The below shown is an electrical line connection to the nearby shops. All in one single electric line post.

Its very hard to solve a problem in these electrical lines. I don’t know how they are solving a problem in these electrical line post.

1) Introduction to Robotics (Free Course from MIT)

This is a free course about Robotics from MIT. This course gives a small introduction to robotics. Course is made for intermediate users(Not that simple to understand if you don’t know mathematics). You can find more such free courses from MIT in MIT OCW.

2) Linux Device Drivers

Learn about Linux Device Driver

3) ARM Projects

Some ARM projects
http://www.siwawi.arubi.uni-kl.de/avr_projects/arm_projects/
http://www.open-research.org.uk/ARMuC/

4) Learn Git

Know some basics about Git which will become useful in future.

These days I was busy with my PG Diploma course in Embedded System Design. Update is going on…

This is the first time I am forgetting to blog about my article. Actually it was published in last month(NOVEMBER 2009) issue. Please read it if possible.

This article mainly gives a quick introduction about gEDA. I have also given some snaps of my designs.

http://jeffrey.co.in/articles_talks.html

Current Sinking & Current Sourcing Tutorials

More  Octave Examples

If you don’t know about Octave, I have been maintaining a wiki page for Octave. See the link below

http://jeffrey.co.in/wiki/doku.php/experiments_using_octave_for_b-tech_course

Actually I have started drawing the board layout using pcb directly instead of using gsch2pcb. I will try to upload the schematic of the board soon as possible.

Special thanks to Sreeraj and Pramode Sir. This project was completed 3 months before. But I didn’t have much time for blogging. Sorry for the late post.

Here are some of the reference links
ATMEL AVR USB AT90USB162 MICROCONTROLLER PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT BOARD
AVRopendousDIP - avropendous - Open Hardware Development Board for the AT90USB162

Here is the board layout file.
sree-usb-noicsp.pcb

Here are some snapshots.

The board circuit diagram is so simple that there are a very few connections. some of the connections are

• IR sensor connection (3 wires - IR data, VCC, GND)
• USB socket connection (4 wires - VCC, D-, D+, GND)
• Power supply 5V (2 wires - VCC, GND)
• Audio Out (3 wires - Left, Right, GND)
• Switch (4 wires - Next, Previous, Play, Mode)

The other main features are an built in FM receiver and also an remote control. The player can read up to 1999 songs. I have not tried any other music formats other than MP3.

The main attraction is its cost. The board cost only 250 Rupees ( 5$).

If anyone needs the connection diagram of the board please do contact me

Here are some screen shots

Note(Nov 28, 2009): This is not an open hardware project. Please don’t ask for circuit diagram. I actually bought this circuit board from a local store. The connection details are so easy. The board has markings on it for the connections.

The main problem is that there is not much support for programming these CPLD xc9536 using free software. There are tools available for programming this cpld. But all of them are for Windows platform.

But there is a small hope. The xilinx website is giving a software named ISE WebPACK Design Software. It’s linux version us available for download.

I have to start hacking the CPLD soon. I have designed the PCB for the JTAG Parallel Cable programmer using PCB.

I would like to say special thanks to Omkar Kulkarni for helping me a lot. He has written a very good tutorial for programming this xc9536 CPlD. check this link   http://elecrom.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/getting-started-with-xilinx-xc9536/

Here are some links that might be useful.

• Programmer circuit  http://www.xilinx.com/itp/xilinx4/data/docs/pac/appendixb.html
• http://ad7gd.net/xc9536/
• http://www.piclist.com/images/www/hobby_elec/e_cpld2_2.htm
• http://freeandeasy.sourceforge.net/pcb.php
• http://www.xilinx.com/itp/data/alliance/hug/hug.htm
• http://www.fpga4fun.com/index.html