SeeedFusion PCB Service
Seeed were kind enough to offer me a coupon towards their Seeed-Fusion PCB service. I had a design ready which I had recently converted from Eagle to KiCad so it seemed like an excellent opportunity…
Making a buck converter
In my previous postI explained how to decide when you need a buck converter rather than a linear regulator. In this post I am going to explain how to build a buck converter into your project. Drop in…
Powering a circuit with linear regulators and buck converters
Most electronic projects need a stable voltage source, typically 5V or 3.3V DC. Here we discuss how to choose when to use a linear voltage regulator and when to use a buck converter. What's the…
USI Serial UART Send on ATtiny
In my previous post, USI Serial UART Receive on ATtiny, we discussed how to implement a Serial UART receiver on an Atmel ATtiny using the USI module. This post describes how to implement a simple…
USI Serial UART Receive on ATtiny
Many ATtiny microprocessors don't include a hardware UART, but do include a Universal Serial Interface, USI. The USI module can be used to implement SPI, TWI (also known as I2C) and UART serial…
Tuning ATtiny internal oscillator
The internal oscillator of an ATtiny can be inaccurate and might require tuning. This post discusses how to do that if you have access to an oscilloscope or a frequency counter. An accurate clock…
Borrowing an Arduino Timer
If you want to use a microcontroller timer for your own purposes and you are using Arduino you might find that you need to borrow a timer from the Arduino core and then give it back. The ATtiny85…
Arduino PWM MOSFET Gate Resistor
If you are driving a logic level MOSFET directly from an Arduino, or another Atmel AVR such as an ATTiny85, you may have wondered what value resistor should be placed between the output pin and the…
3D Printed Enclosure
I designed an enclosure for my LED lighting controller. It houses the circuit board, has two buttons and cutouts for the wires and IR receiver. I printed it in white PLA and installed it with a small…
PCB populated and tested
I found some time last week to populate my OshPark board and test it. You can see it here connected to 12V power (bottom) and a 12V LED strip load (top). Soldering the through the hole components…
My First PCB
I have received my first printed circuit boards from OSH Park. They look great and I am looking forward to trying them out. I have designed my own circuits, prototyped them on breadboards and…
Mini maker faire coming to a Barnes & Noble near you
Mainstream retail meets the maker revolution. So this is interesting news, Barnes & Noble are hosting a mini maker faire in every one of their 650 retail stores between Friday November 6th and Sunday…
Becoming Maker
As a kid I was driven to understand how things worked. I deconstructed toys, unsoldered components from old car radios, disassembled and reassembled hifi stereo systems and learnt how to program High…