Paintball Chronograph

This slick little chronograph can tell you how fast your paintballs are going, as well as what your firing rate is. In this instructible by [Klash69], you can see how to build one for yourself for less than $40. Chronographs themselves aren’t usually too interesting, but we thing he has done a great job here. You have a nice compact … Read the rest

Versaloon ported to STM8 and STM32 discovery boards

[Bingo] did some work porting Versaloon for STM8 and STM32 discovery boards. Versaloon is a multiple-architecture programmer that we saw a few weeks back. At its center is an STM32 microprocessor, which greatly simplifies the work necessary to use the two discovery boards instead. Flashing the firmware to the boards will zap the ST-link firmware and [Bingo] doesn’t … Read the rest

Switched mode power supply repair guide

switched_mode_power_supply_repaiir

[Erich] spotted a broken DVD recorder at a local amateur radio meeting and decided to see if he could restore it to working order. While he was fortunate enough that someone labeled it as having a bad power supply, things aren’t always that easy. He gives a broad explanation as to how switched mode power supplies work as well … Read the rest

Microsimon

[Simoninns] is hoping to compete in the Sparkfun Microcontroller Contest with this cool little Microsimon instructible. The parts list is pretty small, at around 20 components. At the heart is a PIC 12F683 microcontroller. The whole project is very well documented with schematics, PCB layouts, code, and great pictures. This is a great project that you could put together really … Read the rest

The Energy Detective TED 5000-G teardown

Ted 5000-G Teardown

Before [Steve] realized that it didn’t play nice with his network, he dismantled his Energy Detective TED 5000-G to see what made the device tick. He put together a nice teardown with high-res pictures throughout.  Each component of the TED 5000-G is dissected, with the exception of the current transformers, which he claims are pretty boring anyhow.  The gateway module … Read the rest

10 µm Scanning electron microscope from Vidicon tube

[Segelfam] built his own scanning electron microscope. He based the machine around an old Vidicon tube, a video recording technology that was used in NASA’s unmanned space probes prior the Galileo probe in the late 1970′s. We struggle a bit with the machine translation of [Segelfam's] original build log, but it seems that he filled the tube … Read the rest