Tindie

I, like many Tindarians, love the Raspberry Pi. What I don’t like is letting it get too hot, and I find it annoying to simply leave a fan on all the time. After all, when embedded, these devices often only really do something every once in a while, so why waste wear and tear on a fan, as well as power, that other 99% of the time?

One solution is a passive heat sink, which is my preferred method in many situations. But when I found I needed to actively blow air over the processor using a fan, I didn’t find an easily available solution. So I made this one! The EZ Fan Raspberry Pi Fan Control PCB brings together a resistor, transistor, and diode (conspicuously missing in the image above), along with header pins into which you can plug your fan and the Pi. This allows it to source power from the 5V rail, and be controlled with a 3.3V IO pin.

While it’s a simple enough gadget to make yourself with a bit of soldering, this device makes things a matter of plug-and-play when you select the fully assembled option. It’s also available as a bare PCB, or as a parts kit, or even with connector wires. Finally, if you’re wondering how to actually turn it on based on temperature, the documentation includes a script for automating this task, though it only checks the status once per minute.

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7-Segment displays have been a part of hardware hacking for decades. While most can easily fit between your thumb and index finger, this dual digit display will… at least make you stretch out a little bit. The two digits together measure in at 96.5mm wide x 69.8mm high, or 82.1mm in height including the PCB. This is roughly 3.8 by 2.7/3.2inches if you’re more familiar with the US system, towering over the puny 7-segment displays that you may have used in your other projects.

The device is controlled by three data pins, meaning you don’t have to control each segment individually, and there’s also an optional PWM dimming signal. Power is provided by a DC jack, and it uses a constant current driver to supply the LEDs. This allows the unit to work without multiplexing, meaning no flickering if recorded with a camera, and a longer LED life.

If you need more than 2 digits, multiple modules can snap together, but the connector does require some support. Conveniently, mounting holes are already provided, so this should be fairly easy to integrate into your project.

Of course, this isn’t the only large 7-segment displays available at Tindie. Largish digits featured here, and here both allow for multi-colored LED output, and we’ve even seen a controller for a mechanical version.

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Creating electronics projects is, of course, a fun challenge. You figure out the overall function, along with the LEDs, microcontrollers, sensors, and the like that you’ll use, but after you’ve soldered everything together, you then need to figure out how to power it. It should be simple, but all too often it’s an afterthought that takes a bit more work than you had planned.

If you’d like to shortcut this process, Tindarian WizardTech has come up with a device that he uses “to add recharge capabilities to [his] hobby projects,” and now you can use it too! A 1S LiPo battery plugs into its JST 2.0mm PHR connector for charging, and power is supplied via a common Micro USB connector.

When connected, a red light indicates that it is receiving juice, while green shows that charging is complete. Conveniently, whether charged or not it will output 5V to your project via the output terminals. Over charge/discharge protection is included in the package, and it’s able to turn off if a short is detected. There’s even a 1000 uF Capacitor onboard to take care of what you probably neglect to put on your programmable LED projects.

Of course, if charging 1 battery at a time isn’t enough, why not check out the 6-battery gang charger that we featured here?

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With more and more hackers getting into FPGAs and CPLDs, the need for good quality third-party development boards has been steadily growing. This DIP-sized Artix-7 development board from MicroNova is absurdly powerful for the size. The Mercury 2 features a Xilinx XC7A35T with 33,280 logic cells; a 10-bit ADC; a 10-bit DAC; a full-speed USB; an ethernet PHY; 4 Mb SRAM & 32 Mb FLASH… the list goes on and on.

The board is densely packed, and beautifully laid out. I really admire tightly packed, complex boards like this. The designers’ PCB layout skills are on full display — this board would not have been an easy one to lay out! To have all the features that this board has, and to still be under $150 USD is simply awesome. If you are considering getting into FPGA development, the up-front cost can sometimes be prohibitive; but this board doesn’t require an external programmer, and it has plenty of future expansion options as your expertise grows.

MicroNova also sell a baseboard specifically tailored to the Mercury 2 which adds 7-segment displays, buttons & switches, audio in/out, PS/2 and RS-232 ports as well as a few sensors to use with the ADC. This was originally designed for the first Mercury FPGA board, but is fully compatible with the new Mercury 2!

The included documentation for this board is truly excellent. I find that good documentation can make all the difference when working with a new development platform. They even have a Getting Started Guide that walks you through the process of creating a new project in Xilinx Vivado (a famously complex piece of software), as well as example code, and info about all the different parts on the board itself. This shows a level of commitment that reflects well on the designers!

If you’ve been thinking about getting into FPGA development, this might be a great option. Oh, and it’s made & assembled in the USA!

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Have you ever wanted a theme tune to play as you enter the room? Perhaps the imperial march, a pop hit or Super Mario’s Jolly Roger Bay. Well now you can thanks to the Human presence triggered music player –  a small box which will wait for your arrival and serenade you when you step in trough the door and switch the lights on!

It’s designed for service rooms but has applications for all kinds of locations and establishments. The music is stored on an SD card, which can be selected by pressing the knob – which also controls the volume when turned. You might like to have some relaxing music to accompany a deep bath or something to get you pumped up for the home gym – whatever you choose it’s an unusual and ingenious device. Simply let it play out or turn off the lights to stop the music!

