Category: Designs
-
Finally, an Arduino library for EAGLE!
Have you put together an Arduino-based circuit and looking to nicely (but easily) document it? Or perhaps you’re looking to create an Arduino Shield with EAGLE and want to start with the correct dimensions of the headers. Element14 has come to the rescue with the Arduino library of EAGLE parts for exactly that. There are…
-
Frame-It: A Tool For Wading Through Millions of Parts
Hardware engineers everywhere know how crrazy selecting parts can be. Especially when a part change needs to occur months after intiial part selection. Why was this part so special? What were the nuances of it again? Frame-it is a chrome extension that allows you to save a document or web page while taking notes as…
-
E14 Article: EAGLE Autorouter Exploration
Anyone who is getting into PCB design will automatically be intrigued by the autorouter. It would make sense to the outside observer that an algorithm would be able to process millions of iterations of routings that finds the best balance of short traces, few vias, and well-organized traces. Similar to cracking a random password –…
-
Resources for Early EAGLE Users
While teaching BlueStamp Engineering, I have several students ask me how they can get up and running with EAGLE. And although EAGLE is created for getting users into the PCB game, it still has a significant learning curve. So I wrote an article on Element14’s EAGLE page to give new users a view of what…
-
Cypress PsoC4 Pioneer Kit: Further Blurring The Line Between Analog and Digital
I recently got my hands on a Cypress Pioneer Kit powered by a PSoC4 4200 microcontroller. A neat $25 prototyping/tinkering board, to be sure. But before I start building a project with it, I simply had to check the programmable analog specs! See what I found by reading my latest Element14 Article: Read The…
-
Using ‘ownCloud’ on Raspberry Pi to Take Back Control of Data
Last month I lost what could have been a beautiful night laying out a PCB while at a secluded cottage because Google Drive didn’t sync a couple of my board files. I switched to Microsoft Skydrive for my cloud-based storage since Windows Mesh worked so well for me over the years before it was discontinued.…
-
How to Easily Burn a Binary File to an MSP430 Chip Using the LaunchPad
Want to give some Texas Instruments MSP430 firmware to a friend who doesn’t have an IDE like CCS or IAR installed? All they need is a Binary file you create, an MSP430 Launchpad, and a small program called LITE FET-Pro430. If you’re trying to update firmware without being there in the flesh, this is a…
-
LED Bulb Teardown
I, like most EE’s love LEDs. They are such a great solution to lighting since they get away from the idea that something must be inefficiently burned (filament on incandescent), or nasty chemicals used (Mercury in CFLs) in order to generate lighting. And although no reasonably-priced lighting solution can come close to the human appeal…
-
Silicon as the new PCB?
Yesterday Chris Gammell pointed me in the direction of the Analog Devices AD5520, which is pretty close to an entire analog design for a Source Measure Unit in a single chip. And while it’s totally different from a complete instrument, I thought it would be interesting to compare some specs. To see how it performs relative to Keithley’s 2401 SourceMeter…
-
MSP430 Project Helps Disabled Kids Learn, Play
Young Circuit Designs has long been a supporter of RePlay For Kids, a Cleveland, OH based charity that modifies mainstream toys for children with disabilities. Since many electronic toys utilize activation switches that require a level of dexterity that not all children have, Replay modifies the toy to add a more accessible switch in parallel. This…