Birth of an USB module (part 2)

By mvuilleu, in Electronics, september 23,2011.

This article follows the previous article on this topic, this time with a video after the break...
For soldering components, we also use a fully automated process. The PCB is put in our autoplacer robot. First, the robot gently injects one or more drops of solder paste on each pad where a component has to be placed, using a small motorized syringe driven by an Archimede screw. Then, it picks all board components one by one from a reel or from a tube, and places them at the right place and in the right position.

Josephine the USB coffee machine

By martinm, in DIY, september 16,2011.

The number one fantasy among DIYers is probably hacking the coffee machine to remote control it. We thought about this for many years. Today we finally decided to do it. Meet Josephine, our coffee machine, an old JURA IMPRESSA F505 model.

The most difficult part was to dismantle it. Obviously, the guys who designed it did not want us to have a look inside. There is almost no screw: all parts are clipped-in.

What about an RGB led?

By martinm, in New stuff, september 09,2011.

Building a USB device to drive the shy red led everybody knows would probably be a big overkill. At Yoctopuce, we are not really afraid of overkills, but there are some lines we are not willing to cross...

Anyway, driving one of these shiny little color leds might be more interesting: driving directly one of those is not so easy if you want to create the intermediate colors.

Javascript and USB

By martinm, in Programming, september 02,2011.

Javascript is a very powerful language, it can turn a pathetic static web page into something very similar to a native application. But there is a slight difference between web-based applications and native ones: Javascript is held captive by its own browser. Javascript is well known as unable to interact with the real world.

It turns out that the libraries provided by Yoctopuce will allow you to drive a USB Yoctopuce device using Javascript. A web page, five lines of Javascript, and you can already see your device working. No kidding.. wanna see an example ?

USB Fan

By martinm, in DIY, august 22,2011.

When it's hot like today, a fan is kinda cool, but a USB fan is so much cooler. So to build a USB fan we need: a basic fan bought from the nearest appliance store, a Yocto-PowerRelay, 15 minutes to properly install the device in the fan, some more time to code a nice web page to control it, et voila! a nice USB fan remotely controlled from your desk. Have a peek below...