I Wanted A Puppy For Xmas

... and Digikey made my wish come true. I'm planning a home automation system, and this little computer will be its brain.

Homemade MSP430 Launchpads

When I ordered some NRF24L01+ boosterpacks from the 43oh store, I asked for a couple of MSP430 Launchpad v1.4 PCBs. These are legacy boards kindly provided by TI (thanks LariSan!) It was fiddly soldering to the tiny 0402 pads since my components were all 0805. The LEDs were especially tricky. But they both turned out OK as you can see. Here they are (alongside a genuine Launchpad on the left) running the breathing LED demo from the OSX Launchpad toolchain.

A Little Something To Be Thankful For

Thanks Elecrow for a $10 voucher in their Black Friday giveaway. I have heard good reports about their PCB prototyping service, especially the free color option, and I am keen to give it a try.

Pedal Powered Menorah

Exercise bike + magnets + LEDs = festival of light. Devised by T.J.Hunt with specialist engineering expertise from Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee. Come along 3rd December to the Mayerson Jewish Center of Cincinnati. Pop a beer, grab a latke, and take a spin. Happy Hannukah! 

Twin Triac AC Switch on DP5050 PCB

Two triacs switched by zero-crossing optocoupled drivers act as solid state relays on a Dangerous Prototypes standard size PCB.

Twin Relay Control Board on DP5050 PCB

Just for good measure, a breakout board for twin Songle SRD series relays to fit the Dangerous Prototypes standard PCB size DP5050.

Relay Control Board on DP5031 PCB

Here's a breakout board for those Songle SRD series relays that are so cheap on Ebay. It fits nicely on the Dangerous Prototypes standard PCB size DP5031.