Finished puzzle box
This project was inspired by the “Reverse Geocache Puzzle Box“, an idea that has been duplicated a few times. For Christmas this year, I drew my brother-in-law, Scott. I know that he appreciates hand-made gifts, and my idea of hand make is almost always electronics related. I thought for a while about a gift I could give that was hand-made, but appropriate to his interests. While I wouldn’t say he’s interested in Geocaching, per se, but I know he will appreciate the destination. Read more…
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Transceiver breakout boards
I’m just finishing up my last class ever!!! (for credit, anyway.) It was a really fun, mostly because I decided to have fun with my last class, and make it a 4/5 (undergrad/graduate). This meant that it was much easier and less theory-heavy than those that I’m used to. Anyway, as a grad student, I was expected to do something extra, and I decided to make a RF transceiver module. I looked around for a little while, and I settled on the Microchip MRF49XA. In general, it’s a nice chip. It has about the same capability as the Micrel MICRF6xx modules that I’ve used in the past. The Micrel modules cost $20/ea. and the Microchip IC is around $3. I was able to make the whole breakout board for the MRF49XA for less than the Micrel module alone. One of these days, I should dig out my notes from the Micrel project and post them, but I digress. I noticed a distinct lack of programming information using the MRF49XA, so I’m posting not only my schematic and PCB, but the software library I wrote for the Atmel AVRmega. Read more…
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