Writing code and toggling pin states to high or low is all good and well in the land of fairy tales where everything works perfectly the first time. In real life when you write some code that doesn’t behave as expected, it is extremely useful to have some debugging tools at hand. Tools like an oscilloscope, logic analyser, and multi-meter all have their uses but are overkill if all you are trying to do is find out if a pin is at 0V or 5V.

The Logic Probe Kit made by Jdn comes with three LEDs that each represent a certain portion of the supply voltage. For example for a 5V supply, green turns on for 2.4 – 5V, yellow turns on for 1.7 – 2.4V and red for 0 – 1.7V. So at a glance you can tell if a pin is high, low, or somewhere in the middle (possibly indicating something is drawing too much current from it or it is floating).

Not only can you easily look at pin states, the pen also has some extra CMOS circuitry built-in to pick up 100ns glitches. This is a useful feature that might indicate something like a microcontroller that is continually resetting.

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Here’s an interesting take on the often sought-after vacuum tube amp, using both vacuum tube and solid-state technology. According to its description, “A vacuum tube input stage gives your music a nice warm sound while the solid state output stage provides low-distortion power giving you the best of both retro and modern worlds.”

This amplifier takes input from a standard 1/8 inch stereo plug, and mixes it into a mono output. According to the product description, this is preferable for ambient music listening, as the listening position doesn’t matter as much as with a stereo system. A lot of thought and analysis was put into how this system would perform, the process is discussed in-depth on the product page.

Physically, this system looks quite impressive. It has a CNC-cut birch plywood base that you can finish as you would like, and an acrylic top to show off the electronics inside. You can find build instructions as well as a circuit schematic on ubld.it’s site. This allows you to see what you might be in for with this build, or you could even make a few changes if so desired.

On the other hand, if this piques your interest, be sure to browse around on Tindie’s sound section for more audio goodness!

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Google chrome as of version 53 comes with a trial version of a web Bluetooth API that you can use to communicate with Bluetooth devices. This will make Bluetooth more attractive as the protocol of choice for projects based around home automation, reading sensors, and switching on/off home appliances etc. Before web based Bluetooth you would have needed an app on each device you own solely for the purpose of using the Bluetooth connection. This made WiFi a more attractive option as you can already do lots of browser based stuff with it. The downside with WiFi is that the transceivers use a relatively high amount of power compared to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

This BLE shield uses the nRF8001 chip to communicate via Bluetooth. Plug it onto an Arduino and straight away your browser can start sending and receiving information from the board. From here it really is up to your imagination, you can hook up whatever kind of sensors or actuators you want as normal. The only difference is now you can control it from any device you can install a browser on. As of yet, there hasn’t exactly been a huge influx of browser-based Bluetooth projects hitting the internet. There has to be some novel ideas that can come about with direct browser communication. If you make something cool, we would love to see it, let us know on Twitter: @tindie.

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Most people have have spent at least a little bit of time playing with an Etch A Sketch. You have to manipulate two dials at the same time to form lines; straight lines and coherent pictures are hard to come by. Perhaps this is part of the fun, but coupled with the fact that you can’t pick up your “pen,” many people (including myself) found it quite frustrating.

Fortunately “Geekmomprojects” has a solution in the form of her “EtchABot.” You may have seen this device elsewhere as something she simply built, but now, in part due to the amazing sales power of Tindie, you can have your own! The kit comes with laser-cut parts as well as the servos and most other electronics needed to make this “autosketch” device. You just have to provide the pocket sized Etch A Sketch and an Arduino Uno.

Besides simply drawing something, it can be programmed to do more advanced functions, for instance, acting as an analog clock using it’s auto-erase feature as seen in the video below. Code is available on Github or you can even see how to make one.

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Combine 64 LEDs and an ATMega328 microcontroller with some tactile buttons and what do you get? A tiny gaming console that you can write your own games for, that’s what. There is also the added bonus of assembling the thing and soldering it all together allowing you to brag to your friends and gain those sweet nerd points.

The aptly named SixtyFourPixels is a kit designed by Hotchk155 and has already received several rave reviews from buyers. The kit is based around an 8×8 LED matrix that can display red, green, and orange. A tiny piezo speaker is also included to provide sound for the games. Thanks to the ATMega328’s use in several Arduino boards, you can write your own games in a snap with the Arduino IDE and then program the chip using an FTDI cable.

