All posts by Windell Oskay

About Windell Oskay

Co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Using AVR microcontrollers: Minimalist target boards

By on

USBtinyISP and simple target

This is a quick how-to guide on making ultra-simple development boards for programming AVR microcontrollers. Most recent-vintage AVRs can be programmed through an ISP (in-system programmer) connection; all that is really needed is a place for the chip to sit and a way to connect to the programmer.

That’s where these minimalist AVR “target boards” come in. These little boards cost only about $2 and take only a few minutes to make.

It turns out that I build a lot of these because asking “how do you make a circuit to program the AVR?” is really the same as asking how you can program an AVR that is in a circuit. And, we might as well start with a simple circuit.
Continue reading Using AVR microcontrollers: Minimalist target boards →

This entry was posted in Basics, EMSL Projects, Microcontrollers and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

The Adafruit Industries USBtinyISP kit

By on

USBtinyISP, assembled

This week I’ve been trying out a new low-cost AVR programmer from Adafruit Industries, and it looks like a winner. The USBtinyISP AVR Programmer is an open-source, USB, in-system programmer (ISP) that you can get as a kit for $22. The design is simple, straightforward and fairly easy to assemble. It also manages to incorporate a couple of important features that I have found to be missing from the low-end USB AVR programmer from Atmel, the AVRISP MkII, while coming in at only half the price.

Continue reading The Adafruit Industries USBtinyISP kit →

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Microcontrollers and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

Instructables: Micro-Readerboard Build

By on

MAKEKits wrote up an article on Instructables about assembling and reprogramming our little LED Micro-Readerboards.

They suggest assembling the project with a socket so that you can take the microcontroller off and reprogram it in an external programmer.

Another way to build it with a socket is how we’re demonstrating here, in this test fixture for the project.

This setup has a tiny piece of perfboard that connects a 20-pin DIP ZIF socket and a socket for the 18-pin LED display. Thus, both the AVR microcontroller and the LED display are socketed, and can be easily removed. This fixture is used primarily to test programmed AVRs. Since the chips are swapped out regularly, the ZIF socket makes sense, even though it’s more expensive than a regular DIP socket.

ZIF Side   LED Side

Tester Board

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

LED Micro-Readerboard, version 2.0

By on

 

LED Micro-Readerboard spells out MAKE

We’ve just finished updating the LED Micro-Readerboard (formerly the micro-readerboard LED ornament) to version 2.0. This version features longer battery life, the use of a standard common-cathode LED display, and a new set of phrases including optional holiday phrases. It’s an open-source project so you can download the code, order some parts, and go to town.We are also making it available as a kit, exclusively through the Make Store. The kit features a remarkable high-intensity LED display that enables vastly improved battery life.

Continue reading LED Micro-Readerboard, version 2.0 →

This entry was posted in Electronics, EMSL Projects and tagged , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster, on toast

By on

four FSMs

One of the things that we kept hearing as a comment about our CNC toast story is that we really should be printing the Virgin Mary on grilled cheese sandwiches, or something like that.

As it turned out, by the time that we actually wrote about our toasting, we had already moved on to bigger and (probably) better things, like printing sugar. Since we were rushing to get ready for Maker Faire, we didn’t get a chance to make more creative toast.
But, Maker Faire has come and gone, and we’ve finally got our machine reassembled, and so here we are toasting again. Believe it or not, this is actually a step in the right direction for CandyFab as well, because these were printed at 20 DPI, already an improvement with four times as many pixels as our previous batches at 10 DPI. These four Flying Spaghetti Monster images on toast are adapted from the original artwork in pencil, by Bobby Henderson.

Oh yeah, and I put one of them on eBay. =D

This entry was posted in CNC, Play with your food and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

Learn about microcontrollers at TechShop

By on

 

Coming up real soon now: Three microcontroller-oriented classes, on Saturday afternoons at TechShop, at different levels of skill and with different emphases:

 

 

  • Sat. June 9, 1:00 PM: Make a Micro Readerboard
  • Sat. June 16, 1:00 PM: Introduction to AVR Microcontrollers
  • Sat. July 7, 1:00 PM: Choosing a Microcontroller

The classes are held at TechShop, a San Francisco Bay Area “open-access public workshop,” located just off of 101 in Menlo Park, where you can go use a wide range of tools to make things, and take all kinds of classes.
   
Make a custom LED Micro-Readerboard

Next Saturday, June 9, I’ll be giving a fun little class, suitable for anyone with a bit of soldering experience (even youngsters), where you can customize the phrases in and assemble an LED Micro-Readerboard. It’s a cute little thing that spells out a preprogrammed messages (e.g., your name), one letter at a time, on a single-character alphanumeric display. These are much like the ones that we programmed to be holiday ornaments a few months ago, but these are actually extra-spiffy version 2.0 micro-readerboards with higher brightness and better battery life. And, if you take the class, you get to choose what messages to put on your readerboard and take it home. It’s a neat, self-contained project that’s a great example of what you can do with a little AVR microcontroller.

