Tindie

Of the many things you can make out of PCBs besides circuits, coasters seem to be a perennial favourite. Not only are these useful for the hot and cold beverage-drinker hackers out there, they often add some flair and personality to your desk or living space. These new PC/Mac Cheatsheet coasters are a great example — they look cool, they serve a purpose, and they’re a handy guide to commonly used commands on those operating systems!

Coasters that are informative don’t have to be plain-looking at all, and these Schematic Symbol coasters score some major geek cred points! Not only are they a useful reference, but they are also artistic, showing off the beautiful gold plating and high-quality screenprinting we see on modern PCBs. I have a set of these and I get comments all the time from both technical and non-technical people whenever I put them out! It’s a great way to give people a taste of what you do while also being aesthetically pleasing.

Rounding out the coaster lineup today are these Terminal Emulator coasters. While they are simplistic by comparison, a blank terminal is inviting the same way an empty sheet of paper is — just begging to be written on or used to create something cool! I especially like that they haven’t chosen a particular shell — it could be Bash, ZSH, Fish or anything else. It’s just a nice, nerdy touch to your surroundings.

There’s a lot more where these came from — just check out the search page on Tindie to see some more awesome PCB coasters!

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The PandaShield is another excellent educational tool from Tindie seller METE HOCA. They’ve been developing a series of electronic teaching tools that have set a high bar for competitors to meet! The PandaShield is packed with features that cover a large range of the capabilities of the Arduino, from LEDs for output, buttons for input, and a whole lot more!

There’s a PCT2075 temperature sensor, TCRT5000 infrared sensor module for proximity detection as well as a connector to attach a separate HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor for precise distance measurement. Also provided are connectors to expand the board with OLED displays (like the SSD1306), HC-06 Bluetooth modules, and a connector for an MPU6050 triple-axis gyro/accelerometer.

Rounding out the included features are a standard RGB LED, a light-dependent resistor (LDR), a potentiometer connected to the analog pins, and a piezo buzzer connected to a PWM pin. There are even connectors to attach servos, meaning this could be used to explore basic robotics and motion control!

METE HOCA has shown that quality educational electronics boards can be affordable and still be packed with features and expandability. If you’re an educator looking to teach about microcontrollers with the Arduino platform, make sure to check out their entire Tindie store and see what other boards they have available!

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Finally, someone found a practical use for all those fidget spinners everyone has! The SpinnerLFO by DeftAudio is a physical implementation of a Low-Frequency Oscillator (LFO). Using the same type of pickups used for string instruments, the module can detect the metal of the bearings spinning past. Unlike an electronic LFO, the SpinnerLFO has friction in the centre bearing and slows down over time, giving a smooth decay to the generated frequency.

The output isn’t very strong, and so to use it as a control voltage (CV) for other synthesizer modules, it will need to go through some sort of pre-amp. If you’ve got a breadboard and some op-amps laying around, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to lash something up. The pre-amp was left off the board in order to keep everything passive, though it would be cool to see a version designed to plug into a standard modular synth backplane, allowing it to draw some power to amplify the signal.

Once you’ve got the circuit built, it’s time to Spin! Spin! Spin! Depending on what you connect it to, you can get all sorts of crazy, wacky sounds. Check out the demonstration video below, and if you’re interested, be sure to check out the product page as well as DeftAudio’s storefront for other cool audio and synth gear!

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If you’re interested in learning about LoRa, many options exist. However, the Raspberry Pi is an excellent match for LoRa projects. A new LoRa PHAT add-on board is available from Tindie seller 0xc0ffee. Featuring the SX1262 radio module, an onboard antenna with an external antenna connector if you want to increase range, plus 8 surface-mount NeoPixels, it has all the features you need to quickly get started with LoRa. It will work with any Pi, but is in the Zero-size Hat form, so it can be very rigidly mounted to the Zero/Zero 2.

It’s able to support worldwide operation, with a frequency range of 803-930MHz. This covers the US (915MHz), EU (868MHz), India (865MHz), Australia (915MHz), and Asian (923MHz) frequency allocations, plus a variety of other countries that use frequencies slightly shifted from these major standards.

The seller has a GitHub repo that contains examples for both sending and receiving packets using LoRa, as well as interacting with the NeoPixels to show status or just look pretty! There are plenty of existing libraries for the Pi that support this radio module, and there are many tutorials and great resources out there for learning about LoRa in general. If you’ve ever wanted to check out LoRa, this is a great board to start with!

