Chips To Bits

Announcement: Storage Shield for the Arduino

Steve — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 04:51:21 +0000

I have been working on this for some time now along with several other projects which I hope to release soon.

The Storage Shield is perfect for any project that needs to access a SD card. The Storage Shield utilizes an on-board Atmega328 processor so your project can now access gigabytes of storage while using very little memory or processing power of the Arduino.

There is complete documentation and examples on the project page. A quick start guide makes it simple to get you up and running with all the extra storage! A number of examples are available in the library.

For more information, check out the Storage Shield project page.

Features:

Low memory overhead on the Arduino board
Multiple file support
Support for FAT12, FAT16, FAT32
Support for 8.3 format (LFN is not supported)
Sub-directory support
User upgradeable firmware, no programmer required
Real Time Clock with battery backup for application use
Provides accurate timestamps on files
Use TWI or SPI for communications
I2C / TWI support for 400 MHz Fast Mode
Configurable TWI/I2C Pullup resistors
Software control of the SD card power
Support for SD and SDHC cards
Stackable headers to allow for other shields to be used
Indicator lights for Shield power, SD Card power, and Activity light
Arduino ICSP header carried forward and accessible
Arduino Reset button carried forward
20Mhz Atmel Atmega328 microcontroller
Write Protect on the SD card is honored
Auto sense if there is a SD card in the slot
Configurable Shield power
All hardware and software is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

No Longer Secret – Project Update

Steve — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:27:12 +0000

The parts showed up as expected. We have completed the first full product build. It was quite a learning experience. We hope to share some of our experience at a later time.

The board we are about to release is fairly complicated due to the combination of electronics and software involved. After the first production board was completed, it was obvious that we needed specialized hardware tester and a rather robust software testing engine.

So it was back to designing software and hardware. We were able to quickly design the hardware tester in Eagle and etch the board using the toner transfer method. All the parts I needed came from the junk box in the corner of the office.

The software for the tester was also not all that hard using the libraries created for public use along with the software test suite that was created during the development process.

We are currently updating the site with a considerable amount of information, and in the process of setting up the store and testing it.

If you look around the site, you can probably guess what we are doing. The formal announcement will come out in the next couple of days.

The Magic Of Electronics

Steve — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 06:50:14 +0000

Once upon a time, many years ago, I took classes on electronics and electrical engineering. In those classes we learned many things about solid state electronics, transistors, and microchips. The instructors talked about things such as source, drain, junctions, silicon, germanium, doping, gates, p-n junctions, silicon wafers, dies, and much more… They went into a great amount of detail of the science of modern electronics.

After years of practical experience, direct observation and performing precise measurements, I have come to the conclusion all of what I learned was incorrect. It has taken me a while to come to terms with the fact that the college professors had no idea what they was talking about.

Through no fault of my own (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), usually while prototyping a circuit on a bread board, I have inadvertently destroyed several chips. Through this process it was easy to determine what actually makes the chips work.

The secret is the magic smoke that is inside all microelectronics.

You see, every time I did something bad, the casing of the chip would break open and the magic smoke would be let out. After you let the magic smoke out of the chip, it does not work anymore.

I am a software engineer who works with electronics. I am not an electrical engineer who works with software. This means that I have release my share of the magic smoke.

There are several morals to this story:

1. Do not take yourself to seriously and have fun!

2. Do not draw 1 Amp (A) from component that is rated for 50 milliAmps (mA)

3. It is best to do the math before the magic smoke is released, not after

4. Have a fire extinguisher near by to chase away the magic smoke

5. Did I already say, have fun!!!

A Dead Bug In Your Electronics?

Steve — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 03:53:48 +0000

This is a good kind of bug, not one of the evil nasty ones that you need to hunt down and squash because it causes your software or hardware to fail.

A common method of prototyping with SMD/SMT electronics is using the dead bug technique. Just turn the chip over so it looks like a dead bug with the legs sticking up in the air, and solder your fine pitch wires to the pins. Attach the dead bug to your prototype using the fine pitch wires that you just soldered on the leads.

MOSFETs for Beginners

Steve — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 01:22:03 +0000

Are you blurry-eyed and contemplating the meaning of the lint in your belly button after trying to figure out what a MOSFET is? You probably have been reading the descriptions of FETS that talk about doping, dielectrics, channels and thresholds, while trying to explain the basic principals and uses.

After reading all the of these descriptions you are probably wondering if it is really that complicated. Well, yes it is. However, do you need to know about the atomic structure of silicon and hold a degree in advanced mathematics to make use of a MOSFET. The answer is in most cases no, it does not need to be all that hard.

There are a couple of tips on N-Channel and P-Channel FETS on the Digital-DIY site. If you have played around with electronics and are wondering what FETS are these tips are good place to start. They do not go into advanced details, but they are a excellent place to get a basic understanding of how MOSFETS work. If you already have a good understanding of FETS, you probably will want to skip this and and start reading up on doping, dielectrics, channels and thresholds.

Our Big Announcement!

Steve — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 04:26:44 +0000

What is the big announcement? Well it is a big let down.

We have two open source hardware projects ready for initial release. However we are a victim of the electronic parts shortage like a lot of other companies. We have finally received all the parts, except for some connectors. I have been assured that the parts will show up in the next month. It is all very frustrating. If you hear the sound of a foot taping, that would be me – waiting for the parts to show up.

Once the rest of the parts show up, we will open the store, release the schematics, and source code.

On a positive note, I am taking the break as an opportunity to design an open source kit using through hole components. It is a nice change from all of the SMD work.

How they build a +-5% Resistor

Steve — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:11:51 +0000

Check out EDN Magazine – 7% solution, when I read this article, I slapped my forehead. Sometimes the solution is very simple. Resistor production is not the only area where this type of solution is used. I have heard of it used across several different industries where some variables and tolerances are not able to be controlled for some reason.

Note: I have only included a link to the article so I do not violate any copyright/licensing laws.

Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) Made Simple

Steve — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:54:37 +0000

Chemhacker.com has a short presentation on STM’s.

Here are the slides I made up for the static display of the STM at OSS this weekend

The Amp Hour Podcast

Steve — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:35:31 +0000

It looks like Dave Jones from the EEVBlog has teamed up with Chris Gammell for an hour long audio podcast called The Amp Hour. The show is "An off-the-cuff radio show for electronics enthusiasts and professionals". It is brand new! The first couple of episodes are fun, and cover a wide range of topics. Check out The Amp Hour.

Arduino The Documentary

Steve — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:03:42 +0000

TRAILER Arduino: The Documentary (available on HD) from gnd on Vimeo.

The news on this has been out for a couple of weeks, but I still wanted to pass it on. I am looking forward to seeing the complete documentary.

From the Arduino Blog:

Laboral Centro de Arte, Spain, has commissioned the creation of a documentary about Arduino. The filmmakers are almost done with it and today they released the trailer to it. A lot of the footage was shot during the Arduino Uno meeting in March 2010, that took place at ITP, New York University.