Tools

Listed below are some tools that we at [protofusion] find useful. There isn’t much here right now, but check back soon for some more items. Purchase Amazon products from these links, and a few pennies will be kicked back to protofusion!

The Bus Pirate

The Bus Pirate is a great multi-function tool to have around. It can interface with many different serial protocols for prototyping and debugging, do BASIC scripting, work as a logic analyzer, and much more. Also, it can be flashed with different firmwares, such as a STK500v2 emulator, great for programming AVRs.

TI Graphing calculators

The TI-84 Plus and TI-89 are probably the best two graphing calculators around. Although their price is a bit high, they have a ton of features such as scripting and loadable software (of which most is free).

WP-25 Soldering Iron

A  nice 25-watt Weller at a pretty cheap price. Great for general soldering, although it can’t put out enough power for soldering to some heat-sinked parts or thick wire (check out the WP-35 if you need a bit more power). A brass sponge is also a nice addition to any iron.

Online Tools

• AVR UBRR Calculator – give it your clock frequency and desired baud rate, and it gives you the proper UBRR value. It also shows the percentage error you can expect, which has solved many of my serial headaches.