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If you miss your old CP/M system but don’t want the hassle of trying to get an original, vintage computer setup working, there’s still a way to get your fix! The Neotron Pico kit is a full microATX motherboard for the Pico, running Neotron OS, a CP/M-like clone written in Rust. The kit has all surface-mount parts loaded, you just need to solder the through-hole components like the VGA connector, audio ports, CR2032 battery holder, etc.

The motherboard offers features similar to those that were offered on computers during CP/M’s heyday — real-time clock with battery backup, video output with terminal emulation, serial connections, keyboard and mouse connections, and expansion ports galore! Okay, CP/M never supported mice, but the rest of the setup shows how much can be done with a fairly simple setup and some creative software hacking.

The only major difference you’ll find as a developer is that instead of writing assembly language programs that interact directly with a BDOS/BIOS system, you’ll be writing programs in Rust. It’s certainly a new domain for Rust, and might provide the motivation you’ve been looking for to learn this new language that has exploded in popularity over the last few years. Check out the Neotron OS website if you want to learn more!

All you need to provide is a Pico, a keyboard and monitor, a 12V power supply, and your soldering skills. Also, the CR2032 isn’t included, but I’m sure like me you’ve got a drawerful of miscellaneous batteries. So if you’ve ever wanted to build a kit computer and play around with a low-level operating system, here’s the modern version with reliable, new semiconductors and easily available parts and expansions!

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One of the drawbacks of most microcontroller programmers is that they need to be tethered to a computer to be useful. With a few exceptions (like the PicKit Programmer-To-Go functionality) almost all programmers are dependent on software to be usable. This Stand-alone AVR Programmer is a handy tool for anyone doing physical installations, mass PCB assembly, or anything else where you need to program a chip without lugging a laptop along. By loading the .hex file created by your development tools onto the SD card, you can then program the targetted AVR microcontroller as many times as you want. This can be very useful if you’re programming more than just a couple chips at a time; a pro tip is to get a pogo-pin adapter so that all you have to do is press the pins against the board and hit the big red button.

When working with subcontractors who are assembling devices you’ve designed, a tool like this can be indispensable in ensuring the correct file gets programmed and there are no programming errors. Even someone with no experience can quickly learn the correct way to orient the connector, and then press the button. If they get the red ERROR light, try again, and/or mark it as needing repair. Otherwise, pack it up and ship it out!

Many subcontractors that do physical assembly may not be familiar with programming microcontrollers, so making the task as easy and error-proof as possible means everyone has a better experience. This board can even provide power to the circuit, so you could have a self-test routine run to verify everything is working correctly and give visual feedback. All it needs is 5V, and you could just attach a USB power bank with a USB-barrel jack cable.

This programmer can also set fuses, and because it uses JTAG it can be used to recover chips that have incorrect fuse settings (unless, of course, the JTAG Disable fuse is set — in that case, you need a separate specialized programmer like the Fuse Doctor). JTAG programming is robust and widely supported on most AVR devices (however, some of the newest lines like the AVRDB series only support UPDI). But if your device supports JTAG, and you need a tool like this, it can be invaluable — and the price is great! Assembly is easy as everything is through-hole. So check it out if you’re interested!

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The Flipper Zero seems to be more than just a fad — this nifty little hacking device can do all sorts of tricks, and it’s expandable via GPIO headers! So projects like this NRF24 MiniBoard by Rabbit Labs can come along and add new protocols, increased RF power, and smaller form factors than competing boards.

The Nordic nRF24L01 is a neat little all-in-one RF module. It handles all the low-level details, including packet handling with the integrated ShockBurst/Enhanced ShockBurst protocols, but leaves pretty much everything else up to the user. Because of its ease of use and flexibility, it’s found its way into many consumer and industrial electronics. In this case, the MiniBoard contains one of two different nRF24L01 modules — one with an external antenna adapter (an IPEX connector) allowing increased range and higher power transmission, and one with an integrated antenna that allows the module to be smaller and more discreet.

No matter which module you choose, your Flipper Zero will now be able to sniff, capture, and transmit using the ShockBurst protocol on the 2.4GHz ISM band. With ranges of up to 4km claimed by the module manufacturer, you can ideally capture data without getting too close to your target. And now you can even 3D print your own case for this module, giving it some additional protection and pizazz! Equip your Flipper with all the attachments you can, so when you participate in an RF Capture-The-Flag competition, you’ll have the hardware you need to win the top prize!

