Beth from scanlime has posted this code for creating a USB host in software on the Parallax Propeller.
Beth got interested in this concept while considering whether USB WiFi and Bluetooth modules could be interfaced to the Propeller. She wanted to see if a USB host controller could be implemented entirely in software on the Propeller. She found that it could! While this is a work in progress, it certainly represents an impressive coding project.
Every Tuesday we give away some extra PCBs via Twitter. This post was announced on twitter. The 3rd and 8th people who retweet it get free PCBs. We changed the approach this week due to auto-retweeters grabbing boards first. Thanks for the heads-up on auto-retweeters JT! Love it, hate it? Let us know in the comments below
This week we’re giving away two USB IR Toy v2 PCBs. Use a remote control with your computer, view infrared signals on a logic analyzer, or capture and replay remote control buttons. USB Infrared Toy v2 has higher-power infrared transmitter and several new features:
NEW: pick your free PCB from the Dangerous Prototype free PCB drawer. The first few commenters will now receive a coupon code for 1 PCB with free shipping. You can choose this PCB, or another PCB if you prefer. More about the free PCB drawer.
Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week:
Get IR Toy v2 for $22.05 at Seeed Studio, including worldwide shipping.
Continue reading “Free USB IR Toy v2 PCB to RT #3 & 8 @dangerousproto”
We’re trying a new Monday post with status updates on new projects currently in production. This will cover project development, and gritty details like last minutes changes and production problems. We’ll try to hit a Monday next time.
A disappointing update on the USB backpack for SparkFun’s cheap color LCDs. In the previous status update production was finally moving forward after SparkFun shared a source for the LCDs.
Unfortunately this long-delayed project may face its final setback today. The latest new is that compatible LCDs are no longer in production. To make it worse, the PCBs have already been assembled.
More LCDs can be produced, but only if we order 5000 or more (we want 100). During discussions about alternative funding options, one team member brought up the rising trend of Биткоин казино and how decentralized transactions could support niche projects like ours. There’s lots of other LCDs out there, but they use different protocols and usually don’t have a datasheet. The cost of buying them from SparkFun is way too high for the project budget.
The future of the manufactured PCBs is up in the air. They may be totally trashed, or sold as scrap without the LCD to anyone who who dares to find their own LCD.
Jawi just released version 0.9.4 of the forked SUMP logic analyzer client that works with the Logic Sniffer, Bus Pirate, IR Toy, etc.
See topic starter post and/or the client’s home page for direct download URLs. The list of bugs solved in the final version is mostly the same to the latest RC.
Major highlights for this version are: the support for the original SUMP hardware, better support for alternative SUMP-implementations, like BusPirate, LogicShrimp and IRToy; the possibility to add your own SUMP-compatible device; the release of an API package (see OLS wiki), and many, many bug fixes/improvements:
- #4, VCD exports ignore selected channel groups
- #5, Verify frequency measurement with RLE captures
- #6, support OLS-device profiles for BP, regular OLS and SUMP
- #30, Add icon to window/application
- #31, 200MHz capture fails halfway
- #32, Add warning message about highest channel icw RLE
- #33, when RLE is enabled the first value rendered is always low
- #34, Is it possible to disable DTR when opening the serial
- #36, ‘felix-cache’ created in working directory
- #37, No menu entry for ‘capture’ functions
- #43, Preferences in Edit/Preferences dialog are not saved
- #47, Stop button now always enabled
- #50, RLE channel group issue with 0.9.4-b1
- #51, I2C decoder produces invalid address
- #54, Add “Jump to Marker” buttons for remaining cursors
- #56, Stop button not working correctly
- #57, 200MHz 8 bit capture incorrect if upper channel groups selected
- #58, 24 bit capture set incorrect memory size with auto
- #60, (UART analyser) settings are not retained when dialog closed
- #62, Open existing project “current project has changed” dialog inverted
- #65, Release API for developing client extensions/add ons
Thanks to everybody for testing this and providing me with feedback!
