Posted on 24 Apr 2009
Pinguino is an open source set of tools. The goal of this project is to build a real USB development board. Due to the many applications designed with Arduino and based on an ATMEL microcontroller, the idea was to build a compatible board and language with a real USB microcontroller, the PIC18F2550.This Pinguino or Arduino-like board based on a PIC Microcontroller. The goal of this project is to build an integrated IDE easy to use on LINUX, WINDOWS and MAC OS X. Arduino is a powerful tool with some defaults. One of its inconveniences are a no native USB interface on the chip and its code length.
The IDE of Pinguino is built with Python. An integrated preprocessor translates specific Arduino instructions directly into C. This preprocessor reduces the code length and the execution speed. Pinguino hardware is based on a PIC18F2550. This chip has an integrated native USB module and an UART for serial link.[more]
Posted on 02 Nov 2008
Here is a Win-32 Logic Analyzer which is both the hardware and software for a Win-32 based Logic Analyzer. This is an updated version of an old project which featured a front-end originally written is BASIC. This unit uses the parallel port on a PC for communications however an upgrade to a USB interface is planned.[more]
Posted on 29 Jul 2008
This is a simple signal generator which produces sine waves (or any waveform really) at audio frequencies using DDS and is controlled a USB serial connection.Only 2 chips are used in this circuit. The AVR ATmega88 which produces the signal, and an FT232R for the USB interface. While a computer is required to control the varying frequency of the oscillator, a fixed frequency project could be made without the USB interface.[more]
Posted on 19 May 2008
In this article we will see a state of the art USB programmer for the AVR microcontrollers from Atmel. The programmer firmware has no device dependent data. Therefore it works for almost any AVR microcontroller on the market and possible future microcontrollers. [more]
Posted on 08 May 2008
This is a rather simple project. Cypress Semiconductors manufacture a microcontroller called CY7C68013. It is based on a 8051 processor, and has a lot of special functions and built-in peripherals, the most interesting one being its USB interface.This project is supposed to result in a CCD camera for astronomical purposes. developing software for the controller is VERY easy. The code is written on a PC, then downloaded to the CY7C68013’s internal 8 kB SRAM through the USB interface. No hassle with EEPROM burners or slow Flash memory.[more]