Tinkerlog

In this post I will try to show, why it’s a good idea to use a current limiting resistor for an LED. And when it’s save to drive the LED without any resistor.
If you read about LEDs, you will notice that everyone tells you, that you need a current limiting resistor. But mostly they do [...]

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I love Blinkenlights. And all kinds of other blinking and flashing LED stuff. I think, it’s already a form of addiction. When I ran across an LED matrix with square pixels, I thought it would be cool to build a small animated display with it. To keep things simple, the display is attached directly to [...]

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It took a bit longer than I expected to get the new kits on the blog shop. But hey, I’m a software developer, we never deliver on time .
Finally all parts arrived and all pictures are taken. There are two new howtos with detailed step-by-step instructions and schematics, Tiny25 header and Tiny2313 header. [...]

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These tiny controller boards are build to provide a quick start for projects with 8 and 20 pin AVR microcontrollers, e.g. ATtiny13, ATtiny45, ATtiny85 and ATtiny2313. They don’t include any fancy stuff, they are just as simple as possible.

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Update 04. Dec. 2008: This article is replaced by the new howto.
This is a remake of the fireflies which I did a year ago. I was always fascinated by the emergence of patterns. One I like most is the synchronization of hundreds or thousands of fireflies. First they flash randomly but after some time and [...]

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LCDs are often used in microcontroller projects. Most used are these green character displays with two or more rows to display menus, status or debug messages. With mass production of mobile phones, color LCDs get that cheap, that they can be used as replacement.
Some time ago I ordered a Nokia 6100 LCD including breakout board [...]

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This is a new version of my Tengu clone. This time on a printed circuit board (PCB). I have them produced by Olimex and I am very pleased with the quality. The PCB worked on the first try and has some minor issues only.

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Today my first PCBs arrived. Hooray! For me, this is definitely like reaching the next level in DIY technologies.

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TV-B-Gone is pure subversive fun. If you don’t know it, it was invented by Mitch Altman and it is a universal TV remote control with a single button, the power button. You can only switch TVs off. No longer dumb advertisements everywhere you go. Just switch them off. Extra portions of fun in a MediaMarkt.
Just [...]

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Arduino is a great prototyping platform and most of you probably know already about it. If not, check out the Arduino pages and the Arduino playground and dive into it.
A couple of month ago I ordered my first Arduino board. It was one of the Diecimila revision. As I often try something on my breadboard, [...]

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