Author: fustini

Rotary Encoder Breakout with Pull-up Resistors

fustini, , , , 3 Comments

rotary1.jpg

This breakout board designed in KiCad makes it easy to put a rotary encoder and pull-up resistors on a breadboard.  (Thanks to Enrico for the idea to add pull-up resistors).  The footprints on the back are meant for 1206 SMD resistors.  I choose 1K Ohm resistors, marked 102, when I assembled this board.

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/CN5gjITG
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/CN5gjITG
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/CN5gjITG

Additional photos are available in the GitHub repo’s images directory and in a Google Photos gallery.

Here is the OSH Park shared project for the board:

Rotary Encoder Breakout with Pull-ups

Screenshot from 2017-04-04 15-55-27

Order from OSH Park

The KiCad design files are available on GitHub:

github-smallpdp7/rotary-encoder-breakout

white

I used this KiCad symbol and footprint by Mike Cousins for a Sparkfun rotary encoder:

github-smallmcous/kicad-lib

white

I’ve verified that these rotary encoders fit:

I wrote this Arduino sketch to run on the Teensy 3.2.  The brightness of one LED is controlled by the rotary encoder knob.  The other LED is turns on when the rotary encoder knob is pressed down:

arduino-smallrotary-encoder-test.ino

white

Here’s a video of the breakout board being used with a Bourns PEC12R-4220F-S0024 and Teensy 3.2:

Rotary Encoder Breakout with Pull-up Resistors

Trixel Interactive LED Kit

fustini, , , , Leave a comment
Arkadi designed this interactive LED kit:

3263321490102022951

Trixel LED

Create your own interactive Light elements by soldering basic shapes, such as triangle, square, pentagon and hexagon to create an interactive LED sculpture.

Here’s a video of the Trixel LED boards in action:

The design files are available on GitHub:

arkadiraf/Trixel-LED

 

Arkadi_Raf has shared the boards on OSH Park:

Pentagon LED

641630815d5e6e1b0f7b567d8651fd64
Order from OSH Park

Square LED

82acd583478babc1a95286aae403e16f
Order from OSH Park

Triangle LED

8eebfc9b5c3a92cc622943396c308e88
Order from OSH Park

Trixel Interactive LED Kit

SoundBeacon

fustini, , , , , , Leave a comment

Patrick Van Oosterwijck created an audio BLE beacon that can be activated by the vision impaired to find exact locations of doorways, bus stops, crosswalks, and more:

6274831490293880487.jpg

SoundBeacon

The idea is that a blind person uses a navigation app, and can query to see “what is around”. In the list of beacons that are around, they can tap the one they want to know the location of and it will start to produce an audible signal for a short time.

https://hackaday.io/project/15595-soundbeacon

The BLE module is configured as an iBeacon and allows connections. It has a battery service and an “Immediate Alert” (AKA “Find me”) service.

Patrick used the following to build the prototype:

  • A 550 mAh 3.2 V LiFePO4 cell
  • A #LiFePO4wered/Solar1 prototype to charge the battery
  • A 5.5V, 0.6W monocrystalline solar cell
  • A Silicon Labs (formerly BlueGiga) BLE113 module
  • A beeper that works very badly (better solution needed)
  • And a IP65 enclosure

xorbit has shared the booster for loud piezo beeper on OSH Park:

PiezoBoost

99dbad4f53194c84dfc1cb673fa18158

Order from OSH Park

SoundBeacon

Pidgeon 1 Sub-GHz Radio

fustini, , , , Leave a comment

Pidgeon 1 on Crowd Supply is a sub-GHz radio with 500 mW transmission power, RS485 networking interface and a STM32F0 microcontroller:
front-and-back_jpg_project-body

Crowd Supply: Pidgeon 1

No more restrictions from high level software! Access the lowest level of digital radio transmission with this programmable sub-GHz wireless module.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/samuel-zak/pidgeon-1
https://www.crowdsupply.com/samuel-zak/pidgeon-1

Hardware Specifications:

  • Radio – CC1120 + CC1190
  • Controller – STM32F051K6
  • FTDI USB interface – FT234XD-R
  • RS485 interface – LTC2850IDD
  • Buck converter – RT8010GQW
  • SMA connector for antenna
Pidgeon 1 Sub-GHz Radio

Musical Toothbrush by Joe Grand

fustini, , , , , Leave a comment

Hackaday wrote about a nifty hack by Joe Grand:

33584362176_d159e08108_z

[Joe Grand’s] Toothbrush Plays Music That Doesn’t Suck

It’s not too exciting that [Joe Grand] has a toothbrush that plays music inside your head. That’s actually a trick that the manufacturer pulled off. It’s that [Joe] gave his toothbrush an SD card slot for music that doesn’t suck. The victim donor hardware for this project is a toothbrush meant for kids called Tooth Tunes.…

33584363126_442705bc93_z

Joe published full documentation for the project on his website:

The PCB is shared on OSH Park:

Tooth Tunes Hack

5fc6751cdeff95ffbd5f0f956553f2c7
Order from OSH Park

Joe describes the project in this video:

Hear the toothbrush in action:

Musical Toothbrush by Joe Grand

Creating the Benchoff Nickel

fustini, , , 2 Comments

Screenshot from 2017-03-23 13-54-53.png

Andrew Sowa writes about the PCB he designed in KiCad to surprise Brian Benchoff last weekend at the Hackaday Unconference in Chicago:

Creating the Benchoff Nickel

I thought of making the Benchoff nickel after I saw Brian’s Hackaday,io profile. He has a hi-res image of the center a Benchoff Buck which is well suited to being converted to a PCB. There is only a few colors and they have sharp edges. Bitmap2Component in Kicad, can easily detect these transitions and convert them into a footprint file. With the help of a text editor, I was able to manually layer everything into one complete image.

http://andrewsowa.com/blog/2017/3/19/creating-the-benchoff-nickel
http://andrewsowa.com/blog/2017/3/19/creating-the-benchoff-nickel
http://andrewsowa.com/blog/2017/3/19/creating-the-benchoff-nickel
http://andrewsowa.com/blog/2017/3/19/creating-the-benchoff-nickel

 

The KiCad design files are available on GitHub:

screenshot-at-2017-02-14-20-58-40Junes-PhD/Benchoff-Nickel

 

Junes-PhD has shared the project on OSH Park:

Benchoff Nickel

b990e15b3b0bff6615d77bda90d22716

Order from OSH Park

Creating the Benchoff Nickel

DIY Vacuum Pickup Tool

fustini, , , , 1 Comment

We are always surprised how much useful hacking gear is in the typical craft store. You just have to think outside the box. Need a hot air gun? Think embossing tool. A soldering iron? Check the stained glass section. Magnification gear? Sewing department. We’ve figured out that people who deal with beads use lots of fine…

via [Dave’s] Not Just a Member of the Air Club for Tweezers — Hackaday

DIY Vacuum Pickup Tool