There are lots of proto boards for the AVR microcontroller, and lots of programmers. This post presents my approach, which features easy assembly, off-the-shelf PCB, extremely low parts cost and a built-in USB-based programmer. Circuit, PCB and firmware are all completely Open Source. Read on after the jump for details.
Author: dhenke
Email: dhenke@mythopoeic.org
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AVR Dragon: Fixing Bad Fuse Settings
This post isn’t about the usual kind of dragon (if there even is a “usual” kind). The AVR Dragon is a gizmo made by Atmel, useful for programming their AVR line of microcontrollers. It’s relatively cheap (around US$50 at the time of this writing) and does many useful things. The specific application I’m going to talk about here is using it to “fix” parts when you’ve set the fuses in such a way that said parts won’t talk to simpler programmers. Details after the jump.
Sand Castle is No Defense
Sometimes, in fairy tales, building a castle can help you avoid being eaten by dragons. On the beach, alas, this is not the case. From the Harrison Lake Sand Sculpture competition, by way of EpicWinFTW.
Bay Area Maker Faire: Saphira
High-school students Sam DeRose and Alex Jacobson have constructed Saphira, a fire-breathing, Arduino-controlled animatronic dragon (named in homage to the protagonist of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance trilogy).
You can see her in person at the Maker Faire at San Mateo County Event Center, May 22 and 23. (Via Make: Online.)
Teeth
Completing the set of digital medical imaging, here’s a set of dental X-rays. (Sorry it’s one big wide image; that’s as it was sent to me.) At least now, if something goes terribly wrong during my forays into Mad Science, the medical examiner can look to my blog for help in figuring out who I was.
The X-ray source for these images was a handheld emitter, which I didn’t have a chance to oogle as much as I’d have liked, but which I believe to be not unlike the Aribex Nomad pictured to the right. Technologically cool, and great old-school Buck Rogers styling.
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With Forked Tongue
DeviantArt user toge-NYC created this wonderful white dragon with plastic kitchenware. Just look at it.
They Both Seem Happy
Here’s an image from the Baje Nalozki Sagen Brauchtum (Book of Woodcut Artwork), courtesy of the image gallery at the Texas Wendish Museum. (The gallery is an autoplaying slide show, so I regret I cannot link directly to the source image.)
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, but I’m sure there’s a story behind it.
Caption ideas (even NSFW-ish ones, if they’re funny) are welcome in the comments.
Sherwood Forest Faire
A new fair has sprung up in this great land of ours, and against all odds it shows every outward sign of being exceptionally good. Sherwood Forest Faire is running Saturday and Sunday through April 04 of this year. I attended the opening weekend (27, 28 Feb 2010), had a great time, and plan to go back at least one more weekend if schedule and weather permit went back on 20, 21 Mar 2010, and had an even better time despite cold weather.
More gushing praise, links and even a few pictures after the jump.