What would it take to build an addressable LED like the WS2812 (aka Neopixel) using only discrete transistors? Time for a small “1960 style logic meets modern application” technology fusion project. The Objective What exactly do we want to build?...

Flashing a LED is certainly among the first set of problems any burgeoning electronics specialist is tackling, may it be by using an ancient NE555 or, more recently, a microcontroller to control the LED. As it turns out, we can...

Power analysis is a technique to probe the inner workings of an integrated circuit by measuring changes in the supply current. Whenever a logic gate switches, it will cause a tiny current spike that can be measured externally. By inspecting...

Sometimes you find things you have not even been looking for… A chaotic oscillator is an electronic circuit that can exhibit “chaotic“, nonperiodic behavior. A commonly cited example is Chua’s circuit, but there are many others. I always regarded these...

Time for another project with a super-low-cost microcontroller. But what to design? Ever since seeing a project where a $0.03 MCU controls $40 worth of intelligent RGB LEDs, I have been wondering whether this is the right place to use...

Anybody who has ever taken an advanced computer architecture class has heard of the CDC6600, which was the world’s fastest computer from 1964 to 1969. It was the machine that put Seymour Cray on the map as a supercomputer architect....

After having reviewed sub $0.10 microcontrollers recently, it’s time for some projects using the Padauk PFS154 and PMS150C. Considering my previous investigation of electronic and non-electronic candles, it appears only natural to chose this as a target for the lowest...

Like many others, I was quite amazed to learn about a microcontroller sold for only 0.03 USD via the EEVblog last year. How was this possible? Many assumed this was a fire sale of an old product. Digging a bit...

Two years ago I took a deeper look into the APA102. Although it was more expensive than the common WS2812, and harder to come by, it had some intriguing properties. The main benefits are a timing-insensitive  SPI interface, allowing easy...

Yay,  another mini-project with the ATtiny10! A while ago I devised a scheme to drive an electronic dice with only two IO lines. I finally found the time and motivation to build up a small design using this as an...

Yay,  another mini-project with the ATtiny10! A while ago I devised a scheme to drive an electronic dice with only two IO lines. I finally found the time and motivation to build up a small design using this as an...

The ATtiny102 and ATtiny104 are Atmels newest addition to the AVR ATtiny family. They are a bit different to most of the other devices in that family, since they are based on the AVRTINY CPU core, which was so far...

The ATtiny102 and ATtiny104 are Atmels newest addition to the AVR ATtiny family. They are a bit different to most of the other devices in that family, since they are based on the AVRTINY CPU core, which was so far...

During the last months, a new WS2812 alternative appeared on the market: The SK6812. I finally managed to get my hands on some of them to take a closer look. In most aspects these devices are basically clones of the...

During the last months, a new WS2812 alternative appeared on the market: The SK6812. I finally managed to get my hands on some of them to take a closer look. In most aspects these devices are basically clones of the...

Two years ago, I spent some time analyzing the algorithm used in a candle flicker LED as  commonly found in cheap artificial candles. I reverse engineered the  algorithm from the flickering pattern and recreated the algorithm in software. Turns out...

Two years ago, I spent some time analyzing the algorithm used in a candle flicker LED as  commonly found in cheap artificial candles. I reverse engineered the  algorithm from the flickering pattern and recreated the algorithm in software. Turns out...

I recently bought a very low cost electronic dice kit on an impulse. Assembling it was good retro-fun for a while. The circuit design is was purely 70ies style: A CD4017, a NE555 and a couple of transistors. Of course,...

A couple of weeks ago I reported about a new type of RGB-LED with integrated controller, the APA102. One of the interesting new features of this device is a two-wire SPI interface instead of the proprietary one-wire protocol of the...

Recently, I encountered an interesting problem: How do you measure the length of a WS2812 programmable RGB-LED string electronically? That is, just using signals that are already there. This can be useful if you want a LED controller to adapt...

After clones and variations of the venerable WS2812, there finally seems to be a new RGB-LED with integrated controller that actually improves on several characteristics: The APA102, also known as “Superled”. There are two versions on the market, the APA102...

The WS2812 RGB LEDs with integrated controller are fairly successful devices that come in a variety of packages. Recently, similar devices by other manufacturers started to appear. I managed to get my hands on a few samples of LEDs with...

Possibly the smallestest ATtiny85 based ‘duino derivative. Recently, Olimex anncounced the Olimexino 85s, claimed to be the “World’s smallest Arduino ever“. Now, that looks like a challenge. I guess it is about time to show off what has been on...

I recently received an external USB battery as a promotional gift (see image below). While I always thought of these as a superfluous gimmick, I realized that these devices could be quite useful as mobile power source for various projects....

Atmels AVR ATtiny10 are surprisingly powerful devices that come in an extremely tiny SOT23 package with only 6 pins. The have 1kb of flash, 32 bytes of SRAM and use the reduced AVR core which only supports 16 instead of...