The first week of the Fury’s (Zeus Blizzard) Scrypt miners from GAWMiners came with a free ZenController. It’s basically a Raspberry Pi, case and a memory card that is setup ready to mine using ZenMiners cloud service. Simplifies the process of setting up mining without a computer. Yesterday I had an issue with the network connection to my ZenController and I noticed the Raspberry Pi was warmer than I am used too with others. Upon inspection, I realized the bottom label is covering the only holes for ventilation. There isn’t any on top or sides. Even without the label there should be vents on top like most cases. If you get one of these, the first thing you want to …
DigiSpark Pro
Digistump is the company behind the Digispark and DigiX and now their latest Kickstarter the Digispark Pro! They are a family owned company based in Portland, Oregon. I backed the Digispark Pro with the Beta Edition as the reward. This has to be one of the fastest Kickstarters I have backed as it was funded May 11th, 2014 and I received the Beta Edition June 22nd, 2014. Here are some pictures of the Beta Edition. Bottom center Digispark Pro The Digispark Pro Beta Edition comes with an extra “shield”. This shield has an 8×8 LED Matrix, joystick, LDR(Light Sensor), MAX7219 with socket to drive the LED Matrix, and all of the needed passives. All you have to do is solder …
DP Free PCB: Bus Pirate v3.8
A few times a week Dangerous Prototypes hosts a free PCB giveaway on various social networks. They also give away coupon codes to those who submit completed PCBs (from the giveaway) to use on another free PCB. It’s really an awesome way to practice soldering. I was able to do this with the XT IDE Disk Controller. Some time ago (days, weeks, months?), I finally redeemed my coupon for a Bus Pirate v3.8 PCB. I already have an older version from Sparkfun but I thought this would be a fun project and a way to get a newer DP version with microUSB. Plus, it follows their SOB standard PCB sizes. Also, I haven’t had any experience with a PIC. Unlike …
Live Raspberry Pi Power Usage!
Since the release of the Raspberry Pi, I have had one on my desk powered up. It’s my go to Pi that is always available on the network. It’s mostly running Python stuff and eXtplorer. After all this time, I have always wondered what it really costs to keep a Pi powered up 24/7/365. Then one evening, it dawned on me, I have the USB Tester why not use that? Doh! One thing lead to another and I realized why not log the serial output to the Pi itself. Using my existing Python code for logging motion to CosmXiviely, in one night, I could easily set it up to log the RPi power usage to the cloud. Pretty freaking sweet, …
Bay Area Maker Faire 2014
Join us at this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire! This year, we have the opportunity to demo some of our products at the official Tindie booth! Look for us in the Maker Pro tent, one of the new outdoor tents. We will be giving away discount coupons!We hope to see many of you there!
Adventure in Bitcoin: GridSeeds
Part 1 Potato chips. You can’t just eat one, am I right? That’s how mining has become for me. It’s always just a little more mining power. Like reaching in and grabbing a couple of extra chips and before you know it, the entire bag is empty. But in the case of mining, there will always be something left in the bag. You can trade various coins, set up more rigs or upgrade your current hardware. Up until now, GPUs where the only way to mine Altcoins. ASIC’s are what took over Bitcoin mining and now they’re finally just starting to become available for Scrypt mining. One of the first that are somewhat affordable are the GridSeeds. I have been …
Adventures in Bitcoin
Part 2 Over the last few months, I decided to try my hand at mining BitcoinsCryptocurrency. Recently, I found the best way to get started is to mine what are called Altcoins. Bitcoins and a few others are based on SHA256 hashes which are easier to verify transactions and therefore there are ASIC or Application Specific Integrated Circuits that can mine very fast. Because of this, the network difficulty becomes very high and therefore takes more power for the same reward. Basically you get a reward for mining which is providing processing power to verify transactions. Once the network agrees that a transaction is valid, it then confirms the transaction. Altcoins are based on Scrypt mining which is more memory …
Arduino Yún – Power Usage
Last year during Black Friday weekend, I broke down and bought an Arduino Yún from Pololu. They had some great sales and I just couldn’t pass it up. If you haven’t heard of Pololu, go check them out right now. I’ll wait till you get back. See? They have great electronics and tons of robot stuff. I love their power boards, boostbuck boards and ones that do it at the same time. Anything you need they have it. Arduino Yún with USB Tester Now that you are back, the Arduino Yún is a Leonardo and Linux all in one. It’s basically like a WiFi router running Linino based on OpenWRT. This thing has an Atheros 9331 processor and the ATmega32u4 (same …
Bitcoin Now Accepted!
We are happy to announce that FriedCircuits Shop now accepts Bitcoin! Products are still shown in USD but when you check out you have the option of selecting Bitcoin and it will show the total at the current exchanges rates. We are using Coinbase.com as the payment processor so if you have a Coinbase account you pay directly that way. If not, you can scan the QR code to pay with your mobile app, of course you can just copy and paste the wallet address and the amount to pay to use with your desktop app. Once payment is sent, just click confirm. It’s that easy! We are all for supporting the Bitcoin community. We’d like to help it grow …
A Day in the Life of Digi-Key
We buy the bulk of our parts from Digi-Key for the products and projects we make at our home office. Prices are great and you can rest assure that you will not receive any counterfeit parts. When you order something online, I always wonder where its been and what it went through before landing into your excited hands. I recently came across this awesome slideshow from IEEE Spectrum that showcases what it’s like at Digi-Key. IEEE Spectrum