crowd supply

PiMod Zero: Raspberry Pi Zero RF Video Modulator

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We excited to see this Raspberry Pi Zero RF Video Modulator on Crowd Supply:

PiMod Zero

Dust Off That Old TV

PiMod Zero brings old tech back to life by allowing a Raspberry Pi Zero to display color or B&W video – and play audio – on vintage televisions. It provides a super-compact way to watch old movies, play retro games, present digital art, or navigate your operating system using any television that receives standard NTSC broadcasts on VHF channels 2 and 3 (55.25 MHz and 61.25 MHz).

In the past, you would have needed a cumbersome RF modulator box to adapt the HDMI signal from a Pi Zero. Now, with this convenient HAT snapped on top of your Pi Zero, no additional dongles are required. In fact, once the Pi is powered up, the only other cable you need is a piece of coax to connect PiMod Zero to your TV.

Configuring the Raspberry Pi to output composite video and stereo audio to PiMod Zero is extremely simple. Handy scripts and thorough documentation will be available in our GitHub repo.

PiMod Zero: Raspberry Pi Zero RF Video Modulator

Crowd Supply: connect Peloton bike to third-party apps and fitness watches

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Coming soon to Crowd Supply:

Data Fitness Connector (DFC)

The Data Fitness Connector (DFC) data broadcaster is a Bluetooth device that allows Peloton bikes to communicate with fitness watches, head units, and apps—a feature that’s not available on stock Peloton bikes. It reads power and cadence data in realtime, through a cable connected to your bike, and broadcasts them to nearby devices, including those built around non-Peloton platforms like Zwift and Garmin. This allows you to enjoy the built-in functionality of your bike while simultaneously utilizing features and services that depend on third-party platforms.

One of our goals for this project is to make it easier for hobbyists to design and build hardware that interacts with fitness machines, which is why we’re offering a Maker Edition of DFC. Sure, if you’re trying to start the next indoor fitness revolution, you probably have your own hardware team. But what if you just want to crank up the music and cue some heroic lighting when you hit your pace? Or progressively inflate a balloon so you know your workout’s over when it pops? DFC lets you bring your quirky idea to life and take it for a ride on the handlebars.

Or you could do something practical! If you must. Add a dedicated display and use it to chart realtime metrics that Peloton doesn’t display. Or log your raw data offline for the last word in platform independence. Or attach an array of sensors and see how your performance is affected air quality, humidity, and other indoor environmental factors.

Crowd Supply: connect Peloton bike to third-party apps and fitness watches

Project ideas for the CircuitBrains Deluxe

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In this Crowd Supply update, Kevin Neubauer describes project ideas for the CircuitBrains Deluxe:

Project ideas for the CircuitBrains Deluxe

Here is a handy list of project ideas that CircuitBrains could be used in:

  • Attach some sensors and make an environmental monitor
  • Home automation sensor brains
  • Hook it into some stepper drivers and move some motors
  • Add an antenna circuit and use it to send or receive RF data
  • Do some 3D printing around CircuitBrains and a servo to dispense hand sanitizer
  • Use the DAC on it to produce some sound through an amplifier
  • Build a reflow oven with a PID and a solid state relay
  • Attach it to a computer and use it as a HID device
  • Attach a couple buttons and a display and make a scoreboard for a game
  • Make an electronic badge
  • Make a digital alarm clock
  • Build a quirky random number generator
  • Add a GPS breakout and capture positioning data
  • Add a display and a couple of buttons and make a retro game system
  • Add a liquid flow meter, hook it onto a sink or toilet and record how much water you use
The board is a tiny, CircuitPython-compatible ARM Cortex-M4 module:
Screenshot from 2020-04-09 12-47-51

 

Project ideas for the CircuitBrains Deluxe

iCEBreaker FPGA: new video streams and new content

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https://twitter.com/esden/status/1249917248795340800

An update from our Dorkbot PDX friend, Piotr Esden:

iCEBreaker FPGA: new video streams and new content

iCEBreaker Production

As you read in our last update in November, we finished fulfilling the campaign, but that does not mean work on iCEBreaker has stopped. We keep producing iCEBreakers and Pmods to keep 1BitSquared US and 1BitSquared DE, as well as Crowd Supply and Mouser, stocked.

