Using an old computer ATX power supply as a high-performance workbench power supply @ DroneBot Workshop: A Bench Power Supply is an essential component for any serious electronics experimenter. But a good supply with multiple output voltages and a high current capability can set you back some serious cash. In this article we’ll look at […]
Tag Archives: tutorial
Make an amazing $6 digital radio with an old ESP8266 and a VS1053 decoder
Mike Diamond @ whatimade.today has written an article on how to make a low cost digital radio with an old ESP8266 and a VS1053 decoder. See the full post at whatimade.today.
Building and Flashing ESP32 applications with Eclipse
Erich Styger shared the steps how to use Eclipse with CMake: The current Espressif documentation integrating with Eclipse are kind of broken and did not work for me (they are changing from make files to use CMake). The good news is that I have found a way to easily integrate the IDF with Eclipse which […]
Building a direct conversion receiver
Ryan Flowers over at MiscDotGeek posted a how-to on building a direct conversion receiver: In the first installment of this series, we discussed why we’re building a Direct Conversion receiver and talked about some basic ideas. In this installment, we explore what it takes to make the leap from a printed schematic to something physical […]
DakBoard family calendar with Raspberry Pi Zero W and Read Only filesystem
Scott Hanselman made this DakBoard family calendar with Raspberry Pi Zero W and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly: The implementation is simple genius. It’s a browser that starts up full screen (kiosk mode) and just sits there and updates occasionally. DakBoard provides the private webpage and tools to make that happen. […]
IoT LED Dimmer
Sasa Karanovic shared a how-to on making a IoT LED dimmer: Making a IoT LED dimmer that you can control via your PC, phone, tablet or any other device connected to the network is super simple, and I’m going to show you how. I’m sharing my three channel LED dimmer that you can use to […]
Making YBCO superconductor
This video describes how to make and test your own YBCO superconductor by Ben Krasnow. More info on his blog here.
Custom 3D printed magnetic encoder disks for robotics projects
A how-to on making a custom DIY magnetic disk encoder by Erich Styger: I’m making great progress with the firmware for the new Mini Sumo Robot (see “New Concept for 2018 Mini Sumo Roboter“). The goal is a versatile and low-cost Mini Sumo robot, and the robot comes with the feature of magnetic position encoders. […]
Programming STM32F103 Blue Pill using USB bootloader and PlatformIO
Coyt Barringer wrote a post on his blog showing how he program the Blue Pill STM32F103 using USB Bootloader and PlatformIO: This is the infamous Blue Pill board – a $2 ARM STM32F103 development board with all the capabilities of a Teensy 3.x at a fraction of the price of an Arduino. So what’s the […]
Cheap DIY USB MIDI to CV
A how-to on making a DIY USB MIDI to CV from DIY Synthesizer: This one is simple and does not require any expensive Teensy’s or STM32. It runs on the ATtiny85 using V-USB. The ATtiny is programmed with the Micronucleus bootloader and is firmware upgradeable incircuit. More details at DIY Synthesizer homepage.
Overdrive guitar effects pedal
Eddie over at Bantam Tools shared detailed instructions of how to build this DIY overdrive effects pedal: This project shows you how to make your very own effects stompbox! We’ll go through the steps of downloading the .brd file, loading the file into our software, milling the board on the Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling […]
How to: STM32F103C8T6 as an USB device (Virtual serial port / CDC)
In this video Hugatry shared detailed instructions of how to use the STM32F103C8T6 as an USB device with virtual serial port: Cheap STM32F103C8T6 development board Blue STM32F103C8T6 development boards, also known as “BluePill”, are cheap way to get started with 32bit ARM microcontrollers. The STM32 development board can sometimes be bought for less than $2 […]
Tutorial, experiments and teardown of a 77GHz automotive FMCW radar module
Tutorial, experiments and teardown of a 77GHz automotive FMCW radar module from The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar explores the principle operation of automotive FMCW radars. Thanks to a donated automotive radar module, various components of the system can be examined and explored. The PCB reveals three die-on-PCB ASICs responsible for generating and receiving 77GHz […]
Teardown and analysis of an Agilent 86109B Optical/Electrical DCA-X oscilloscope module
Teardown and analysis of an Agilent 86109B Optical/Electrical DCA-X oscilloscope module from The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar presents the inner workings of an Agilent 86109B optical/electrical DCA-X oscilloscope module. This particular model offers up to 50GHz of electrical bandwidth and an optical input capable of receiving up to 40Gb/s data rates. The differences […]
Biking sweeper detectors
Sweeper bike detectors project from Cliff Batson (N4CCB): They are equipped with a Moteino transmitter running on 9V battery power that keeps them going all day for the event, while transmitting a beacon every 4s. They beacon their identity to the various checkpoints/rest points and in sag vehicles (cars with “bike detector” receiver units) to […]
ESP8266 controlled with Android app (MIT App Inventor)
Rui Santos from Random Nerd Tutorials has posted a detailed tutorial on how to build an Android app using the MIT App Inventor software that allows you to control the ESP8266 GPIOs: More details at Random Nerd Tutorials homepage. Check out the video after the break.
DIY synth building, part 2
Here’s a video tutorial on making a sequencer circuits from Casper Electronics: Learn how to make a variety of musical pattern sequencers using a few common electrical components and a breadboard. See the part 1 video on building oscillators here.
Building a tracking generator
A how-to on building a tracking generator using off-the-shelf components by Kerry Wong: In this blog post, I will show you how to build a 0 to 5.8 GHz tracking generator for the HP 8566B 100 Hz to 22 GHz spectrum analyzer using off-the-shelf components for under $100. Although this tracking generator is specifically designed for […]
Building a simplex repeater
Kenneth Finnegan writes, “In this installment of the “How to Build a Repeater” series, I explain the concept of a simplex repeater and how to assemble one out of an Argent Data ADS-SR1 and a Motorola Maxtrac. Thanks again to Argent Data for providing me with an ADS-SR1 to play with; it’s a fun little […]
Generating PWM signals
KF5OBS writes, “In this video I’m showing how to generate a PWM signal that’s behaving proportionally to analog control signal.” Details at KF5OBS’ blog.