Simpleavr writes to inform us of his project using the TI Launchpad to play “bad apple” on a Nokia 5110 LCD breakout. This was his entry into the 43Oh project of the month contest. He notes that the Launchpad can also play Nyan cat but at a barely recognizable 1 bit color. Nevertheless, the bad […]
Tag Archives: video
Nyan cat running on a Parallax Propeller
We haven’t had a Sunday Silliness post in quite a white, so here goes. The above video depicts an animated Nyan cat running across the galaxy. The video and accompanying audio are generated by a single Parallax Propeller microcontroller. This demo was created by Doug Dingus. Video generation is accomplished using the NTSC 4×2 colorburst […]
App note: video playback and streaming using the PIC MCU
This application note describes four methods of playing a video file using a PIC microcontroller (MCU) and hardware solutions available from Microchip. Methods discussed include video playback on PIC32 using upscaling by interpolation, streaming raw video from a micro-SD card using the SSD1926 LCD graphics controller on the Multimedia Expansion Board (MEB), streaming uncompressed AVI […]
Derbycon/Defcon: battery firmware hacking
We use laptops everyday and as long as the battery isn’t dead we probably don’t give it much thought. It turns out that most laptop batteries contain a smart chip which controls battery charge rate and ensures safety parameters are observed among other purposes. In this video from the recently concluded Derbycon conference in Louisville, […]
8-bit CPLD graphics card using XC9572
Ulrich Radig from Germany has developed an 8-bit graphics card based on the XC9572 CPLD. In addition to the CPLD chip (the same one used in our CPLD dev board), he added two cache blocks from an old motherboard. (He reports that the SRAM chip CY7C199-15 could be used instead.) He states, “[t]he graphics card […]
Tellymate makes serial to video easy
The UK based crew from Batsocks develops and sells open source kits including breadboard related projects. We found a project they call the Tellymate which looks like a simple and easy way to provide plug-in video text output to any MCU project using just an ATmega8 and a handful of passive components. TellyMate is a […]
Repairing the PICqueño32 dev-board prototype
In a previous video we soldered the PICqueno32 prototype. There was a big mistake though, we used the wrong PIC32 chip. In this video the old chip comes off and the new chip goes on. For the swap we used a flux sample sent by Farnell. It was fantastic! Here’s the webpage if you want […]
Video: Hackers vs makers
Are you a hacker or a maker? If you answered “yes”, then you understand the proposition of this video. Intel_Jim gave this talk at Ignite Intel in Portland, OR on July 12, 2011, publicly explaining what we already know: that true hackers and makers are people who like to tinker with gadgets to make them […]
Lattice ECP3 FPGA Jamz video
Not content to leave well enough alone with their first humorous video promo for the MachXO2, the people at Lattice Semi released the above video for their Lattice ECP3 family of FPGA devices.
Open bench logic sniffer tutorial
The longhorn Engineer I was so impressed by the Open Bench Logic Sniffer that I had to make a little mini review detailing its features. Get a Logic Sniffer for $50, with free worldwide shipping. Via the contact form
Hacking police car live video cams
Today embedded systems are proliferating in business and government enterprises. One growing trend is to embed live video cameras in police vehicles, so that command headquarters can have a real time view of what’s going on in and around police cruisers. Here’s a white paper by digitamunition describing how a penetration tester went about gaining […]
App note: developing embedded graphics applications with PIC® MCUs with integrated graphics controller
Microchip has a new application note for developers designing their first MCU graphics related application. It describes the definitions and terms relating to graphics applications, and discusses the theory, necessary decision factors, hardware considerations, available microcontrollers and development tools. This is a fairly comprehensive doc, starting out with the basics and moving quickly to complex […]
CPLD VGA resistor DAC
Chris from Pyroelectro informs us of his new tutorial describing the design of a VGA controller that uses a resistor DAC to create 512 unique VGA colors. He uses an Altera CPLD and VHDL code to create all the video signals. The theory, hardware schematics and software are all explained and available for viewing/download at […]
Tektronix oscilloscope contest videos
Tektronix, the oscilloscope manufacturer, is having a video contest. There are a bunch of different projects, including an entry from the popular EEVblog. Vote for your favorite o-scope hacks here. Thanks Charlie! Via the contact form.
MAKE Oscilloscope tutorial
Here’s a short video tutorial posted recently by MAKE explaining the functions and uses of the the oscilloscope.
Vienna hackerspace autoposts realtime project videos
It seems like every hackerspace has their own means of communicating status messages to their members. The hackers at MetaLab in Vienna have put together a rather novel way of letting the world know they have completed a project. While some hackerspaces simply notify their members that they are open for business, they take things […]
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 […]
Retro integrated circuit video
Here’s a half-hour video produced by Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in 1967 describing the integrated circuit (IC), its design and development process, and giving examples of late 1960s uses of IC technology. Serves to provide some perspective on how the industry started, and how far we’ve come.
Xilinx free FPGA/CPLD design tutorials
The Arduino platform and bare microcontrollers are good ways to get started in developing embedded systems. But the way of the future is clearly CPLD and FPGA architecture. These devices are not simply a new type of chip, but a new and interesting design and development frontier. Their programs are developed using several methods, including […]
27C3: Building Custom Disassemblers
FX of Phenoelit recently presented a talk at the 27C3 CCC in Berlin, Germany on the topic of instruction set reverse engineering. Topics include obtaining byte code, analyzing it for basic properties, finding addressing modes, and implementing an IDA Pro processor module. The primary focus is on the transformation of byte code back into mnemonic […]