Posts with «hardware-hacking» label

Makerbot Replicator mods I’ve done

After two years, I think I have my Replicator (apparently the first one shipped) finally working reliably to produce >1 hour prints. Thank you @iandanforth for asking if I had a description of the mods I did and prompting me to write this. The Replicator has been a very frustrating product. After a few out-of-the-box [...]
Todbot 27 Sep 22:32
hardware-hacking  

Portable PIC16F145x Development Platform

About a year ago, while I was developing the blink(1) mk2, I created both a PIC16F1455 development board and a little assemblage that was tiny enough to toss in my laptop bag but powerful enough to let me develop on the PIC.  I could now develop firmware in a coffeeshop! It consists of: Sabrent 4-port [...]
Todbot 26 Mar 22:36
blink1  hardware-hacking  

Portable PIC16F145x Development Platform

About a year ago, while I was developing the blink(1) mk2, I created both a PIC16F1455 development board and a little assemblage that was tiny enough to toss in my laptop bag but powerful enough to let me develop on the PIC.  I could now develop firmware in a coffeeshop! It consists of: Sabrent 4-port [...]
Todbot 26 Mar 22:36
blink1  hardware-hacking  

BlinkMuino updated for Arduino 1.0 (finally)

I finally got around to updating the BlinkMuino guide for turning your BlinkM, BlinkM MinM, or BlinkM MaxM into a tiny ATtiny85 or ATtiny84 Arduino system. BlinkM boards make great tiny development boards, especially if you’re interested in driving LEDs. BlinkM MaxMs are particularly great because they have more inputs and those three beefy MOSFET [...]
Todbot 11 May 20:37
blinkm  hardware-hacking  thingm  

BlinkMuino updated for Arduino 1.0 (finally)

I finally got around to updating the BlinkMuino guide for turning your BlinkM, BlinkM MinM, or BlinkM MaxM into a tiny ATtiny85 or ATtiny84 Arduino system. BlinkM boards make great tiny development boards, especially if you’re interested in driving LEDs. BlinkM MaxMs are particularly great because they have more inputs and those three beefy MOSFET [...]
Todbot 11 May 20:37
blinkm  hardware-hacking  thingm  

Arduino-serial: updated!

In late 2006 I wrote “arduino-serial“, mostly for myself, to help with stuff I was working on at the time. It was a very simple & small, cross-platform tool written in basic C for reading/writing serial ports. Now nearly seven years later I still get regular questions and frustrations about it. Part of this is [...]
Todbot 30 Apr 01:43
arduino  hardware-hacking  

Arduino-serial: updated!

In late 2006 I wrote “arduino-serial“, mostly for myself, to help with stuff I was working on at the time. It was a very simple & small, cross-platform tool written in basic C for reading/writing serial ports. Now nearly seven years later I still get regular questions and frustrations about it. Part of this is [...]
Todbot 30 Apr 01:43
arduino  hardware-hacking  

listComPorts – Windows command-line tool for USB-to-serial

Did you know each Arduino has a unique serial number in its USB interface that you can use to distinguish one Arduino from another? If you deal with multiple Arduinos, knowing exactly which one is plugged into your computer can be a real time-saver. But actually getting at this serial number and mapping it to COM ports can be challenging.

For Windows computers, here’s “listComPorts”, implemented both in GCC C code and in VBScript, both available from my usbSearch github repository.

It gives the COM port number, the manufacturer name, the USB Vendor ID and Product ID (VID & PID) and [...]

Todbot 02 Mar 08:55
arduino  hardware-hacking  

listComPorts – Windows command-line tool for USB-to-serial

Did you know each Arduino has a unique serial number in its USB interface that you can use to distinguish one Arduino from another? If you deal with multiple Arduinos, knowing exactly which one is plugged into your computer can be a real time-saver. But actually getting at this serial number and mapping it to [...]
Todbot 02 Mar 08:55
arduino  hardware-hacking  

From Illustrator to Eagle: Vector graphics in circuits

Eagle is a great cross-platform, free-for-non-commercial-use tool for many of us designing own own circuit boards. But it has a pretty glaring omission: the ability to import vector artwork to use as board outlines, logos, etc. You can import bitmaps via the finicky “import_bmp.ulp” ULP add-on, but bitmaps can’t work for board outlines. So we struggle with Eagle’s rudimentary vector drawing tools or have boring rectangular or circular boards. I think I’ve found a way to robustly transfer vector artwork from Illustrator to Eagle. Below I show an “amoeba” vector shape in Illustrator being [...]

Todbot 06 Jun 08:30
hardware-hacking