Ladvien's Lab

A little lab controller PCB I'm working on.  It centers around four high-power constant current circuits meant to be driven by an Atmega328's PWM.

I hate working on anything mechanical in dim light; comes from dropping parts down under the engine when working on cars.  I'm also pretty particular about my type of light.  The "Cool White" or CFLs really bother me. I feel like I'm a bug headed towards a bug-zapper.

I have a few design goals,

1. Warm white is the way to go.  I'm shooting for four 1k lumen warm-white LEDs at 12v at ~1A.
2. I've a plug ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

Nostalgia

I wanted to post this simply because it working on it brought my a dry nostalgic joy. When I was young, 8-9, my parents got a old computer. All I remember was its screen was orange and black; having a Hercules graphics card . I quickly learned to get around from the command prompt. But I was always thrilled to run into menu driven program. It was like going to a fancy restaurant of abstractness. Anyway, when I wanted my code to slow down a bit and branch directions based upon user input, a ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

Part of my C journal -- Writing an LPC1114 bootloader

Setting Up the GCC Compiler

I setup a C environment as basic I could. There may be easier ways to go about this, but I wanted to use GCC to compile.

To setup the environment:

1. I downloaded and setup MinGW32 .

2. I then downloaded FTD2XX libraries . This included the ftd2xx.h file and ftd2xx.lib .

3. I then stole the test code from Hack-a-Day's article on bitbanging with the FTDI .

4. I modified the code as they suggested by including, in this order, the ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

I want to take a moment to thank Bdk6 . The man is a walking Stack Overflow, with more patience for stupid. I doubt I'd understand any of this without his guidance.

I thought I'd take some time away from coding my LPC1114 Uploader and verbally process a few things I've learned. As always, feel free to critique any of it; it'll only serve to make my code more robust in the end.

This post will be a series of post leading up to the large post I'll make on writing the uploader. All posts ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com my_uC_icon_5_300x300.png

Not All Those Who Wander are Lost (but I am)

I thought I'd take some time away from coding my LPC1114 Uploader and verbally process a few things I've learned. As always, feel free to critique any of it; it'll only serve to make my code more robust in the end.

This post will be a series of post leading up to the large post I'll make on writing the uploader. All posts will rely on the GCC compiler.

Setting Up the GCC Compiler

I setup a C environment as basic I ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

Valdez Mutant Files

This is a little board I made in anticipation of Mr. Bdk6's toolchain for the LPC1114.

• Bdkdev

This toolchain is amazing. Really, if you are wanting to break away from Arduino / AVR, into the ARM chips, Bdk6's toolchain for the LPC1114 is the way to go.

The Valdez Mutant v04

The chip has ROM boot loader. This allows you to program the chip right out of the box. The programming is done over the traditional serial line. Most ARM chips require a JTAG programmer, which are usually a $50 investment. This ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

(This node will probably float a bit, have lots of work to do on it. My apologies.)

I'd been wanting to create a bridge between Arduino and iOS for awhile. Not going to lie, not a huge fan of iOS devices, but since my wife won an iPad Mini I've begrudgingly accepted they fill a need. Still, my hacking has orbited robotics and any device I can't connect to a robot frustrate me. Well, a year ago I realized an iPad Mini would connect to an HM-10 , and therefore, robot.

Sadly, the app used ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

This is a short note on how to setup a C programming environment for the FTDI chip in bit banging mode, since that's what I had difficulty doing.

There may be easier ways to go about this, but I wanted to use GCC to compile a small C program to control the 8 IOs. The purpose was to write a small command-line program that would reset my LPC1114 before and after programming.

To setup the environment:

1. I downloaded and setup MinGW32 .

2. I then downloaded FTD2XX libraries . This included the ftd2xx.h file ...

Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com

UPDATE: I tweaked the source and rebuilt lpc21isp to allow for automatic mode switching, bootloader and program, from an FTDI breakout.

A few months ago Bdk6 sent me an LPC1114 ARM processor. Not going to lie, I had little idea how to use the chip.

Bdk6 and his kids had created the Valdez family with the chip:

• The Valdez Family

I tried several IDEs to get the chip going. I wasn't happy with any of them.

LPCXpresso was confusing and intimidating. Since I was trying to learn the chip and a new IDE. Add ...

This is a continuation of my Robot Metallurgy 101 -- AVR Lesson Journal

This is the second part of my Kossel Mini build log

• Kossel Mini Build Log -- Physical Build

When I made my mind up to build a 3D Printer I knew I was in for a ride. I knew I was going to spend an insane amount of time calibrating the damned thing. Well, my overestimation was nowhere near the truth. I've spent literally days calibrating this damned machine. Mind you, a lot of it was because I refused to "RTFM." But the other part was because there doesn't ...