Blog Hits 10k Views + "Quick PCBs"
Last week this blog hit 10,000 page views! That's very surprising to me, as I haven't posted a huge amount of content to date. When I started this, I only got hits when I posted an article on a mailing...
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Quick PCB: Pi Attenuator
This tiny PCB can be used to make a useful Pi attenuator for your bench.Tiny RF Pi attenuators using surface mount resistors.Attenuators are useful when you need to reduce a signal's strength by a...
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Quick PCB: Crystal Ladder Filter
Here's a little board for making a four pole crystal ladder filter.Four Pole Crystal Ladder Filter with SMA connectorsThis type of filter has a very high Q and narrow bandwidth, allowing you to select...
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HP 5221B Electronic Counter
It is a snow day here, so let's take a break from projects and look at an old Hewlett-Packard frequency counter. I purchased this 5221B electronic counter last year in San Diego from a military surplus...
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LoRa FeatherWing Development Breakout
In this post I will document a LoRa FeatherWing Development Breakout board that I designed for the Adafruit Feather line of microcontroller boards.LoRa FeatherWing Development Breakout for Adafruit...
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10MHz OCXO Teardown (CTS 1960017)
I recently purchased a case of CTS 1960017 10MHz OCXOs on eBay. They are little 5V units with a sine wave output, and purchased in this quantity, cost $5 a piece. I decided to sacrifice one and open it...
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ATtiny10 Mini Breakout Board
Here is a very tiny breakout board for the Atmel ATtiny10. It's so small, you'll lose it. Literally. I lost one in the carpet and I'm hoping to find it before the vacuum does.ATtiny10 Mini Breakout...
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Schematic of the CTS 1960017 10MHz OCXO
Recently, I posted a teardown of a CTS 10MHz Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO). Using the unit that I opened up, I was able to work out the schematic for the boards inside.This is what's left...
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LoRa FeatherWing IOX for Adafruit Feather
In this post I will document another custom FeatherWing that I have designed for the Adafruit Feather line of microcontroller boards, the LoRa FeatherWing IOX.LoRa FeatherWing IOX on a Feather HUZZAH...
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Checking Out the New Atmel ATtiny102/104
In this post I will discuss my experiences with the Atmel ATtiny104 Xplained Nano kit, and compare this new microcontroller from Atmel with other ATtiny devices.The Atmel ATtiny104 Xplained Nano...
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DIY LED Light Bulb Kits
Recently I saw a video by bigclivedotcom on YouTube about LED light bulb (lamp) kits from eBay. I decided to pick up a few of these kits and check them out. I was not disappointed!LED light bulbs I...
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Atmel SAM D09 Development Board
In this post I will document a development board that I designed for the Atmel SAM D09 microcontroller.A fun little development board for the Atmel SAM D09.IntroductionThe Atmel SAM D series of 32-bit...
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LoRa Products Coming from Adafruit!
Over the past couple of months I've been working on bringing LoRa support to the Adafruit Feather line of microcontroller boards. I designed a small Development Breakout FeatherWing for the HopeRF...
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New "Lab" Equipment: Nikon D3300 DSLR
I have needed a good camera for some time now. I've always been interested in photography and owned a couple of film SLRs back in the day, but never made the jump to a DSLR. The cameras in modern...
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Fluke/Philips PM66xx Frequency Counter OCXO Upgrade
In this post I will document an OCXO upgrade board I designed for the Fluke/Philips PM66xx line of frequency counters.Custom OCXO upgrade installed in my Philips PM6674.IntroductionA few months ago I...
View ArticleFrequency Counter OCXO Upgrade on The Signal Path
Shahriar of The Signal Path Blog posted a YouTube video a few months ago about a Fluke PM6680B frequency counter that he has in his lab. He performed a successful repair on the counter in that episode...
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10MHz OCXO Teardown (NDK ENE3311A)
Here we go with another OCXO teardown. This time we are taking apart an NDK ENE3311A 10MHz OCXO. This is a little 1" square unit with a square wave output. You can find them on eBay for about $15 USD.I...
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Learning Embedded Electronics with the ATtiny104 XNANO
In this post I will document a small add-on board that I designed for the Atmel ATtiny104 Xplained NANO. I have also created a series of lessons that use the ATtiny104 XNANO with the add-on board to...
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Quick PCB: TCXO Breakout
I'm back with another Quick PCB. This one is a little breadboard-compatible breakout board for inexpensive temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) modules commonly found on eBay.Need a TCXO...
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Designing a Mains Frequency Monitor, Part 1
This is the first in a series of posts about designing a mains frequency monitor using the Microchip PIC 16F1619 microcontroller. Today we will talk about the features of this device that make it a...
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Cherry MX Keypad
In this post I will document an open-source, Arduino-compatible Cherry MX keypad that I designed using the ATmega32U4 microcontroller. A highly customizable Cherry MX keypad.IntroductionYou have...
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Designing a Mains Frequency Monitor, Part 2
This is the second in a series of posts about designing a mains frequency monitor using the Microchip PIC 16F1619 microcontroller. In this post we will take a look at the first revision of the board...
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Eagle Custom Parts Library
I've created a new Eagle custom parts library for the projects I post on this blog. Though I upload the design files for individual Open-Source projects, you might like to re-use some of the parts in...
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LoRaWAN FeatherWing for Adafruit Feather
In this post I will document a new custom FeatherWing I have designed to add the MicroChip RN2483/RN2903 LoRaWAN module to Adafruit Feather.Help your Feather fly into the IoT clouds with this...
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Atmel Retrokit SAM D Edition
In this post I will document an update that I designed of a classic AVR board: The Retrokit!Atmel Retrokit SAM D EditionIntroductionI don't have a lot of information on the original Retrokit board....
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