Button Cell Connectors For Breadboarding

January 11, 2011 by Mike Szczys 34 Comments

We’re working on a project that has a battery backup, but we don’t have any more coin cell holders on hand. No problem, we remember seeing a double pin header used for this. But when we tried to shove the CR2032 battery in between the pins it was a no-go. We could swear we’d featured a project that does this but couldn’t find it here at Hackaday. After much searching we came up with the Guerrilla battery holder which is seen on the left. No wonder it wasn’t working, the CR1212 in that picture is a much smaller package. So we figured we’d have to come up with something else, until inspiration struck.

There must be some other way to configure the pin header to work with a fatter cell body. On the right you can see that a diagonal orientation works like a charm. Join us after the break for a couple of close-ups of that connector and our thoughts on using this with a variety of different cells.

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5×2 Patch Board

May 7, 2010 by Mike Szczys 16 Comments

Sometimes we want to sit on the back porch, crack a beer, and do some prototyping. Other times we’d like to do the same but on the couch in the livingroom. To that end we added a 5×2 pin to 10×1 pin patch board to our solderless breadboard.

The 5×2 pin form factor is pretty common, used as an AVR programming header, on development boards like the Dragon Rider 500 and the STK 500, and in small prototyping devices like the Bus Pirate. We like the freedom of using IDC cables as interconnects and that’s where this board comes in. Now we can patch into the IDC cables yet still quickly disconnect them when moving to a different prototyping location. Check out the PCB artwork and this handy device in use after the break.

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Binary Clock Uses DS3232 RTC

February 17, 2010 by Mike Szczys 24 Comments

[Kenneth Finnegan] quenches our clock-a-day compulsion with his Arduino based binary timepiece. The clock uses a 5×7 LED matrix as a display and shows month, day, and time. He sourced a DS3232 real-time clock which automatically compensates for temperature to achieve very accurate time keeping. We like the super-cap circuit he added to keep the RTC running if the power is cut.

Is an Arduino overkill here? Well, the code is certainly not filling the 16k available on the ATmega168. At $4.32, the $1-2 you could save by using a lower-grade chip is not worth having to rewrite the code developed during prototyping. [Kenneth] also mentions that these projects usually only hang around for a few weeks before they’re re-purposed for the next endeavor.

Take a look at [Kenneth’s] superb hardware walk through in the video after the break. If you’re a fan of clean breadboarding, he’s also made a time-lapse of the circuit building process.

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The Day After Arduino

February 10, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 60 Comments

There will come a day in every budding hacker’s life that they realize that plopping an entire arduino in their project and leaving it there is a bit of a waste. [Domiflichi] realized this, and has shared his next steps with us. He takes us through the process of removing the ATMega chip and breadboarding it for final use.

For many of you, this is an obvious chain of events. However, there are also many who just haven’t ventured forward and taken this one step that will forever change how their projects are seen by the hacking world. For the anti-arduino crowd, realize that this is an opportunity not to bash a useful tool but to help nurture and lead people to the next step.

EDuino – Arduino Or AVR Breakout?

September 19, 2009 by Mike Szczys 42 Comments

eduino-b_na_breadboard

We’ve had a lot of requests in the comments for more Arduino centered posts so we were happy when [Njay] told us about his EDuino board. This is a minimal Arduino clone that has a crystal and its capacitors, a pull-up resistor and button on the reset pin, and a detachable serial programming connection. He also has a breadboard-friendly version seen above with all the interface pins on one side of the board. This is certainly a useful project and we’re glad to see the board files available for download. This does get us thinking… is this an Arduino, or is it an AVR ATmega168 breakoutboard that happens to use the Arduino boot loader and programming language?

Dual Voltage Power Supply

September 14, 2009 by Mike Szczys 29 Comments

dual_regualted_power

[Melanie] had some time this weekend so she whipped up a dual voltage power supply from parts on hand. This design plugs right into a breadboard and, unlike the last breadboard power supply we saw, provides two voltages at one time. 5v is delivered to one power bus while 3.3v goes to the other. Her design uses two linear low voltage drop regulators from the LF00 family (PDF datasheet) to accomplish this. Nice work!

Regulated Breadboard PSU

August 25, 2009 by Mike Szczys 15 Comments

sparkfun_bbpsu

SparkFun has released a breadboard power suppy that can provide regulated 3.3v or 5v. Unlike the supply we saw from adafruit industries earlier this summer, this one is based on an lm317. This small device features on/off switch, voltage selection swith, and appropriately spaced pin headers to plug into both the top and bottom rails of a standard breadboard. Rather build it yourself? Take a look at the schematic provided (PDF).