Fred

@@timotet Nooooooooo... Anything that tries to be all those things will be bad at them all. So many times that's been promised and never been delivered.
 
For instance mills require rigidity and small backlash under load (leadscrews are ideal). Lasers require speed (hence light weight and belts). They don't need Z axis travel but it's good to have largish X and Y. 3D printers need a larger Z axis but large X and Y aren't really necessary. All these things conflict. You're so much better buying separate machines.

Making my first PCB using KiCAD, switching over from ZenitPCB. Next I am going make a prototype board with a LQFP-64 (TM4C123), will push my homemade PCB "printer" to its limits (its inherent resolution is 1200dpi).
 

 
PCB "printer" in action - a blu-ray laser (100mW), two steppers controlled by MSP430 and main rendering program written i C# for Windows.
 

 

 
First PCB authored in KiCad - laminator is no good, and I am having some problems with dust. I am using Riston film - maybe better to use presensitized boards...
 
 
 

Congrats @Lgbeno !!!  
 
You made it into the 2015 Hackaday Prize Semifinals !
 
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/24/100-semifinalists-for-the-2015-hackaday-prize/#more-167134

@@bluehash The NFC implant (in the fleshy bit between my left thumb and forefinger) is fine. It's not given me any problems. I've not got round to doing too much with it yet as I've been busy with other things.
 
The most useful thing is to unlock my PC at work. It's just a F5299 acting as a HID device to type in my password and a TRF7970A NFC reader. Currently it's a LaunchPad and booster pack combo but a custom PCB is in progress.
https://0xfred.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/nfc-login-version-1-0/

@@bluehash The NFC implant (in the fleshy bit between my left thumb and forefinger) is fine. It's not given me any problems. I've not got round to doing too much with it yet as I've been busy with other things.
 
The most useful thing is to unlock my PC at work. It's just a F5299 acting as a HID device to type in my password and a TRF7970A NFC reader. Currently it's a LaunchPad and booster pack combo but a custom PCB is in progress.
https://0xfred.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/nfc-login-version-1-0/

@@bluehash The NFC implant (in the fleshy bit between my left thumb and forefinger) is fine. It's not given me any problems. I've not got round to doing too much with it yet as I've been busy with other things.
 
The most useful thing is to unlock my PC at work. It's just a F5299 acting as a HID device to type in my password and a TRF7970A NFC reader. Currently it's a LaunchPad and booster pack combo but a custom PCB is in progress.
https://0xfred.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/nfc-login-version-1-0/

So I've been planning this for a while - but we were in Vegas this weekend and my wife encouraged me to finally go through with it  
 
The design is actually based off of the footprint of an MSP430 QFN 16.  I had the tattoo artist do an initial sketch, but the final was actually designed in Eagle.  The symbol in the middle is the "Power" symbol you're probably familiar with - but was originally designed to indicate a "sleep mode" or "low power state" - a perfect reference for the MSP430 as well.  
 
I'll have to post some updated pictures once it's healed - but here are a couple.
 

 
 

 
So  - does anyone else have any electronics-related tattoos?

Hi all,
 
Just made a tutorial both written and video on how to use the graphing tool built into Code Composer Studio.  I meant to do this awhile back just not had the time until now, hope it proves of some use.
 
http://coder-tronics.com/code-composer-studio-graphing-tool-tutorial/
 
https://youtu.be/-iGnh0_9YxE
 
Cheers,
Ant

Interesting decapping of these and comparison. Whilst it's interesting that these seem to share the same die, I'm not sure that the price difference really justifies trying to reflash the cheaper one as the multi-protocol version. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if the appropriate JTAG fuse (or whatever they use) has been blown.
 
http://jelmertiete.com/2015/06/30/Difference-between-CC2630-and-CC2650/
via HackaDay
http://hackaday.com/2015/07/09/decapping-the-cc2630-and-cc2650/

Interesting decapping of these and comparison. Whilst it's interesting that these seem to share the same die, I'm not sure that the price difference really justifies trying to reflash the cheaper one as the multi-protocol version. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if the appropriate JTAG fuse (or whatever they use) has been blown.
 
http://jelmertiete.com/2015/06/30/Difference-between-CC2630-and-CC2650/
via HackaDay
http://hackaday.com/2015/07/09/decapping-the-cc2630-and-cc2650/

Interesting decapping of these and comparison. Whilst it's interesting that these seem to share the same die, I'm not sure that the price difference really justifies trying to reflash the cheaper one as the multi-protocol version. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if the appropriate JTAG fuse (or whatever they use) has been blown.
 
http://jelmertiete.com/2015/06/30/Difference-between-CC2630-and-CC2650/
via HackaDay
http://hackaday.com/2015/07/09/decapping-the-cc2630-and-cc2650/

Under Project properties->Auto Run and Launch Options:
 

@@jpnorair It would be much cheaper here in the UK... because a full roof solar panel would be perfectly matched with a couple of AA NiCds.

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

A few of us now have the MSP-FET - mainly thanks to TI's ESI project. The target boards are great if you want to prototype something quickly and need to use a device that's only in a SMT package. However they're quite enpensive for hobbyist use. I thought it worth mentioning that I found a US eBay seller hrojas with some target boards for $20 each. He even did me a deal on international shipping as I bought a few. He's got the following: TS430PW28A, TS430RGC64USB, TS430PZ100B, TS430PS24, TS430L092, TS430RGC64C
 
I also noticed that the target boards listed a while ago with TI deals on them are still at that low price - or in some cases even lower. They're shown as full price on the TI site but if you click "buy from TI" the price in your shopping cart is lower. I think I checked them all and these are the ones that come up cheaper than listed. (Some by a lot, some not so much.) These are perhaps the ones that are a little less in demand and aren't selling so well, but they might be useful.
 
TS430L092 - $20
TS430PEU128 - $20
TS430PW24 - $30
TS430DL48 - $40
TS430PN80A - $55
TS430PW28A - $55
TS430PZ100 - $55
TS430RGZ48B - $75
TS430RSB40 - $75

Yesterday my NFC implant turned up. Still looking for someone to implant it for me. It's tricky to do yourself as you need two hands (and it goes in your hand). My wife's a doctor but refuses to do it as "it's weird, geeky and creepy".
 

SensorTag2 DevPack came in. I'm waiting for the SensorTag to come in.
 
Looks like this tiny guy has tag connect support.
 

@@jpnorair It would be much cheaper here in the UK... because a full roof solar panel would be perfectly matched with a couple of AA NiCds.

@@jpnorair It would be much cheaper here in the UK... because a full roof solar panel would be perfectly matched with a couple of AA NiCds.

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.