A new month brings new products, including these headers: Dual Row (2*40) 2.54mm gold plated headers Single Row (1*40) 2.54mm right angle headers Single Row (1*40) 2.54mm swiss machine pin female headers In all cases, the headers can be cut or snapped to the desired length. These LEDs come in a white diffused package but...
This tutorial will teach you about the 8 and 16 bit timers on an ATmega168 microcontroller. Because the ATmega168 is very similar to the ATmega48, ATmega88 and ATmega328, the examples should also work on these. For other AVR microcontrollers the general principles will apply but the specifics may vary. What are the 8 and 16...
We are very excited about these DS18B20 programmable temperature Sensors from Maxim. They use a 1-Wire bus that allows multiple sensors to be daisy chained together. Each sensor has a unique serial number which allows it be be addressed independently of the other sensors on the bus. These LM358 op amps are a great dual...
This tutorial will teach you how to use external and pin change interrupts on an AVR microcontroller. I will be using an ATmega168. The general principles apply to other AVR microcontrollers, but the specific vary greatly. What is an Interrupt? Imagine your are sitting at your computer, reading this post. The phone rings and you...
The ATMEGA168 Development Kit now comes with 10 extra components for the power supply block. Specifically that includes: 1 x Resistor - Metal Film 1/4W - 1K 1 x LED General Purpose 5mm Yellow 1 x DC Jack 2.1 x 5.5mm 1 x 1N4004 General purpose 1A Rectifier Diode 1 x L7805 +5V Linear Voltage...
Version 1.5 of the 28 Pin AVR Development Board is now available. As before we have incorporated a number of changes that people had asked for. The most notable change is a figure-8 shaped hole for mounting the voltage regulator. This configuration allows for both Input/Ground/Output (IGO) and Ground/Output/Input (GOI) style voltage regulators. Other changes...
We have just added a bunch of connectors and one cable. The cable is a 10 pin ribbon cable with 10 pin female IDC connectors at each end. It is the same type of cable as we include with the USBASP Programmer. Remember back when you had PATA drives? Remember those jumpers that you put...
After much deliberation the winner for the Get your next project sponsored by us contest is Murray Harms from Queensland Australia. His idea was to develop a system to help him manage his fish farm. in his words... Aquaculture System Controller. Overview The proposed project is to construct a controller for an automated self cleaning...
This month brings 4 new products: 8 way DIP Switches and PPTC resettable fuses in 3 different sizes. The 8 way DIP Switches are the same type as the 2 way and 4 way DIP switches we got back in May. They are quality switches with gold plated connectors and best of all they fit...
This tutorial will teach you how to use the I/O ports on an AVR microcontroller. I will be using an Atmega8 but the general principles apply to any AVR microcontroller. Introduction The Atmega8 has 23 I/O ports which are organised into 3 groups: Port B (PB0 to PB7) Port C (PC0 to PC6) Port D...
This contest is pretty simple. Submit your project ideas and the winner will receive the parts require to build their projects (as so far as the parts are things that we stock of course). To submit your idea, send an email to the address below. Please describe your idea and include a bill of materials....
This tutorial shows you how to control 16 LEDs with just 3 control lines. We do this by daisy chaining 74HC595 shift registers The 74HC595 shift register has an 8 bit storage register and an 8 bit shift register. Data is written to the shift register serially, then latched onto the storage register. The storage...
Our first product for May is a set of breadboard jumper wires. Each bundle contain approximately (exact quantities do vary a little) 75 wires in a variety of lengths and colours. They are made of flexible mult-core cable and have connectors on the ends that get pushed into breadboard holes. Next we have DIP switches...
How do you bring power to a AVR 28 pin Development Board? The first method is to use the power supply block and a wall wart. The AVR 28 pin Development Board includes a dedicated power supply block. Simply mount the components from a 5V power supply kit and 2.1 x 5.5mm DC Jack to...
Introduction This tutorial continues from Character LCD Displays - Part 1. In this part we will connect the LCD module to an Atmega8 microcontroller, then write some code to drive it. The Circuit Our first task is to build the circuit. We will be using an AVR 28 pin Development Board. For the power supply...
A small collection of new products this week including 5 different LEDs, a microphone and an IC socket. Let's start with the LEDs... These LEDs have 3 times the colour and 3 times the fun They come in a 5mm waterclear package and have 4 leads, one for each colour + one for the common...
Mechanical switches do not make or break a connection cleanly due to microscopic conditions on the contact surface. This is referred to as "Switch Bounce" and can cause problems in digital circuits. In this tutorial we will build a circuit that demonstrates this problem, then modify it slightly to resolve it. We will be reusing...
Introduction LCD character displays can be found in espresso machines, laser printers, children's toys and maybe even the odd toaster. The Hitachi HD44780 controller has become an industry standard for these types of displays. This tutorial will teach you the basics of interfacing with a HD44780 compatible display using some DIP switches and a few...
February has been a busy time for us with many new products. Yesterday we added another 12 resistor sizes. We now stock all of the E6 values between 10 ohm and 1 Mega ohm. The full range is available here... OK, resistors are a bit boring, so onto something a bit more interesting... These cables...
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The first 2 products for this month are button cell holders and stainless steel tweezers. The button cell holders allow you to run your project from CR2032 button cell batteries. These holders are a through hole design and fit all of our prototyping boards. The tweezer are great for picking up small parts like SMD...
