Arduino: $7 DFRobot Beetle available for PreOrder

This is what the Adafruit Trinket should have been...... Maybe the Trinket Pro will be similar.

As a minimalized version of Arduino Leonardo, it enjoys similar powerful functionalities. Beetle aims to solve problems of low-cost controller, ease-of-using properly, and to provide a low cost solution for disposable projects, such as DIY projects, workshops, gift projects, E-Textiles and educational. For students and makers who can not afford too much on hardware purchasing, Beetle can be a great solution for them. 

WS2812 RGB LED Close Up

WS2812 Individually addressable RGB LEDS

Adafruit Trinket compatible µVolume USB Media Control PCB

Back in August, you may have read my article regarding the AVR based  Attiny2313/ Attiny84/ Attiny85 USB Volume Controls.
The article appears to be pretty popular on various websites, including a nice mention on the Adafruit Blog.

With the release of the Adafruit Trinket (Attiny85 based) a tutorial is now available on the great Adafruit Learning System for a Trinket USB volume control example.

After Purchasing a Trinket to experiment with and Adafruit having a great mentality for Open Source Hardware, I decided to modify my own Attiny85 volume control PCB to make it compatible with the Trinkets 5Volt firmware (flash_me_hv_5volt.hex)! (which is Arduino compatible) This gives access to direct programming without the need for a separate programmer from the Arduino IDE. Its also nice to support the hard work done at Adafruit  by purchasing one of their Trinkets.

Guide: Make your own (ISP) IN-System Programming Cable

When your supplied In-System Programming cable is just too long!

$9 Borderless Electronics Arduino Leonardo

Today I received my two Arduino Leonardo's from the Borderless Electronics Indigogo Campaign.

Here are a few pictures of the Perks.

Yes all this for $22 (£13.75) delivered to the UK!

The soldering is excellent

The unusually flat Micro USB cables are also of great quality and very flexible

Harold did a very professional job of handling the campaign and should be congratulated.

AVR: Attiny 2313 V-USB Media Volume Control

Updated: 08/09/2013 : ATtiny84 Version... (see bottom of the page)

Updated: 20/09/2013 : µVolume Custom Enclosure

My most rewarding projects are the ones which i actually use. I like my audio gear so, this was the perfect companion project! 

Arduino: Pololu USB AVR Programmer, Adding ISP Programmers to the Arduino IDE

This is a quick guide to show you how to add the Pololu USB AVR Programmer to the Arduino IDE, For burning bootloaders to blank chips or using the Arduino as a target board for programming in Atmel Studio or AVRDUDE.

This will work with all versions of the Arduino IDE, today we will be using Version 1.0.5 as of 22/05/2013