Big Mess o’ Wires compared Xilinx and Altera’s FPGA tools: I used to believe that Altera’s FPGA tools were much more hobbyist-friendly than the comparable Xilinx tools, and I frequently bashed the Xilinx tools whenever the topic came up. But after giving them a head-to-head comparison recently, I think I may have to eat my […]
Tag Archives: tools
TOOLS: OptiVisor magnifier
Our favorite tools have a new home on the wiki. Each week we’ll muse about one of them. Have your own tool review? We’ll post that too! Magnification makes soldering faster, easier, and more comfortable. The classic helping hands have a detective-type magnifying glass. Pros often use a stereo microscope. We discussed some DIY USB […]
DIY soldering station
Ever want to design your own soldering station? Sqkybeaver is workshopping a soldering station driver board in the forum now.
GRACE: TI’s MSP430 graphical peripheral config tool
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player TI has released GRACE , a graphical configuration tool for MSP430 and Launchpad developers for setting up integrated peripherals such as ADCs, OpAmps, Timers, Clocks, and other modules. This tool is a free and open source, eclipse-based plug-in for Code Composer Studio. Code Composer Studio v4.2.0.11017 is required for the […]
Prototype: Bus Pirate BPv3
UPDATE: v3b is the latest Bus Pirate revision, read about the changes here. BPv3 is the latest hacking multi-tool from the Bus Pirate project. It connects to a USB port and interacts with electronics through a simple terminal interface. Use it to see how much of your private information is stored on smartcard SIM chips. Explore […]