Sometimes it’s nice when you can do everything you need to do with just one single port. In this vein, [Nicola Strappazzon] whipped up a circuit to combine serial and UPDI programming in a very convenient way. As an example, [Nicola] demonstrates the concept using an AVR128DA28 microcontroller. It’s paired with a 4052 multiplexer IC […]
It’s a well-known conundrum that while most computers these days are digital in nature, almost nothing in nature is. Most things we encounter in the real world, whether it’s temperature, time, sound, pressure, or any other measurable phenomenon comes to us in analog form. To convert these signals to something understandable by a digital converter […]
The MOS Technologies 6581, or SID, is perhaps the integrated circuit whose sound is most sought-after in the chiptune world. Its three voices and mix of waveforms define so much of our collective memories of 1980s computing culture, so it’s no surprise that modern musicians seek out SID synthesisers of their own. One of these […]
Once upon a time, ham radio was all about CW and voice transmissions and little else. These days, the hobby is altogether richer, with a wide range of fancy digital data modes to play with. [KM6LYW Radio] has been tinkering in this space, and whipped up a compact ham radio data rig that you can […]
The 600W is not the output rating, despite all appearances. (Credit: Denki Otaku, YouTube) We have seen many scam USB chargers appear over the years, with a number of them being enthusiastically ripped apart and analyzed by fairly tame electrical engineers. Often these are obvious scams with clear fire risks, massively overstated claims and/or electrocution […]
When taking pictures of the night sky, any noise picked up by the sensor can obscure the desired result. One major cause of noise in CMOS sensors is heat—even small amounts can degrade the final image. To combat this, [Francisco C] of Deep SkyLab retrofitted an old Canon T1i DSLR with an external cooler to […]
The tides! Such a unique thing, because on Earth, we don’t just have oceans full of liquid water—we also have a big ol’ moon called Moon to pull them around. You might like to keep track of the tides; if so, this tide clock from [rabbitcreek] could come in handy. The motions of the tides […]
If you need to create a high vacuum, there are basically two options: turbomolecular pumps and diffusion pumps. Turbomolecular pumps require rotors spinning at many thousands of rotations per minute and must be carefully balanced to avoid a violent self-disassembly, but diffusion pumps aren’t without danger either, particularly if, like [Advanced Tinkering], you use mercury […]