The microcontroller comes pre-programmed with several classic games including Space Invaders, Snake, Breakout, Four In A Row, and more. This kit is a great way to keep beginners interested in programming and to challenge the creativity of more experienced coders considering the limited resolution of the display. Hotchk155 has all of his games up on GitHub, you should contribute to the library!

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The 2016 Hackaday Prize is geared towards finding solutions to technological problems affecting humanity. With a community of hackers whose skills ranging from researching project ideas to writing code to building hardware , it is an amazing mix of people all working to make things better than they were before. Of over 1000 entries, several are available on Tindie. Let’s take a look!

RPi WiFi Power Pants:

The idea behind this entry is simple and the solution is really elegant. The Raspberry Pi Zero only has one USB port for data transfer so if you want to add WiFi you would normally use a USB WiFi adapter with a USB hub of some sort. The downside to this is that it’s messy and adds a lot of bulk to the tiny Raspi Zero. This ESP8266 Wifi Board add-on sits neatly on top of the Pi and lets you keep the USB port for other uses.

Check out the RPi Wifi hackaday.io page for the full build details

Memtype : Open Source Password Keeper

With minimum password requirements getting more and more complicated, it is basically impossible to remember them all assuming you use a different password for every account. There are loads of software password keepers available for use with a computer but if you don’t trust them, there is always Memtype, a USB password storage device. This tiny board uses an attiny85 as it’s brains and it is impressive how much functionality they have squeezed onto such a tiny chip. Passwords stored on the device are encrypted and can only be accessed when a 4 digit pin is entered. Another nice feature of this device is that it presents itself as an HID device to your computer meaning there is no need to download any drivers.

For more details about the Memtype project, check out its page on Hackaday.io.

WINXI – Arduino Zero Pro M0 stick:

The Arduino Zero board comes with an Atmel SAMD21 MCU which is a 32 bit Arm Cortex M0+ chip. The WINXI board uses the same chip but in a smaller form factor PCB which can be plugged directly into a USB port.For those looking to get started with ARM development it is a nice board to ease into the process because you can use the plentiful Arduino Libraries already available and then give some bare-metal ARM programming a try if you’ve got a masochistic streak.

WINXI hackaday.io page.

Configum FPGA Module:

Configum is an FPGA development board squeezed into a 1 square inch PCB. On the board you have a Spartan FPGA which has 14,579 logic cells, 64Mb DDR, a micro-SD card holder, 24MHz oscillator, 8-bit configurable ADC/DAC/IO port, JTAG functionality, four debug LEDs, a small reset button, and the ability to supply external board circuitry with 3.3V power. The boards creator, Knivd sums up this board perfectly in the Tindie product description : “There is a number of FPGA platforms on the market now. Configum is like all of them, just smaller, thinner, lighter, better.”

Configum Hackaday.io page

CleanHawk 250 Quadcopter Power Distribution Board:

This quad-copter power distribution board aims to keep the wiring of the Emax 250 quadcopter as clean as possible. This is achieved by using this PCB as the quadcopter base plate instead of the usual carbon fiber base plate. The board is designed to distribute power for things like the motors, camera, flight computer, and LEDs.

Cleanhawk 250 Power Distrubution Board Hackaday.io page.

Vertically Mounted Arduino Board:

What you see is really what you get with this one. It’s an Arduino, but all of the pins are broken out to a single row of header pins. This means you can plug it into a single row on a breadboard, saving space. It’s a novel idea with a nicely designed PCB.

Vertical Arduino Tindie Page.

Vertial Arduino Hackaday.io Page.

Interactive light effect tower:

This LED tower is not only interesting to look at, it also reacts to music and nearby motion. The motion detection works using three IR sensors fitted to the tower, one points upwards and the other two are mounted on the sides. Waving your hand over different parts of the device changes things like colour or intensity.

LED Tower Hackaday.io page

MiniSam Zero:

This is another Arduino based dev board containing an Atmel SAM Arm Chip. The board comes with a USB-serial adapter and a serial bootloader. It is quite similar to the WINXI board featured above. Both are good boards and provide a good introduction to ARM programming.

MiniSam Hackaday.io page.

