I’m learning a lot programming in AVR C. There’s are a few subtleties to watch out for, and some of them have had me banging my head against the wall for days. This post is an attempt to prevent anyone else playing with AVR outside of AVR Studio (I’m using Linux and the command line) from having the same issues. Sections for avr-objcopy When you compile an AVR C program, you get object code, which you have to convert into [...]
I created an HD44780 LCD library for the AVR architecture today. There were a ton already, and mine is based off of one by Peter Fleury. I added a couple cool little features, and decided it needed to be on github to allow people to improve it and access it easier. LCDiesel on Github Here’s a quick code example using the library: #include <avr/io.h> #include <avr/pgmspace.h> #include <util/delay.h> #include “lcd.h” // Include the chars we want #define CHAR_USE_OPEN_RECTANGLE #define CHAR_USE_HEART [...]
Well, it’s a kit, so it’s kind of cheating. The other project was the Theramin, which I worked on for days. Anyway, this is a cute little kit you can buy for about $22 that, once assembled, can program pretty much any Atmel microcontroller IC. It’s pretty cool – for real. Anyway, it only took about 45 minutes (I was being careful soldering, could have had it done in 20 if I was hurrying). I’m very happy with the result [...]
I finally finished my second real electronic project: The Pocket Theramin. I made a few changes/improvements to the design found here, and I really like my result. The basic circuit is exactly the same, but I added an LED and a toggle switch so I can keep it together as one unit all the time. Also, I discovered that MAKE: Electronics is an awesome book. I highly recommend purchasing yourself a copy.
Well, I finally drilled my PCB for my MintyBoost XL last night, and it was a great success. If you need PCB drill bits, order them from stevie66 on ebay. I got various sizes from 50 to 85, but I found the 65 to be the most useful. I used it to drill all but the largest holes on the board. Once that was done, I soldered it all together. It came out very nicely. I struggled the most with [...]
I’ve always wanted to make my own PCB, so today is a special day for me. This is for the MintyBoost XL, which is totally awesome. Now I just have to etch it, drill it, and solder all these little components onto it… I used the instructions found here to create this little gem. They are very good, but I modified the method slightly. Instead of taping crap down, you just heat up the board like he says, carefully stick [...]
I’m very happy with my new CD player.It came with an older firmware on it, and supposedly the new ones will play OGGs, so I decided to upgrade.
From a recent edition of [CQ]() I was reading today… Projecting the Impact of a Geomagnetic “Superstorm” Posted: Jan 23, 2009 As the sun begins to rouse from its prolonged quiet period at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, hams around the world are looking forward to the next solar peak and the big band openings on HF and VHF that will accompany it. But a big solar peak can also result in big solar flares, followed by big geomagnetic [...]
WARNING! DON’T BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE! USE CAUTION! TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK! YOU WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY! So, I got this heating pad at the store a while back to use as a hedgehog heating pad. I found out that the 2-hour auto-off timer was hardcoded into the circuit, and they didn’t even bother to put a switch on the casing to disable it. Typical overprotection of the consumer – this wouldn’t exist if our country was a bit [...]
FeedBurner
License
