I've got a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (Part # SB0350) that I'm installing as part of a computer that I'm building. There's a nifty headphone and speaker jack pair mounted on the case which I would like to connect, and I'm not sure if it's possible. Have: 4 pins to connect: Mic-In, L-Out, R-Out, Ground. Pretty intuitive. The following ou...
It is very difficult to find information on programming hardware or electronic devices that are not an actual desktop computer, laptop or server. A few instances that I am speaking of are kid's toys like Bop It, or how about a control system for the home, or even something like Pleo or a mobile phone? I mean, if I want to program behavio...
I have developped software in C++, Java, PHP, .Net and now I am interesting to learn to program material thing. I would like to program system that could interact with IR, LCD and to be able to resuse old printer motor to use it, etc. My problem is where to start? I have searched the web and have found an open source board called Arduin...
I am currently using Eagle CAD 5.x and I am unable to use older parts libraries that were created for the 4.x version of Eagle CAD. Does anyone know of a way to convert them to the new format that is required by the new version? I am looking for the Parallax SX28/SX48 parts, they are in the Scenix library that can be downloaded from Eag...
I've been a developer all my life, and my brain works in ways that make sense to a developer. I'm interested in creating tangible, physical items using electronic circuits. I'm finding the following problems with much of the material I find: I can learn all about the physical nature of capacitors, resistors, etc., but I'm lacking the...
I've always wanted to have a better understanding of what is happening at the hardware level. As a practical level, anything after compile equals 'magic' and I'd like to remedy that. I'd like to investigate building circuits and then moving up to assembly programming on basic chip sets, both for my own sake and also for my son's, as som...
This question is mainly electronics related, but it also has a programming aspect. Some background on the problem We have a traffic light on a wall in our office. When people come in to the office, they can immediately tell from the traffic light whether last night's automatic build & test runs went smoothly: Green means all tests pass...
I'm new to embedded development - but have been interested in the field for a while. I think this is close enough to being programming related; and I've seen enough people here show knowledge in this area, so I'll ask here. I decided that a cool project that would cover many different areas of programming and hardware would be to develo...
Hi, I want to implement want I think is a fairly standard feedback loop, however it's been many years since I've looked at control theory and I'm having trouble understanding the concepts and finding implementation examples. I was hoping someone might be explain in simple terms what is happening and maybe point to some resources I could...
Where in a computer does the abstract (letters on the screen) meet the real (electrical current passing through circuits in memory and processors). How did that evolution happen? I'm talking deeper than assembler here, I think. Maybe a level deeper than processor instructions? At some point commands are actually interpreted by hardwa...
I'm not an electronics guy, so I might not be able to explain precisely what I need. This is a question a friend keeps asking me. What my friend is looking for is a programming language that would allow him to: Interface with hardware (via serial and USB ports). Write multithreaded code. Throw together UIs very quickly. Port his code ...
Hi, If I were to program a microcontroller (ATMega128) to play a realtone with a speaker, how would I do this? Do I need to use a digital/analog converter to send different amplitude values, or is it enough with frecuency changes? In any case, how would I encode the frecuency/amplitude values that the speaker needs to receive? Do I need ...
I'm looking to build a simple electronics project (with some help, I'm not a hardware kinda person) and I'd like to use .net (C#) to do the coding side of it. What I need to know is where can I get a cheap controller that I can connect via USB or serial and the suitable libraries to use for talking to it (as most System.IO.Serial docume...
Now that systems are so powerful, there doesn't seem to be anything like the fun challenge of trying to get the most out of some 8-bit micro and with less than 64kb memory. Is there something (that isn't an emulator) which can provide a similar experience? ...
The diagrams I've seen for making an OR gate from a NAND gate use 3 NAND gates but if you have both inputs connected to both connectors of a NAND gate and then the output of this gate as inputs to both connectors of a second NAND gate it should behave like an OR gate. So you'd need only 2 gates? edit: this pic below was an attempt I m...
I have more than 5 years experience working on embedded programming on several architectures and micro-controllers for different companies, so I feel confident about my skills. All the experience is on a corporate environment where there are a bunch of electrical engineers designing something and I am with them concurrently taking care ...
Almost all electronic devices comes with firmwares. I know it is stored in ROM (Read only memory) so it becomes non-volatile (no power source required to hold the contents from getting erased like RAM) What I want to know is "How firmwares communicate to the electronic devices to perform its operations?" Let say there is a small roller....
It's very simple. I want to plug a lamp into the UK mains supply. I want to be able to power it on and off from software - say from serial port commands, or by running a command-line or something I can get to from ruby or Java. I see lots written about how to do this with X10 with American power systems - but has anybody actually trie...
Hi I am curious about programming against smart grid/electrical sensors etc, where i'd like to monitor my electricity usage. Can you give some starting points about interfacing with electrical sensors, what programming language is needed, libraries etc? Thanks ...
Hi, I am trying to build a proof of concept for a consumer electronic product that will have a video input & output, but will output with an HTML overlay on part of the screen. Does anyone know of the best board/chip combination that would be good for this application? Since it may become a real product, the lower the price the bett...