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asidorenk @ obddiag.net pointed us to this great little USB to Serial board:
This USB to serial (TTL) converter project is easy to build, it is simple and inexpensive. It is based on the PL2303SA USB to USART bridge from Prolific. The PL2303SA chip is not required an external crystal as the internal clock oscillator is continuously tuning up to USB bus frequency. Having chip in SO-8 packaging does not require special soldering skills to assemble the project. Please note: the TX and RX signal levels are 3.3 Volts.
USB to Serial Breakout Board for Prolific PL2303SA - [Link]
dangerousprototypes.com writes:
Ray reports he’s just finished working on a new open source wearable electronics controller board called SquareWear. It’s small (1.6″x1.6″) and has built-in USB port (used for programming the microcontroller, USB serial communication, and charging battery). It also has 4 on-board MOSFETs for switching high-current load (up to 500mA). The board is based on Microchip’s PIC18F14k50, and includes a SquareWear library to make it as easy to use as Arduino. Check out RaysHobby website for the source code and programming guide.
SquareWear open source controller board - [Link]
This table provides top-level characteristics for serial interface standards by which two or more digital devices can be connected for communication. Design engineers can use the table to compare interface options for their application based on the design constraints like number of signal lines, network size, speed, distance, noise immunity, fault tolerance and reliability.
Serial Data Communication Protocols Comparizon - [Link]
The wireless modem you’ve been waiting for. Works with Arduino & other micros. Open source mesh networking base. FCC Certified. Cheap. Eric Gnoske writes:
So who’s behind RadioBlocks? A group of engineers who have worked on many aspects of low-power radio devices. A group of engineers who time & time again saw customers coming to us with similar requests, but with no way for us to easily fill them. So we created RadioBlocks to allow people to easily drop a radio link into their project, hence “RadioBlocks” – A simple to use radio building block.
Sure there are lots of radio boards out there. Most have two modes: super-simple serial-port replacement mode, and complex full network mode. Neither of those are useful – most people want to send some data between some devices. They need more than serial-port replacement, but the full network mode is too much hassle. Then many of those radio devices are just too expensive – are you really going to drop $30 or $40 on a single radio node, then buy extra hardware so you can attach sensors? Good luck with that!
RadioBlock: Simple Radio for Arduino or any Embedded System - [Link]
This article focuses on how to listen for signals from an Arduino through the Serial Port (Linux, Mac) or COM Port for Windows using the SerialPort2 Node.JS module and serve signal data to the web in real time using Socket.IO. [via]
Arduino and the Web using NodeJS and SerialPort2 - [Link]
Open source application for charting data sent via RS-232 port in real time.
SerialChart – Analyse and chart serial data from RS-232 COM ports - [Link]
The MicroFTX is a low-cost, reconfigurable, and compact Micro-USB breakout board based on the FTDI FT230X full-speed USB Serial UART IC.
- USB to serial interface for microcontroller development or debugging
- Reverse-engineering tool with flexible I/O voltages (1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, etc)
- Battery charger detection for high-power USB applications (app note)
- Bitbang GPIO mode for simple digital input and output
MicroFTX – USB to serial breakout - [Link]
electronicsblog.net writes:
Today I will show how to make digital bridge between Arduino and PC: control analog – digital converter and send measured data to PC. Windows application will be created using Visual C++ 2008 Express.
Voltmeter demo software is very simple, and here is a lot room for improvement, but I just wanted to show basics how to control com port and execute data exchange between PC and Arduino.
Digital voltmeter – Arduino and PC (Visual C++) – [Link]
Kerry uses a DIY serial display to show debugging data sent from an Arduino’s UART. Sometimes the data comes too fast to read, so he added a 4K buffer and controls to scroll thorough the history. [via]
…if your application generates a lot of messages, it would still be hard to spot the relevant information as you can only see the last couple of lines of the data.
So my solution is to add a none-volatile off-screen buffer to the serial display so that multiple rows of data can be captured during run time and retained for later debugging.
Serial port monitor with 2×20 LCD and 4K text buffer - [Link]
circuitvalley.com writes:
This simple COM PORT based AVR atmega Programmer will allow you to painlessly transfer hex programs to most ATMEL AVR microcontrollers without sacrificing your budget and time. It is more reliable than most other simple AVR programmers available out there and can be built in very short amount of time.
AVR programmer consists of in-circuit serial programmer (dongle) and small pcb with a DIP socket where you can fit your microcontroller and have it quickly programmed.
AVR Serial Port Programmer - [Link]
