FTDI chip real of fake ? How to spot a fake RT232R / RT232RL and others ?
Here is a 5 minute test: 1) purchase your boards in pairs this helps detect same serial number in case of fakes. Any board you buy under $5 is probably …
How much power is needed to hover ?
by Sergiu Baluta, Starlino Electronics, revised 10/30/2015 This article is a theoretical venture that aims to answer a series of practical questions, such as: – given a certain electrical setup …
QUICK TIP: How to easily remove Hubsan X4 quadcopter battery
Hubsan X4 is a nice quadcopter that is great for learning to fly a RC model. It is also a nice way to relax on your break since it can be …
UNI-T UT61E Multimiter Serial Protocol Reverse Engineering
UT61E is a fantastic multimiter for the price that unfortunately comes with a terrible PC interface program: I decided to poke arround and see if I can reverse engineer the …
My plateless Anti-vibration mounts
These 3d printed ball adapters work great! I thought that the adapter plates that come with these are too heavy so I designed and printed these white adapters, now I …
Removing stubborn 3D prints from bed (my way of doing it)
Here is my method of removing stubborn prints from your 3D printer’s bed. This method does minimum damage to the bed coating (painter’s tape / capton tape). All you …
Inside Coach – Smart Ball IMU Based Technology
To all my fans, readers and supporters … I just wanted to share a new exciting project to which I dedicated my last few months of work. This project summarizes …
Kickstater Campaign To Buy Off Radioshack stock and Convert To Maker Places
A while back I wrote a “Wake-up letter to Radioshack”. Since then, Radioshack made a substantial progress in the direction of being more appealing to the maker community, but now …
Learn Git in 15 minutes by practice.
I absolutely love this practical concept of learning GIT from Code School. Want to learn Git, but don
RC Crawler Truck as Robotic Platform: Part 1 – upscale from 1/8 size to ~ 1/5 conversion, now able to climb on stairs
A terrain robotic platform must be able to handle different environments and be able to go over obstacles. While looking for such a platform for an upcoming robotic project, …
Quicktip: Program your RC transmitter with UsbThumb
If you own a low-end RC transmitter with the Trainer port, you can program it using USBThumb (using the default USBThumbSerial firmware https://code.google.com/p/usbthumb/). The pin-out for the Trainer port is …
Probotix X90 CNC – Cutting Servo Mounts in Sintra PVC Foam Board
This is the first cut of my Probotix X90 CNC. Absolutely amazing! I am using the EMC2 Linux CNC installed on an old computer installed using their Live/Bootable …
Build a really fast pulse generator (50ps rise time) using an ultra fast SiGe comparator.
Motivation If you purchase a new or used scope you will probably need a way to test its advertised bandwidth. One way to test the bandwidth of the scope is …
Shpero – a robotic project success story
I recently got my first Sphero and I have to admit as with any new product I was skeptical in the beginning. However just after few minutes of playing with …
Tenma 72-7740 Autorange Multimeter Review
When it comes to test equipment a hobbyist is often asking himself – should I invest in top of the line equipment or can I compromise and go with a …
Introducing the QuadHybrid – a stable, maneuverable and cheap flying robotic platform
Introduction & Demo of the QuadHybrid Design I’ve been experimenting for quite a while with different configurations of Multi-Copters and RC Helicopters, basically looking for a stable robotic platform that …
USB firmware debugging with USBTrace, PicKit & MPLAB IDE
Ah, the joy of firmware debugging! I’ve been working on a USB firmware for my new upcoming product that involves a dual traditional TTL (Serial) and a USB-TO-SERIAL converter (CDC …
Add a simple mechanical fine tune control to any bench instrument without voiding warranty
I was looking for a way to make the adjustment for my power supply more precise and easier to dial let’s say to a voltage like 3.3 , but without …
Some (Free!) Feedback for TI MSP430 LaunchPad’s Development and Marketing Team
I finally got a minute to play with the MSP430 LaunchPad Kit I received, well almost for free from TI and immediately got some feedback to share with the development …
Arduino – to clone or not to clone ?
Microchip started marketing an Arduino clone called chipKit. Is this a correct decision to clone an open source platform as opposed to Texas Instrument's decision to create it's own platform …