HOWTO

What’s the easiest way send files to an Arduino?

There are many instances when it would be nice to be able to send large amounts of data to an Arduino-based device.  A very obvious example is any kind of media player, where you’d like to upload files from your computer, but there’s also sending configuration, whitelists, sets of instructions… there are many cases where…

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Quick Hack: old-school bench power supply

I went out to do a beta demonstration at a client’s office, last Thursday, and brought along the prototype circuit boards as well as a small variable power supply.  As I was setting up and pulled out the power supply–a functional but somewhat shoddy little black box with red and black alligator clips–I remarked that…

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How to roll your own programmable Arduino/AVR board

Arduinos are perfect for development: you just plug them into a USB port and all the old hassles of dealing with AVR chips (crystals for clocking, hooking up comm lines, regulating power…) are handled for you.  But sometimes you need to roll your own custom solution. In real life–whether because of size, cost or power…

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No Ferric Chloride? No problem: Home-made etchant to the rescue!

It was 11pm and I was on a roll.  Having prototyped my little circuit and transferred the mask onto a copper board, I was ready to create a nice permanent PCB version of the module. Far from perfect transfer, but enough to do the job.  The only problem?  No Ferric Chloride anywhere in sight.  …

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How I Became a Programmer

I happened upon a questionnaire–How did you learn to program?–and chose to take a few minutes to fill it out. Doing so forced me to look back at the years I’ve spent coding, how I got started and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. I ended up spending a good while filling in my…

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DIY PCB HowTo

This document–a re-print of an old but still relevant and useful article I wrote–details the creation of professional quality printed circuit boards (PCBs) using a laser printer and easily obtainable tools and materials. completed PCB