Apollo-era PCB Reverse Engineering To KiCad

Earlier this year [Skyhawkson] got ahold of a Apollo-era printed circuit board which he believes was used in a NASA test stand. He took high quality photos of both sides of the board and superimpos…

Kristie (@kristiedegaris@mastodon.scot)

Attached: 1 image Just a reminder that I wrote a comprehensive, two part guide to drystone walling. Even if you don't build something, the info will leave you with a whole new appreciation for the walls around you. Give it a read, and then a...

Ubiquitous Successful Bus: Version 3

USB 2 is the USB we all know and love. But about ten years ago, USB got an upgrade: USB 3.0. And it’s a lot faster. It started off ten times the speed of USB 2, with 5 Gbps, and later got 20 …

Switching Regulators: Mistake Fixing For Dummies

Some time ago, while designing the PCB for the Sony Vaio replacement motherboard, I went on a quest to find a perfect 5 V boost regulator. Requirements are simple – output 5 V at about 2A , w…

Lithium-Ion Battery Hotswapping, Polarity, Holders

Everyone loves, and should respect, lithium-ion batteries. They pack a ton of power and can make our projects work better. I’ve gathered a number of tips and tricks about using them over the …

Hacker Tactic: Pimp Your Probes

Is your multimeter one of your trusty friends when building up boards, repairing broken gadgets, and reverse-engineering proprietary ones? Is it accompanied by a logic analyzer or an oscilloscope a…

Laser Cutters: Where’s The Point?

It is funny how when you first start doing something, you have so many misconceptions that you have to discard. When you look back on it, it always seems like you should have known better. That was…

I2C For Hackers: The Basics

You only really need two data wires to transfer a ton of data. Standards like UART, USB2, I2C, SPI, PS/2, CAN, RS232, SWD (an interface to program MCUs), RS485, DMX, and many others, all are a test…

Secrets Of The Old Digital Design Titans

Designing combinatorial digital circuits seems like it should be easy. After all, you can do everything you want with just AND, OR, and NOT gates. Bonus points if you have an XOR gate, but you can …

Embedded Python: MicroPython Is Amazing

In case you haven’t heard, about a month ago MicroPython has celebrated its 11th birthday. I was lucky that I was able to start hacking with it soon after pyboards have shipped – the fi…

PCB Design Review: HAB Tracker With ATMega328P

Welcome to the Design Review Central! [VE3SVF] sends us their board, and it’s a HAB (High Altitude Balloon) tracker board. It’s got the venerable ATMega28P on it, a LoRa modem and a GPS…

Can You Freeze-Dry Strawberries Without A Machine?

Summer has settled upon the northern hemisphere, which means that it’s time for sweet, sweet strawberries to be cheap and plentiful. But would you believe they taste even better in freeze-dri…

PCB Design Review: A 5V UPS With LTC4040

Do you have a 5 V device you want to run 24/7, no matter whether you have electricity? Not to worry – Linear Technology has made a perfect IC for you, the LTC4040; with the perfect assortment…

Displays We Love Hacking: DSI

We would not be surprised if DSI screens made up the majority of screens on our planet at this moment in time. If you own a smartphone, there’s a 99.9% chance its screen is DSI. Tablets are l…

Design Review: USB-C PD Input For Yaesu FRG7700

Today is another board from a friend, [treble], who wants to convert a Yaesu FRG7700 radio to USB-C PD power. It’s yet another review that I’ve done privately, and then realized I&#8217…

Measure Three Times, Design Once

Most of the Hackaday community would never wire a power supply to a circuit without knowing the expected voltage and the required current. But our mechanical design is often more bodged. We meet fo…

Programming Ada: First Steps On The Desktop

Who doesn’t want to use a programming language that is designed to be reliable, straightforward to learn and also happens to be certified for everything from avionics to rockets and ICBMs? De…

Design Review: DPI-LVDS Sony Vaio LCD Devboard

Ordering a PCB with mistakes sucks. We should help each other avoid such mistakes – especially newcomers. One of the best ways to avoid these mistakes, especially if it’s your first one…

Beyond The Basics: Exploring More Exotic Scope Trigger Modes

Last time, we looked at some powerful trigger modes found on many modern scopes, including the Rigol DHO900 series we used as an example. Those triggers were mostly digital or, at least, threshold-…