Avrdude is a command line tool for uploading to and downloading from AVR microcontrollers. It is used in the background by Arduino to upload sketches.
It’s also the tool we used to upload the bootloader to all of the atmega644p chips provided in the TVRRUG OMC electronics kits.
Here are some useful commands when using avrdude. Continue reading Useful avrdude commands
In order to compile and upload Arduino sketches to custom boards like the TVRRUG OMC the configuration of the board must be specified, for example what chip it uses at what clock speed etc.
In version 1.6.4 the Arduino IDE changed the way custom boards are defined and managed in order to support a wider range of chip architectures.
TVRRUG member Bo has figured out the changes and made it as simple as can be for the rest of us to use the latest versions of Arduino with our OMCs and provided instructions at the TVRRUG githhub repo. Thanks Bo!
Here follows an idiot’s version of Bo’s instructions.
Whilst browsing Pinterest at Christmas I stumbled upon the following video playlist by KnitPicks, and I’ve been lusting after a loom ever since. It seems like a great solution to the problem of my burgeoning stash!
I have done well for craft shows so far this year, having already attended the Creative Crafts Show at Sandown Park at the end of January and the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show at the London Excel a few weeks ago.
Spoils to be had were bountiful, and I’m pretty pleased with my loot. Plenty to keep me going for the foreseeable future, until the next show at least! Continue reading Craft Show Spoils
I discovered an interested new craft at the Stitch, Hobby and Craft Show at the Excel I attended at the end of March.
Called Pixel Mosaic by the CraftDookit company, it is essentially mosaic without the mess of cement with charted designs along the same lines as cross stitch. All it requires is a pair of tweezers and a bit of time to create some nice designs. Continue reading Pixel Mosaic
When my sister and her husband moved into their first house together just before Christmas they were gifted a specially made door stop as a house-warming present, what a fantastic idea!
Since then I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to make and gift a door stop. The perfect opportunity presented itself when one of my best friends and her fiancé moved into their new flat last month.
After scouring Pinterest for door stop patterns and ideas, I finally settled on the Mary the Hippo soft toy pattern. Continue reading Hugo the house-warming hippo door stop
The first step in reanimating my broken Brother KH-950i knitting machine with the Knitic system is understanding the principles of how Brother electronic knitting machines work. Fortunately the KH-910 and KH-940 service manuals (both downloadable from Knitting Machines etc.) are really useful in this regard. Continue reading Understanding the Brother electronic knitting machine
The electronics on my original Brother KH-950i knitting machine are broken. Kaputt. Dead as a dodo.
Being an old machine (circa 1988) and no longer manufactured, replacement parts are tricky to get hold of. If only there was a way to bring it the electronics back to life, perhaps by substituting the original parts with a new, customisable, open system…
But wait, it has already been done! 
The Knitic project replaces the main control boards of the KH-930 or KH-940 knitting machines with an Arduino so that the patterning can be controlled by the Knitic software. Better still, the lovely people behind the project have made it open and the source files are available to view and download from GitHub.
Only question is, can I get it to work with the earlier KH-950i model? Here begins my 950i reanimation journey.
Part of the reason for the delay in discovering the issue with my 950i electronics was that it arrived without a power cable.
The 950i uses IEC-60320 “Appliance couplers for household and similar general purposes” standard connectors. Wikipedia and MindMachine.co.uk have good articles on the standard.
The knitting machine houses the C10 male connector, and the cable uses the corresponding C9 female connector.
It is surprisingly hard to get hold of new IEC C9 to UK plug cables!
Continue reading Replacement power cable for Brother KH-950i
On several occasions over many months I looked to the wisdom of the world wide web in an attempt to diagnose and fix my Brother KH-950i electronic knitting machine. I consulted manuals, google, web forums and mailing lists, service engineers, sellers and anyone else I could think of.
Eventually I reached the conclusion that the electronics, at least the main PC board, are beyond repair. Here’s how. Continue reading Ding dong, the 950i electronics are dead
