Welcome to Zipfelmaus — a blog about electronics, tinkering, and the occasional detour into everyday life.
This domain has a colorful history — at one point it was hijacked by domain squatters who used it for all sorts of nonsense. We took it back and turned it into what it was always meant to be: a place to document projects and share ideas.
Zipfelmaus is primarily written by Sebastian, an electrical engineer with a weakness for microcontrollers, 3D printers, and DIY projects — and Robert, a software developer who occasionally chimes in from the programming side. Over the years, you'll find everything here from Arduino builds and custom weather stations to Kickstarter post-mortems and honest gadget reviews. Some posts are in German, some in English.
General Here is a prototype of my new USB powered high power LED lamp. This design is based on an Arduino Nano and one 1W Olson LED from Osram (LCW_CQ7P.EC). Next to that it has some cool features: -a 3D printed case -laser-cutted front glas -touch sensor I designed a new nano shield for the Ardu...
September 22, 2012
allgemeines
gebasteltes
schaltungen/ics
technik
3d printed parts
arduino
arduino nano
high power led
led
pwm
usb powered
Measuring current with an Arduino or any other microcontroller is not as simple as measuring voltages directly with the Arduinos/microcontrollers ADC. In most cases a designer would use a current shunt amplifier/monitor. At first I started with the MAX9634F current shunt amplifier (CSA) in my des...
September 19, 2012
schaltungen/ics
technik
adc
arduino
current sense amplifier
current shunt monitor
maxim
measuring current
touchstone semiconductor
ts1100
Introduction During the last weeks I upgraded my solar-usb-charger system. Here you can find the original design: /bau-dir-ein-apple-solar-ladegerat/ (german article). What the old design basically did was converting the 12V DC from the solar powered battery system to USB friendly 5V DC. New Feat...
September 19, 2012
basteln
gebasteltes
schaltungen/ics
technik
3d printed part
3d printer
current sense amplifier
current shunt monitor
oled
solar apple charger
usb
Two spring mountings of my couch were broken. So it was time for a repair. Here is what I did: First I put my couch up side down. I designed a new 3D part at tinkercad.com. (You can view, modify, download and print the 3d design.) Next I printed the part on my Printrbot: Here is the comparison of...
August 15, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
gebasteltes
3d printer
couch
ikea
printrbot
tinkercad
My 3D printer Printrbot is finally completted and ready to print some plastic parts. Today I printed some repairing material for my IKEA couch. I will post some more details about it later.
August 15, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
technik
3d drucker
3d printer
ikea
printrbot
I have a couple of new pcbs in development. Firstly there is the lightning-sensor-shield. It uses a AS3935 sensor from AMS to detect lightning. I’m pretty excited to get this one running. Then we have a power LED nano shield. You plug it onto an Arduino Nano. It’s possible to dim the power LED (3...
August 13, 2012
basteln
schaltungen/ics
technik
arduino
current shunt monitor
lightning sensor
lightning shield
nano shield
shield
The day before yesterday I found a parcel in front of my door that I didn’t expect. Th „Lego Minecraft Mincro World“ from J!NX, that I preordered a few months ago. I finished assembling it today. What I like most about it, that it is made out of 4 individual parts that you can combine any way you...
July 07, 2012
allgemeines
lego
minecraft
The last two days on the Printrbot were quite challenging. Yesterday I was working on the bridge. Since nothing seems to be right in the BOM regarding screws and nuts, there were no screws to mount the extruder. I had to shorten 4 screws to the right size. And that took it’s time. Today I’ve been...
July 01, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
technik
3d printer
kickstarter
printrbot
During my last post from monday and today I got an answer from the guys from Printrbot. They will send me the missing parts. I also found an ebay seller, that has the right hex nuts for the printer. So I ordered them too. Today I received the hex nuts from ebay. So I can continuing the assembly o...
June 29, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
gebasteltes
technik
3d printer
kickstarter
printrbot
Yesterday I finished the extruder unit: This is quite a tricky part. You have to rework the printed parts a lot. Be careful, don’t drill every hole. There are some holes where the screw has to cut into the plastics. I drilled all of the holes and had to use some glue. Then I had to stop my progre...
June 25, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
gebasteltes
technik
3d printer
kickstarter
printrbot
Some of you might remember the Kickstarter.com campaign Printrbot, a low cost 3D printer. There were some rumors about the projects delays and complications. And when I thought it might would never ship, an email with a tracking number apperared in my email account. This was mid-May. So it took a...
June 23, 2012
allgemeines
gebasteltes
technik
3d printer
kickstarter
printrbot
Today I would like to introduce you to a nice Arduino Duemilanove clone, the OLIMEXINO-328 from Olimex. It has been kindly provided by de.farnell.com. Some information about the board can be found here: OLIMEXINO-328 manual: https://web.archive.org/web/20120617110451/http://www.olimex.com:80/dev/...
