Tuorial Number 2 was posted today, covering Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) operating theory and the differences between hardware and software implementations.  Check it out here!

The mbed is a prototyping platform that came out late last year. Featuring a cloud-based compiler, intuitive development environment, and powerful 32-bit ARM processor, the mbed is designed to help expedite prototyping of electronics concepts. With this in mind, the folks here at NBitWonder created a tutorial that serves as an introduction to the mbed platform. Check it out here.

We’ve been hard at work here at NBitWonder the last few days implementing some updates to the site, and work will undoubtedly continue throughout the course of the week. While this work goes on, you may consider checking out the new ‘Resources’ tab, which links to all sorts of interesting sites to help quench your thirst for electronics and making things in general.

via adafruit

Here at NBitWonder we try to keep the blog focused on electronics projects, but this was just too good to pass up. Popsci writes:

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It’s been a little while since I posted the state of the CardPOV project, but after some trials and tribulations version 1 of the CardPOV device is finished. I went ahead and laid out a board in Eagle for the device, creating a much improved POV.

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The RGB Lightsaber prototype is nearing preparations for production.  The board faithfully performs correctly under 4.5-5.5V, the voltage range one generally expects from 4 rechargeable NIMH batteries. Still, in order to verify that that claim is indeed the case, I performed a round of power tests today. The tests consisted of testing each of the single colors (red, green, and blue), followed by testing all of the 2 color combinations (red green, red blue, and blue green), and then a 3 color test (red green blue). A “test” consisted of turning up the selected color (or colors) all the way, and then leaving em on full bore for 10 minutes. In summary, the tests were very successful, the saber having passed all of them. Photos from the (continue reading…)

Persistence of vision (POV) is a public domain technology that relies on properties of the human eye to create the illusion of text and images in midair. The earliest known realization of the POV display concept can be found here. Numerous other open source POV projects have emerged over the years, such as Spoke POV and Alpha POV, which have enjoyed considerable success.

It is with this in mind that NBitWonder announces a new project to the open-source roster: CardPOV. CardPOV takes the idea of POV and applies it to a business card format, using POV to display contact information, etc. The end result will be a thin, pocketable device that one can use to make an impact at their next convention, expo, etc. Below is an image (continue reading…)

Prologue:

Long (a couple years) ago in a galaxy (movie theater) far far (no more than a few thousand miles) away, I went to the opening night of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The movie was pretty good, and alongside the commercial success of the movie, a number of commercial products were launched. Of particular interest was the ForceFX Lightsaber, produced by Master Replicas. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I grabbed one for Christmas.

The box clearly states that the lightsabers are for display purposes only, and not to be used as toys. I went ahead and ignored this, however, and as these sorts of things go, my lightsaber eventually broke. At this point, I wanted to get a new one, but in order to buy one I had to choose a single color. After some thinking I decided not to pick a single color, but rather to create my own version in which I could adjust the blade to be any color I wanted. Thus the RGB Lightsaber was born!

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Hello folks,

George here, letting everyone know that there will be some site changes taking place over the next couple weeks as we transition to a more convenient blogging software and build our website. Stay tuned for lots of exciting updates!

Also, please join me in welcoming Sam Mussmann to the NBitWonder team. Sam is a programming mastermind who will be helping us build our site for the foreseeable future.