Dilshan developed a 8 channel USB digital signal generator and an open source Windows application called Kidgo Player to drive it. The hardware is basically just a PIC18F2550 USB breakout board used to provide 8 digital outputs for his software. The Kidgo Player’s source is available on GitHub, and has the following features: Save […]
Tag Archives: USB
FTDI’s new X-Series of USB device chips
FTDI just released a new series of their USB to serial device ICs. The X-series is an upgrade on the R part used in the Bus Pirate and formerly in Arduinos. It features better transfer rates, lower power consumption, needs fewer discrete components, and has high power USB charging capability. FTDI is delighted to announce […]
PROTOTYPE PREVIEW: New protoboard under way
Don’t you hate it? A big bag of SMT parts arrive from Mouser, DigiKey or eBay, but your carefully manufactured PCBs are still under way? Or the firmware needs to be done ASAP? Or you got this super cool USB SOIC uC you’d love to try out and you can’t wait? We run into this […]
Open source USB HID joystick firmware update
Kiran updated the firmware on his DIY joystick. It features 10 buttons and an analog joystick all controlled via a PIC18F14K50 USB microcontroller. The firmware update provides mapping for all 10 buttons, while the next update will add functionality to the analog stick.
App note: ATXmega USB Hardware Design Recommendations
Here is an design recommendation from Atmel about implementing USB on AVRÂ XMEGA microcontrollers. The article provides all the basic information you’ll need to get started with designing USB devices with the XMEGA. This document is written for hardware designers to help them develop their applications. It assumes that readers are familiar with the AVR […]
Giveaway: 4 LeoStick Arduino Leonardo compatible USB sticks
Freetronics’ new LeoStick is an Arduino Leonardo compatible USB board. It’s a simple breakout for the ATmega32U4 microcontroller in small USB stick shape. It has 2 RGB LEDs and a buzzer on-board for experimenting. The LeoStick is just like the upcoming Arduino Leonardo, but given the “honey, I shrunk the kids” treatment! Just pop it […]
28C3: Dead drops
In this lightning talk from the recently concluded 28C3 Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, Aram Bartholl presents updated information on the topic of dead drops. Dead drops are a means of anonymously conveying data using USB drives physically embedded in public spaces. (See this post from 2010.) This talk also highlights the existence of WiFi […]
PIC16F145X: Full-Speed USB with no external crystal
Microchip is about to release the PIC16F145X family of microcontrollers. This little guy is advertised to have Full-Speed USB capability without the need of the usual external oscillator. From the product brief it appears that this uC will use the host USB signal to tune the internal 48 MHz oscillator and comply with the USB […]
Simple USB to UART adapter that works with 3.3V and 5V UART signals
The serial UART is a common interface used by many chips and devices. Ginpb designed a USB-to-UART adapter that works with 3.3V and 5V UART signals. The device is based around the FTDI FT232BL USB-to-UART IC with an added 3.3V power supply. The different interface levels are selected by an on-board jumper. Via the forum.
PROTOTYPE PREVIEW: PIC24FJ64GB/A002 breakout board
Earlier this week we prototyped a transistor tester circuit on a breadboard. We wanted a start with a full microcontroller and power circuit, ready to go, Arduino-style. All the breakouts we had on hand were a pain to use. Most obscure the prototo area and many were just too big. Inspired by Shaos’ nedoCPU-32, we […]
Tiny USB Li-Po battery charger
This is a tiny, easy to make USB Lithium-Polymer battery charger. It’s based on the MAX1555 charger IC.
USB Analog/digital logger
Arhi started started working on a USB/UART analog and digital logger: It’s a simple USB logger that can log 12 analog and 3 digital channels + data from MAX6675 (thermocouple driver). It sends the data via usb or uart. We think this is a very useful device that has a place on every bench top. […]
App note: Dual 1.4MHz buck regulator with USB ‘Dying Gasp’ support
This app note from Maxim describes how to build a USB powered circuit that will provide a short power-failure notice before losing power. This is called the “Dying Gasp” and it allows devices to preform a proper shut-down when USB power fails. A safe USB “dying gasp” shutdown requires a local energy storage capacitor to […]
USB HID Joystick
Kiran designed a USB Joystick based on the PIC18F14K50 microcontroller. It has 10 buttons and an analog Joystick that uses 2 potentiometers to describe X and Y movement of the stick. The firmware is based on the Microchip USB stack, using the HID device class.
Propeller Development Stick
Here is a USB development board for the P8X32A-Q44 Propeller microcontroller. It has a FT232RL USB-to-UART IC, a 3.3 LDO voltage regulator, a 5MHZ crystal, and a 64KB EEPROM. He broke-out 32 IO pins of the microcontroller to two 16pin female headers. This is version 1.1 of this design, and version 2 is currently under […]
FXI demos “any screen” connected computing USB device
Trev writes to inform us of an Android computer in a USB key. This device is now being prototyped by FXI and has been code named Cotton Candy. “The Cotton Candy is a USB stick sized computer device that allows users a single, secure point of access to all personal cloud services and apps through […]
NEW PROTOTYPE: USB & serial LCD backpack
Small character LCDs can show new mail stats, system performance, news feeds, and more. The USB and Serial LCD backpack connects HD44780-compatible character LCD screens to your USB (or serial) port. Almost every open source hardware shop sells some type of serial LCD backpack. Our goal is to build an update to the classic serial […]
FPGACheap DIY Altera FPGA USB programmer
This is a DIY USB programer for Altera FPGAs. It only uses a PIC uC and a few discrete components to provide a JTAG interface with a FPGA. Somun found it on a Japanese site (machine translation), and with the help of Google Translate he built one for himself. There are two versions available. The […]
7400 competition entry: 8-Channel, 6 -MSPS USB logic analyzer
Helmy entered an 8-Channel 6MS/s USB logic analyzer into the Open 7400 Logic Competition. His device converts the 8 channel parallel inputs into a UART based serial signal. It outputs this serial signal to the input pin of a PL2303 USB-to-Serial chip which sends the data to the computer. Via the forum.
7400 competition entry: 7400-based USB prank
Arup entered his USB device not recognized design into the Open 7400 Logic Competition. It uses a logic chip to stimulate a USB host just enough to get a “Device not recognized” response from Windows. Once the prank succeeds a “1” is displayed on a 7 segment display. Via the forum.