Raspberry Pi is the most popular mini computer right now, but there are other options.
SolidRun sells two. The first is a sleek cube called the CuBox-i (pictured above). The second is a barebones board, the…
The Raspberry Pi is a handy tool, but it has some quirks. One quirk is that there is no internal clock with a battery backup (something most real PCs have). Instead, it syncs with…
This post is by Koen Vervaeke.
Cheap microcontrollers like Arduino or Raspberries are great devices to orchestrate behavior experiments. They don’t have however high voltage outputs to directly drive valves, servomotors, etc which…
About 25 years ago, pro-level audio recording technology was prohibitively expensive for home studios. Then, digital audio technology like the Alesis ADAT enabled working class musicians to produce high fidelity recordings. The…
Scheme-it is an online electronics schematics/design tool that is integrated with Digikey’s catalog. This way, you can skip a step and go directly from design to order, without having to spend time sourcing…
Vojnovic’s group at Oxford has dozens of technical notes. Most are concise, and include software code, if applicable. SolidWorks files and PCB files are available on request.
Here are a few examples:
This tip comes from John Stowers. He and his colleagues developed an open source opto- and thermo- genetic system for targeting freely moving Drosophila with lasers.
He wrote a long post discussing some…
Jacob Forstater (UNC-Chapel Hill, Physics) shared this tip: The Klavins lab is sharing their materials for this open source turbidostat. The wiki offers detailed plans and well-document construction. Even if you don’t need…
Labrigger previously mentioned this contest. All of the 173 projects are online for your perusal. See if any of them inspire you.
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A friend just asked a quick question: How can I make a bunch of cheap (not fast) laser shutters? Here’s a quick answer: For motors, servos are pretty easy to use. Put a piece…
EasyEDA is an online electronic design automation (EDA) tool. It has all the required parts: schematic drawing, simulation, and PCB layout. It also has some nice features that make sharing easy….
Mouser has a new open hardware site that makes it easy to compare different platforms by specifications.
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One of the first posts in this blog was on Processing. Processing is a programming language with an integrated development environment that is specialized for simplicity– ease of learning and…
They motorized a Kopf manipulator and used CNC software to control it. I like the simple mechanics. Here’s one of the parts used to couple the stepper motors to the manipulator:
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No wires- even for programming. And the battery can last “up to a year”. If you can wait until May 2014 to get your hands on one, here are the details:
The Arduino-compatible Bluetooth LightBlue…
