Shieldlist.org is a database of Arduino shields with pictures and pin usage.
Just to try it out, i have added the LivingColors shield. Works like a charm, the LivingColors shield can be found here.
Great idea !
Newcastle Maker Faire 2011
The dates for the Newcastle Maker Faire 2011 have been confirmed : 12 and 13 March 2011. I had a great time there in March 2010.
The participants I saw : iCHexapod, oomlaut, mbed…
.. kosbo.com, a rubiks cube solving robot, a soldering workshop for kids and many more things.
The Newcastle Makerfaire is part of Newcastle Science Festival
Makerfaire is pretty famous in the US and there have only been a few of them in Europe. The dates for the next one are finally confirmed on the Makerfaire UK site.
Unofficial Behringer Control Development Kit
Willem van Engen has released a development kit which allows you to develop alternative firmware for the Behringer BCR2000.
The Unofficial Behringer Control Development Kit can be found here.
I have done some stuff with the WinARM toolchain and I am curoius to find out how much work is involved making firmware for a BCR2000 as a USB HID.
You can see what is inside a BCR2000 here .
Dutchtronix AVR Oscilloscope Clock
The Dutchtronix AVR Oscilloscope Clock is a kit that will display an analog clock on an oscilloscope in X-Y mode. It uses a AVR microcontroller, a TLC7528 dual DA converter and a PCF8563 real time clock.
This is the 2.0 board. The newer versions of the kits are sold by Sparkfun.
I have tried out the Scope Clock on a couple of different oscilloscopes.
Tektronix 604 Monitor.
The Tek 604 Monitor is a X-Y monitor with intensity control on the Z input. It has a flat and sharp screen. Funny thing about the 604 is that it has no fan and no power indicator and you will not display much if you don’t get the signals right. So when i first powered it up i thought it was broken. Like many Tek machines of this era it is well built and engineered.
Tektronix 465 Oscilloscope
The Tektronix 465 is a single beam, dual channel 100 MHz Oscilloscope. Mine wat built around 1973. Everything on the 465 makes it clear this machine is from a different time. The controls are sturdy, the illumination are little light bulbs and not LEDs. The scope is not just electronically complicated but also has many mechanical parts just to put the actual switches in the best spot in the signal path and put the control of the switch on a logical place on the front panel. The schematics are hand drawn. The X-Y mode is a position on the timebase.
Fluke PM3092.
The Fluke PM3092 is a dual beam, 4 channel, 200 MHz analog scope with digital control. It has the disadvantages of an analog scope combined with the confusing controls of a modern scope. The Fluke and I are not good friends. The X-Y mode is hidden in “TB-mode”, soft-menu “X-DEFL” off, channel 1 off.
HP 546xx series Oscilloscopes.
The HP 54602B and 54622D are digitising oscilloscopes, basically a computer with fast AD converters. The display is a monochrome CRT. The controls are well designed and present an interface that is easy to understand for both traditional analog scope users and users more used to digital systems. These were built around 1996. The X-Y mode can be set by pressing “Main / Delayed” and then the softmenu “X-Y”.
Behringer BCR2000
The BCR2000 is a midi controller from Behringer . You can use it to modify midi parameters with pushbuttons and rotary knobs.
The BCR2000 is not really expensive (current price (Sept 2010) is 139,- euro from feedback). It has a few minor drawbacks like the infamous “wobbly knobs”.
All rotary encoders have a string of leds as indicators. I had expected Behringer would have used prefab modules with switch and LEDs for this from Bourns or Avago and was surprised to see this was not the case. All rotary knob and led parts are built up from separate parts. The BCR2000 consists of an amazing number of parts.
The BCR2000 has a swichmode power supply an d 3 other PCB-s.
Power supply
Lower Board
6 x HC574 “Octal Edge-Triggered D-Type Flip-Flops With 3-State Outputs”
4 x HC273 “Octal D-Type Flip-Flops With Clear”
6 x HC163 “4-Bit Synchronous Binary Counters”
1 x HC138 “3-Line To 8-Line Decoders/Demultiplexers”
Upper Board
2 x HC165 “8-Bit Parallel-Load Shift Registers”
CPU Board
1 x PDF OKI L671000: An ARM7TDMI CPU with full speed USB and UART, handy for MIDI.
1 x TMS 418160DZ, a 2 MB DRAM. The CPU apparently has DRAM Refresh logic on board.
1 x HCT04 “Hex Inverters”
1 x H11L1 “6-Pin DIP Schmitt Trigger Output Optocoupler” for the receiving side of the MIDI current loop.
1 x HCT245 “Octal Bus Transceivers With 3-State Outputs”
