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I needed a clock module students could use on their BBs. I tried a few designs and came up with this right angle concept. I am sure it has been used by others.

The PCB is in two parts. The battery, clock chip and associated parts are on the main board. The I2C pullup resistors are on the upright PCB. More importantly the upright board provides a nice way to label the I2C and power signals.

The header pins come through the main PCB and soldered surface mount style to the upright.

The PCB did not come out well but it works, It was an experiment.
3v0

I have often wished there was a entry under thread tools that let me manage links to interesting threads. The next best thing would be to make a list.

Compiler/Language
C18 RAM and ROM pointers
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/m...rototypes.html

Software (clock/timer) Trim Idea

Referencing C variables in In-line assembly

BootC tiny Wiki on OPEN-CIRCUITS

Dallas One Wire Devices

One Wire Temperature sensor (DS1820) to PC interface.

DIY Dallas 1 Wire Slave discussion.

Unicorn GLCD demo




Construction

Clock battery charging.

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Today we started work with the toolkits. Each student has everything they need to work with solderless breadboards in a small case. The images are of the case I have been using for a few months. The students tool selection consists of 3 breadboards, combo wire cutter/stripper, junebug, speaker and wire.

The first project is to wire 2 74HC595's to drive LEDs from the Junebug. We are using the web article Serial to Parallel Shifting-Out with a 74HC595 written for the Arduino. Most everything but the code itself is applicable.

EDIT: I had the students make two changes to the circuit as used by the Arduino. The first was to tile MR to VCC with a 4.7K pullup and add a switch and pull it low. The second was to have the 74xx595 sink rather then source the LEDs.

The changes are trival but it allows the manual use of the MR to zero out ths shift register. This will cause all LEDs to go dark on the next latch chock/pulse.

The students are making good progress learning C on the Junebug. Today I am changing the connectors on old PC speakers so they can be used with outside two pins on the connector at the USB end of the Junebug. I am going to use a resistor to limit the current to about 20 ma as measured with meter. That will allow the speakers to be used with one output pin or as a bridged setup. Last year we had 3 students working with speakers and the sound was horrid. I may add a few ohms for my sanity.

I have ordered small keypads that I hope to interface with PICs. They require 9 pins which is too much for the Junebug so we will be looking at using 18F2321's or better on BB's. I have made a prototype of a small target board that includes the ICSP connector. The board has pins to fit a BB. The idea is that this little boards will save some time getting various projects setup.

A while back I ordered 20 of the 24x1 line wintech LCD displays sold as LCD-111 by...

The projector came in and I rearranged the room again. The good news is that it is a 1024x768 resolution unit. I scrounged around and found a 6 or 8 foot projection screen.

For the first time I can let the students watch me demo code. I plan to use a small USB cam to show the Junebug in action as I step through code.

It has been a bit of a battle to get enough Junebugs built and running. I started on a batch of 6 prior to school starting. 4 of the 6 came out OK. On one I had a LED in upside down (duh) which was easy to fix. The last has some problem with the target A1. It is shorted to another trace and it loads the system to where VPP does not come up. The short is not to ground or VDD.

I sent the Junebugs home with the kids this weekend mostly to get them used to the idea that they can be used at home. The students without laptops will need to install software on their system.

One student has a USB port that causes...