Arduino Starter Kit
MAKE Blog How-to Tuesday posted a challenge: Optimize the sketch code for a pressure sensor bar graph. Here is my second attempt: int gate[] = {10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 32767}; void setup() {DDRB = 0b00111110;} void loop() { int dval = 0; int rval = analogRead(2); for (int x = 0; rval...

Measuring Supply Voltage
I'm running my latest handheld computer on solar power. It starts up when the sun rises and runs all day. I started wondering how I could measure the voltage coming in from the solar panel. I came up with a way to use a diode and a resistor and the...

Ten Pin ISP adapter
I've already built a six pin ISP adapter, but my Olmex cards use the ten pin ISP. I put a header on a scrap of perf board, added an LED for the heartbeat, and then connected the ten pin cable. Actually it is a fifteen pin cable, off a joystick...

Hello 5x7 Style
Wrote a new firmware for the 5x7 display. Now it scrolls out 'hello' over and over again. I'm running it on a solar panel, so it wakes up with the sun and runs all day long. When I built the LED matrix I put resistors on the five columns. I'm starting...

Provo, Utah
With a walkable downtown and access to two Universities, Provo Utah is a great location. I live next door in Orem. Kipplinger: Provo: Pristine Tech Mecca (Video) (Text)

Another release of AVRISP sketch
There is a new release of the AVRISP emulation sketch for Arduino: avrisp.02.zip. This one should work with Mega8 and Mega168. mega-isp

Sorting Out Page Sizes
There is a new release of AVRISP Emulation for Arduino. This is an Arduino firmware that allows you to program other AVR microcontrollers. The new zip file (avrisp.01.zip) should compile on the current Arduino IDE, and I changed the comments that put the wrong labels on the SPI pins. Go ahead...

Flash Problems
I'm building a project using the AVR ATMega8 microcontroller. Once I got the thing wired up to where I could write firmware to it I found that it was always failing. I made a .hex file full of 0x10 values (256 bytes worth) and tried uploading that to the chip....

William's Arduino Board
I'm building an Arduino-compatible board for William. I'm building it on the Evil Mad Scientist MegaXX8 business card. It will have four built-in LEDs and a USB interface. It will also have connectors so he can use it with a breadboard. Perhaps we can connect it to some of his...

Cybord Signal Detector
Some digital radio signals use Frequency Shift Keying (FSK). This often has one frequency for a Mark and one for a Space. I plan to build a cybord or other chip that will decode an FSK signal, producing three different values: NO_SIGNAL, MARK, and SPACE. The signals would then go...