Logic Sniffer: Demon Core v3.07 and firmware updates


Dogsbody released Demon Core v3.07 for the Logic Sniffer with the following fixes:

  • Fixes problem with demux DDR captures causing bogus glitches
  • Fixes missed samples when armed.
  • Ensures the finish-now command works cleanly
  • Minor tweaks to the adv-trigger.
  • A full spec
  • Note: Please be sure to use Jawi’s 0.9.3 release (or newer)!

We released an updated OLS PIC firmware with a few fixes and improvements too:

  • SPI speed increase in v2.6 tested ok with v3.xx Demon core, made permanent
  • Updated to v3.0 to match v3.xx Demon core, this will help distinguish the full speed SPI versions for Demon core v3.xx from low-speed versions for SUMP core v2
  • Fixed Winbond ROM read issue

The wiki has a table of upgrade utilities and update files.

Via the forum.

Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping.

Short notice: Free Atmel Webinar

Atmel is offering a free webinar on Designing with Atmel 6-pin tinyAVR Flash microcontrollers TODAY (February 24, 2011) at 8:00 AM PT. The purpose is to present an advanced feature overview of the Atmel tinyAVR 6-pin family of Atmel picoPower® devices, highlighting the key benefits and design techniques for reducing your system size requirements and power consumption and to assist you in evaluating the tinyAVR for your next project.

Register now on the Atmel event website.

DOTKLOK: Arduino based digital clock

DOTKLOK by Andrew O’Malley is an open-source, hackable, Arduino-based digital clock that displays a series of unique time-telling animations. The passing of time is depicted with numbers and abstract/geometric patterns, including animations inspired by classic video games such as Pong, Tetris, Pacman, and Space Invaders.
An optional “random mode” changes the animation each day at midnight so you’re greeted with a different animation each morning.

The open-source Arduino code can be modified by owners such as to change the button functions and add new time animations. The circuit board has a prototype area and all unused Arduino pins are available. You could add more switches, buzzers, sensors!

Check out the schematic, source code and BOM.

Free Oreilly workshop – Processing and Arduino in Tandem: Build a Mixer

Oreilly is offering a special follow-up to their earlier Processing and Arduino course. “Processing and Arduino in Tandem: Build a Mixer” will be presented free online by Instructor Joseph Gray on two successive Fridays. The course makes use of the projBox, a control box with installed potentiometers, switches and LEDs, which interfaces with the Arduino board and your computer. The box can be easily constructed or purchased from Oreilly.

The first 120 minute session will create a video mixing application from scratch with Processing, the Arduino board, and the projBox Kit. The finished application will let you load video files and live camera input, crossfade between video sources, and display the mix in real time. You’ll also integrate effects, like color adjustment and playback speed. With the projBox, you’ll integrate custom hardware to control your application.

The second session on March 11, 2011 will focus on building an audio visualization tool which will animate graphics on screen that respond to live audio input. The app will listen to external audio from a built-in computer microphone or audio input jack, and analyze that audio to display audio waveforms in real time. The projBox hardware will give you manual control of the audio visualization.

Register today.

TI launches video repository

Texas Instruments has announced a new video website:

TI recently launched a new video repository which really takes us to the next level in online video. This new system (which can be found at http://videos.ti.com) creates a one-stop-shop for seeing all the video content, High quality video streaming with full screen capability. Share functionality which will allow you to post the video right in the player to many popular social sharing sites. Email functionality which will allow you to email the video to friends who might also find it of interest. Embed codes which allow you to place the video on your own pages. But one of the key new items which we are now offering our customers is User Generated Video. If you make any videos about how to use TI products we want you to upload them to our site! Simply go to http://uploadvideo.ti.com and load your file! We’ll feature them on our portal and may even use your video on our website so others can use the information.

Via Adafruit.

Monitor snow depth with microcontroller


The snow pummeling many regions this week makes one think about a snow depth measurement project. Here’s an idea abstract from Preetika S. Sapra and Gaurav Sapra for their design of a Microcontroller Based Snow Depth Sensor for Measuring the Depth of Snow Avalanche.

This concept paper discusses the design and construction of a device to detect avalanche’s and measure their depth, along with recording temperature readings. While no source code is given for the 89C51 they used, this design could be implemented using any micro with comparable specs (low power, high performance CMOS 8 bit microcontroller with 4Kbyte flash programmable and EEPROM). The microcontroller uses an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver pair to measure the snow depth, which is then stored onboard along with readings from a temperature sensor for display on an attached LCD. Their device was intended to measure avalanche depths from 0.5 to 4.0 meters, but this could be modified to measure smaller snow depths in the ultrasonic reading code.

