The next Hardware Happy Hour (3H) Chicago is tomorrow, Tuesday, January 15th:
https://www.meetup.com/Hardware-Happy-Hour-3H-Chicago/events/257467548/
Bring all of your holiday gadgets and gizmos! Did you build a blinky Christmas tree ornament? Did you get a new scope from Santa? Did you take apart some toys? Bring it all to the meetup!
We’re trying out a new location for the new year! Come have a pint, show off your latest project and get to know your fellow Chicago tinkerers.
@groguard designed the Giant Board which runs Linux in the form factor of the Adafruit Feather:
The Giant Board is a super tiny single-board computer based on the Adafruit Feather form factor. We always want more power in a smaller package and the Giant Board delivers!
There are always those couple of projects that just need a little more power, or a different software stack. With the release of the ATSAMA5D27C-D1G, its made linux possible in such a small form factor. Listed below are the specs and current pinout of the board.
Follow @groguard on Twitter to learn more about the project:
https://twitter.com/groguard/status/1066788245659279360
https://twitter.com/groguard/status/1067494549168287747
Making one of something is pretty easy, and making ten ain’t too bad. But what if you find yourself trying to make a couple of hundred of something on your home workbench? Suddenly, small timesavers start to pay dividends. For just such a situation, you may find these modular SMD tape feeders remarkably useful.
The tape feeders come in a variety of widths, to suit different size tapes. You’ve probably seen if you’ve ever ordered SMD components in quantity from Mouser, Digikey, et al. SMD components typically ship on large tape reels, which are machine fed into automated pick and place machines. However, if you’re doing it yourself in smaller quantities, having these manual tape feeders on your desk can be a huge help. Rather than having scraps of tapes scattered across the working surface, you can instead have them neatly managed at the edge of your bench, providing components as required
From Jeremy S Cook on the Tindie blog:
Relaxing outside on a hot summer evening you might catch a glimpse of fireflies as they perform an ethereal bioluminescent dance. Maybe you even been able to catch a few, trapping them in a jar for your entertainment. Recreate a bit of that magic with a DIY electronics project.
This FireFly Jar Kit presents a different, and much longer-lasting, bottle of blinkies. Instead of actual fireflies blinking, is emulates the bugs’ effect with tiny 0603 LEDs and 38 AWG wire. An ATtiny85V provides lighting control, and it should be able to function on its CR123A battery for 6 months or more.
While you can build this type of contraption yourself, the item listed here is available fully-assembled, as a kit, or a PCB only. In either case, you don’t have to mess about with making your own PCB or perf board assembly, which could be well worth the $30, $20, or $10 price tag. Personally, I much prefer to avoid soldering as much as possible, especially if the terms “0603” and “38 AWG” are involved. Soldering concerns aside, be sure to check out the representative video of this type of faux firefly effect below:
Chris Gammell writes on the Contextual Electronics about the first ever user focused KiCad conference, which is happening April 26th and 27th 2019 in Chicago (USA):
As you may know, KiCad is a very big part of CE. We use it in every design we showcase on the CE site. We’re hoping that some of you will decide to take your learnings and share them at KiCon 2019. We’re looking for speakers to give talks about how they are using KiCad in their jobs, businesses and schooling. Or just how you use it for fun! Please apply to give a talk here! There are no requirements on how advanced you are as a user, so talks could be something like, “My perspective on getting started in KiCad”.
Please also consider attending! We’ll also have the opportunity to give feedback to developers and help brainstorm what else is needed for KiCad. Not only that, but we’ll be able to interact with other KiCad users and share tips and tricks. We’re also planning a layout contest and other fun interactive activities.
Not able to make it? Please help spread the word about KiCon! (Example tweet here, though any promotion is appreciated) In return, we promise to record and share the talks from the conference so you can view them later.
And finally, if your company has the means, please consider supporting KiCon as a sponsor.
Hackster is running the “the Blinkiest Badge Challenge on Earth” and you still have until February 28th to submit your badge design!
#BadgeLife is the new electronic graffiti. This form of art is in a league of its own, first popularized by DEFCON hackers, now boasts serious technical sophistication, a wicked artistic flair, peppered with political, cryptography, social, cultural and comical narratives, flashing LEDs and screens with add-ons galore.
You are invited to join our first, and certainly not last, BadgeLove challenge, sponsored by OSH Park, Autodesk EAGLE & Fusion 360, and Hackster.
Share your unique design with 700,000+ Hacksters and we will reward badge fanatics for their beautiful, weird, cool contributions.
Ready to Badge It?
- Share any badge, new or old with full instructions
- Provide design documentation. For example, PCB layout (native or Gerber plots), artwork, bill-of-materials, schematics, source code/firmware, and anything else you’d like to share!
- Written explanation describing your badge’s capabilities
- Optional video explaining what the badge does
- Want to score extra points? Celebrate our partner Autodesk and build with Autodesk EAGLE files and Fusion 360 CAD (check out the Autodesk prize)
- Don’t want to share your complete Gerbers? Need to protect your invention? We totally understand. Share only what you feel comfortable with
- Got add-ons? Let’s see them!
- Selling your badges? Share your links, we want to buy some!
- Need fab help? It’s all about the one and only OSH Park!
- Using Altium, KiCad, other? You’re good!
From Mike Szczys on the Hackaday blog:
Motors are not overly complex, but this one is downright simple. Carl Bujega has been working on a motor design that heavily relies on the capabilities of the printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication processes. His talk at the 2018 Hackaday Superconference covers how he built a brushless DC motor and speed controller into a PCB. You can watch the newly published video after the break.
The genesis of this idea came from Carl’s interest in drone design, in fact, he jumped right into a drone startup immediately after finishing his EE. The company didn’t last, but his thirst for interesting designs is ongoing. When looking at reducing the total parts necessary to build a quadcopter he happened on the idea of PCB-based coils and he’s followed it to this motor design, and beyond to some very interesting flexible-PCB robot design work which you can check out on his Hackaday.io page, YouTube, and Twitter.
OSH Park now offers 2 layer Flex PCBs for $15 per square inch including 3 copies of your design. Orders will be sent to fabrication weekly and ship within 21 calendar days of ordering. Find out more on our Flex documentation page.
OSH Park 