The idea of this programmer was to get rid of Parallel port which is common for ISP programmers. One reason is that parallel ports are disappearing from computers(I think COMs are also). Second reason is that most ISP programmers aren’t safe - especially without buffering circuits or simple resistors. Anyway these things are a matter of discussions. There is a simple ISP programmer that runs from COM port.

One shortcoming is that programmer uses another microcontroller AT89C2051 which communicates between PC and target MCU. But this option gives flexibility for future upgrades. As author promises it will also going to support AVR microcontrollers. For now it has following features:

• Supported devices - AT89S51, AT89S52, AT89S8252, AT89S8253;

• Read and write of Intel Hex files.

• Chip Erase.

• Verify.

• Lock.

• Read Device Signature.

• Advanced Device Specific Functions.

Windows GUI and firmware are available for download. But keep track for newer versions.

Want to learn how to generate sound effect or simply play melodies on your microcontroller project? You should read nice series of articles in uchobby where is deep analysis made on how sound can be generated by using limited resources.

This time he describes Bit-Banging Sound generating technique with source code example. Bit-bang is simple output toggling at desired frequency. To play a musical note, specific frequencies are needed that are played for a specific amount of time. About other sound generating techniques and comparison read here. Further you can find simple experiments that leads to nice sound wave generation with Arduino board.

SparkFun team have made a huge interactive Tetris game. This is really impressive piece of art made of 16 Atmega8 microcontrollers, 720 LEDs and 240 buttons. Game can be controlled by touching buttons directly on frame(similar to touch screen).

The Tetris board is 10×20 cells and each cell lights up 1 of 7 different block colors. Separate button pads are 4×4 and there are 15 of them, so total array is of 12×20 buttons. There is RGB LED placed behind each button so it is possible to light any button with any color. Can imagine what processing power is needed to update all picture and read all button state. This is why whole project was break up in pieces of 4×4 button pads with separate microcontrollers accessed via SPI interface. Project is really challenging but satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. They provide all schematics and firmwares if somebody wants to give a try.

This nice LCD2USB device is an open source and open hardware project. The mani idea was to make cheap solution of LCD connection to various PC’s via USB port. The total cost of LCD2USB is up to 10 Euros, while applications can be run under various operation systems like Windows, Linux, MacOS. This may be a nice addition to your PC to display various system information or simply for showing MP3 song titles.

Information which is sent to LCD can be configured and transferred with various well known applications like lcd4linux, LCD Smartie (requires a seperate driver), and LCDProc.

USB interface is software implementation on AVR Atmega8 microcontroller, so no expensive special micros are needed. Project is very well documented and constantly updated. Download the latest version here.

This is a simple schematic which can be assembled to control a lamp with Sony TV remote control.

Circuit uses a PWM a photocoupler to isolate power part from microcontroller. Power part has very interesting solution on how halogen lamp is driven. Program code for PIC16F628 is available for download.