Watterott Electronic has the Web Platform

Watterott Electronic now stocks the Web Platform, Bus Pirate LCD Adapter v2, #Twatch and the Bus Pirate in Germany. Thanks for supporting our projects.

If you’d like to be distributor please drop us a line. Hacker Spaces get distributor pricing too.

PROTOTYPE: ENC424J600 breakout board

We forgot to release this stalled prototype during the Seeed Studio holiday. We put a lot of work into these projects, but they’re still missing major components and testing. If an abandoned project sparks your interest, we may have PCBs to get you started.

This is a breakout board for Microchip’s ENC424J600 100/10 Base-T Ethernet chip with unique MAC address. This is a spiffy little breakout board that probably works great, but we got tired of messing with the not-open-source Microchip TCP-IP stack. This could be put into production with a little testing, and an open source driver for FreeRTOS, etc.

PCBs are available for this one, but be warned that the HanRun jack will be hard to find. You might need to fly-wire it for testing, or write Seeed and ask for a jack.

Schematic and PCB are on the ENC424J600 breakout board wiki.

QP state machine framework for Arduino

Quantum Leaps has released his QP state machine framework for Arduino. He says:

QP is a lightweight, open source, state machine framework for microcontrollers such as Arduino. QP enables you to build well-structured and power-efficient event-driven programs as systems of concurrently executing state machines (UML statecharts). You can think of QP as a modern real-time operating system (RTOS) specifically designed for executing state machines. The QP framework does everything you can expect from a traditional RTOS, only more efficiently, plus many things an RTOS can’t do at all.

Essentially QP focuses on an event driven programming model as opposed to the sequential model of conventional Arduino programs. The libraries and examples are open source. A QM Modeling and code generation tool is also available as a free download, but is not open source.

A zip file download contains source code libraries, examples and documentation.

Mars clock using PIC16F877A

What do you do if you have a spare LCD module with backlight, a weird 16 button keyboard, and a PIC16F877A microcontrering dust? If you’re avtanski, a monster Martian Clock immediately springs to mind.

This thoroughly documented project shows you how to take these few common components and build a unique clock that features 16 timers that can be independently paused and restarted, can run forward or backward, along with individual alarms with configurable sounds and actions. Timers can show Earth, Mars, Jupiter, etc. times, sidereal time, Moon phase, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot transit time, and just about anything else you can time. It also feature simultaneous 24-hour and Julian-time decimal display.

Reportedly all changes in configuration can be done from the device’s keyboard – no computer necessary. It is powered by external AC power with built-in rechargeable battery for portability. Full source code, schematic and detailed plans are included. Avtanski says its high on the geekness scale and we enthusiastically agree!

Eridani giveaway selections

Teholabs selected the Eridani development board winners. There were a lot of great project proposals for the board, read them all here.

I am planning on building a custom USB drive that handles at minimum the RSA side of the SSH protocol and preferably the whole process just sending and receiving packets to the host application which passes then directly to the network and sending and receiving text to the host application for interaction.

The basic idea behind this was to still provide a secure connection back to my SSH server (and thus my home network) on an untrusted machine without giving that machine any access to my private key or possibly even the session key.

alextm for a SSH over USB project.

I’ve been wanting to get an ARM-based mocrocontroller board to get started working on porting Codec2 to a lower cost platform. Codec2 is an open source audio codec designed for low-bandwidth links to enable low-to-zero cost telephony, with obvious applications in the mobile and third-world areas.

There has been some work to try and get it running on higher-end AVRs and PICs, but the lack of floating-point support means we need significantly more fixed-point support to be able to perform the involved DSP calculations needed than is possible on 20MHz 8/16 bit processors.

phirephly for a port of Codec2 to an ARM.

We’re looking forward to updates on these great projects.

XSVF specification document

We’ve referred to various file formats for programming CPLDs and FPGAs in recent posts. One is the Serial Vector Format (SVF), an industry standard file format that is used to describe JTAG chain operations in a compact, portable fashion. Its specifications are fully described in this 26 page PDF produced by Texas Instruments.

To provide the functionality of an SVF file in a compact, binary format, Xilinx has defined the Xilinx Serial Vector Format (XSVF). XSVF files are optimized for performing JTAG operations on Xilinx devices and are intended for use in embedded applications. The XSVF specifications are fully described in this 25 page PDF from Xilinx.

It’s easier to program CPLDs and FPGAs from the Bus Pirate with a new firmware and PC application. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.