RecycledEnclosure

RecycledEnclosure about: origins First Use

about:

This project finally gave me what I've always sought out. I simple, small, tidy way to develop embedded software that includes power, programmer, and debug but does not require me to have tons of wires, power supplies, and other clutter you end up with in the heat of embedded hacking.

This still doesn't help much while debugging circuits but once the hardware is mostly worked out this is a clean way to develop software without cluttering up the desk too much.

origins

This enclosure started out life as an external SCSI drive enclosure which I found in the tech trash at work. One of the greatest benefits of our new office location is that we are the closest to the 'old computer junk' pile that people have thrown out and is waiting for pick-up. There are countless treasures like these enclosures. Its got plenty of room inside since the SCSI drive took up most of the interior space. Even better the enclosure has a dual output power supply to power the drive so +12V and +5V are readily available. Other perks include a few LEDs, cooling fan, and easy-to-hack back and front plates for mounting custom interface hardware (DB connectors, LCDs...).

First Use

I need to support a FAT fs on an SD card for a project I'm working so I have hooked up all my hardware inside. While the ATmega32 and other electronics will happily run at 5V the SD card requires 3.3V (2.7-3.3V usually) and is not 5V tolerant. As a result I wired an inline 3.3V linear regulator to power the electronics since it was the most simple solution available.

The AVR interfaces to a few pieces of hardware as well as the AVR ISP programmer. The front panel LED, UART (RS232), and SD interface (SPI) are connected to the Avronics board. The 3.3V output powers the Avronics board as well as the SD card and ISP.

Others trash is my next project! I love external harddrives and industrial computers becuase they have the tiniest little power supplies in them and all you have to do is supply a standard computer power cable to get at least 5V and 12V to drive your embedded project.

-- ChristopherPepe - 21 Jan 2008