Is there a preferred connector style for the GPIO? If not, could you declare a preference? For situations, where there will be a cable running from the GPIO connector on the Raspberry Pi to something else, any connector will work, as long as the correct mating connector is chosen. Years ago, we had a robotics [...]
Nov 292011
I’ve been getting better at using Git in smart ways, but recently I did something a bit dumb. Instead of branching my code to port over to a different chip, I just make a copy of it into a directory not under version control. The issue I have now is how to add it to [...]
Nov 292011
I’ve winkled the details of the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pinout out of the hardware guys: no pretty pictures in this post, but a lovely information dump that those of you who solder for fun will enjoy getting your teeth into. Top row, left to right: 5V0DNCGNDTXDRXDGPIO1DNCGPIO4GPIO5DNCGPIO6SPI_CE0_NSPI_CE1_N Bottom row, left to right: 3V3SDA0SCL0GPIO7DNCGPIO0GPIO2GPIO3DNCSPI_MOSISPI_MISOSPI_SCLKDNC Notes: – all [...]
Nov 292011
There’s a ton of devices out there that have batteries in them but most people never think about it. That’s because they use rechargeables that are sealed inside and topped off with external chargers. [Todd Harrison] has a couple of them, including a cordless shaver and a Christmas light timer. He’s had these for years [...]
Want that 70″ LCD television in your living room to be an Android device? This little guy can make it happen. With an HDMI port on one end, and a USB plug on the other for power, just plug in FXI Technologies’ Cotton Candy dongle to create a 1080p Android television. The price isn’t set [...]
[Arshad Pathan] let us know about his latest project, a modular code lock that can be adapted to many different situations. The user interface is made up of a character LCD screen and a 3×4 keypad. For this example [Arshad] is using a stepper motor as the locking mechanism. When the board is first powered [...]
This hack came out so well that [Levent] wishes he had tried it years ago. When exercising he wears a Polar heart rate monitor which sends data from a chest strap to his wristwatch. But his exercise bike also has a heart rate readout that depends on your hands touching metal contacts on the handlebars. He set [...]
We find it interesting that PIC and AVR programming is very common in hobby electronics but ARM doesn’t have nearly the same foothold. This is partly because there’s a knowledge barrier involved with making the transition (the other part is probably the lack of DIP packaged chips). But if you’ve worked with 8-bit microcontrollers you [...]
It’s not a proper humidor in the technical sense (there isn’t any specific way to moderate the humidity) but [Dzzie] came up with a couple of ways to keep his cigars cool in the summer heat. Both versions use a Coleman electric cooler as the enclosure. This hardware uses a Peltier device to keep it [...]
Nov 292011
The Queen of Bondo is back again, this time with an adorably small NES portable, the HandyNES. When last saw [lovablechevy], she had just finished up her build of a Nintenduo, a build that stuffed an NES and SNES into a single box. The Nintenduo was such a clean build it would be a crime [...]