For those of you who are patiently waiting for your shipments, don’t worry. A package with additional inventory is going out to the Mouser warehouse today!

Continuing Work on iCEBreaker

We are continuing work on new examples and additional iCEBreaker hardware. If you are not following 1BitSquared or Piotr on Twitter, you might have missed some stuff that Piotr is working on. Since January, Piotr started streaming on Twitch on a fairly regular basis. You can follow him on Twitch and be notified every time he goes live. Piotr is also announcing upcoming streams at least a day in advance on Twitter as well as on the 1BitSquared Patreon page.

As a result of the Twitch streams, we’ve had a few interesting new developments for the iCEBreaker platform. A few weeks ago, we published Litex RISC-V SOC generation examples that you can find in the iCEBreaker GitHub Organization. Piotr gave a Twitch stream presentation about the build system and how to use it. You can watch the stream Archive on Twitch, diode.zone, and YouTube. This example gives you the foundation to create your own SOC for the iCEBreaker, start adding your custom hardware to the RISC-V core, and program it in C or Rust. We are also working on MicroPython and maybe even CircuitPython support in the not too distant future.

Upcoming Twitch Stream

Piotr has scheduled a Twitch Stream for Tuesday, April 13th, 2020 at noon PDT. He will be working on a new Pmod for the iCEBreaker that will allow us to connect NES or SNES controllers from two very popular 8-bit game entertainment systems. 😉 That same Pmod will also contain a stereo audio output. This Pmod together with a DVI output, LED Panel output or VGA output will be an ideal combination to recreate old or build new custom game consoles and a wide range of emulations, for entertainment, preservation, and education.

electronics-lets-play-stream

If you are curious when the stream will happen in your timezone you can either check on Twitch itself, as there is a countdown timer till the next stream below the video streaming window, or you can check timeanddate.com.

Keep Supporting our iCEBreaker work

If you like to see continuing work and content creation for the iCEBreaker platform, and you already have all the hardware you need, then consider supporting us through Patreon. We keep adding perks for Patrons, like KiCad panel templates and behind the scenes news. We have a few very generous supporters that make the Twitch streams possible, but any additional support is appreciated.

Stay in Touch

And don’t forget, the continuing development and support for iCEBreaker keeps on rolling on the 1BitSquared Discord server, and iCEBreaker forum! So join the fun and show off your iCEBreaker projects! 🙂

Stay safe and healthy,
Piotr and Danika

iCEBreaker FPGA: new video streams and new content

CircuitBrains Deluxe launches on Crowd Supply

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A tiny, CircuitPython-compatible ARM Cortex-M4 module  Kevin Neubauer has launched on Crowd Supply:
Screenshot from 2020-04-09 12-47-51

CircuitBrains Deluxe

Easily Add a Powerful Microcontroller To Your Next Project

CircuitBrains Deluxe is the smallest soldererable ATSAMD51 module. Skip on all the tedious work of adding a 32-bit microcontroller to your next project. We’ve taken care of the tough work of pin mappings, power & decoupling layout, clock, flash, assembly, bootloader, and firmware. All you need to do is drop a footprint into your next PCB design project, connect your peripherals and USB connector, then solder it on and write your code.

Just Solder It On

Save time and frustration on your next project. We’ve taken care of the finicky fine-pitch surface mount assembly for you. CircuitBrains comes in an easy-to-solder castellated module format. You can either incorporate it into your project PCB design, or solder wires directly to it via the extra holes in each castellated pad. We’ve also made it easier to hand solder these modules by including a larger “hand solder” PCB footprint for your design.

Add Some Power to Your Project

The core of CircuitBrains Deluxe is the Microchip ATSAMD51J19 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller, which can run up to 120 MHz. In addition to a powerful microcontroller, each CircuitBrains Deluxe module has 8 MB of Quad SPI flash onboard. You’ll have plenty of space for your project code and media files.

Easy to Program

CircuitBrains comes preloaded with CircuitPython. Who doesn’t love Python on microcontrollers? Plug your device into USB, modify your code, and see the changes take effect as soon as you hit Save.

Small Form Factor

CircuitBrains Deluxe won’t take up a lot of space. It was designed to be used in small projects. At just over 1 square inch (29 mm), there aren’t many places this thing won’t fit into.

