Last week, the final components for the Class D Amplifier project arrived.  After assembling them and verifying basic amplifier operation (correct output voltages, reasonable supply voltages, etc.), I connected speakers and an audio source.

The amp worked great! … for about 5 minutes, at which point a loud “pop” followed by a continuous, loud 60Hz hum were heard in lieu of music.  It turns out that a number of components were being operated near their absolute maximum rated voltage, and it is suspected that the power supply drifted out of tolerance and took a few components with it.  To remedy this, a new schematic/layout are in progress that should address this power supply issue once and for all.  Be sure to follow the development over at the project github page and in the forums.  More photos of the prototype can be seen on our Flickr page.

Today, I received a shipping notice for the next generation of VoIP project boards.  This board features the same family of 32-bit processor as the last version; however, the PIC32MX795F512H on this board contains an internal MAC, which should lead to nearly a 200% improvement in overall network throughput.

A few more notable changes include the replacing of the VS1053 from the last version with a simple I²S DAC, changing to a lower-cost power supply, and making the CPLD reprogrammable from the microcontroller.

Watch the blog and the github repository for this project for more details as development progresses!

Our friends over at DangerousPrototypes have an excellent tool tip posted today. Via DangerousPrototypes:

A cheap flatbed scanner is super useful in the shop. We use it to post design sketches, scan PCBs, and archive receipts.

You might remember that Free PCB Sunday used to look like the image on the left. This photo was taken in a light tent, but we could never get PCB shots without reflections of lights or the camera lens. This is probably the best of a dozen shots.

On the right is a scan of the same board. Clean, square, done in one take. This image is ready for a post, or open it in your favorite graphics program and draw notes for the next revision.

It’s so simple, and yet so clever. Expect future NBitWonder documentation to use this method, and big thanks to DangerousPrototypes for the great idea!

A few months back, we mentioned that DigiKey had unveiled their DigiKey smartphone app. The app is quite useful, especially for the hobbyist on the go. It seems the people over at Mouser have decided to fight back, and released their new mobile site, MouserMobile, to allow hobbyists and others to quickly and easily buy parts and components from mobile devices. Via Mouser:

Now you can shop on Mouser.com from virtually anywhere! Search, browse, and buy over 1.8 million products, plus view pricing, availability, images and more. Because MouserMobile™ isn’t an app, there is no download necessary. Just type m.mouser.com into your mobile browser—it’s just that easy. Watch the videos below for more information, and check out the FAQ section below for instructions on adding MouserMobile as a shortcut icon to your home screen.

It looks like a helpful way to get work done. We’re interested in finding out what our readers think about this, so discuss in the comments below.

We talked about the OSHW v1.0 definition release some time ago. At that time there were a few logos that had been submitted to brand hardware as open source, which we went ahead and made available on Eagle. Since then, there’s been lots of activity among the open hardware people submitting and selecting logos, and it has come time to vote for the open hardware logo.

On February 10th, 2011, we launched the Open Hardware Definition v1.0, and launched a competition to select an OSHW Logo. Over 129 submissions have come in over 2 weeks, and a very active discussion on the forums.

The selection of the OSHW Definition logo occurred in 2 stages:

First, an invited selection committee reviewed and narrowed down the submissions (over 129) to the top 10 logos. The selection committee consisted of some of the most instrumental people in pushing forward/developing/writing/promoting the Open Hardware Definition (full list of members can be found here).

Now we open those 10 logos to a PUBLIC VOTE and have the community select the top logo. Cast your vote here!

And don’t forget to tweet, retweet, promote, forward. Let the OSHW community make its voice heard!

thanks
-ayah

So head on over, and make your voices heard.
(via adafruit)

Looks like the OpenKinect community has come quite far in the last couple of months. Far enough, in fact, to be a cultural phenomenon over at CollegeHumor. Congratulations to all the Kinect hackers out there that helped make that possible!

There’s been a lot of talk going on over in the forums on our latest project.

A little on the backstory:

About a month ago, Thingiverse user Marc Raiser released an impressive 3D-printable tank on the website. In his write-up, he had this to say:

It is designed to work with a pair of 600 RPM DC motors, which I do not have and since I’ve blown my R&D budget for the next few months, I doubt I’ll finish it in the near future. Any help completing this design would be greatly appreciated!!!

Interested in helping, we worked with Marc in developing an open source DC motor driver to be used with his tank project. The resulting motor driver is a cheap solution capable of driving a pair of DC motors at up to 8A (4A per motor). (continue reading…)

The NBitWonder server will be moving to a brand new datacenter sometime between 9PM Mountain Daylight Time on March 15 and 5AM on March 16.  During that time, the site will be down for approximately 1 to 3 hours.  We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Finally!

The folks over at Microchip finally released their latest beta, Beta 5, of their upcoming cross-platform IDE, MPLABX. You can see the announcement here and download the beta here.

via DangerousPrototypes

(via adafruit)

Over at Digital DIY, John Chandler shared some excellent suggestions for projects using PIC microcontrollers. The six major “commandments” are listed below:
(continue reading…)