We have upgraded our Word Press and selected a new site theme. I tried my hand at some art with a PCB picture and GIMP to make the background graphic for the site header. While the site is much more attractive now the idea stays the same. Helping hobbyist with Microcontrollers and providing a place to publish projects in exchange for useful parts as part of our on going Giveaway program.
Why the change… It is good to change things now and then. The site was in desperate need of a new and better look. It was also using an outdated Word Press that may have been susceptible to hacking. You may have noticed the Google Ads were kind of off topic. I do not know exactly why this was occurring and I was getting tired of placing ever one of the advertising companies into the competitive ad filter to keep them off the site. I did not find evidence of being hacked but figured it would be better to re-do the site.
I want to give a huge shout out to Infotrust. I expected that the upgrade process would be a nightmare so I went looking for a Word Press Consultant to help. I found Alex over at Infotrust. With his help, my upgrade was fairly easy with only one tense situation. Thank you Alex!
The logo graphic as used here is missing from the new site. We plan to integrate it back into the header soon.
Make a comment with any suggestions for improvement or just to let us know what you think of the site layout.
Posted in uC Hobby Site.
I just watched the first four episodes of Make: television and they was great! I believe Make TV will catch on like Mythbusters has. Mythbusters is about making things to prove or disprove Myths. Their formula for a good show is to build cool contraptions to test a Myth. Everyone likes to see stuff blow up so the Mythbusters always blows something up in the wildest ways possible. Make TV is tailor made for those of us that especially like the building part of Mythbusters. With Make TV it is about creating. Art, re-purposing common bits to technology to work in new ways. Often the only reason is for the Art or the coolness of it, but that is more then enough reason to convert an old VCR into a cat feeder.
I really like the Maker to Maker sections where one of the Makers describes solutions to common problems when putting things together.
I highly recommend that you check out Make: television. You can always watch it online at the Make: television site if its not on a channel you can TIVO. Be sure to set the priority up as high as Mythbusters, you will love it just as much if not more. You can even subscribe it it on iTunes. Check out the Make TV site for details on how to see this show.
Posted in Discovering, Workshop Tips, Workshop Tools.
Tagged with Making, Review, TV.
Scott over at Curious Inventor had some space on a multi-project PCB he was sending to Gold Phoenix and offered to do some boards for me. I whipped up several adaptors for my solderless breadboard projects. Its always a great feeling to see your projects turned into real PCBs!
In the picture here you can see six new PCB boards, the two small ones on the far right are actually Scott’s that he sent over for me to check out. The parts are also shown. The tiny one is a tip jack adaptor and the other is a stereo headphone mini jack like the one on your PC.
My boards from left to right are, MIDI In, MIDI Out, Terminal Adaptor, and Mini Prototype board adaptors. Each of the boards is build up in the picture below
Continued…
Posted in Contest, Parts, Projects, Workshop Tools.
Tagged with Adaptors, Breadboard, Contest, PCB, Prototype.
Earlier today I was at Walmart and noticed that Christmas lights were 50% off normal pricing. Some digging around yielded a 70 count white and 70 count multi-colored set for about $5 each or about 7 cents per LED. Of course you have to do some work to get the LEDs out but if you have the time… This is a short article with some information about scrounging from these LED Christmas lights. This article may be of interest If you have been considering scrounging one of these sets for a quick supply of LEDs.
Continued…
Posted in Hacks, Parts, Projects, Scrounging, Scrounging Parts.
Tagged with LED, Parts, Scrounging.
In this article Jacob Woj continues with his getting started with Microcontroller projects theme. In the first article he compared the Arduino, Make Controller Kit, and more direct programming using AVR-GCC and an AVR-ISP for hobby microcontroller projects. This article focuses on the AVR Studio with WinAVR compiler with specific focus on how to do debug code using this tool set.
Continued…
Posted in Development Tools, Discovering, Electronics Links, Microcontroller, Projects.
Tagged with AVR, Development, Microcontroller, Tools, Tutorial.
ogi lumen is running a open source software contest where you can win a complete set of Nixie tubes and power supply kits. Enough to build some neat projects. We did a review of these Nixie tube displays previously here at uCHobby. They were very easy to use and make great steampunk style indicators for your next DIY project. The basic idea in the contest is that you submit open source code to do something interesting using an Arduino microcontroller and some ogi lumen Nixie tube displays. If your project is selected for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place you receive a set of Nixie tubes, with the drivers and powers supply boards in kits. Read more about the contest here.
I still cant get enough of this video showing the displays cycling in a wave. I would love to see more tricks like this for these Nixie displays. I hope the winning code does something neat like this.
Posted in Arduino, Contest, Microcontroller.
Tagged with Contest, Nixie Tubes.
In this article I suggest some tools that you should start with for your home electronics workshop. If you hurry you might still make get these items in time to put under Xmas tree for a budding hobbyist as well. There are some great workshop starter kit packages available at the Maker Shed and at Adafruit to consider but you can also build your workshop up slowly piece by piece. I buy a lot of my workshop supplies from MPJA and recently noticed a good deal on a DMM which triggered me to consider what people should get for a home workshop and how buying the separate pieces from MPJA might compare to the kits offered elsewhere.
Make a comment with your suggestions. We hope to make “Setting up a Home Electronics Workshop” a regular article feature here at uCHobby and welcome your suggestions.
Continued…
Posted in Development Tools, Discovering, Electronics Links, Workshop Tips, Workshop Tools.
Tagged with Tips, Tools.
In this article Jacob Woj gives his take on which tools are best for a hobbyist getting started with Microcontroller projects. He compares that Arduino, Make Controller Kit, and more direct programming using AVR-GCC and an AVR-ISP to program the parts. The article includes cost comparisons and example code for a simple project in the various development environments.
Continued…
Posted in Arduino, Development Tools, Discovering, Electronics Links, Ideas, Make Controller Kit, Microcontroller, Parts, Projects, Review, Workshop Tips, Workshop Tools.
Tagged with Arduino, Development, Links, Microcontroller, Parts, Review, Tools.
I just put together a tinyCylon kit from Dale Wheat of dalewheat.com. The kit is very simple and goes together in a few minutes. A good kit for someone that likes flashy LEDs or wants a starter kit to put together. Dale does have a trick or two that makes this kit more interesting…
As you see in the picture, just a few parts, a PCB, 5 LEDs, button, PCB and battery holder.
Continued…
Posted in Discovering, Ideas, Projects, Workshop Tips.
Tagged with LED, Project, Review.
Here is a heads up to you robotics hobbyist! Curious Inventor is giving away a Bioloid Expert Kit worth $3,000 to promote the new inventors section at their web site. The new Inventors section is a place where you can showcase projects and find others with similar interests or complementary skills. This is somewhat like the uCHobby give away program where we give away parts for articles. Curious Inventor is giving away the Bioloid kit in raffle style to hobbyist that make a profile. Get over there and make a profile soon, you have nothing to loose and might win this awesome kit.
The kit include 21 servos, wireless video and video processing software, zigbee wireless communication, hundreds of connecting pieces and much more. To enter, just create a profile and describe at least one project and include a picture. The contest ends on November 21st or when 500 people enter. First 50 get $10 coupons, top voted project gets $100 coupon and a random entry wins the grand prize.
Posted in Contest, Givaways, Projects.
Tagged with Contest, Robot.
We have upgraded our Word Press and selected a new site theme. I tried my hand at some art with a PCB picture and GIMP to make the background graphic for the site header. While the site is much more attractive now the idea stays the same. Helping hobbyist with Microcontrollers and providing a place to publish projects in exchange for useful parts as part of our on going Giveaway program.