CircuitBrains Deluxe launches on Crowd Supply

CircuitBrains Deluxe coming to Crowd Supply

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The CircuitBrains Deluxe, a CircuitPython-compatible ARM Cortex-M4 module, by Kevin Neubauer is coming to Crowd Supply:

microchip-circuitbrains-hero-edit_jpg_project-main

CircuitBrains Deluxe

CircuitBrains Deluxe is a 1 in² ARM Cortex-M4 module with castellated edges and through holes. This configuration allows you to design a CircuitPython project without having to worry about complex microcontroller board layout, flash storage, bootloader, or firmware. “Just add solder”. It’s even small enough for wearables.

cbdeluxe-front-back-01_png_project-body

Specifications

  • Microcontroller: Atmel ATSAMD51J19 Microcontroller (32-bit ARM Cortex-M4)
    • 120 MHz
    • 192 KB SRAM
    • 512 KB flash
  • Memory: 8 MB SPI flash on module
  • Power: Onboard 3.3 V LDO regulator
  • I/O
    • Dedicated breakouts for SPI and I²C
    • 13 analog I/O broken out
    • 19 digital I/O broken out
  • Form-factor:
    • Castellated edges for direct PCB mounting
    • 29 x 29 x 3.5 millimeters / 1.15 x 1.15 x 0.15 inches
  • Indication: Power and status LEDs

 

CircuitBrains Deluxe coming to Crowd Supply

Open Laptop Soon to be Open For Business

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How better to work on Open Source projects than to use a Libre computing device? But that’s a hard goal to accomplish. If you’re using a desktop computer, Libre software is easily achievable, though keeping your entire software stack free of closed source binary blobs might require a little extra work. But if you want a laptop, your options are few indeed. Lucky for us, there may be another device in the mix soon, because [Lukas Hartmann] has just about finalized the MNT Reform.

Since we started eagerly watching the Reform a couple years ago the hardware world has kept turning, and the Reform has improved accordingly. The i.MX6 series CPU is looking a little peaky now that it’s approaching end of life, and the device has switched to a considerably more capable – but no less free – i.MX8M paired with 4 GB of DDR4 on a SODIMM-shaped System-On-Module. This particular SOM is notable because the manufacturer freely provides the module schematics, making it easy to upgrade or replace in the future. The screen has been bumped up to a 12.5″ 1080p panel and steps have been taken to make sure it can be driven without blobs in the graphics pipeline.

via Open Laptop Soon to be Open For Business — Hackaday

Quote

CircuitBrains Deluxe packs CircuitPython into 1 square inc

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Kevin Neubauer designed this tiny module that makes it easy to add CircuitPython to a project:

CB-Deluxe-Diagonal_800x800

CircuitBrains Deluxe

CircuitPython on an ARM Cortex M4 in almost 1 square inch! This “Just Add Solder” castellated module is perfect for incorporating into your own project. The CircuitBrains Deluxe board footprint is small enough to fit into narrow spaces and wearable projects.

Rolling your own microcontroller board is time consuming. You have to make sure your design has proper power, decoupling, flash storage, and clock. Then you source all of the parts. After that you lay out the PCB and have it fabricated. When the PCB and parts arrive, you have to deal with finicky small-pitch surface mount assembly. Finally, you need to download the sources for the UF2 bootloader and CircuitPython and define your board, compile, and flash. CircuitBrains Deluxe aims to save makers and hackers some time & frustration. Using it in your project is as simple as importing the footprint libraries, adding those libraries to your schematic and layout (along with your USB port of choice), and soldering it on once your board arrives.

Kevin is aiming to launch a Crowd Supply campaign soon:

https://twitter.com/kevinneubauer/status/1231261132041703426

CircuitBrains Deluxe packs CircuitPython into 1 square inc

Teardown 2020: hardware hacking con in Portland this June

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Teardown 2020, the hardware hacking conference organized by Crowd Supply, will be June 19-21 at PCC Cascade in beautiful Portland, Oregon!

Screenshot from 2020-01-25 11-04-12

Teardown 2020

Teardown is about the practice of hardware: prototyping, manufacturing, testing, disassembling, and circumventing, all while having fun. Leave the marketing glitz and talk of venture capital at the door and come prepared to learn and teach.

Helen Leigh wrote a great Hackaday post about what happened at Teardown 2019!

Teardown 2020: hardware hacking con in Portland this June