S1axter's Tech Log of Crazy Stuff
s1axter
Makezine.com posted this video Thursday about making PCBs using a laser printer and photo paper. I made a couple boards a few years ago using this method. If you give it a try, remember to set the iron to the max, use lots of force and warm the ferric chloride before you put the board in.
Someone has a little too much time on their hands. Stop motion pong and space invaders, geeze
To all our American readers; Happy 4th of July. Have a save one and enjoy your barbecues :-)
I was wondering how long it was going to take to get a video of someone dropping their iPhone. Looks like it didn't take long to go from purchase to full drop on concrete.
Hahaha, sucks to be you
Petter sent in a tip the other day to a Network Echo Example using the MCF52235 microcontroller without a RTOS. The MCF52235 is a ColdFire RISC microprocessor from Freescale electronics packed with a ton of peripherals. The processor overview PDF is here.
The Network Echo Example was compiled using the GNU ColdFire processor toolchains. I haven't used a Freescale ColdFire so I couldn't use the code. However, if you have some exposure to ColdFire processors and want a network example, this might be for you!
Here's the link to the post: Working MCF52235 TCP/IP stack without RTOS for GNU toolchain
(Warning: The site is in Norwegian)
And the GNU ColdFire Toolchains: http://www.codesourcery.com/gnu_toolchains/coldfire/index_html
Well today is the official iPhone launch and it will be interesting to see how this wonder device is going to fare in the real world. Most technology savvy people understand you can make anything look amazing in a TV commercial but how does it work for real? Well the New York Times technology columnist David Pogue made a rather funny video about the iPhone and what it does. I was impressed, it looks like it functions just as the commercials and MacWorld presentation show. Take a look.
I'm not an Apple guy, I don't have a Mac or an iPod but I wouldn't mind getting my hands on this little slice of heaven.
As I tend to do when I'm all out of things post I was browsing youtube and came across pyrofer's user page. This guy works with the small 128x128 Nokia LCDs and PICs to make some cool 3D cubes and a clone of boulderdash.
The video is of a clone of Boulderdash running on a PIC 12f683 and a Nokia 3310 LCD.
You can check out Pyofer's main blog: http://www.pyrofersprojects.com/blog/
The PIC related stuff: http://www.pyrofersprojects.com/blog/?page_id=73
Youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/pyrofer
Sometimes it gets hard to surf around and find a cool link/project on the net, especially when you work at a real job all day. So it seems like every other site has submit links, why not GI?
Send us your stuff
We've been talking and some day we will give away stuff to people who submit stuff or leave comments, so check back. Until then, entertain yourself with this! A Doom clone running on a TI-83... well it looks like an emulator but still. Looks like this has been around for a while but it's the first time I've seen it.
Today our review of Embedded Linux Primer showed up on Slashdot and one of the comments was about eLinux.org, a wiki for embedded Linux. I think I stumbled upon this on day but didn't save the URL.
I took a look around and there is a lot of information there, if you are an embedded Linux engineer or just interested take a look.
There were also some comments on the review about my statement that the device drivers chapter was a little weak. I guess I should have chosen my words a little better than saying I was expecting to be a driver guru at chapters end. The thing I was disappointed about was the lack of information on how the kernel interacts with hardware on a low level. The chapter gave a cursory overview of making a driver shell that said "loaded" "unloaded" and that's about it.
Thanks a lot to all who stopped by today and come back soon!
Oh yeah, the slashdot link: http://books.slashdot.org/books/07/06/20/1356207.shtml
Another embedded contest for all those embedded developers out there!
Microchip and Circuit Cellar are running the Microchip 16-bit Embedded Control 2007 design contest . This contest is for any solution commercially available 16bit MCU or DSC and is open to anyone 18 and older who doesn't work for Microchip.
The prize breakdown is $5000for first place, $3000 for second and $1750 for third. There are also 7, $750 prizes for subcategories:
1. Effective Use of SMPS Resources (for example resources found on dsPIC30F2020)
2. Effective Use of Motor Control Resources (for example resources found on dsPIC30F2010)
3. Use of Smart Sensing Methodologies
4. Connected (Communications) Applications
5. Effective Use of Peripheral Pin Select (for example resources found on PIC24FJ64GA002)
6. Effective Use of DSP technology
7. Best Use of Bonus Parts
All entries must be written using PIC assembly or C30 compiler and be submitted before October 16, 2007.
So get those books out and build something cool!
Here's the contest home: http://www.circuitcellar.com/microchip2007/
And the registration page: http://www.circuitcellar.com/microchip2007/enter.html
Oh yeah, here's a list of the 16bit MCUs: http://www.microchip.com/ParamChartSearch/chart.aspx?branchID=8099&mid=14&lang=en&pageId=75
