Papilio barcode genie, a barcode scanning kit

The Gadget Factory, co-designer of the Open Logic Sniffer, has a new portable barcode scanning kit based on the Papilio FPGA platform.

It is called the Papilio Barcode Genie kit or Barcode Genie for short. It is a kit for the Papilio One that makes it easy to capture barcodes and save them to a microSD card.

But what is most compelling about the kit is that it was designed from the ground up to be easily extended and hacked. There are three open 8-bit Wing slots that allow new hardware features such as wireless Zigbee, Ethernet, or touch screens to be added. The software is easy to hack because it is written as an Arduino sketch which allows easy changes and the ability to tap into the large Arduino code base.

The whole design is based on an FPGA that runs the Open Source AVR8 soft processor which means that the processor can be hacked to add new features such as multiple SPI masters or VGA controllers. In short, this unconstrained kit means that anything someone can dream up to do with barcodes is within reach.

The User Guide has much more detail about the sketch and the libraries used.

The kit can be purchased at the Gadget Factory.

Alternative Logic Sniffer client v0.9.0

Jawi just released version 0.9.0 of the forked SUMP logic analyzer client that works with the Logic Sniffer. This client is so good now, we highly recommend you upgrade if you’re still using the original app.

Download it here. Here’s the major updates, see the changelog for more:

  • Added export to image (PNG) and VCD files
  • Added option to show signal edges as straight edges or slanted edges
  • Better support for /dev/ttyACM device names on Linux systems
  • The client is now distributed in ZIP (Windows), TAR-GZ (Linux) and DMG archives (OSX)
  • Many more bugfixes

You can order the Logic Sniffer at Seeed Studio for $45, including worldwide shipping. Don’t forget that Seeed now has probe cables for $6 each. You need two cables to use all 16 buffered channels.

Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate v3 prototype

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 an updated Bus Pirate v3c PCB. These PCBs were intended to follow the current v3b production. They incorporate a centered, shrouded SMD header.

We had hoped that eliminating all thought-hole parts would make the Bus Pirate cheaper and faster to produce. Unfortunately the SMD header was difficult to find and more expensive than expected, so the through-hole header remains. Just ask for a PCB in the comments.

Get a Bus Pirate v3b for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Also available at Adafruit and Open Source Control Systems.

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Beta Microchip IDE for Linux, Mac

ahri tipped us to a new beta version of the Microchip development software for PIC microcontrollers, MPLABX. Looks like it’s Java based, and there’s Linux and Mac versions too. This will make a lot of people happy.

Grab the preview here, and share your experience in the comments. We’re installing it now.

Via the forum.

Updated WinLIRC, IR Toy plugin

There’s a new version of WinLIRC and the WinLIRC plugin for the USB Infrared Toy.

I’ve released a new version of WinLIRC. Also fixed a thread handle leak in the irtoy dll. So I suggest an upgrade. Sending support also should be fixed

Here’s some tutorials on using the USB IR Toy with WinLIRC to command your computer with a remote control.

Via the forum. Thanks Dukey!

The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping. Currently on back order, but back in stock really soon.

Updated miniscope oscilloscope release

miniscope turns your Bus Pirate into a low speed oscilloscope. A new version is available that supports slope trigger and continuous sampling modes.

The developer made a convenient Bus Pirate miniscope download with just the essentials (7-zip format). We started a miniscope wiki page with basic setup details, please add your notes.

Via the forum.

TinyG G-code motor controller

TinyG is a multi-axis motor controller for DIY CNC machines. Most CNC controllers receive instructions from a PC, but the TinyG executes G-code directly.

By running the Gcode interpreter directly on the chip it avoids the expense and problems of trying to precisely control step timing with a general purpose computer that has other things on its mind (and non-deteministic interrupt latencies – “Index files now?”).

PC based CNC controllers are happy if pulse jitter (uncertainty between pulses) is less than 20 microseconds. The less jitter the smoother the movement and the faster the motor can be run…the [TinyG] timing accuracy is about 35 ns. (32 Mhz clock) – but this can degrade significantly to about 2 microseconds if the step interrupts collide (still pretty happy with the result).

DIY offline Wikipedia reader

This DIY Wikipedia reader uses a touchscreen for display and navigation. Articles are stored on SD cards in a compressed format. This version is based on the LPC1114 ARM Cortex M0 microcontroller, but there’s earlier prototypes based on AVRs.

Video after the break.

Via the forum. Thanks Markus!

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Assemble the Synthetos acrylic Bus Pirate case

The Bus Pirate is sold as a bare circuit board to keep costs down, but a little protection is helpful when you toss it in your bag for hacking on the go.

We’ve seen lots of great cases, but Ril3y’s laser-cut acrylic case is one of our favorites. It protects the bare circuit board, and it’s etched full of helpful connection info.

Ril3y sent us clear, red, and black cases to play with. We documented the assembly process below.

Get your own laser-cut acrylic Bus Pirate case from Synthetos for $14.99. Cases are available for both the Seeed and SparkFun PCB versions.

We’re giving away the red case to a random commenter. Leave a comment below and we’ll send it to someone next week.

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USB Infrared Toy firmware v09

USB Infrared Toy firmware v09 is ready to download. New bitbang and UART commands make it easy to manipulate I/O pins and send serial data in response to infrared input. There’s some other user-requested commands rolled into the infrared sampling mode too.

  • Transmit duty cycle adjustment in IR sample mode
  • Added bitbang commands to IR sample mode
  • Added serial UART write to IR sample mode
  • Liyin ‘no 0xffff’ option

Protocol and command documentation has been updated with any recent changes.

This download includes the latest firmware for the IR Toy, and an experimental compile for PIC18F2455-based receivers. Upgrade instructions for the Infrared Toy.

The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping. Every sale supports this open source project.

USB Infrared Toy hacking

Siklosi mega-sized his IR Toy with a second wide-angle LED from an old remote.

In certain situations the LEDs will compete for current and one will dominate, but Siklosi’s video test (after the break) shows them both working pretty well.

Grab a regular IR Toy for $20, including worldwide shipping.

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