPROM and an onboard debugger/programmer.  The MX Educational Target Board accepts any MX module and includes a breadboard area, plus SPI, I2C, RS-232, CAN and JTAG ports, along with four LEDs.

Bus Pirate case sticker in action

adamoutler posted picture of his Bus Pirate case sticker in action:

I updated the locations in the first post. The Improved Bus Pirate Case Sticker has found its way to the SVN here.  Anyone can maintain them now.

Via the forum.

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

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 we’re giving away two coupon codes for the fee PCB drawer. Pick your own PCB. Remember 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

Continue reading “Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB”

Freescale’s MC13260 two-way radio chip

Freescale’s MC13260 System-on-chip two-way radio is one chip to watch for. Now in the “introduction pending” stage and highlighted in this video from the recent FTF 2011 conference, it promises to be a one chip analog/digital radio solution.

Preliminary design specs show RF coverage from 60-960 MHz, comprehensive digital radio mode coverage including DMR, dPMR, P25 and Tetra, dual mode analog FM and digital voice/data, and ‘Talk around the network’ capability for cellular applications. The MC13260 includes an ARM926EJ-STM MCU operating at clock speeds up to 150 MHz, a modem processor (software-defined radio) operating at clock speeds up to 100 MHz, 640 Kbytes of integrated RAM, MCU peripherals to support control and monitoring functions and onboard DAC and ADC. The chip is a full-speed USB device with Integrated PHY. The chip supply voltage is 2.775V with on-chip LDO voltage regulators.

This looks like a RF hackers dream chip.

Packaging will be a 104 pin dual row laminate QFN making it somewhat of a challenge to work with. We can only imagine what the price will be, but the early specs sure make it look interesting.

Dual-screen Nexus One

follower presents his project using a USB accessory to create a “dual screen” Nexus One with SMS notification & time display. Besides the Nexus One phone, the hardware consists of an Arduino Duemilanove with ATmega328, a SparkFun USB Host Shield and 2×16 LCD display. This hack is made possible by Android’s Open Accessory API.

The sketch listens for bytes sent over the USB connection and displays them on the LCD–it special-cases two values to determine which row of the display text should be displayed on.

The Android App is invisible and starts automatically when you connect the accessory. (You probably need to approve the running of the application within a few seconds or the accessory may time out.) A background service is started which displays a notification of the accessory found, listens for new text messages and starts sending the current time to the accessory for display. You can use your phone as normal while the service is running in the background.

When the accessory is disconnected the notification is removed and the background service cleans up after itself before stopping.

Full source code and further details are available at follower’s labradoc webpage.

Via Make.

Last chance to print your tweets @dangerousproto

Get your tweets in now, the Thermal Tweeter live stream will end later this week. Send a tweet to @dangerousproto and watch it print out live on the USTREAM feed.

The Thermal Tweeter is sitting in the photo studio, and we need it back to document a few new projects. Judging for the Adafruit Make It Tweet Challenge ends July 5th, and the live stream will come down shortly after.

Bus Pirate with mix of through-hole, SMD parts

Rohit  documented his Bus Pirate clone build:

I recently bought an XC9572 CLPD board from Seeed and realized I’d need a JTAG programmer. The BP has got some great firmware that makes it into a JTAG programmer. And since I’ve bombed several times at the Free PCB giveaways I decided to build one myself.

My BP is decidedly ghetto – hand soldered on vero board, and a wild mix of through-hole and SMD components.

Via the contact form and forum.

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

Arduino driving CGA display


András Veres-Szentkirályi found an old CGA monitor and wondered whether it could be repurposed for use with an Arduino. He noted that CGA monitors use inexpensive DB-9 connectors, the signals are TTL (0-5V digital), the
clocks are in the range of cheap microcontrollers (HSYNC is 15,75 kHz, VSYNC is 60 Hz), and yet 640 by 200 pixels can be drawn in 16 colors.

He dug through old technical data on CGA and worked up the necessary code, posting the results on his blog.

He believes further development is possible to clean up the timing, so his next step will be to use plain AVR C/C++ code to avoid Arduino overhead allowing finer control over the timing. He would also like to create a character map in the Flash (PROGMEM) and code up a library that would allow the display of text or simple graphics.

Via the contact form.