301 Moved Permanently

Posted November 15, 2011 by Chris

“Raster-scan displays, like a TV, require a number of synchronization signals to operate. The display is addressed as multiple, consecutive, horizontal lines, which scan from left to right, displaying a large number of pixels on the line as it advances. At the end of a line, the display begins to scan the next line from left to right until the entire frame (consisting of many lines) is displayed.”

Posted November 14, 2011 by Chris

“After I got comfortable programming and building with an Arduino, I decided to build a robot. I did not have any particular type in mind, so I wracked my brain (and the internet) for cool robot ideas. Eventually, somehow the idea popped into my head to build a robot that could climb trees.” An intriguing project that references my L298 motor control tutorial!

Posted November 12, 2011 by Chris

“The Shruthi-1 is a hybrid digital/analog monosynth. Its hardware design is deceptively simple, but the sonic range is wide: sometimes grungily digital like a PPG-Wave, fat and funky like a SH-101, videogame-y like a Commodore 64, weird and warm like an ESQ-1 ; but more often than not, truly original.”

Posted November 11, 2011 by Chris

This VHDL morse code keyer is written in VHDL by Jim Brady. He has posted the source (for a Xilinx Spartan 3A). He also posted his vintage keyer designs from the 1960’s and 1970’s. A nice throw back using some modern tech.

Posted November 10, 2011 by Syd

“ The goal of this project will be to iterate over a list of files following our predefined file structure, parse each file’s file path to determine its ID3 tag data, and save each file with its updated ID3 data.” This is another great article dipping further into the software side of the world, showing you how to restructure your MP3 collection with Python!

Posted November 9, 2011 by Chris

“For my Digital Systems Laboratory (ECE 385) at the University of Illinois I had to do a final project using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). My partner and I designed a hardware implementation of the MD5 algorithm and used it to crack MD5 password hashes. A FPGA allows you to prototype digital circuits by utilizing a hardware description language such as VHDL.”

Posted November 8, 2011 by Chris

“A while ago I found a Burroughs B-5853 Nixie tube kicking around in the lab and decided that I should put it to good use. Since I only had one of this size, I wanted to make a single-digit display out of it. After I saw Jason Harper’s Nixie clock gallery, I decided that one digit really could make a cool clock.”

Posted November 7, 2011 by Chris

The winners of the 7400 logic competition were announced last week. PyroElectro’s Masochist’s Video Card won 2nd place and TTL Tilt Sensor won 3rd place! A lot of interesting and mostly DIY style projects were entered. Take a look through the winners list and you’ll likely find a project that explains the details of something you’ve always wanted to make.

Posted November 5, 2011 by Chris

“On this page I will describe how to communicate with HD44780-based LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays) using an Atmel AVR microcontroller. The page is mainly meant as a place for me to keep information on the pinouts of the display modules I have used, and to gather info about these displays, for me and others to use.”

Posted November 4, 2011 by Chris

“The Quad Rotor Helicopter is a semi autonomous robot. It flies with 4 rotors arranged in a + sign configuration. The Quad Rotor is a work in progress. The Quad rotor takes sensory input into an FPGA. The FPGA filters the input and runs a PID controller to control the speed of each propeller. The FPGA offers all of the sensor data to a cpu and the cpu makes decisions about the orientation.”