Sunday, January 30, 2011

Source Management Software

Tortoisehg is one of the source management software that is very useful for programmers. All you need to do is to commit to the repository the changes you have made to the file. Using the hg explorer, you can view the older files and you can update your source file to the current workable source file.

tortoisehg-1.1.4-hg-1.6.4-x86.msi.html

Friday, January 28, 2011

PCB layout tools

 Eagle PCB
A lite version is available for free. Full licensed software can be purchased from element14. Components used can be quote directly from element14.

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

DesignSpark
A free Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 PCB layout which supports import of eagle PCB libraries and files. Price components used in the layout can be quoted directly through RS

http://www.designspark.com/pcb

Kicad
Software which supports both linux and windows with 3D rendering features.

http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/

Great tools to have on hand for projects

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Looping in C

There are a few common loops that is used in C: while loop, do while loop and for loop.

while loop:

while (1)

{

};


The while loop above is an infinite loop.

for loop:

for (condition = 0; condition < set value; condition ++)

{

}


This loop is suppose to count up until it meet the condition meet the set value. To make a count down loop, set condition to a value, and as long as the condition > set value, condition -- .

Do while loop:

do

{

}while(condition != 0);

This loop will do at least once to check the condition is met or not. If the condition is not met, the program will exit. The while loop and for loop on the other hand, will check whether the condition is net before executing the program.

Pickit 3 clone

Another low cost development from microchip.


pickit3_3.pdf