There are three versions of the music player with an embedded AC/DC adapter, a low voltage supply and a boxed, carbon-looking moel – pictured above.

The Human presence triggered music player is available from m1l3n who are based in Switzerland and offer numerous neat audio gadgets.

Check out their demo below to see it in action. Where would you put it?

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Electronic components are amazing pieces of technology, but unless you’re working with NASA or the military, they tend to be quite vulnerable to the elements. This presents challenges when working with projects that are used outdoors or in remote areas. Beyond even this, sometimes you just need a way to transport everything without being worried it will get damaged.

For this purpose, the Breadbox Double presents a simple and elegant solution. This weather resistant case fits two 1/2 size breadboards and features open sides to make working on the board easy. A gland seal on the bottom also gives you a place to pass your wiring through, which eliminates the need to mod the case like other options out there.

The case itself is 3D-printed using durable ABS and the design includes a rubber foam seal between the base and the cover to keep out water or dust. There’s even a lens on the exterior so you can view an LED from outside the enclosure. The Breadbox Double comes with two 1/2 size breadboards installed.

Given other, more limited options that don’t account for open sides or places to pass wiring through, this is a convenient choice for the prototyping maker on-the-go.

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Playing synths on the go can quickly become a weightlifting expedition, with synths, drum machines, and controllers mounting up in the rucksack. The AIRTOUCHS MIDI KEYBOARD is a sleek, hackable and minimal controller keyboard which offers lightweight polyphonic playback through capacitive touch sensitive keys as well as knobs and buttons thrown in!

The AIRTOUCHS sends MIDI notes over USB enabling you to play melodies, chords and trigger sounds on the move. It has 2 octaves of playing range, with transpose buttons and the option to expand the use of the knobs to 24 using the on-board function keys. This gives you the ability to control a huge range of parameters in your tracks – as well as using push buttons to (for example) mute or solo tracks. It can be expanded to send CV signals with some advanced soldering, detailed on the product page.

It’s currently available in three configurations; as a PCB only, full diy kit, or fully assembled. It doesn’t require any drivers, as it’s totally plug and play – as well as being hackable and open source having been designed on the Arduino platform.

There are numerous updates planned for the AIRTOUCH, including sequencer, DIN MIDI out, polyphonic aftertouch and pressure sensitivity.

It’s available from Spherical Sound Society who are based in Spain, who sell a fine range of musical devices.

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Procedural generation is a method for generating data automatically from an algorithm. It’s typically used in video games that have infinitely long levels. They will generate the same data if they begin with the same values, but by changing the starting values you will get a totally different set of data. They are similar to pseudo-random number generators but are specifically designed to output structured data.

So when I saw that someone had created procedurally generated circuit boards, I immediately thought “That is AWESOME!”. Every circuit board would be unique, each an individual work of art. The PicoPlanet is a SAMD21 dev board with procedurally generated artwork, including three capacitive touch buttons shaped like planets! The procedural generation also creates swirls around the planets, as well as random little planets and stars on various layers of the board. They are very, very cool little boards, and absolutely gorgeous with the gold on blue colour theme!

They also have an RGB LED and are compatible with Arduino and CircuitPython. Each design will only have 10 boards made, so these are a very limited run and exclusive! They are actually a standard M.2 size and length, with mounting holes in the correct place, so they can be easily mounted to anything that has an M.2 slot or mounting holes. I also give huge kudos to bleeptrack, the designer, for using USB-C! I am really glad to see more and more boards using USB-C. There’s nothing to dislike about this board! Get one before they are gone!

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I love maker projects that involve the use of LEDs. The intersection of art and technology has created a huge range of different visual and auditory experiences from the global community of makers.

While the WS2812 8×8 Neopixel matrix may look like others you’ve seen in the past, but this one is among the smallest size ever at 25*25mm which is about the size of a 50 euro cent coin. It includes solder pad connections for VCC, Ground, Data In and Data Out, and also works with 3.3V or 5V.

Alas, you this is no longer available from the seller. But before the item was retired it had an an option to assemble your own board with plans to add schematics, Gerber File, and a 3D model in the near future. We can hope that in the future this becomes an even more sadistic version of the SMD challenge boards which themselves have a “mysery edition”.

If you can make do with just one color, there is an incredibly dense 16×64 LED matrix available form another Tindie seller.

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A remote control that commands all devices is the holy grail of living room technology. While so-called “universal” remote control units allow you to control a rather large selection of TVs, AV receivers, DVD players and the like, in reality you’re generally only able to get them to work within a certain range of predefined parameters.

Worse yet, your remote might even require you to install rather clumsy software on your PC. This means occupied hard drive space, and/or yet another cloud login just to reconfigure things once every year or so. For total controller freedom, without another piece of software, look no further than the KontroLIR remote from AnalysIR.

This IR remote is controlled by an ATmega328PB, allowing it to be programmed via the Arduino IDE, and an optional USB serial adapter. There is also an IR receiver pair available for learning other remotes, and an EEPROM upgrade package. Several GPIO pins are broken out, including those needed for I2C communication, and ICSP programming if you prefer this method.

Design-wise, the remote features a housing and silicone button array, repurposed from another design. With its custom PCB, this means great functionality and good looks at a relatively low order quantity. Notably, the build uses around 1 uA of current when idle, allowing its 2 AAA batteries to last for several years of perfectly customized control!

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