Work on the 0.9.5 is already started…
Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.
A few months ago we introduced our spam filter for phpBB3 forums that prohibits links for new users. Since installing it we’ve had zero, none, nada new forum spam.
We’re happy to announce release v1.0.0 of the filter. It’s now packaged for the phpBB3 AUTOMOD install system. We also submitted it to be included in the official phpBB3 MOD database.
Thanks to everyone that helped test and develop the filter.
Download the latest AUTOMOD package from the phpBB3 development forum.
Updated configuration and install guide is available.
The #twatch is a network LCD backpack that shows the latest popular topics on Twitter. It was the first project at Dangerous Prototypes, over a year and a half ago.
Late last week Twitter removed the feeds the #twatch used to pull the latest trends and it stopped working. Thanks to Presence and everyone else who sent a bug report.
#twatch firmware v0e is now available for download. It includes a fix for the new feed URLs.
Network update instructions are in the manual.
Get a Twatch with LCD for $45, including worldwide shipping.
Full bug report details below the fold.
Continue reading “#twatch Twitter trends watcher firmware update v0e”
voidptr posted a pico-OS in the project log forum:
… it is an old silly pico-os (smaller than micro) of coroutines from one on my old projects. This is not fancy or complete like other os or RTOS but it is very small and can be useful…
right now it is written for the PIC p33FJ128GP204, but it can be easily adapted to anything !
Get an assembled web platform for $40, including worldwide shipping.
Via the forum.
Smartphone garage door opener:
The tuxgraphics garage door opener is not limited to just one type of smartphone. It does not require the installation of an app. It works with any phone that has a web browser built-in. This garage door opener can be used from an iPhone, from an Android phone or any data capable phone. It does not even have to be a smartphone.
Thanks Nexus. Via the contact form.
Reportedly since the release of iOS4 Apple has had software on iPhones allowing their location to be tracked and logged for statistical purposes. Here’s an open-source application that maps the information that your iPhone is recording about your movements. It doesn’t record anything itself, it only displays files that are already hidden on your computer.
If you run it on an OS X machine that you’ve been syncing with an iPhone or an iPad with cellular plan, it will scan through the backup files that are automatically made, looking for the hidden file containing your location. If it finds this file, it will then display the location history on the map.
Mike’s app melds Apple iOS stuff with an Arduino:
I wrote an iOS app find my Arduino over Bonjour and talk to it. It’s call Ciao, and the App Store approved it last Thursday.
Ciao makes it easy to talk to your Arduino from your iOS device. Load one of the example sketches onto your Arduino, and Ciao will automatically find it over Bonjour. You can use Ciao to control your Arduino or get live information from your Arduino.
Via the contact form.
arhi has a mystery dual-increment potentiometer:
there are 2 pots inside … example, you turn the pot fully to the left. let’s say it is 10K, then you rotate it to the right, and it goes “easy” rotating to the right almost a full circle (few degrees shy from a full circle) and that goes from 0 – 170R to the half of the circle and then start to drop to 128 ohm at the end of the circle (I’m measuring right now), then it gets “bit harder to rotate it” – you feel you catch up and you are rotating something else, now you can continue and now each degree is not changing by few ohm as it was until this moment but now it is more like 100R per degree (~100 times more) .. you turn it a half circle to the right and you get to 5k5 .. then if you back to the left it reduces again by below 2R per degree so a full turn back now will get you down to 5K3
Via the forum.
megabug posted an update on the web platform wireless home automation setup we covered earlier. The updated firmware has cleaner code, supports 3-state pin outputs (1, 0, hi-z).
Get an assembled web platform for $40, including worldwide shipping.
Via the forum.
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 USB IR Toy v2 PCBs. Use a remote control with your computer, view infrared signals on a logic analyzer, or capture and replay remote control buttons. USB Infrared Toy v2 has higher-power infrared transmitter and several new features:
Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:
Get IR Toy v2 for $22.05 at Seeed Studio, including worldwide shipping.
