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This project is “NanoUtils Xtal” – a crystal oscillator breakout board. The board is designed to be interfaced with microcontrollers that have their oscillator pins next to a ground pin. [via]
This board is a breakout containing a SMD crystal, two caps and a resistor meant to be used in breadboards when building something with an Atmel ATmega or a Microchip PIC that have the two crystal pins next to a GND pin. For instance the atmega328 or pic18f2550.
Crystal oscillator breakout - [Link]
Atmel semiconductors have earned a big popularity all over the world. That´s why in our portfolio can be found a lot of standard stock types and upon request, we´re able to supply you with virtually any Atmel component.
AAVR, ATmega, ARM, ATtiny, 89C2051, 89S… these are the terms familiar to perhaps every developer of applications with microcontrollers. Atmel products have gained their reputation also thanks to a fact, that in their wide portfolio can be found microcontrollers for a wide spectrum of applications – from simple ones to relatively sophisticated powerful applications. Besides standard stock types, also many other types, can be found in our webshop, which we´re usually able to provide you within few days. Who ever tried to use any – even relatively simple and cheap microcontroller, knows, that such a component is able to add an unbelievable functionality and flexibility to a target device, most often inimplementable or only inefficiently implementable from discrete components. Atmel also provides a vast support in a form of application notes, development SW and HW, or examples in a source code – all are free to download at Atmel website.
Atmel components are here for you - [Link]
Akafugu writes:
We’ve added a new sheet that covers most of the chips that were missing in the Atmel ATmega and ATTiny families, specifically the ones that come in only SMD packages. The chips included are ATtiny 4/5/9/10/20/40/24a/44/84a/43u/87 and 167. We’ve also added the ATmega8/48/88/268/328 in TQFP package which has a different pinout than the DIP package covered in the original reference sheet.
Microcontroller Reference Sheet SMD v1.0 - [Link]
www.ikalogic.com writes:
As you may already know, we have been producing SCANALOGIC-2 Logic analyzer in big quantities for the latest 15 months. This have been our first major product, and over the time we have learned how to (or built ways to) automate most productions steps. Programming the atmega chips (which controls the SCANALOGIC-2) can take a lot of time. Specially if you have to do it 500 times. Of course, one solution is to buy pre-programmed chips, but this is not always financially interesting.
So to cope with this situation, I developed a small VB.Net program that will automate the programming steps, that is:
- Erasing the device
- Programming the fuse bits
- Burning the HEX file into the device’s flash
- Building an EEPROM file with a specific serial number for each device
- Burning the EEPROM file into the device’s eeprom
- Programming the lock bits and verifying that both the Flash & the EEPROM are securely locked.
Automating ATmega chips programming - [Link]
[via]
SMDuino provides a much needed surface mount solution for Arduino based projects. By eliminating the need to integrate the common support components for Arduino’s ATMEGA, engineers and hobbyists alike can accelerate their designs and produce a finished product. No more prototype wires and development boards under the hood!
Utilizing easy to solder 0.1″ castellated mounting points, anyone can drop a SMDuino into their project either as a surface mount device, or by soldering headers to the side. SMDuino accounts for power (MIC5202 or equivalent), ISP, crystal and AVR.
SMDuino: A surface mountable Arduino variant - [Link]
open-electronics.org writes:
We use an Arduino to program other ATmega without bootloader . This technique allows you to use all flash memory for code and make boards using new ATmega, cheaper than those with bootloader.
The qualities that have made the success of Arduino are undoubtedly the open-source software, many libraries, a good hardware and a virtually infinite Reference that explains each possible use of the platform.
But if we use Arduino for a specific use, we can integrate it into a specific circuit and program the micro in a way that performs a single firmware. We may so remove the bootloader and leave to the firmware the entire program memory.
The ATmega328 has 32 Kbytes of flash, that when the chip is mounted on Arduino are not all available, as a portion is reserved to the bootloader, the purpose of which is to communicate with the IDE Arduino to load programs (sketch) to be performed. The same bootloader, on each power on or reset of Arduino, verifies the presence of a sketch in flash memory and executes it. The bootloader occupies a space of 512 bytes, in the case of Arduino UNO.
Arduino ISP and stand-alone circuits - [Link]
electronicsblog.net writes:
This is a very basic Atmega328 development kit It includes:
- Atmega 328 8 bit microcontroller with 20 MHz crystal resonator
- PCB board with place for external components
- Power circuit that allows powering Atmega directly(2.7-5.5 V), or through a L7805 voltage regulator(8-35 V). L7805 circuit includes a thermal fuse.
- 10 pin ISP connection for programming.
Atmega328 Development Kit Guide - [Link]
pcmofo writes:
I wanted to make an easy and secure way to enter my garage. RFID was the best way to unlock my door, even with my hands full I can unlock the door and push it open! I built a simple circuit with a basic ATMega 168 arduino chip and a ID-20 RFID reader to control an electronic door lock.
The circuit consists of 3 separate parts, a Reader to read RFID tags, a Controller to accept data from the reader and control the output of the RGB LED and the Electric door lock. The door lock is first installed in a door and tested with a 9v battery to ensure correct installation. In most cases you want a Normally Open circuit on the door lock, or Fail Secure. This means the door stays locked when no current passes through it. When 12vDC is passed through the electromagnet in the door lock, a plate in the lock gives way and allows the door to be pushed open freely.
Arduino RFID Door Lock - [Link]
open-electronics.org writes:
Using an ATmega 2560 and therefore the heart of Arduino, we have developed a universal remote control with GSM. This allows to control 2IN/2OUT, DTMF key, gate control and GSM thermostat activated remotely.
We have already presented several remote control with different functions. But now we want to present the best remote control ever made with Arduino.
The remote control is easier, thanks to the availability of several libraries that allow you to do anything to the Arduino microprocessor; if there is not really a specific library, you can modify an existing one. Thus was born TiDiGino, based on the chip ATmega 2560 used in Arduino Mega. Our system has connectors S.I.L. to mount any shield, each of them is in the same location where you would be in the original development platform, which enables the use of commercial and in any case the standard shield.
We said that the functions of our remote control, ie 2IN/2OUT, gate opener, key DTMF GSM and thermostat can be achieved by using special firmware, well, we could write these ourselves, but we wanted to offer our readers who know the Arduino environment do them. This is the sense of TiDiGino Contest, which you could follow our blog and that has just ended, as promised, we publish the hardware of the remote control and a few routines.
TiDiGino - the Arduino-based GSM remote control - [Link]
howiem.com writes:
Picked up one of these IC test clips on eBay for a few quid.
The idea is that you clip it to a chip on a circuit board so you have easy access to the connections for use with test probes.
I’ve got a different use for it though. If you develop a circuit using an Atmega chip (like, say, a circuit you developed with an Arduino but have now moved to a custom board), reprogramming the chip is fiddly. The best way to make your circuit easily re-programmable is to build an ISP header onto your board – it’s just a 6-pin connector that lets you blast new programming onto the chip without removing it from the circuit.
DIY Atmega programming clip - [Link]
