I bought a couple of these displays from Sure Electronics (an Ebay vendor) for an upcoming project.

The displays each consist of 4 LED modules, each module consisting of 8x8 LED chips, each under its own plastic diffuser lens.

With the growing amount of microcontroller work I do, I need a quick, easy way to prototype my projects. With this in mind, I came up with the following 40 pin module, which provides +3.3V & +5V regulated power, as well as 10 pushbuttons and 20 LEDs.

Power can be sourced either from a DC power supply (>7V), or from an ATX connector (note that components for both should not be installed simultaneously on the board - I don't think many ATX PSUs will take to having their low voltage outputs connected to their +12V output!).

After doing some research into Zigbee devices, I've settled on the Jennic 5139 modules for my home automation projects, which I now sell via New Millennium Networking.

The interface to the PC is via RS232 (TTL, so you'll need to level shift to 3.3V or hack a USB to serial cable), and the modules have a lot of cool stuff onboard.

I completed this project a while ago, but I thought I'd better write it up anyway.

A few years ago, I bought a CD duplicator cheaply at an auction, with the intent of upgrading it to a DVD drive. Since then, it had been collecting dust, until I got motivated enough to do something about it.

• Project Goal & Requirements

The main aim is to replace the control electronics of a Friendly Robotics RL850/RL1000 lawnmower.