A lot of the switch-mode power supplies I’ve built have relied on Skyworks Technologies controllers. This is because they are very cheap, and seem to go obsolete almost immediately after purchase. This is a quick story of bringing up a new switch-mode circuit from a different manufacturer to test its viability in some battery-powered devices.… Read More: Storytime! A switch mode tale. »
This is a slightly different post than usual. Typically, I try to only post progress that has already been done, otherwise it ends up as so much vaporware. For an upcoming project, I wanted to order some parts, write some code, and then use the code to order more parts, but it’s taking a backseat… Read More: An Extra Special Parcel from China »
Before YouTube existed, I saw a video online. There was no spoken dialog, just subtitles in Japanese, with upbeat music in the background. It shows pictures of point-to-point soldering of a document scanner’s sensor and some sort of microcontroller. Then the single line sensor is put into a box (with a lense) and taken for… Read More: Infin1D, Rev 0.5 »
TLDR: I wrote an Inkscape extension to make my life a little bit easier when designing assemblies with laser cutters. For the most part, I avoid using 3D printers while rapidly prototyping. Until very recently, they have been little better than toys; unreliable, inaccurate, and high maintenance. The laser cutter, however, is a… Read More: Rapidly Building Software to Prototype Quickly »
I have access to a big box of Nokia phone batteries. This is a problem. It is very large. I do not have enough Nokia phones to use them all. There are three sizes: BP-6MT (1050mAh), BL-5J (1320mAh), and BP-4L (1500mAh). After some catalog-hunting (be vewwy vewwy quiet), I’ve found the connector they use, the… Read More: Sugar Glider Wifi Throwies »
Jumping off from my last post about getting images into Altium Designer, it was surprisingly difficult to do in CircuitMaker. After three days of attempting a few different approaches, I have one that I’m quite happy with. Conveniently, this is pretty good at getting images into EAGLE as well. At least as good as the built-in ULP. If… Read More: Getting Images into CircuitMaker »
I’ve been a really big fan of PCBModE for a long time. Designing beautiful PCBs is a seriously difficult skill, and a serious abuse of the PCB board houses. Saar Drimer of Boldport has done a great job, and anyone reading this should definitely check out his stuff. Where it falls down, though, is… Read More: Cosmetic Surgery on Altium Boards »
I’ve written recently about machining my own custom pen because, much like lamps, they are a “form over function” project where the end result can be gorgeous as well as useful. Aesthetically pleasing to everyone, not just techie people. And they don’t take up a lot of space! Initially, my design for the first… Read More: Anatomy of a Pen »
Ironically, in the process of writing a really fast implementation of the WPA2 encryption scheme, it was necessary (or at least easier) to first write a really slow implementation. Here is my wpa2slow Python module. To be fair, the actual speed at which this hashes isn’t the point. The point is that I have an entirely native… Read More: Sure, we’re brute-forcing, but what’s the rush? »
Prototyping aw yeah. After the first version of my LCD widgets, there were some things that I was planning on changing for the next respin. R1 just to get some hardware in my hands and start writing code. This next one is all about the cleanup. The last version of R1 is here on GitHub. It works… Poorly.… Read More: ReacTick R1.5 »