(UPDATE: Second class added on June 30, also at 1:00 PM.)

And speaking of AVR Microcontrollers….

 

ATtiny2313

Introduction to AVR Microcontrollers

Saturday, June 16, 1:00 PM

You may have noticed that a number of our interesting projects are based around AVR microcontrollers. AVR microcontrollers are powerful and inexpensive single-chip computers that are available in a wide range of sizes. They also happen to be remarkably easy to program in C, using entirely free and open-source tools that run on Macs, Windows, and Unix-like operating systems. In this practical introduction to AVR microcontrollers, we’ll take it from the beginning so that you can go home and use AVRs for your own cool projects. Some topics to be covered include: different types of AVRs and how to pick one, what kinds of programmer you should get, how to install the software tools, how to get started actually programming them, and how to download and run your code on the microcontroller.

Choosing a microcontroller

Finally, on July 7, I’ll be giving a repeat of this introductory microcontroller class, called Choosing a Microcontroller. This large-format seminar is designed to be a broad introduction to the capabilities and variety of single-chip computers, as well how to actually pick one for a given application. It’s easy to get overwhelmed looking at the variety of range of micros, from four-bit micros that have a 4-bit wide data path — and actually cost four bits— to AVRs and PICs, basic stamps and Arduinos, to 32-bit gorillas with names like ARM, Blackfin, and Coldfire. So, we’ll try and cut through the fog and help you figure out where to get started.

If you’ve heard people getting excited about or doing cool things with microcontrollers and want to learn more, this might be a great introduction to the field.

Sign up for these and other TechShop classes here.

(By the way, it’s hard to tell what types of things people want to learn about. So, if you have suggestions for other classes that you’d like to see taught by the Evil Mad Scientists, you can E-mail us or leave comments here or in the forums.)

This entry was posted in Education, EMSL Projects, Microcontrollers and tagged , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

Evilmadscientist Linkdump: May 2007

By on

Today we have a fine crop of choice links, hand picked at the point of perfection, for your viewing pleasure:

  • First, a neat article from The Times Online about 3D printing, that gives a nice mention to the CandyFab 4000
  • A Video Compilation of the short list of video finalists for the Phylm prize (of which we are among the judges).
  • Suggested by Brian Gaut: the cartalator. That’s the shopping cart escalator found at Target and a few other big box stores. (I’ve seen them for years, but I’ll admit to thinking it was really cool when I first saw one.)
  • Bookend snippets from the Japanese children’s program, Pythagoras Switch (suggested by an anonymous reader). These are Rube Goldberg machines based on rolling balls and you simply mustwatch these videos if you have not seen them– plan fifteen minutes where you don’t need to pay attention to anything else. The folks that make these videos have the coolest job in the world.
  • Translations in many languages of that most useful of phrases, “My hovercraft is full of eels.”
  • Seriously disturbing Lego, but made with remarkable talent. (Additional pictures in gallery.)
  • There is actually a formula to compute actual size of a #6 (for example) screw!

We are also inducting several new Honorary Mad Scientists into the fold today:

  • Graham Stabler who makes all kinds of amazing things including tiny flying machines and homebrew CNC machines.
  • John Maushammer, who has among other projects, developed the Pong Watch
  • Bruce Shapiro, whose motion control art installations are truly remarkable
  • Christy Canida, who has made remarkable strides in instructing the world in good cooking and strange taxidermy– a combination that certainly qualifies for mad scientist status!
  • Raven Hanna, a molecular biophysicist turned artist– our brand of Mad Science exactly. She now runs Made with Molecules (Go get your molecules on.)
This entry was posted in Everything Else and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

Make a peepmobile

By on

Ready to roll!

Here’s how to take your left over Marshmallow Peeps, add a few components, and make them into pimped-out peepmobiles.

Okay, so Easter has come and gone. Really gone. And if you’re like us, you didn’t eat all of your Peeps. Have they gone bad by now? Probably not. As it turns out, the yellow chick-shaped Peeps are made all year long to build up enough supply for each easter, so the ones that you get for Easter could *already* be a year old. (So why can’t you buy them all year long? You can… you just have to know where to look.)

Even if you’re still saving your Chicks to eat them later, you’re not alone. The official Peeps site has a poll up asking whether you like your Peeps “Fresh from the package or aged to perfection.” According to the results so far, a full 12% of peepeaters like to wait six months or more.

However, we seem to be digressing. Let’s just go ahead and assume that you weren’t going to eat all of them. Then whatever’s left, you can make into Peepmobiles.
Continue reading Make a peepmobile →

This entry was posted in Play with your food and tagged , . Bookmark the Permalink.