Author Archives: krazatchu

M’Day: Low Power Motion Sensor Arduino Night Light…

A few years back I made a motion sensitive night light as a Mother’s day gift and while it worked pretty well it really chewed out the batteries.  And as with all devices that eat batteries it eventually fell out … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, AVR, Battery, DIY, Electronics, Embedded, LEDs, Low power, Sensors | 1 Comment

SuperDuplex: An InfraRed Bootloader for Arduino…

We’ve implemented an optical infrared Arduino bootloader based on the common 38kHz infrared remote modualtion.  Using the Asuro as inspiration, our bootloader goes a step further in that it works seamlessly from within the Arduino IDE, utilizing the STK500V2 protocol … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, AVR, Communication, DIY, Embedded, Infra Red, LEDs, Networking | 11 Comments

How to: Bread Board Arduino…

Having a couple of Bread Board Arduinos handy can really make prototyping quick and painless.  And while the Bread Board Arduino has pretty much been flogged to death in every way, shape and horse, we’re posting our rendition as reference … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, AVR, DIY, Electronics, Embedded, How to | Leave a comment

On the Cheap: Supported Linear Rail…

Supported linear rail can be quite expensive, at over $100 per rail per meter, not including shipping.  An alternative support was theorized using 3/8″ threaded rod, drilled, tapped and screwed into the rail.  Today it was assembled and tested, and … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, DIY, Mechanical, Motion Control | 4 Comments

How to: Compiling the Arduino Bootloader…

A project we’ve been recently working on requires a custom Arduino boot loader.  Working in an incremental fashion, the first step is getting the stock Arduino boot loader to compile with the latest WinAVR libraries and current Arduino 1.0 IDE.  … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, AVR, Embedded, How to | 3 Comments

SiC LED: Half the cost, same great taste…

NoMi Design’s northern lab recently received some next generation gallium-nitride on silicon carbide LEDs.  These new XBD series LEDs from Cree are promising double the lumen per dollar of existing technologies.  From what we gather, the reduced cost is a … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, LEDs | Leave a comment

CNC Half Nuts: The Smell of Melting Plastic…

After cutting down the Y axis screw for the CNC gantry router project we had a short piece of 3/4 inch Acme leadscrew remaining that was just long enough to drive the Z-axis.  Buying an ACME tap to make a … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, DIY, How to, Mechanical, Motion Control | 5 Comments

CNC Gantry Router: Collecting Bits & Pieces…

Bit by bit, piece by piece we have been slowing collecting the parts for the build.  We just picked up a 400lb steel table measuring in at 5×8 feet that will be the basis of the build.  An acme thread … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, Mechanical, Motion Control | 5 Comments

The Sound of Switchmode

If you’ve ever wondered what different switch mode power supplies would sound like if used to drive a speaker, here is an untested circuit you might try.  Using a zener clamped piezoelectric transducer as a contact microphone to push/pull the … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Off The Wall, Sensors | Leave a comment

Hackaday: WindPOV project…

My WindPOV project was featured on Hackaday: http://hackaday.com/2012/03/02/wind-powered-pov-weather-station/ It displays the temperature and humidity on the wing tip by way of persistence of vision. The idea of using our Contiki enabled 802.15.4 board has been tossed around a bit, this … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, AVR, Contiki, DIY, Electronics, LEDs, Mechanical, Sensors | Leave a comment