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UVLO, Comparators with hysteresis (now with 20% more equations!)
The Mosquino board is intended to operate from very low-power sources, such as RF, vibration energy harvesting and small thermal gradients (e.g. body heat). Although the ATMega and the rest of the circuit can be put to sleep at < <1uA once they have reached legal operating voltage, many semiconductor circuits fail this test with
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Not Dead
Really! Just busy with some real-life stuff, namely wedding related and home renovations. I haven’t forgotten about this pick & place stuff! Lately I’ve been spending most of my project time on getting Mosquino toward an official 1.0 release. The rev2 boards just came in, so once all the parts are in I should have
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How to use your own modem with Comcast
Typical frog in a hot pot scenario; when I joined Comcast the modem lease was like $1.50 a month, and I didn’t even think about it. As of recently it’s now crept up to $7.00 a month, which kind of made me sit up in shock. How much do those things actually cost, anyway? Answer:
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Motorized SMT tape-and-reel feeder for DIY pick & place
Despite the impact of work, wedding planning and Super Metroid fan-hacks (not necessarily in that order ;-) on my freetime, my scheme to design a DIY-able open pick & place system is starting to come along. So far, there is a proper vacuum placement head, a rough idea of what the software architecture might look
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Tape Sprocket Creator
This is a free (open source) Python script for creating feeder sprockets for e.g. perforated tape or film advance. I wrote it for myself to generate SMD tape-and-reel feed sprockets, but it might also be useful for making replacement sprockets for 8/16/35mm film, microfilm and paper-tape systems whose original reader hardware no longer exists or
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I P, U P, everybody (DHC)Ps…
My page that tells you your IP address is up and running again, after a PHP configuration change by my web host knocked it out. Anyway, enjoy the glory of finding out your external IP address without getting socked by porn popups!
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Reversing an aquarium pump
An aquarium air pump can be used as an inexpensive source of low vacuum with a small amount of tweaking. Supplies needed are: The air pump Screwdriver (usually) to open the air pump Hose barb (your favorite size) for vacuum inlet Drill Glue (e.g. RTV/caulk, epoxy, etc.) Of course, you could convert one by sealing
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Pick n place head update
This is a quick follow up to the pick & place head article, in which I actually build the darn thing :-) As in, not just fit-test the parts together and take a picture, but actually pick and place some stuff with it. I’ve been busy/lazy, so not too much to show in terms of
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Cubeternet 2MP UVC webcam teardown
For my pick and place project, I picked up a pair of too-good-to-be-true webcams: the Cubeternet no-name UVC webcam. For this project, there is a lot to like: 2MP resolution (claimed, at least), built-in LED ring, cross-platform UVC interface, hand-adjustable focus and a legitimate glass (no polycarbonate) lens…for $16! Alas, my review of this cam
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Image segmentation for PnP optical placement
Quick ‘n dirty (but working!) image segmenter for randomly-strewn part identification. About 1 page worth of scripting takes an image of objects on background, determines which part is the background, determines the outside contour of each object and numbers each as a separate object. Now that it’s known where to look for one specific object,
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Pick ‘n Place Head
This weekend I got some parts in and put together a preliminary placement head for my open-source pick ‘n place project. My requirements are that it be buildable with off-the-shelf parts (ideally same-source, to save on shipping) and no special equipment, allow +/-180 degree rotation while maintaining an undisturbed vacuum, and support interchanging of the
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Toward an open-source Pick and Place machine
So, there’s some really cool, empowering stuff going down these days with regard to manufacturing. Cartesian machines (i.e. CNC mills) are relatively simple to build from off-the-shelf parts; there are a bajillion people doing this and plenty of ready-made open-source designs available. More recently, hobbyists have gotten in on designing open-source rapid prototypers (3D printers);
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I quit, I win, final, no talkbalks
It’s like third grade all over again, except that I could theoretically have ice cream for breakfast if I wanted to.
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Windows 2000/XP Driver for (some) Veo Stingray and IBM PC Camera V5000 webcams
UPDATE: For Veo Stingray drivers, try these first. In case they disappear… Stingray 300V (Win98/ME/2000/XP) and Stingray 323V (Win2k/XP only). The one sold by AllElectronics uses the 323V driver. I picked up an old “Veo Stingray” camera from surplus dealer AllElectronics. These things are pretty junk by modern standards (320×240 resolution, unsightly rounded “looking through
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Tubthumping (or, Sears/Kenmore washers are shit, do not buy them)
So there we are, minding our own business, when an angry demon springs to life in the basement. He is on a rampage, pounding against the walls with all his might, THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP BANG BANG BANG. We race downstairs. Turns out it is only the Sears Kenmore front-loading washing machine’s internals beating themselves
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No, she cannot has cheezburger. Laser pointer, yes!
We got a kitty last weekend. Like many new additions of the human kind, we hadn’t really planned on it*, but now we are in love with her. Her name is Spirit (she comes pre-named). She had no trouble settling into the new house, except for spooking out at the noise from the radiators at
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Banned from Google (or, How I Became A Dirty Rotten Spammer)
An update, 1/28/2011: It turns out there was a legitimate problem on the site after all! Specifically, hacked by spammers at some point and filled with invisible links & keywords. Skip down to the comments for the details, and be aware that the rant that follows is based on a fairly complete lack of information!
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My quickie guide for setting up mspgcc for ez430-cc2500
Mostly for my own reference for the next time I have to set it up on a new machine, but may help others on their first time install. Valid as of Feb. or so this year. Software ‘shopping’ list (all free/OSS tools) Set up the toolchain (mspgcc). There seem to be several important tools missing
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DIY-Spy: a homebrew 2.4GHz wi-fi spectrum analyzer
I was reading the Thinkgeek catalog a while back and an interesting gadget caught my eye: “Wi-Spy”, a 2.4GHz spectrum analyzer on a USB stick. Coming from the world where “spectrum analyzer” refers to a big benchtop box with a name like Le Croyright, we can’t afford those Agilent on it, my first thought was,
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Throwies overtake Kendall/MIT station sculpture
Blinking RGB LED throwies adorn the “Steaming Globe” sculpture near the Kendall/MIT station just after the 4th of July fireworks show. No idea how this could have happened. Kids had a blast pulling them off and throwing them back onto the globe (and each other!). The whole rest of the night as we walked around,
Find stuff…
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- Das Blinkenlichten – wearable lighting
- Goldmine Electronics LCD pinout (mini-teardown)
- Mosquino: an Arduino-based energy harvesting development board
- Pick and Place Project
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