It has been quite a while since I had a chance to work on the tool – I have been too busy validating the output and playing with the microgameboy, but finally I’ve had the time to incorporate some bugfixes. The biggest one on the list has been the import Read more
The recent DirtyPCBs.com paneling experiment resulted in a nice new addition to our prototyping toolbox: the yellow panel. The yellow panel contains: Wolfsom SMT microphone breakout with small amplifier QFN24-to-dip adapter Freescale K20 TFT backpack (enhanced Teensy3.1 without the bootloaderchip) Freescale KL02Z DIP breakout with microphone USB-testpoint board in USBstick form Read more
DirtyPCB seems to be the first small-prototyping-service that allows you to build panels with breaktabs. I had to try this! Soon after this thought I stumbled upon the great question of “how” – here I had all these folders full of gerberfiles for boards.. but the tools to panelize them Read more
I like decorating PCBs. After I’ve spent ages designing and routing a schematic, I want it to look nice. Sadly – this is very badly supported by most CAD software dealing with circuit boards. Some vector art import tools exist, but they are all very far removed from an ideal Read more
After some major drama in the workshop (leakages, iron dust cloud, broken floor, rainwater coming in, etc) I finally have some time to share a few progress pictures. First and foremost: IT WORKS! The Goldfish R4 UI board can be used as a stand alone USB-MIDI controller! I had to Read more
Festival season is here! And since we like glowsticks, but don’t like their nonrecyclable nature – we decided to go all out on a bunch of LED toys! Behold: Each smiley features 20 LEDs in a Charlieplexed setup running on an Atmel Attiny85. The smiley PCBs were done by DirtyPCBs.com. They arrived Read more
The Goldfish v4 user-interface board has been ordered! The new big protoboards too! A batch of tiny protoboards too! And a set of LED badges for the summer festivals where we shall be jumping around! Goldfish v4 UI board: Festival LED badge: Small Protoboard: Large protoboard:
The UI board for the Goldfish v4 is almost ready for production (post will follow soon) – so the search for fancy factories has begun! I was quite charmed by the colours of this fish: (found here: http://www.andreaharner.com/archives/2007/11/sos_goldfish_na.html) Which led me to search for circuitboards with white soldermasks and red Read more
While searching for some easy-to-add USB options for the new Goldfish development, I revisisted the V-USB package. This package allows you to add USB to any small microcontroller that can add an interrupt to a pinchange. Link: http://vusb.wikidot.com/ While digging through earlier projects using this library, I found this amazing Read more
The FPGA-based Goldfish is still in constant flux. I decided it needed more encoders on the frontpanel, AND some visual feedback for the value of each of the encoders. Each encoder now has 16 LEDs around it to show the current value/meaning. Apparently there are some suppliers that build complete Read more