I accidentally purchased a GP2Y0D21YK0F when I meant to get a GP2Y0A21YK0F. The digital version only sends a high or low signal depending on whether there is an item within a preset distance. The analog version gives a 0-2.5V analog voltage depending on the distance (which is what I really wanted) Unfortunately, with a tight deadline & no time to reorder, I decided to see if the analog signal was still somewhere on the PCB, just not on the connector. A quick probe with my trusty scope says “yes”!

Things have been a little slow since I was untimely kicked out of my home to make way for luxury condos (sadly, a pretty standard occurrence in new york). But I’m getting back on my feet & presenting a new kit! This one is called Drawdio.

Originally designed by J Silver, when I first saw the Drawdio at Maker Faire I knew it would be a great project for beginners: A lot of fun with instant gratification! Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a simple toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper.

For more information, see the Drawdio kit page. Full kits are in the shop now, or you can build your own from the schematics and parts list on the website.

If only all cats could make money for their owners!
You may remember “Mr Lee” the cat who was outfitted with a matchbook-camera that would allow the owner to ’see what the cat saw’. It was quite a popular website a few months ago, and it seems that a business opportunity presented itself. Meeting the demand for catcam technlogy, you can now outfit your pet like Mr Lee by purchasing a variety of parts, kits and packages at the CatCam shop.

(I wrote/spoke about this sort of hobby-business practice at the last Maker Faire and also in EDN so its always cool to see real life examples!)

I’ve showed a few people how to use Eaglecad and usually the schematic capture part is easy to understand. When it gets to the point of placing parts and routing the PCB, though, I always end up saying something like “For reasons I can’t explain, I know that this part goes here and oriented like this” Its just one of those things you have to watch and then experiment with, especially considering that most autorouters are kinda bad.

This passed by the SDIY mailing list & I thought it would be good to share: a screen cast of a guitar pedal being laid out my Ruin & Wesen. Check out the page for the two previous videos on how to design & capture the schem.

Running out of space in your big Arduino project? Good news! Finally, after months of backorders, one can now buy the latest improvement to the ‘ATmega8′ line of chips: the ATmega328’s.

The ‘328 has 32K of flash, and 2K of SRAM. Basically its got the capacity of an ATmega32 but in a slimmer package. These chips are notable for their ability to drop-in replace the ATmega168. So that means if you have an Arduino or compatible clone, it is a easy 2 minute swap.

If you have an Adafruit wave shield or GPS/datalogging shield, and you’re annoyed that the FAT16 libraries eats up so much flash and RAM, upgrading will definitely fix the problem.

I’ve merged my previous updates to the Arduino bootloader to the most recent release and also fixed 2 annoying bugs that have prevailed this long. (1. the missing signature bytes when using the bootloader directly and 2. the broken EEPROM code). Download the ‘328-compatible bootloader files here.

There are 250 preprogrammed chips are in the Adafruit webshop or you can get blank chips from Mouser (but be warned that they’re backordered till mid-December)

Aneel has a bike that will be surely welcome at any SFBA Critical Mass, displaying the SpokePOV-friendly Obama ‘08 campaign logo.

(Of course, its upside down because the bike is flipped)
He’s even kind enough to provide the data files for others who want to join in, see more at his flickrstream

I am always impressed by the incredible work that entrepreneurs bring to the DIY electronics market.

This is the Logic analyzer by Joe Garrison (Saleae LLC (not to be confused with Saelig (not to be confused with caesar salad))), which can be purchased for $150

The Logic board (like the device it is descended from) is based off of the Cypress EZ-USB series chips (one of the first micro families I worked with!) These chips are quite interesting in that they are ‘flashless’, and can be programmed by using a special driver where the chip downloads the code using a ‘pre-enumeration’ driver. (Its a trip, srsly!)
What I didn’t know about this chip is that not only does it do high-speed USB 2.0 but it can apparently do bulk transfers in a separate core, so that it can provide as much as 24 MB/s to move data from an input port to the USB line. For a 48MHz device, that is damn impressive - 2 cycles per sample!

The cases are milled out of aluminum, then anodized and laser-etched

The windows software is nicely designed, and offers assistance when configuring pins

You may be asking, “How can I know for sure that this business will be successful?” That is easy!

1. Evidence of an LP2844 thermal printer. Anybody who is really in business has one of these. They are the greatest thing in the world. (Hint: they are a ripoff new, buy one on ebay for $100 or convince UPS to give you one) Owning an LP2844 says “I actually send things to people who pay me, and often enough to have a postage printer!”

2. ULine packaging and free Priority mail boxes. See above. The “VHS” style boxes are the bombity-bomb.

Ever wish you had a monkey that would give you permission to avoid work?
Apparently, Marek Bereza does…he got together with some friends to make a stuffed money that will generate a random excuse whenever its glowing bellybutton is pressed.

The monkey is made using an arduino & an adafruit wave shield along with a backlit LED mounted on a aluminum ring

See more photos of the project as it is made on flickr…

Collin has quite a hack on his plate: a DIY MIDI-to-CV box. This will allow him to send MIDI to older/inexpensive synths that have a line into the VCO. It consists of a 12-bit R2R DAC built using a DC boarduino, a MIDI opto-isolator box and a Gakken 150 analog synth kit

See more at his flickr set

Guilherme Martins is learning electronics and robotics the hardcore way: by building a lot of robots! He used an Arduino + Adafruit motor shield (which is ideal for making little DC/servo robots if I don’t say so myself! )
This robot went through a couple iterations, with different sensors and power supplies…See more pix at flickr!