I made a quick little video that demonstrates the prototype of my desktop clock. In the next few days I’ll be posting a project page with schematics, the board layout, firmware, and instructions on how to build your own. Later, I may introduce a kit that can be purchased that would include all of the parts needed to build this clock.
And without any further yammering, here is the video:
PIC16C558 magnified 100x
I’ve found this interesting blog by Flylogic Engineering, a company that focuses on hardware security analysis. In their blog, they examine several popular microcontrollers and other ICs pointing out some interesting details in their design and possible attack vectors. In their analysis, they take a look at security at the hardware level by extracting the IC die from its package and taking a look at the silicon under a microscope. They then remove each metalization layer, one at a time, photographing each layer as they make their way down to the lower levels. I find this fascinating and highly recommend that you take a look.
I’m writing this post as a proposal for an umIEEE student workshop project. The project is my LED Pocketwatch, now renamed to become a Desktop Clock. This project is meant as a fun excercise that will give participants some surface mount soldering experience and some knowledge on how a PIC operates and the design process used to create your own projects using EagleCAD to create both home-made etched PCBs and professional quality ordered PCBs.
The Image you see above is a 3D rendering of the latest design of the PCB. The rendering is pretty much true to what I expect to build except for a missing inductor and the wrong capacitor in the PSU, which can be seen along with more details in the photo of the prototype after the jump.
