Teensy 3.6 DIY Reference Board

April 27, 2017April 20, 2017 fustiniARM, DIY, Freescale, microcontroller, NXP, teensyLeave a comment

Shared project from Teensy creator Paul Stoffregen on OSH Park:

Teensy 3.6 DIY Reference Board

A known good reference board for testing the MKL04 chip when building a DIY Teensy 3.6. Refer to this table for the differences between Teensy 3.6 and other models. The soldering friendly LQFP package (at least more friendly than BGA) is used on this board.

Parts Placement Diagram

Bill Of Materials

1   MK66FX1M0VLQ18
1   IC_MKL04Z32_TQFP32
1   USB A Connector
1   USB Mini B Connector
1   Micro SD Socket
1   MCP1825S Voltage Regulator
1   TPD3S014 USB Power Switch
1   Crystal, 16 MHz
1   Crystal, 32.768 kHz
3   Diode, Schottky, B120
1   Capacitor, 100uF, 6.3V
4   Capacitor, 4.7uF
10  Capacitor, 0.1uF
1   Resistor, 100K
2   Resistor, 470
2   Resistor, 220
2   Resistor, 33
1   Pushbutton
2   Test Point, Black

PT8211 Audio Shield for Teensy

April 25, 2017April 20, 2017 fustiniARM, Audio, DAC, microcontroller, teensyLeave a comment

Paul Stoffregen has shared this Teensy audio shield:

PT8211 Audio Shield for Teensy

PT8211 is an inexpensive 16 bit stereo DAC.

This small breakout board connects the PT8211 to Teensy 3.2, Teensy 3.5 or Teensy 3.6.

Giant Functional LEGO NES Controller

April 22, 2017April 20, 2017 fustinikicad, LEGO, microcontroller, NES, Nintendo, teensyLeave a comment

Bob Baddeley writes on Hackaday:

Giant Solderless LEGO NES Controller Gives Everyone Tiny Hands

[BrownDogGadgets] built a giant NES controller out of LEGO. The controller is designed in LEGO Digital Designer, which lets you create a virtual model, then get a full list of parts which can be ordered online.

The electronics are based on a Teensy LC programmed to appear as a USB keyboard, and the buttons are standard push buttons. The insides are wired together with nylon conductive tape. LEGO was an appropriate choice because the Teensy and switches are built on top of LEGO compatible PCBs, so components are just snapped in place. The system is called Crazy Circuits and is a pretty neat way to turn electronics into a universal and reusable system.

Here is the controller in action:

Design files and source code for Crazy Circuits modules and projects are available on GitHub:

BrownDogGadgets/CrazyCircuits

https://hackaday.io/project/21303-giant-working-lego-nes-controller

Find out more in our previous blog post:

Crazy Circuits launches on Kickstarter

April 9, 2017April 5, 2017 fustiniarduino, education, Kickstarter, LEGO, microcontroller, STEM3 Comments

Crazy Circuits: Unique STEM Projects Delivered Monthly

Create fun STEM and STEAM electronics projects with parts delivered to your door.

Crazy Circuits is a non-soldering electronic learning platform that allows people to create circuits from almost any material they can imagine. Crazy Circuits are designed to pop onto LEGO™ bricks, enabling your LEGO™ creations to shine, move, and make noise. Use Crazy Circuits to construct paper crafts with conductive tape, use conductive thread for sewing, and create art with conductive inks and paints. You can even program sketches with Arduino compatible Crazy Circuits boards. No matter what you want to build, Crazy Circuits brings it all together.

Musical Toothbrush by Joe Grand

April 1, 2017March 31, 2017 fustiniatmel, attiny, attiny85, Audio, avr, microcontrollerLeave a comment

Hackaday wrote about a nifty hack by Joe Grand:

[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.…

Joe published full documentation for the project on his website:

The PCB is shared on OSH Park:

Tooth Tunes Hack

Joe describes the project in this video:

Hear the toothbrush in action:

Versatile ATtiny Programming Adapter

March 8, 2017March 2, 2017 fustiniatmel, attiny, attiny13, avr, microcontroller, prototypingLeave a comment

Lucky Resistor designed this programming adapter for ATtiny13 and similar chips:

A Versatile ATtiny Programming Adapter

As mentioned in my article about designing a cheap plant watering sensor, I built a small adapter which can be used to pre-program the ATtiny13A. This is necessary, because once soldered on the board, I only have a debugWire interface, which has to be enabled first.