LiFePO4wered/Pi

The LiFePO4wered/Pi is a battery backup add-on module for the Raspberryy Pi. If you want to run your Pi on a not so reliable power source like Solar Panels, the battery backup will let properly shutdown the Pi when the voltage drops too low, preventing the dreaded OS corruption. Also good if you just want to work off battery power for a few hours or have the Pi wake up, do some task then go back to sleep to last a long time on battery.

LiFePO4wered/Pi Hackaday.io page

Last Chance to Enter

The Hackaday Prize closes for entries on Monday, October 3rd. Make this weekend your personal hackathon and build a prototype of an assistive technology. Twenty entries will be chosen to receive $1000 each, and move on to the final round for a chance at $150,000 and a residency at the Supplyframe Design Lab in Pasadena.

See more awesome Tindie projects on Hackaday.io.

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Though they may appear to be vacuum tubes on first glance, Nixie tubes work much differently, displaying a glowing character inside. Once used to display information on electronic devices, these components have largely been replaced by newer technologies. Like many devices from the past, however, they certainly have their charm, and most any electronics hacker would love an excuse to use something like this.

The most obvious use is for a clock, however, these tubes aren’t that easy to work with, as they require over 100 volts of DC power to make them glow. You could go through the work of designing your own circuit and PCB, but perhaps instead you’d like to start with a kit. If so, the Past Indicator store has your solution, shipping to you straight out of Moscow!

They have several variations of their tube clocks available, like the beautiful ash and brass model pictured in the opening photo, though for something truly your own, the model seen directly above features tube holders connected by flat wires to the base unit. This would allow for a wide variety of customization. For some ideas of what can be done, check out the video below!

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If you’ve ever needed to measure the power drawn by a USB powered device, you’ll know that it’s a real pain and gets very messy very quickly. In a pinch, most people will resort to butchering the USB cable powering the device so they can measure the current consumption — breaking the power rail while trying to maintain the two data lines. This is obviously not the ideal solution and is where the USB Tester steps in to make everything better. It’s a drop-in solution that maintains your USB connection while giving you the measurements you’re after.

With it’s built-in OLED display, you can view the USB line voltage, current draw and power consumption in real-time. You can also view a graph of current consumption over the past few minutes. That in itself makes it an invaluable widget to have if you are developing a project that runs on USB power. You can also connect the USB Tester to a computer using either the provided Java App or the wiskers.io chrome app, handy for looking at data logged over a few hours.

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Tapster describes itself as “a robot that automates mobile applications on a smartphone.” What that means in this case is that it uses a stylus device to imitate a human’s finger to automatically press a phone’s virtual buttons. This is accomplished with a delta robot setup, and, as shown in the video below playing the game 2048, can run at an impressive speed.

These robots are available to purchase for $750, though if you really want to make one for yourself, the design is open source and 3D printable. For that matter, I suppose that one could program a 3D printer or CNC router to do the same thing, but when it comes to automatically manipulating several-hundred-dollar phones, perhaps purchasing something built for the task is a good idea.

This device is designed by Selenium creator Jason Huggins, which is a tool to automate web browser tasks, either for testing or general automation. This seems like a natural hardware extension of that tool, and appears to work quite well. With a huge number of smartphone and tablet models in the wild, this type of automated testing is a good idea for any app that wants to ensure the best user experience across all devices. Or you can just use it to rack up a huge score on Candy Crush Saga.

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If you do a lot of debugging with IR transmitters or just want another cool gizmo to stash in your parts bin, this IR bullet may be just the thing for you. Consisting of just an IR LED inside of a BNC connector, the IR bullet keeps things simple.

You may be wondering why an IR LED  is being used as a receiver instead of just using an IR photo-diode. It turns out the creators of the IR bullet, Analysir, have done a lot of research into the topic of IR receivers and found most of them were not up to scratch for effective IR debugging. The reason for this is that IR receivers have the signal demodulator built into them.

These demodulators are tuned to a specific carrier frequencies; 38KHz is the most common for infrared communications. Unfortunately, it takes time for the IR signal to pass through the demodulator which results in a time lag on the output signal as well as distortion. This makes it difficult to debug an IR related problem because the distortion could be covering up the cause of the problem. You can read the full write-up about the topic over on the Analysir blog.

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