Maker Feed Electronics, DIY, Makers, Hackers and Internet of Things (IoT)

  • Latest Articles
  • Popular
  • News
  • Blogs
  • Platforms
  • Automation
  • Stores
  • Podcasts
Home » Blogs »

Articles from Tim’s Blog

Visit cpldcpu.wordpress.com, subscribe

Power Analysis: Probing WS2812 RGB LEDs

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 4 weeks ago in Blogs

Power analysis is a technique to probe the inner workings of an integrated circuit by measuring changes in the supply current. Whenever a logic gate switches, it will cause a tiny current spike that can be measured externally. By inspecting...

Building a Chaotic Oscillator from Common Components

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 months ago in Blogs

Sometimes you find things you have not even been looking for… A chaotic oscillator is an electronic circuit that can exhibit “chaotic“, nonperiodic behavior. A commonly cited example is Chua’s circuit, but there are many others. I always regarded these...

Intelligent 7-Segment Display

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 10 months ago in Blogs

Time for another project with a super-low-cost microcontroller. But what to design? Ever since seeing a project where a $0.03 MCU controls $40 worth of intelligent RGB LEDs, I have been wondering whether this is the right place to use...

What made the 1960s CDC6600 supercomputer fast?

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 11 months ago in Blogs

Anybody who has ever taken an advanced computer architecture class has heard of the CDC6600, which was the world’s fastest computer from 1964 to 1969. It was the machine that put Seymour Cray on the map as a supercomputer architect....

A LED-Candle based on the 3 cent MCU

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 1 year ago in Blogs

After having reviewed sub $0.10 microcontrollers recently, it’s time for some projects using the Padauk PFS154 and PMS150C. Considering my previous investigation of electronic and non-electronic candles, it appears only natural to chose this as a target for the lowest...

The “terrible” 3 cent MCU – a short survey of sub $0.10 microcontrollers.

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 1 year ago in Blogs

Like many others, I was quite amazed to learn about a microcontroller sold for only 0.03 USD via the EEVblog last year. How was this possible? Many assumed this was a fire sale of an old product. Digging a bit...

SK9822 – a clone of the APA102?

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 4 years ago in Blogs

Two years ago I took a deeper look into the APA102. Although it was more expensive than the common WS2812, and harder to come by, it had some intriguing properties. The main benefits are a timing-insensitive  SPI interface, allowing easy...

DICE10 – electronic dice controlled by two GPIO.

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 4 years ago in Blogs

Yay,  another mini-project with the ATtiny10! A while ago I devised a scheme to drive an electronic dice with only two IO lines. I finally found the time and motivation to build up a small design using this as an...

DICE10 – electronic dice controlled by two GPIO.

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 4 years ago in Blogs

Yay,  another mini-project with the ATtiny10! A while ago I devised a scheme to drive an electronic dice with only two IO lines. I finally found the time and motivation to build up a small design using this as an...

Gluon – developing a bootloader for the ATtiny104

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 5 years ago in Blogs

The ATtiny102 and ATtiny104 are Atmels newest addition to the AVR ATtiny family. They are a bit different to most of the other devices in that family, since they are based on the AVRTINY CPU core, which was so far...

Gluon – developing a bootloader for the ATtiny104

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 5 years ago in Blogs

The ATtiny102 and ATtiny104 are Atmels newest addition to the AVR ATtiny family. They are a bit different to most of the other devices in that family, since they are based on the AVRTINY CPU core, which was so far...

The SK6812 – another intelligent RGB LED

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 5 years ago in Blogs

During the last months, a new WS2812 alternative appeared on the market: The SK6812. I finally managed to get my hands on some of them to take a closer look. In most aspects these devices are basically clones of the...

The SK6812 – another intelligent RGB LED

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 5 years ago in Blogs

During the last months, a new WS2812 alternative appeared on the market: The SK6812. I finally managed to get my hands on some of them to take a closer look. In most aspects these devices are basically clones of the...

“Reverse engineering” a real candle

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 5 years ago in Blogs

Two years ago, I spent some time analyzing the algorithm used in a candle flicker LED as  commonly found in cheap artificial candles. I reverse engineered the  algorithm from the flickering pattern and recreated the algorithm in software. Turns out...

“Reverse engineering” a real candle

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 5 years ago in Blogs

Two years ago, I spent some time analyzing the algorithm used in a candle flicker LED as  commonly found in cheap artificial candles. I reverse engineered the  algorithm from the flickering pattern and recreated the algorithm in software. Turns out...

How many I/Os are needed to drive electronic dice?

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 6 years ago in Blogs

I recently bought a very low cost electronic dice kit on an impulse. Assembling it was good retro-fun for a while. The circuit design is was purely 70ies style: A CD4017, a NE555 and a couple of transistors. Of course,...