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I've been waiting for this book for quite some time, and was delighted when it finally arrived. Written by Jonathan Oxer and Hugh Blemings it describes how to build 14 different arduino projects, everything from a simple Appliance Remote Control to a Vehicle Telemetry System. The projects covered in the book include Appliance Remote Control...
This month we release version 1.4 of our 28 pin AVR board. As with the previous releases, we've incorporated changes our customers recommended. Keep the feedback coming, cause we love it. The most notable change is the inclusion of a power supply area. In previous versions you could create a power supply by using the...
This month our new product is pretty simple, but also pretty useful. When you wire up a female polarised header, you need to attach clips to the end of your wires, then push those clips into the header assembly. The process of attaching the clips can be a little bit fiddly, but it gets easier...
We are now stocking a new range of Stacking Headers. These have slightly longer pins, gold plated, lower insertion force and available at a much lower price as the ones we previously stocked. We have them available as a 6 pin, 8 pin and Arduino Stacking Header Kit. Next we have 2 pin polarised header...
For this post I thought I'd try something a little different. I've created 3 videos which together describe how to create a severed hand in a jar display for halloween. My daughter TJ helped with this one by doing the voice over for the first 2 videos. Each of the 3 videos relates to a...
In this tutorial I will describe how to drive a 7 segment module using a 4511 - BCD to 7 Segment Latch/Decoder/Driver. First we need to familiarize ourselves with the 7 segment module. These modules are made up of 8 LEDs, 7 of which make an "8" pattern and 1 for the decimal point. Using...
This tutorial continues on from ATmega8 breadboard circuit Part 1 and ATmega8 breadboard circuit Part 2. So far we've built a power supply, added the microcontroller, added some plumbing to make it work and added the ISP interface, but it really doesn't do anything. The next step is to add some I/O devices and upload...
This tutorial continues on from ATmega8 Breadboard Circuit - Part 1 where we build a small power supply on the breadboard. In this part we will add the ATmega8 microcontroller and an interface to allow it to be programmed. The first step is to orient yourself with the ATMEGA8 microcontroller. Since we are building our...
Jonathan Oxer at Practical Arduino did a video review of our Atmega8 development kit earlier this week. I really like his idea about adding a dedicated area on the board for a power supply.
This is the 1st of a 3 part series where I will describe how to build a basic ATmega8 circuit and program it with a simple program. This tutorial is ideal for first timers, so read on... Breadboards usually have a break or two in the bus strips, so the first thing we will do...
Board stacking is simply the process of taking 2 or more prototyping boards and fixing them into a vertical stack. The main reason for doing this is to build systems that are bigger than just 1 board. All the Protostack Large, Medium and Small boards have a common form factor. This is what makes stacking...
Breadboards are great and so are protoboards that are based on breadboard layouts. Well most of the time :-( . They both have problems when you need to use IDC connectors, dual row headers or any other component that has 2 rows of connectors on a 0.1" (2.54mm) grid. The problem is due to the...
When you were a kid, you may have made a lemon battery for a school science project. These are very simple to make and involves inserting dissimilar metals into a lemon. Typical materials are copper staples and zinc plated nails. This combination usually gives you 0.7V and a few milliamps. The chemical reaction that happens...
Breadboards are invaluable for experimenting with electronic circuits. They allow you to create temporary circuits that can be easy changed. This tutorial explains the basics of how breadboards work and how to use them. A typical breadboard consists of 100's of holes called tiepoints. These tiepoints are aligned on a 0.1" (2.54mm) grid. The board...
This weekend we released the lastest version of our 28 pin avr board. This version includes 7 improvements which we are pretty excited about. The changes include: Updated external crystal block in ground plane for better isolation Updated AVCC block with room for bigger inductors 6 pin ISP interface in addition to the existing 10...
Ever wanted to drive you etch-a-sketch from your computer, well one guy did and this is how he did it! The concept is pretty straight forward. The interface to the notebook is via a parallel port, there are a pair of stepper motors that turn the knobs on the etch-a-sketch, and an ATMEGA8 sits in...
We just got some Ethernet modules and these are really amazing. They use an ENC28J60 ethernet controller and allow you to add ethernet connectivity to your next microcontroller project. http://www.flickr.com/photos/protostack/3198566424/ The module can be driven using a simple SPI interface and has many features including: IEEE 802.3 Compatible Fully Compatible with 10/100/1000Base-T Networks Integrated MAC...
We now have the new version of our Half Size Prototyping Board in stock. The key difference between this version and the previous version is addition of power rails on the top layer. This allows for almost twice the current. The rails on the top layer are 50 mil wide to fit within the screen...
We have AVR programmers in stock and these units are really something. They are based on Thomas Fischl's USBasp design and connect to your computer's USB port. Not only are they quite compact, but the design is really elegent. The USB interface is achieved by using an atmega processor and the rest is done in...
We got a batch of board manufactured and unfortunately the factory failed to put the red solder mask on both sides. Functionally the boards are perfect but they don’t look nearly as nice. I don't think anyone should have to pay full price for a product that is not perfect, so I’ll be discounting these...
This week we released our ATMega8 Developer's kit. It's pretty simple really. We took our 28 pin AVR Development board, added an ATMega8 microcontroller, added all the bits to make the atmega8 work and we had a kit. The kit is only the beginning of course. There is almost an unlimited number of options you...
We've been busily working on the next version of our half size board The most notable change in version 1.2 is power rails on both the top and bottom of the board. This allows for almost twice the current. The tracks on the top of the board are slightly smaller than the ones on the...