Wednesday, June 23, 2010

EMSL "Diavolino"!

Windell from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories ("EMSL") announced a new Arduino-compatible board today: Diavolino!

Designed to be programmed with an FTDI USB cable (6-pin), the awesome-looking $13 kit comes with just enough to get started, including an ATmega328 pre-loaded with the Arduino bootloader. Pin headers cost an extra $1.50, and you can power it with an optional $1 3xAA battery box with switch, which should supply 4.5V (using alkalines).

Very cool kit from some very cool people, and (according to my Arduino-compatible board spreadsheet,) currently the lowest-priced way to get access to the big wide world of Arduino shields.

Update 6/24: Added the EMSL Peggy 2LE and Bulbdial Clock to the spreadsheet, though they're "maybe not" really Arduino-compatible :)

Friday, June 11, 2010

DorkbotPDX PCB Order: Boards and Boards and...

After missing the May 17 deadline, I was able to get two boards in for the May 31 DorkbotPDX PCB order. That order has taken longer than previous ones though, since the fab house quoted a much higher price than for previous orders. Fortunately, Laen was able to find a different manufacturer for the panel and stick with the $5/square inch (for three boards *shipped*) pricing structure-- woohoo!!

I submitted a 3-digit 7-segment display board (using an SAA1064) and an Arduino-compatible board with curvy traces and optional everything (including 3.3V operation).

The next deadline is this Monday, June 14 at 8AM, so tweak your designs this weekend and get your .brd or gerber files in!!