Understanding the APA102 “Superled”

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 6 years ago in Blogs

A couple of weeks ago I reported about a new type of RGB-LED with integrated controller, the APA102. One of the interesting new features of this device is a two-wire SPI interface instead of the proprietary one-wire protocol of the...

Measuring the length of a WS2812 string

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 6 years ago in Blogs

Recently, I encountered an interesting problem: How do you measure the length of a WS2812 programmable RGB-LED string electronically? That is, just using signals that are already there. This can be useful if you want a LED controller to adapt...

APA102 aka “Superled”

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 6 years ago in Blogs

After clones and variations of the venerable WS2812, there finally seems to be a new RGB-LED with integrated controller that actually improves on several characteristics: The APA102, also known as “Superled”. There are two versions on the market, the APA102...

Timing of WS2812 clones – PD9823

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 years ago in Blogs

The WS2812 RGB LEDs with integrated controller are fairly successful devices that come in a variety of packages. Recently, similar devices by other manufacturers started to appear. I managed to get my hands on a few samples of LEDs with...

The Nanite 85

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 years ago in Blogs

Possibly the smallestest ATtiny85 based ‘duino derivative. Recently, Olimex anncounced the Olimexino 85s, claimed to be the “World’s smallest Arduino ever“. Now, that looks like a challenge. I guess it is about time to show off what has been on...

Tear down of a cheap external USB battery

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 years ago in Blogs

I recently received an external USB battery as a promotional gift (see image below). While I always thought of these as a superfluous gimmick, I realized that these devices could be quite useful as mobile power source for various projects....

µ-Wire – USB on an ATtiny 10

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 years ago in Blogs

Atmels AVR ATtiny10 are surprisingly powerful devices that come in an extremely tiny SOT23 package with only 6 pins. The have 1kb of flash, 32 bytes of SRAM and use the reduced AVR core which only supports 16 instead of...

Interrupt free V-USB

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 years ago in Blogs

Starting with V2.0, Micronucleus is going to use an interrupt free modification of the software USB implementation V-USB. This provides significant benefits for the bootloader, as it is not necessary anymore to patch the interrupt vector of the user program....

Follow up on Candle Flicker LEDs

From cpldcpu.wordpress.com 7 years ago in Blogs

I previously reported on reverse engineering a candle flicker LED. My approach was to extract the “flicker” pattern from the input current variation and to deduce the algorithm from statistical analysis. Reverse engineering the controller chip Of course there is...

About Maker Feed

We feature articles by the greatest makers, hackers and DIY enthusiasts from around the web. All websites and feeds are featured in the Feeds widget below.

Subscribe

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Flipboard
  • RSS Feed

Feeds in Blogs

  • Dr. Gough Lui Subscribe
  • RTL-SDR Subscribe
  • Conor Patrick Subscribe
  • Docker Pirates Subscribe
  • Becky Stern Subscribe
  • Igor Pecovnik Subscribe
  • Lucky Resistor Subscribe
  • Board DB Subscribe
  • Kaspars Dambis Subscribe
  • Tinkerman Subscribe
  • All About Circuits Subscribe
  • Jara’s Spare Time Electronics Subscribe
  • Wade Wegner Subscribe
  • Sprites mods Subscribe
  • BEEKn Subscribe
  • Krebs on Security Subscribe
  • Gough’s Tech Zone Subscribe
  • airfy Inc. Subscribe
  • Johan Kanflo Subscribe
  • Hackaday Subscribe
  • import Subscribe
  • Matthew Petroff Subscribe
  • Mike’s Hardware Experiments Subscribe
  • Dan Strother Subscribe
  • Dimme’s World Subscribe
  • Neil’s Log Book Subscribe
  • Chris Stubbs Subscribe
  • Wolf Paulus Subscribe
  • IoT M2M blog Subscribe
  • MotoBrain Subscribe
  • Nootropic Design Project Lab Subscribe
  • electronut Subscribe
  • Bits on a Board Subscribe
  • Geoffrey Subscribe
  • Martin Harizanov Subscribe
  • Jeremy Blum Subscribe
  • My 2µF Subscribe
  • Paul’s Electronics Subscribe
  • Nathan Chantrell Subscribe
  • Limpkin’s blog Subscribe
  • Embedded Day Subscribe
  • Provide Your Own Subscribe
  • Miguel Grinberg Subscribe
  • Misc. Projects & Random Useless Stuff Subscribe
  • KOBAKANT Subscribe
  • Oona Räisänen Subscribe
  • Projects from Tech Subscribe
  • JeeLabs Subscribe
  • Dhakajack Subscribe
  • Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories Subscribe
  • Raspberry Pi @ Gadgetoid Subscribe
  • Derek Molloy Subscribe
  • Electronics-Lab.com Blog Subscribe
  • LowPowerLab Subscribe
  • bildr Subscribe
  • Łukasz Wieczorek Subscribe
  • maniacbug Subscribe
  • Tinkerlog Subscribe
  • JulietMikeBravo Subscribe

Maker Feed