The adapter has a small 50mil JTAG header, where the Atmel ICE can be connected with the board. There is also room for a USB mini jack, which is used to power the MCU while programming. A small on-off switch is used to power the MCU and a LED is placed as indicator to see if the MCU has power.

One of the DIL/ZIF adapters is mounted on top of the female headers. Most of the adapters for SO-8, SO-14 and SO-16 will work with this board.

https://luckyresistor.me/2017/02/25/a-versatile-attiny-programming-adapter/

To make the board more versatile, I added a number of jumpers and solder points. By default, the adapter is connecting to the right pins for the ATtiny13A, but you can cut these routes and solder wires onto the board to implement any kind of connection you like.

The design files are available on GitHub:

LuckyResistor/ATtinyAdapter

LuckyResistor has shared the board on OSH Park:

ATtiny Adapter

ESP8266 Pogo Jig Programming Board

March 7, 2017March 2, 2017 fustiniEAGLE, esp8266, hackday, microcontroller, pogo, prototyping, Wemos, wifi, wireless1 Comment

We like the novel orientation of pogo pins that Wing Tang Wong used in this board design:

ESP8266 Pogo Jig Programming Board

Upcycles D1 Mini Wemos board to create a USB connected ESP8266 Pogo pin jig

This is a board designed to take a WeMos D1 Mini board(with the ESP module removed) and use it as a USB interface with built-in reset/flash functionality for bare ESP8266 modules similar to the ESP-12 units.

The design files are available on GitHub:

ESP8266 Programming D1 Mini Pogo Jig V1

Portable Heartbeat Logger

March 1, 2017March 2, 2017 fustiniData Logger, medical, microcontrollerLeave a comment

Ole Andreas Utstumo designed this board to log ECG waveforms:

Heartbeat Logger

A portable device that will log your ECG – the “waveform” of your heart – to your phone via bluetooth or to a memory card

The Heartbeat Logger is a portable device that that logs your ECG throughout the day and throughout the night, 24/7. While this certainly is nothing new, even as an open source project (see MobilECG), Heartbeat is a project that, aside being of personal value for me, is designed to be simple to use and understand, and might serve a purpose somewhere for someone.

https://hackaday.io/project/7651-heartbeat-logger

The firmware and hardware design is available on GitHub:

Utstumo/Heartbeat-Logger/

https://hackaday.io/project/7651-heartbeat-logger

Ladder board for simple Automation

February 24, 2017February 16, 2017 fustiniAutomation, hackaday.io, microcontroller, PLC, visual language, visual programmingLeave a comment

chmod775 designed this compact, standalone board to be programmed with a simple visual language:

Focus

Focus born with the purpose of making a prototype board that simplify every aspect of programming.

https://hackaday.io/project/19180-focus

Spent the last hour writing down the main concept of the Visual Programming Language for the Focus! It’s just a simple sketch, but I wanted to share it with you the main reason why I’m building it.

https://hackaday.io/project/19180-focus

Vertically Mounted Arduino-Compatible Board

February 22, 2017February 16, 2017 fustiniarduino, breadboard, microcontroller, prototyping, tindieLeave a comment

Clovis Fritzen designed this Arduino-compatible, vertically-mountable board that exclusively uses through-hole components:

Vertically mounted Arduino for Breadboard

I personally love the concept of electronic boards connected in “slots” (vertically attached to a horizontal board), like most industrial-grade PLC’s or even our desktop’s expansion cards (video, sound memory): it saves a lot of space and adds more functions to the system, all at once!

https://www.tindie.com/products/clovisfritzen/vertically-mountable-arduino-pcb-only/

The PCB is for sale on Tindie:

Vertically mountable Arduino – PCB only

This is an Arduno-Nano compatible controller that can be vertically mounted to bredboards and boards