Just playing around with the iPad app Animoog, which I believe is still available for $0.99 at the iTunes app store. This is a huge bargain on a really really cool app.  I won’t get into the specifics of the app, but if you want to know more about what Animoog is or how to use it, I recommend this YouTube video.

So, while playing around with the Animoog app, if you go into the setup menu there is a selection under ‘Refresh MIDI input(s)’ where  you can select ‘Off’ or ‘Network Session 1′.  This intrigued me!  Apparently you can use MIDI over the ‘Network’.  After some Googling I was still unclear on how to get this setup, so I thought I’d just tell everyone how I did it so you can get to making some cool tunes yourself.

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I picked up a SX2 Mini mill recently via Little Machine Shop (They call it the HiTorque Mini Mill 3900). When I received it, I noticed there was a port for a digital tachometer readout on the side of it. I though this might be useful, but felt 125$+ for it was a little excessive for what it was. Atop of this, they were out of stock.

I ended up reverse engineering the protocol, building some less expensive kits, and documented how exactly I figured out the protocol. Along the way, I also discovered how to make the mill run in reverse!

If you wondered how a reverse-engineering problem like this is approached or what tools are used, this could be an interesting read:

http://macpod.net/misc/sx2_tachometer/sx2_tachometer.php

Chris has been dabbling with CPLD’s and FPGA’s.  He wanted to share some helpful resources with anyone else looking to get started with them as well.

• Difference between CPLDs and FPGAs:

  • http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-fpga-and-cpld/

• VHDL Tutorial:

  • http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese171/vhdl/vhdl_primer.html

• Xilinx ISE Software (Windows or Linux, 32 & 64 bit available)

  • http://www.xilinx.com/tools/designtools.htm

• Digilent Xilinx FPGA Board:

  • http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,790&Prod=BASYS2

• Digilent Xilinx CPLD Board:

  • http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,798&Prod=CMOD

• Xilinx Platform USB Programmer:

  • http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=platform+xilinx&_sacat=See-All-Categories
    (you can program through the USB of some of the boards but you can do a lot more with a VHDL interface)

• How to install the cable drivers in Linux:

  • http://www.george-smart.co.uk/wiki/Xilinx_JTAG_Linux#Using_Xilinx_USB_JTAG_Programmers_under_Linux_.28Installing_Cable_Drivers.29

• Opencores.org: (open source hardware modules (“cores”) for FPGAs)

  • http://opencores.org/projects They have a lot including multiple CPU designs.

In my sons nursery, we have the changing table against the wall.  The problem is the only light in the room is in the middle of the room from a ceiling fan.  So basically while your changing him you are blocking the light with your body.

So me and the wife went looking for a light to add to his changing table, we found one at IKEA that we like but it’s a ceiling mount light with 3 individual 35 watt flood bulbs, with cartoonish fish as the housings.  I’m not about to drill a hole in the ceiling and install a wall switch (as the instructions state it’s supposed to be installed), so we looked around for something else but nothing caught our eye.

I decided to just get this fixture, and hack it.

In the lighting section of IKEA they have some DIY lamp kit, I just needed a cord since I’m going to be plugging this in the wall, and they’re pretty cheap.  So I grabbed the neon green one since it looks cool.

First thing I did was open everything up to see what we are dealing with…

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You can purchase the Netduino from our Amazon Store for $34.95!

Hmm… What is a Netduino? Check out the next video from our Netduino Debut Tutorial for a demonstration!

The Netduino looks like an Arduino and it’s even compatible with the existing Arduino protoshields. However, it’s a completely different beast which can be programmed using Microsoft Visual Studio C#. Oh… It’s also Open Source. Pretty cool eh!

Me and my wife recently had our first child.  I’ve been trying to come up with some projects I can do for the kid.  Well, around this time of the year the fireflies go crazy around my house, so we came up with the idea to do led fireflies in a jar.  It should be something cool for him to stare at and is easy to build.

Schematics, C source code and hex file are available here on our wiki.  If you want to build one it should only take about an hour.

I’m planning on making a version 2 with some changes, stay tuned for that one.

Paul King has created the first tutorial called “Using the PICkit2: As a Programmer” of his planned series of PICkit 2 tutorials. This one covers setting up the MPLAB software and PICkit 2 programmer to quickly compile and program the 44 Pin PICkit2 Demo Boards.

Subsequent tutorials will cover using the programmer hardware as a Debugger, Logic Analyzer, Logic Output Tool, and a UART Tool.

Be sure to read David Powell’s “Programming PIC Microcontrollers in C” as a precursor to Paul’s series.

Happy Hacking!

We just posted a new tutorial called Programming PIC Microcontrollers with C. It’s designed to get you started programming using MPLAB and CCS C Compiler. The only hardware you need to get started is the PicKit2 or PicKit3 which comes with a demo board. The demo board contains 8 LEDs, 1 Potentiometer, and a Pushbutton all wired and ready to go.

Check it out Here!