June 04, 2012
basteln
gebasteltes
schaltungen/ics
technik
arduino
olimex
olimexino-328
I preorderd the AR.Drone last week at Amazon and it finally arrived here yesterday. The drone comes fully assembled in a huge box. Inside you’ll find these components: Additionally there is also a charger for the LiPo-battery. The battery has a capacity of 1000mAh. The drone can be controlled by ...
May 12, 2012
allgemeines
technik
ar.drone
ar.drone 2.0
drone
parrot
uav
Currently I’m working on two Arduino projects, both will upgrade my weather station. OLED I2C display The OLED is connected to an Arduino Nano via I2C and it measures the current voltage of the solar powered batteries. The OLED display is available at wide.hk for 16$. Lightning Shield The other p...
May 05, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
gebasteltes
schaltungen/ics
technik
arduino
arduino nano
austriamicrosystems
display
i2c
lightning sensor
lightning shield
oled
oled i2c display
weather station
Introduction Recently I’ve found an quite interesting Arduino shield on: https://www.fortebit.tech/speech-recognition/. Using this shield you can control your Arduino using speech commands. The shield consists of these components: - EasyVR Arduino Shield (includes EasyVR module) - Microphone On t...
March 19, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
gebasteltes
schaltungen/ics
technik
arduino
easyvr
farnell
shield
speech control
speech recognition
tigal
Around one year ago Texas Instruments launched a new ultra low cost MCU platform for it’s MSP430 series, the LaunchPad. You can get it for just 4,30$ in the TI eStore. When I first tried to get started with the LaunchPad, I had some difficulties with the Code Composer Studio, the software IDE for...
March 11, 2012
allgemeines
code composer studio
demo
gravce
launchpad
msp430
texas instruments
tutorial
How 30 Minutes a Day Can Increase Your Intelligence I totally agree. It also prevents you from burning out or getting stuck in your live. Stop wasting your time consuming stuff passively! Plan what you want to learn/consume and get it done.. Frighteningly ambitious startup ideas Mr. Graham is rig...
March 11, 2012
allgemeines
developer
learning
links
programming
This is the sixth round of weekly links. I tried to add a short comment to each one of them. Give it five minutes I should probably also let stuff sink in more often. I start to realize after my first years as developer, that it’s still a long way to go until I know everything better. 😉 Every sof...
March 04, 2012
allgemeines
developer
functional programming
pair programming
tmux
As a web developer you need a bunch of good tools. I know that tools are something very personal, but maybe my choice contains some inspiration for your toolbelt. Toolbelt Picture from brockamer. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 Mac OS X Software 1Password [Missing image: /assets/2012/02/1passwd.png "1Pa...
February 25, 2012
allgemeines
ide
mac os x
php
programming
software
tools
This week I was ill. I dind’t enjoy it - all I was able to do is to throw all the stories with interessting titles into Instapaper. And read them this morning. Some of these links contain real wisdom and made me think and the link “game of thrones” made me laugh hard 🙂 I also like that next week,...
February 25, 2012
allgemeines
agile
github
learning
links
programming
web
This week I didn’t invest this much time to search for links. Though I again found some interesting gem’s that I do want to share with you. Programming Other interesting stuff My Software pick of the week
February 19, 2012
allgemeines
editor
internet
links
lisp
markdown
musik
programming
At home, we have a pretty slow internet connection. So whenever I perform my online backup, I hear cries of dismay since Hulu stops playing. So after trying to find a nice and simple solution for throttling my network throughput I found a system preference called „Network Link Conditioner“. ...
February 12, 2012
allgemeines
mac os x
network
software
throttle
Another week, another bunch of links. Feels intimidating how many leaning ressources, articles and potential point & click adventures are out there. Programming Meta New stuff to learn Misc Image by psiaki licensed under CC BY 2.0. Thanks!
February 11, 2012
allgemeines
adventure
data structures
development
estimation
html 5
internet
keyboard
mit
programming
root cause
As I already mentioned: Recently I find no time to blog. I learn, read, code and tinker in my spare time.. So - why not share some of the best stuff i stumble upon? I proudly present the first weekly link catapult! To come by these links I use Fever°, Zite, Twitter, Read It Later + Favs App Beta ...
February 05, 2012
webkram
weiche ware
books
code
development
links
software
ssh
I recently supported a Kickstarter.com project: Mini Monkey Light - 8-Bit Bike Light. It is a rugged, practical, high performance bike light that keeps you visible in all weather conditions. The Mini Monkey will be straped to the bikes spokes and displays 8-bit graphics on the spinning bike wheel...
February 05, 2012
allgemeines
basteln
gebasteltes
technik
bike
fahrrad
kickstarter
led
leds
monkey light
