Based on the date of my first post, last Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of my blog.
While I pour a toast, here are a few highlights of the past year:
PID Controlled Solder Paste Fridge
The first project I documented on the site, my solder paste fridge was the end result of a weekend effort to turn an old beer chest into a PID-controlled Peltier cooler for storing tubes of solder paste. A year later, the cooler has a permanent home under my workbench and is still going strong, keeping its contents at a chilly 36 degrees F. Besides solder paste, I keep my POR-15 rust proofing epoxy paint and a few tubes of superglue in the fridge (they never dry out!).
Space Invaders! Making RGB video with the PIC
I needed an excuse to learn assembly language programming on the PIC, and this project fit the bill perfectly. Instead of slogging through yet another PIC tutorial I decided to “just do it” and the video above shows the result. One of my favorite projects of last year, I have plans to build more of these and make some electronic artwork for the lab.
Bluetooth Handset Hack
One aging bluetooth headset plus one obsolete telephone handset equals one retro-fabulous hack that I still use today. The best part: Look for this one in Make: volume 20!
DIY PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate
I’m a big fan of the hotplate (aka reflow skillet) method of surface mount soldering. Over the course of a few months I designed, machined, and assembled this PID-controlled soldering hotplate to help build the first few prototypes of my AVR HV Rescue Shield kit. Hacking around in the garage is always fun, but creating a new tool is one of the most rewarding things I have can think of.
Here’s a video of the hotplate in action, reflowing the step-up converter on the Rescue Shield:
The AVR HV Rescue Shield
What started as a simple hack to save a crippled AVR microcontroller eventually became a kit that I’ve sold to AVR enthusiasts around the world. The AVR HV Rescue Shield includes a cool custom PCB, integrated 5V-12V step-up power supply, and is completely open source. I only made one batch of these, and when they’re gone, they’re gone, so head over to the AVR HV Rescue Shield product page to order one today!
Wifi Radio Project
Certainly the most famous project on the site, my Wifi Radio project has inspired many readers to start playing with cheap wireless routers and embedded Linux. If you haven’t seen it before, the finished project sounds something like this:
I brought the Wifi Radio to the Maker Faire in San Mateo in May. Everyone loved it, including some of the Make: staff, which got me a blue ribbon for the project. Awesome!
Onward!
Well, that’s it for year one… If I missed one of your favorite posts from the past year, leave a comment! If you’re new to the blog, happy reading, you have some catching up to do. 🙂
Here’s to another fantastic year of hacks, projects, kits, tools, and resources at mightyohm.com!
Did my Wifi Radio project inspire you to buy a wireless router and start hacking? If so, I’d like to hear from you!
Leave a comment below and let me know how your project is coming along. Even if you’re not building a Wifi Radio but used my firmware or tutorials as a starting point (a great example is the Tweet-a-Watt), I’d love to hear from you.
If you have photos of your project, you can share them with the world by adding them to the Asus Wireless Router Hacks photo pool on flickr.
Has anyone else noticed that the ATmega48/88/168 family of 8-bit AVR microcontrollers recently joined Atmel’s “mature devices” list, shown above?
Truthfully, I was not surprised to see this, having been tipped off by an Atmel sales rep earlier this year at ESC in San Jose.
The good news is that while these much-loved ATmega devices are slowly being obsoleted, they are being replaced by the largely-identical ‘PA’ series, which includes the ATmega48PA, ATmega88PA, ATmega168PA, and the ATmega328P. The ‘PA’ devices are enhanced versions of the former ‘P’ series, which added energy-saving picoPower functionality to the original devices.
Porting code to the new family should be fairly straightforward given that the PA family is designed to be a drop-in replacement. To help with the switchover, Atmel has released some migration notes, including AVR512, “Migration from ATmega48/88/168 to ATmega48P/88P/168P” and AVR528, “Migrating from ATmega48/88/168 and ATmega48P/88P/168P to ATmega48PA/88PA/168PA“. Regardless, check your header files and fuse bits for any changes.
If you are anxious about switching devices, don’t panic, the ATmega48/88/168 devices are still in stock at all major distributors, while the PA devices aren’t even on the radar yet. While professionals might want switch AVRs for new designs, hobbyists will likely still be using the older devices for years to come. (Long live the PIC16F84!)
SLAY Radio is dedicated to playing original and remixed tunes from the Commodore 64. Regular live shows that feature guest DJs who select and play their favorite C64 tunes, plus occasionally some stuff from the Amiga and other platforms. SLAY Radio inspired me to dust off my old sid and mod files. Does it get any better than this?
This cool banner shows what song is currently playing. Click to visit their site.
This group of six stations are hosted by Digitally Imported, which offers a wide variety of electronic dance music at both free and premium (higher quality/bitrate) paid membership levels.
Hosted by San Francisco-based soma.fm. Plays “A nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves.” Like many of the others on this list, this station has been around forever. It’s probably one of the first Shoutcast stations I ever tuned into, and it’s still going strong almost a decade later.
Of course, if you don’t like these presets or just want to see what else is out there, check out shoutcast.com. You can browse or search through hundreds of other streaming radio stations featuring every possible genre of music you could think of.
and a few tubes of superglue in the fridge (they never dry out!).