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Soldering surface mount components can seem daunting when you’re used to through-hole soldering, but if you talk to people who solder SMD parts on the regular, they’ll often tell you they find it faster and easier to solder SMD than through-hole! Not having to flip the board for each component, and being able to solder an entire side of a chip in a single swipe means with practice you can really assemble boards quickly. This DIY Micro SD Card reader is not only a useful item to have, but it’s also a great way to get some practice soldering surface-mount components. The capacitors and resistors are 0603, so maybe you wouldn’t want to take this on as your first surface mount soldering project, but I’ve surprised myself by being able to solder 0402 resistors fairly reliably.

The design is nice and simple, just a MicroSD slot, a custom IC designed for this purpose, a few resistors and capacitors, an LED and the USB-A plug. This could be done with paste and hot air, or by hand using the proper soldering iron tip, lots of flux, and a good pair of tweezers. Magnification can make a big difference too — practicing soldering under a digital microscope is a good way to learn how these small components move and react to solder and different types of flux. I personally prefer a thick, paste flux so I can sort of stick the components to the board. Solder one lead to hold it in place, and then for chips I do the swipe technique, using solder braid if needed to get rid of solder bridges. And when you’re done, you’ll have a useful item to have around the lab! I seem to misplace SD card readers all the time, so it never hurts to have another one floating around.

There are a lot of excellent resources online to show you how to solder surface mount components; many YouTube videos show the view under the microscope so you get a clear view of what the soldering iron is doing. Challenge yourself and give it a shot! You’ll be an SMD pro in no time at all!

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CanSat is a program for high school students to learn about electronics and space technology. They must develop a small satellite-like payload that performs some sort of data collection. Then, it gets dropped from a balloon or launched with a small rocket to a few thousand feet. The EDUCAN Kit is a way to get students interested in the CanSat competition, with a complete system to use as a working example or as a base to develop from.

EDUCAN uses a LoRa module for communication, an Arduino Pro Mini as the controller, a battery management system, and a few example sensors as the payload — an MPU6050 triple-axis accelerometer and gyro, and a BMP180 barometric pressure, temperature and altitude sensor. These are good examples of sensors you would want in a sub-orbital system, so you can know your attitude and altitude. It also comes with a base station for receiving signals from the “satellite”.

This would be a great way to introduce a group of students to the CanSat competition; a teacher can demonstrate the system in action, and the students get to see what’s required to develop a system that can be entered into their local CanSat competition. Obviously, students need to come up with their own ideas and design for entry, but having a working system to examine and learn from can give them a big advantage.

And for teachers or educators who aren’t interested in competing, the system is still a lot of fun to play with! Getting in touch with your local rocketry or balloon clubs can be a good way to learn about areas that are safe to launch from, and how to track and recover payloads after they land.

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Back in the heyday of DOS gaming, you absolutely needed a quality soundcard if you wanted to hear the games as intended. As we now know looking back, Creative dominated the market with the Sound Blaster and FM synthesis. But there were other alternatives too, such as sample-based or “wavetable” synthesis, and this is where the Gravis UltraSound or GUS made its impact. The cards are highly sought after and collectors prize them, so trying to get your hands on an original GUS will set you back anywhere from $500 to over $2000 for boxed cards! However, this amazing Gravis UltraSound replica uses real surplus licensed Gravis chips and comes tested and ready to rock!

The PCB sports the same bright red as the original (a tip of the hat to its Canadian heritage, perhaps?) and has a 72-pin SIMM socket for RAM. You need to install at least some RAM to get it working, but 72-pin RAM is very easy to find and inexpensive, so it’s recommended to just install the maximum supported 16MB. This will enable the most samples and the widest compatibility with demoscene music and video games. Get some of that wavetable goodness in your ears!

If you’re still enamoured with FM synthesis, David’s Electronics has you covered there too. Along with the GUS, he also makes a Sound Blaster 2.0 with Creative Music System clone! Check out the listing page for links to videos showing the different sounds you can get with the OPL chip versus the CMS chips on board.

Between these two cards, you can experience just about every single DOS demo and video game made from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s! Both of these boards come fully tested and should be very easy to find drivers for and install. Very cool; we tip our hats to the creator!

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