Hack a Day's Bus Pirate

The folks over at Hack a Day have gone into the electronic components biz. Teaming up with Seeed Studio, they're producing the Bus Pirate. The Bus Pirate is a universal serial bus tool. Use it for understanding how components work before you build a full prototype. Their parts posts page shows many example uses. Here's more about the board:

The Bus Pirate is a universal bus interface that talks to most chips from a PC serial terminal, eliminating a ton of early prototyping effort when working with new or unknown chips. Many serial protocols are supported at 0.6-5.5volts, more can be added.

* 1-Wire * I2C * SPI * JTAG * Asynchronous serial * MIDI * PC keyboard * 2- and 3-wire libraries with bitwise pin control

We added other stuff we need, like,

* 0-6volt measurement probe * 1hz-40MHz frequency measurement * 1kHz - 4MHz pulse-width modulator, frequency generator * On-board multi-voltage pull-up resistors * On-board 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies with software reset * Macros for common operations * Bus traffic sniffer (SPI) * A bootloader for easy firmware updates

Since this has been such a useful tool for us, we cleaned up the code, documented the design, and released it here with specs, schematic, and source code.

The Bus is available for pre-orders and sells for $27.15.

Bus Pirate preorders open How-to: The Bus Pirate V2 with USB The Bus Pirate universal serial interface

Wireless Resonating Power from Intel Research [Wireless]
Author: Brian Lam

Intel researchers are working on wireless power that doesn't use a conductive pad. Instead, it uses magnets and a tuned directional transfer coil to send music from an iPod a couple of feet to a speaker. It works!

This setup is deceptively simple. There's an electro-magnetized ring of wire sending 1-watt signal at 7.6-something MHz. From there, a carefully placed and wound coil of wire (yellow) sends the magnetic signal in a direction where another smaller coil (green) specifically tuned to receive the power and send it to a tiny speaker. It reminds me of the way a generator or motor work, somehow. The range was about 3 feet and the music was quiet by audible and worked when I moved the speaker in different directions. Impressive!

The chances of this making its way into mobile gadgets that charge with no cables or pads, ever? We're far off. The range and power are dependent on the size of the coils and the exact way they are wound, so they resonate the magnetic signals just right. Maybe a micro array of these, optimized several generations from now, will do the trick.

Or maybe the Dharma institute already has the answers.

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Published: 2009-06-19 01:07:29

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Levitron Revolution Makes Your Junk Look Awesome While Suspended in Space [Electromagnets]
Author: Andi Wang

For those who have a treasured item you want to display in style, the Levitron Revolution uses some sort of electromagnets—or anti-gravity voodoo magic—that levitates and slowly rotates your prized possession in space.

As long as your collectible weighs around 4 ounces or less and is non-ferrous, this device will pick it up, spin it around, and illuminate it with its built-in LED spotlights. Apparently, the Levitron Revolution is not in production yet, but when it becomes available sometime in August, I'm going to get two just so I can put my levitron on display using my other levitron. [Fascinations via BBG via OhGizmo]

Published: 2009-06-11 20:00:00

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Aerospace Electronic Components
The forerunners of aerospace transistors came along in the late 1950s and 1960s and supplanted thermionic valves for many applications. The improved cost-effectiveness of transistors led to the development of digital aircraft systems throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Published: 2009-05-29 13:48:45

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Integration of Home Theater Components
In general terms, a home theater system is a mixture of electronic components which are designed to reestablish the experience of watching a movie in a theater.To move on,we need to know some of the major components that make up a home theater and how to integrate it all together to create the system that's best for you and your family. When you watch a movie on a home theater system, you are more excited in the experience that you feel , than when you watch it on a simple television.
Published: 2009-05-28 15:54:03

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