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 Preliminary schematics and PCB artwork are completed for an 400K gate FPGA board capable of running Linux. Features include 8Mb Flash, 32MB SRAM, sound codec, SD Slot and USB. I have completed the schematics and PCB routing but I have not yet tested the design beyond some spice modeling.
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 Thru-hole plating DIY Printed Circuit Boards
I figured out a way (after hearing some rumors it was possible) to through plate vias and thru holes using a liquid from a "car defroster repair kit" sold by permatex.com. I found it at Advanced Auto Parts for the cost of about 10$ US. You can also use "Silver Print" made by MG Chemicals (see update below). |
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 My CNC Mill is finally completed after about 9 months of obsessive effort. I have already milled a few parts for a second CNC machine, a plastic doggy bone and a few PCBs have been drilled and routed. The plastic doggy bone was only 1 x 1/3 inches but the detail was fantastic!
The accuracy exceeds the measurability of my digital caliper (1/2mil resolution) so I am quite impressed with the results! So far, I am limiting my materials to plastic, machinable wax and Butterboard(tm) but will cut some aluminum shortly. I have included some details on the construction with a few pictures. |
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 The original XBOX is a great platform for hacking. In fact, there is a large underground community of Xbox hackers on the Internet. Using the Xecuter3 mod chip and some heavy rewiring I showcase an Xbox that is modified for a 12volt system for car use. No 120volt inversion is used, the original power supply is replaced with a direct 12v DC-DC converter. A new 80GB laptop hard drive provides lots of space for mp3s and game play with much less power consumption. The modified Xbox runs Xbox Media Center, an open-source media player for music, videos and pictures that displays on the car's roof mounted LCD display.
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6 legged symmetrical walking robot
Symapod is a hexapod (six-legged) walking robot. Symapod is short for symmetric-hexapod. This is my second robotic walker and this one will be gra nd, I decided this time I would also build it on good looks! The body of Symapod: I used the circuit board as the body for weight saving and futuristic looks. The PCB appears to be quite strong but I may add a brass frame if neccessary. |
Go digital with RC hobby servos
The digital servo controller circuit I have made can be used to create a servo out of any geared-motor and potentiometer, or used to modify any regular hobby servo by replacing the circuit inside the servo. The control bus uses the popular I2C bus standard. The prototype uses a PIC16f873 and takes advantage of it's ADC, PWM and I2C peripherals. I have completed over 20 working prototypes of the digital servo circuit replacement. These prototypes are being used in my Symapod robot and allow me to read/write to the servos as a series of registers. These registers include the actual and desired position, maximum speed and force being applied to the servo. External sensors can also be connected to the servo and addressed through the same servo interface; this allows each joint to have sensors outside of the servo casing. Servos can also be daisy-chained to make cabling shorter. I am also an active participant in the openservo project, whose goal is to develop an open source digital servo. I encourage you to take a look and join our group discussions on the openservo forums. |
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Before we move on to updating our basic cpu verilog code let us talk a little more about the four basic units of a cpu. These parts are typically called the Datapath, Function Unit or ALU, Memory/Register File and the Control Unit. Any cpu must at least have these four basic blocks. |
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 An example of a front panel interface for a digital audio recorder using a Xilinx XC9572XL CPLD interfaced with an Atmel AVR32AP7001 with the NGW100 Eval Kit. The CPLD provides "time multiplexed" sequencing for a 6 digit 7-segment LED display, 8 status LEDs, and detects input from 7 key switches generating a CPU interrupt on a key press or release. The CPLD interfaces with the AVR32AP using a simple 4-bit multiplexed bus. This provides a good example of designing a front panel interface that relieves the duty from the host CPU -- no polling!
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An Introduction by Ed Nisley
Watch an informative introduction to CNC design by Ed Nisley. If you are new to CNC, watch it! One thing it illustrates is a CNC machine is not like your printer! In other words, creating cnc parts is not a draw your workpiece and hit print process. There are a few important steps in between. This slideshow presentation was presented at the Cabin Fever Expo in York, PA in January 2008.  CNC Intro by Nisley (8.11 MB)
CNC Intro by Nisley (Lo-Res version) (1.63 MB) |
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See my new collection of 
See the latest progress on my homemade Computer Numerical Control Milling machine.
Follow along with me as I design a very simple CPU using verilog HDL and an FPGA!
Updated manufacturer's drivers for the Promise TX4650/TX2650 RAID cards to work with recent Linux kernels. More...
Born and raised in 
Mimzy Schematics & PCB (PDF) (2705)
Promise SATA/SAS TX4650/TX2650 driver update *Preliminary* (2568)
Chapter 1 - Basic CPU Logic (windows zip) (1191)