Rescue Shield kits are (finally!) back in stock.
The Rescue Shield is a 100% open source, Arduino-based high voltage mode fuse programmer for AVR microcontrollers.
It allows you bring an otherwise “bricked” or misconfigured AVR back to life by editing the configuration fuses that control the operation of the RESET pin, the internal oscillator, and other features of the microcontroller. The Rescue Shield can talk to chips when ordinary ISP programmers can’t.
Microchip Technology, makers of the PIC microcontroller, have released a demo board for the 8-bit PIC18F67J60 that is pre-programmed to function as an internet radio receiver.
Anyone familiar with the blog knows that I have a special love for internet streaming radio, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that this demo board immediate caught my eye.
The demo board’s features include ethernet, a dedicated MP3 decoder IC, pushbutton user interface, and a cool OLED matrix display. The PIC18F67J60 includes an ethernet PHY on-chip, which makes for a very simple way to add network connectivity to the microcontroller. Sadly, unlike my usual hacking platform, there isn’t any wireless on-board, but given the extremely small size and downloadable source code, I am really tempted to get one of these to play with.
Here’s a short video about the board by MicrochipTechnology on YouTube: