DIY milliohmmeter

DIY MILLIOHMMETERThis is an example of a simple and cheap milliohmmeter that can be made by every maker. The core of the circuit are a current source (LT3092) and a current sense (INA225): a costant current flows through the milliohm resistor under test and the voltage at the current sense output gives the value of the resistor (V=R*I). Continue reading

Arduino shields adapter for mbed

MBED_ADAPTEREveryone knows the versatility of arduino shields and the power of mbed boards so why don’t to design an adapter which allows to use arduino shields with mbed? This is the schematic of our version of such adapter:

schematicAs you can see it is compatible with both mbed LPC1768 (http://mbed.org/platforms/mbed-LPC1768/) and mbed LPC11U24 (http://mbed.org/platforms/mbed-LPC11U24/) and has a USB type A connector and a ethernet connector, useful in your projects with TCP/IP and LPC1768. A DC plug and a 5V LDO regulator Reg1117 has been added to supply power  to the mbed and to the shield in a very easy way, if you don’t want to use the USB as a power supply.

mbed application board

Mbed family has grown in the last months and nowadays the available platforms include different solutions furthermore the chipsets and the MCUs on this amazing hardware are not only made by NXP but there are many other important players like Freescale and ST:

https://mbed.org/platforms/

 Mbed community is huge and healty and the “competitors” of this prototyping platform (which are many) can’t take the leadership: mbed is still the best development platform for ARM microcontrollers. To start with mbed, one of the most one practical way is using the mbed application board, well suited to test all the features of the LPC1768:

mbed_app_board_

Continue reading

Raspberry Pi vs all

COVER

A comparison of some of the most popular development board available to the hobbyists.

Raspberry Pi is one of the most known board in the hobbyist world and it is easy to guess why: its success is mainly lead by its low and accessible price for a product with very interesting features. Since Raspberry Pi has been introduced on the market, a borderline has been defined and everyone who wants to design and develop a new board which will be appreciated and loved by the worldwide hobbyistic community, must compare its product with the Raspberry, mainly in terms of final price. Continue reading