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Warny shows how to make a wireless remote for a Minolta 5D – “I wanted to buy a remote for my new minolta 5d… After a short search on ebay i found that wire remote were almost 25€ (~30$) and that there were no wireless. First, i tried to contact the remote connector’s outlets. One was neutral, one was for focus, and the last one triggers the picture. So i decided to build one on my own, and that’s not that difficult. Plus, it brings a new function to my camera : a A mode.” [via]
Wireless camera remote - [Link]
USB-LED-Fader can control up to 8 LEDs with individual brightness waveforms. Its command line tool can easily be integrated into scripts to implement a status display for computer load, mailbox status, network load, video recording software or similar background tasks.
USB-LED-Fader - [Link]
The FT8U232AM based USB to RS232 converter requires a small number of external components to produce a device that converts USB to TTL level RS232 signals. All you need to add is a TTL to RS232 converter to provide the 12V RS232 logic levels.
USB to RS232 converter - [Link]
Turns out that a Ping Pong ball makes a reasonable LED diffuser. Just drill a hole and insert the LED. Easy micro Locnar! With an RBG LED this could make a nice system indicator. Maybe build a strip of these indicators to make several status indicators. Each server gets a mini orb to show it’s online status, maybe each email account. How about a ball of balls, each with an RGB LED… [via]
Ping Pong Ball LED Diffuser - [Link]
Sparkfun writes:
This is a USB to UART board that allows easy reprogramming of the LilyPad main board without the need for soldering. This board is based on the FT232RL IC from FTDI.
Features:
- Implements full v2.0 USB protocol
- Needs no external crystal
- Internal EEPROM for device ID and Product Description strings
- Royalty-Free Driver support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
TimW writes -
It seems like MAKE is fond of arduino projects, so here is my contribution. Here is 4 cheap $1 displays mounted in a picture frame and hooked to and arduino. Using just 6 pins, I am able to individually control 552 leds. I wrote a bit of code to write a series of messages to the displays. This code listens for serial data to update the displays. Any text can be shown, but I am currently using a perl script to send the weather forecast from google to it. [via]
Arduino powered weather station - [Link]
Bunnie writes -
I love looking inside chips, and Flylogic takes some of the sweetest chip shots. bushing sent me some Wii chips to play with a few weeks ago, and Chris at Flylogic expertly decap’d and imaged them for me. I thought they were pretty neat, so here’s a couple of them to share with you… [via]
Wii chipshots! - [Link]
A DC-to-DC converter is a device that accepts a DC input voltage and produces a DC output voltage. Typically the output produced is at a different voltage level than the input. In addition, DC-to-DC converters are used to provide noise isolation, power bus regulation, etc. [via]
DC-to-DC converter Basics - [Link]
USB LCD/VFD Controller is a HD44870 based LCD/VFD controller via USB interface. The control command is compatible with Matrix-Orbital’s LCD module.So, you can use any MO friendly software to control this baby. Such as LCDC.The firmware are based on David Potter’s Serial LCD/VFD Display.Some features :this project uses a FTDI FT232BM chip as the USB bus controller,upports industry-standard LCD interface ,Configured for 16×2,20×2,20×4,40×2 LCD/VFD module,include hardware 19200-baud RS-232 input,the LCD/VFD can configured via commands.control with Microchip PIC16F873 MCU ,use 93C46 to store data. [via]
USB LCD/VFD Controller - [Link]
Looking to get started with microcontrollers for robotics, clocks, phone dialers, etc..? Here’s a good PIC microcontroller beginner’s guide – “Many people would like to get started with microcontrollers, but don’t know how to begin. That’s what this page is all about — how to get started. With a microcontroller you can do things that would be difficult to do with discrete logic. Besides its power, you can easily “change your mind” with a microcontroller — something you can’t do with discrete logic. The PIC isn’t for every project. It won’t replace a PC, or even a larger processor. But for many jobs it is just the right size, inexpensive, and doesn’t require much in the way of support hardware.” [via]
PIC microcontrollers – a beginner’s guide - [Link]
