Workshop Update for July 10th, 2012

Today we did some software, and server updates, and we confirmed we weren’t effected by the Linux leap second bug. We soldered a few extra Bus Pirate demo board protos. Tomorrow we’ll probably sync the old bug list with the new public tracker, and retire the list. ATX Breakout Board v1.1 Sick of Beige case […]

Workshop Update for July 9th, 2012

Today we finished building latest revision, and started testing the secret project firmware. We found a couple of bugs in our latest PCB design. The ‘DIR’ pin of the 74xx245 transceiver was connected to GND instead of being pulled high, and the ‘R/W’ pin of the LCD was left unconnected. We also organized in-progress projects […]

Workshop Update for July 4th, 2012

UPS package finally corralled, and will be delivered tomorrow. A 74HCT245 will complete a long-delayed final revision of a certain secret prototype. We prepared for tomorrows workshop video on serial port interfacing. We arranged a giveaway for a coming week, and perhaps the first sponsor of the 2012 Open 7400 Competition. Today we continued contacting […]

Workshop Update for June 28th, 2012

Video editing, and filming ate most of our day. We did get some time to finalize our part kit list. We found a few eBay suppliers offering good wholesale prices. SMD transistors, and diodes are a bit harder to find. We also made some tweaks to our partlist to accommodate easier-to-source parts. Secret project firmware […]

Workshop Update for June 27th, 2012

Today we cleaned up the workshop for tomorrow’s video, we checked some bug fixes on the Bus Pirate firmware (look for a new release soon), and started a Mouser order to be placed tomorrow. We also went over our partlist, and started gathering information on how much a basic kit of our most commonly used […]

Workshop Update for June 25th, 2012

Today we made some site updates: The tracker now allows ready only, WordPress publish bug fixed by deactivating (non functioning) Google+ integration plugin. We also sent two new project sales pages to Seeed, which should be up in a day or two. Work on the secret project firmware continues. Today we implemented a buffer that […]

Workshop Update for June 22nd, 2012

Today we soldered some of the latest PCBs that arrived. We organized some bug reports on the new tracker. Ran some IR Toy remote recordings with a logic analyzer attached to see if there are intermittent errors, none found yet. We continued working on the secret project firmware. Today we implemented a buffer, it is […]

Workshop Update for June 19th, 2012

Today was mostly documentation day. We wrote another Eagle tutorial, this time on how to make plated holes for your PCBs. We will run it tomorrow, as our regular “HOW TO” post. We also continued with some renders of a soon to be released product. We spent lots of time editing the render in Photoshop, […]

Workshop Update for June 15th, 2012

Today we ported the open source USB to two microcontrollers, the PIC18F2550, and the PIC24FJ64GB002. While the echo demo we had worked with the PIC18F2550, it was built to work with the IR Toy, so some board specific stuff was in there. The new ports are bare bones, and are intended for any board that […]

Workshop Update for June 14th, 2012

Today we worked on the homemade flux video. Documentation for the Part Ninja continued. Most of the part recognition diagrams are uploaded, and the information on how the Part Ninja identifies different parts was added. Today we took a look at the Bus Blaster, and how we could improve it. This project is very far […]

Workshop Update for June 13th, 2012

Today we mixed up a few batches of homemade Rosin based flux recipes, the results in tomorrows workshop video. Documentation on the Part Ninja continued today, with concept and overview documented on the part specific testing page. We hit a snag with a USB cable that kept disconnecting the Part Ninja while we were collecting […]

Workshop Update for June 12th, 2012

Today we renewed websites, including 7400contest.com which is coming up again soon. We patched an SPI speed error in the Bus Pirate binary access mode. We had to cancel the company credit cards because 7 unexpected charges to Blizzard (World of Warcraft) and 4 to iTunes showed up today. In the process of checking the […]