Ryan Fanelli and David Hartino, students in Cornell University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering program, have written a detailed explanation of their ATmega 644 based VGA adapter. The pair developed this “homemade video card” as their final project in the program, … Read more
Andre shares this short article on how to make homebrew solder paste stencils from 0.1mm brass plates. Via the contact form.
Paulo shared an Excel-based transistor amplifier calculator. ‘Besides the basic gain and biasing calculations many others implement, this calculator can also estimate noise which is a bit more involved’: ..Because this is a circuit I use frequently, I decided to … Read more
Tips & tricks to sort and rework surface mount devices (SMD): I’m a member of the Superstition Amateur Radio Club (SARC) and each month we have a presentation on a ham radio related subject. I volunteered to record and upload … Read more
Joe Desbonnet writes in with two tips he learned when using the DP QFP breakout board. Via the contact form.
We’ve heard it numerous times: avoid using right angle bends in PCB routing. Here’s an article from EDN magazine explaining why it’s not as bad as most people think. The article explains that the “bad” effects like increased capacitance and … Read more
Andrew Tergis presents an interesting method of reflowing SMD components using a preheating plate and tinfoil (to catch infrared energy). He also uses a Fluke temperature probe attached to the PCB to more accurately monitor temperature. This gives newcomers to … Read more
Jeri Ellsworth has posted this video detailing her process for prototyping a resistive multi-touch pad. The process is presented in detail for maximum benefit to those unfamilar with the components of these devices.
O’Reilly is offering a free webcast relating vintage video gaming techniques to today’s web-based games. “Back in the day, game developers were in a similar position to where web-based game developers using HTML5 Canvas are today; Graphics rendering methods were … Read more
Squonk informs us of some interesting papers (PDFs) on noise suppression techniques and EMI suppression filters available from muRata. The same page also contains some information on the EMI regulations in different countries. Via the contact form.
YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo. Bartholomaus Traubeck presents his “Years” project. Years is a phonograph-like device which reads the characteristics of the rings in a thin cross-section slice of a tree and interprets these as piano notes depending on … Read more
In this lightning talk presentation from the 28C3 conference, the zunkworks crew outlines their work using simple RF hardware and a Linux laptop with soundcard to experiment with Radio Direction Finding (RDF). RDF has long been used in commercial and … Read more
Oscar has written an article describing a technique he’s used for reading multiple analog sensors with one MCU ADC pin. He was designing a line-following robot and wanted to read several infrared sensors without having to dedicate an analog read … Read more
Joe Desbonnet writes that he’s found a quick and cheap Bus Pirate to breadboard cable hack. “I needed to check out a I2C temperature/humidity sensor with the Bus Pirate on a breadboard. So I hacked this connector comprising a short … Read more
Computerized voting machine vulnerabilities are nothing new, but this video demonstrating a man-in-the-middle wireless attack on a Diebold voting machine takes a different tact than most others. A vulnerability assessment team at Argonne National Laboratories was able to compromise the … Read more
Flyback transformers are used to drive the large odd shaped coils surround the neck of CRTs in TVs and computer monitors. They operate in the 15 to 150 kHz range, and can be used to generate high voltages! Uzzors2k decided … Read more
Boris Landoni writes to call attention to his interesting article in Open Electronics describing how to find your location using GSM Cell ID data: The radio mobile network is made up of a number of adjacent radio cells, each of … Read more
The APCO25 (P25) communications protocol is a form of digital radio communications technology growing in popularity in police and other public safety radio systems in the US and abroad. Many such systems are unencrypted and can be received on digital … Read more
This video describes a prototype of a transcranial magnetic stimulation device designed by Ben Krasnow. He explains: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a technique to stimulate brain tissue directly through the skull. It works by sending a very high current … Read more
Researchers at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre (iNANO), Aarhus University, have just started using a combined computer and laboratory bench. This will not only streamline their research, but also kickstart the transition to the paperless laboratory. The bench is essentially a … Read more
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