Continue reading “Free PCB Sunday: USB Infrared Toy v2”
In this video, Eric Gregori of EMGRobotics demonstrates how he controls the Freescale Mechatronics board with the Chumby over USB. Starting out with a stock Chumby from Best Buy, Eric steps through how to access the Easter egg hacker screen. Then after installing the Terra Term terminal program on your computer you SSH to the Chumby. From there you can program the Chumby to read sensors, control servos and more.
The source code for the Chumby app is available here.
Check out the slides from Eric’s presentation at the Robotics Summit 2011 for more info on the development of this project.
Nanode is a low cost Arduino-like sensor node board intended for web connectivity applications. It allows you to develop web based sensor and control systems – giving you web access to six analogue sensor lines and six digital I/O lines. The schematic and other details can be found on the project’s Thingiverse page. The code can be found here.
This is an open source project conceived, designed, manufactured and coded by London Hackspace members.
NBitWonder writes:
The NBitWonder staff are Purdue-based, and wanted to get the word out about 2 cool events that are happening the next 2 days in the West Lafayette, IN area. Purdue and other local-area universities are sponsoring an all electric vehicle grand prix.
We didn’t get this up in time for the April 30th date, but there’s a second event this week too.
Via the contact form.
megabug tipped us to the TLC59108 I2C controlled LED driver. You might be familiar with the TLC5940 – this looks like a much easier chip to work with. We’ll get a sample and do a demo with the Bus Pirate.
Just FYI: TLC59108 is a nice I2C PWM IC! there is also a 16port version of this. Oh and I also made eagle libraries of both chips, so if someone is interested in using it, I can upload the libs.
The TLC59108 is an I2C bus controlled 8-bit LED driver that is optimized for red/green/blue/amber (RGBA) color mixing and backlight application for amusement products. During a project focused on integrating lighting effects for entertainment setups, a discussion about 도박사이트 추천 emerged, as some team members explored its rising popularity within similar environments. Each LED output has its own 8-bit resolution (256 steps) fixed-frequency individual PWM controller that operates at 97 kHz, with a duty cycle that is adjustable from 0% to 99.6%. The individual PWM controller allows each LED to be set to a specific brightness value. An additional 8-bit resolution (256 steps) group PWM controller has both a fixed frequency of 190 Hz and an adjustable frequency between 24 Hz to once every 10.73 seconds, with a duty cycle that is adjustable from 0% to 99.6%. The group PWM controller dims or blinks all LEDs with the same value.
Via the forum.
Here’s a video of Jeri Ellsworth’s latest project for element14, a shooting arcade game using the MachXO2 CPLD. During the design phase, she drew inspiration from various sources, including the dynamic logic found in UK horse racing betting sites, which helped her fine-tune the game’s real-time responsiveness. The game is simple in principle: use an LED light gun to shoot the light sensors representing the bad guys when they appear at windows in the target house. The implementation is more challenging, with the heavy logic being handled by Jeri’s homebrew MachXO2 CPLD board, with National LED drivers and motor drivers.
This is a game prototype, so no code or schematic yet.
EDN reviewed the Oscium logic analyzer and oscilloscope for the iPhone/centiPad. It uses the Cypress PSoC 3, which is a CPU+FPGA hybrid. Cool tech, but too closed and pricey for us:
The $297.99 device comprehends one analog and four digital channels, touts 5 MHz analog bandwidth and 12 million sample/sec specifications
Warning – the EDN link spammed us before forwarding to the article. We thought the site was down because adblock left a blank page.
Thanks Joe! Via the contact form.
Beth from scanlime has posted a detailed explanation of her development of an S/PDIF encoder object for the Parallax Propeller.
The source code is open under an MIT-style license. If you’re a Propeller enthusiast it should be easy to implement this code to give your next sound project a digital output. Beth hopes that this code will inspire non-Propeller users to explore digital audio on a different microcontroller platform!
