The DSO Nano v2 Pocket Oscilloscope Explained

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Hi everybody! I have had a few request for information about the small portable pocket scope I’m using in a few of my videos, so I’m going to share it with you. In this video, I’ll walk you through installing the BenF Firmware as well take you through the menu structure and functions of the device. Seeed Studio did a fantastic job with this little device, it really is an awesome portable tool. Compared to the stock firmware, the BenF firmware has better navigation, features, and the SD card features work a lot smoother.

The Nano (DSO Nano v2) is a great tool for a great price! You can get them for under $100, they come with a case, 2 sets of probes, a stand, and it’s open source!

Below is the feature summary from the manual and the links to the scope product page, firmware manual, firmware and firmware install tool.

*UPDATE: Adafruit now sells this scope! 🙂
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Fun with a few 9V batteries. (244 of them)

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9V battery. ish.

So I needed a break from working on a project again, and I remembered that I had a bunch of 9V batteries and thought, ‘I wonder if that would be enough voltage to hold an arc?‘. The answer is yes, it would. So I made a little video of melting some alligator clips and crispifying some LED’s, a CD, and a cap. Or at least trying to blow up the cap, that was one tough cookie..

I used 244 9V batteries, that were not new, but not dead. When you do the math, this should be 2,196 Volts, but that is when they are new. I measured (in blocks) 2,000 volts total. Lots of sparky..

DISCLAIMER:

Do not try this at home. You might get shocked. I am not responsible for anything or anyone that gets damaged if you try to recreate this. Again, just to be clear, do not try this at home. Ever.

 

Now, enjoy the video. 🙂

Pogo Probes!

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Pogo probes!

Everyone likes new tools right? Well, my eye caught some neat pogo probes posted on the Adafruit Industries Blog a few months back, and was intrigued. I wanted a pair, but I shied away from the short handles. Then, a few days ago, it happened. I was cleaning out one of my toolboxes, and voila! I found a pair of old probes with bent tips, perfect for making into pogo probes. I also had some pogo pins from Adafruit laying around, waiting to be used for something besides having breadboard wars with ‘micro spears’. Anyway, here is how I made them with a few pictures. You will need an old pair of meter probes, pogo pins, a small hand drill, a Dremel with a cut off wheel (a steel hacksaw will also work), a vice, heat shrink, and a few ounces of patience for this project.

*Just a side note: the vice used in these pictures is a PanaVice Jr. I got mine from Adafruit Industries. I did not want to mount mine to my bench permanently, so I filled the base solid with lead. It is awesome, if you don’t have one, get one. It will change your life. (Actual life changing experience may vary.)

Step 1: Select a probe to convert. It doesn’t matter if the end is bent as it will be cut off anyway.

The stock probe Continue reading →

Using PWM outputs with an Arduino and a LED

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Hi everyone, been a while since my last post, but I have been a busy new daddy. 🙂 I wanted to demonstrate what PWM output was and how to use it nicely in a sketch. I’m really big on ramping lights on and off (my entire house is set up that way) and would like to share how do accomplish that. I also wanted to use a video to show PWM outputs on a scope to help me explain the process.

Slide from video above

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM, but also sometimes referred to as Pulse-Duration Modulation -PDM) is the manipulating (modulating) of the width of a fixed pulse. The pulses are sent at the same voltage and frequency, so just the width of the pulse is changed. In the screen shot above the fixed voltage is 3.2V and the Frequency is 490Hz.

You can grab the serial controlled Arduino code here, or the shorter fading sketch here.

Programming in a ZIF!

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This is just a quick post about a board I made to program a whole bunch of ATmega 328’s for some kits I’m making. I am ordering the 328’s in bulk, so they are brand new and do not have an Arduino bootloader on them. One of the ways you can get an Arduino bootloader on a factory fresh 328 is use an Arduino Uno and a USBTiny. Sure, I could pop about 100 of these into an Uno, but that would be a lot of work as well as wear and tear on the 28 DIP socket on my Uno.

The answer? A ZIF socket! These are fantastic! Anyone who has installed/upgraded a CPU in a computer knows what these are. ZIF stands for Zero Insertion Force. That means you drop the chip in the socket very easy, then pull a lever down to secure the contacts and prevent the chip from bouncing out of there. Making swapping out a bunch of chips to program them a lot easier, faster, and less prone to damage to the pins or chips!

You can get these 28 Pin ZIF sockets at Adafruit, and for cheep! There is also a 40 pin version if your heart or project so desires. Sparkfun has this part in their Eagle library, if you don’t have it, and use eagle, I would get it. There is a lot of good stuff in there. 🙂 And on another note, if you don’t have the Adafruit Eagle library, it’s worth having also.

You can download the board and schematic Eagle files here, or get the image version here.

And a big happy birthday to my first daughter Anna, who came into the world today!!! A future maker? Engineer? Who knows, but I can tell you this, She. Is. Awesome.

My new daughter!

😀