posted Dec 17th 2009 2:00pm by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
classic hacks
[Philip] developed a method of tracking down the pins of a Ball Grid Array. He wanted to do so in order to add USB host functionality to his HP Jordan 720. The method doesn’t directly connect to the BGA but instead finds a via or other access point to serve as a solder point. He first looks up the pin in the BGA datasheet. Once located, he uses the bristle of a toothbrush (teal) to act as a backstop and feeds in some enameled wire (brown) to the appropriate ball. A multimeter is used to check connectivity between the wire and the vias around the chip.
Patience young grasshopper, this should work but it might take a while.
posted Aug 23rd 2008 2:30pm by
Kimberly Lau
filed under:
news,
robots hacks
VIA, the Taiwan-based supplier of chipsets and low power processors, showed off its
latest creations at the Taipei International Robot Show. The
Lynxmotion Johnny 5 kit, based on the robot from the animated film
Short Circuit, is powered by the compact
VIA EPIA P700 board, and aimed at beginner robotic hobbyists. VIA claimed that its use of the latest board allows for much easier software development. VIA also showcased the
Mini-ITX powered Vecna Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (or
BEAR), a cuddly-looking robot with potential uses in military and rescue operations.
[via Engadget]
posted Jun 15th 2008 5:10pm by
Eliot
filed under:
misc hacks
The Asus WL500GP wireless router runs Linux and has two USB ports. [equinoxfr] wanted to install audio support internally to the router though (translated). Luckily, it uses a VIA VT6212 4port USB controller. So, he was able to wire two more internal ports. A Brando USB soundcard is plugged into one of those ports and wired to an external headphone jack. He wanted dual RCA connectors, but they just wouldn’t fit. The router is running OpenWRT Kamikaze. MPD is used to serve music with the wymypy frontend since it has its own lightweight webserver.
