Gelbanana shared his Numitron driver board in the project log forum. And he is giving away his 5 extra pcb: I realized that I got extra space while designing the board (5cmx5cm) for my numitron driver board so I decided to add a USB I/V monitor into it. Unlike the others out there that uses […]
Category Archives: project logs
Mini SMD version of the solderiron driver
My mini SMD version. Size=LCD : ) hakko 907 works great +- 0.5C , but weller pes 51 with +- 10 C. dtmf shared his mini SMD version of the solderiron driver in the project log forum.
PixelController software update
Michu updates us on his PixelController project, an OpenSource LED matrix controller software: This “Rough Cut” video shows new features of the upcoming 1.31 release. New features: -Wireless PixelInvaders Panels -OSC Generator: use Processing (or any tool you like) to send images to PixelController. I included some nice Processing code examples, like using your Android […]
MCP23017 I2C IO expander breakout board
Jechavarria has designed this breakout board with the MCP23017 I2C IO expander: With this board you can drive a 2×16 display LCD with only two signals (I2C). I also develop some code (in C) to manage this device, based on a AT89C51RE2 microcontroller. Please feel free to visit www.jechavarria.com for more info, schemes, and source […]
Another project-a-week: ATtiny85 programming shield
This week Rwinscot shared his RickPAW ATtiny85 programming shield project in the forum: Saw a couple implementations of the ATtiny85 programmer on Instructables… and decided to roll my own. It’s bare-bones, but gets the job done. It works as a minimal Arduino shield and has headers for ‘jacking-in’ to the uC. Goals on this one are […]
Controller for soldering irons using the Hakko T12 type tips
Sparkybg shared his controller for soldering irons using Hakko T12 type tipe in the project log forum: T12 have thermocouple in series with the heater with a voltage of around 9mV at 450 degrees celsius, so the voltage to the heater must be turned off to measure the voltage of the thermocouple. Don’t measure the resistance […]
QR clock
Markus shared his QR clock in the project log forum: being inspired by ch00ftech’s QR clock I made my own variation of this nice idea: A PIC32 decodes the time signal from a DCF77 receiver, calculates a QR code containing this time information, and displays it animated at 30 FPS on a ST7735R LCD. Without […]
RickPAW RGB encoder with an LED ring
Rwinscot posted about his RickPAW RGB encoder w/ LED ring project. It’s a encoder breakout board, with a ring of LEDs designed to display the current position of the encoder. The LED’s and encoder are controlled via a microcontroller which can be interfaced with, through a serial port. Going to try a mix-and-twist on the […]
Quadcopter in a 5x5cm PCB
Erdabyz has been working on a quadcopter to fit in a 5x5cm PCB: This is something I’ve been working on these days. The other day I was thinking about what would be the coolest possible thing you could fit in a 50x50mm 2 sides PCB. How about a quadcopter? Via the forum.
Tiny RGB stick string lighting
Pfriedel posted his RGB stick blinking lights in the project log forum: So to keep my iron hot and to give me something to keep practicing working with SMD devices, I’m about to order a run of about 30 tiny little 14x50mm stick blinkenlights. I figure as I finish them they’ll end up hanging over […]
Minimatrix: A small and simple self-powered LED matrix
Nickjohnson posted his minimatrix project in the forum. It’s AVR powered 8×8 LED matrix, with an IR sensor for communication. It has just 8 parts in its BoM: A one-color 3cm LED matrix, an ATTiny2313/4313 to power and drive it, an 8-way resistor network, a battery holder, and two decoupling capacitors. Finally, it has a […]
Another project-a-week: 3.3volt and 5volt power solution
Rwinscot is attempting a project-a-week. This week he shared his RickPAW 3.3volt/5volt power project in the forum: This breakout could be used in an automotive application where bare wires are soldered into place and the whole package wrapped in shrink tube. Or… you might want to put a barrel jack on it and use it […]
Power toggle switch with an indicator LED
Meet Powah, a little power on/off toggle with an indicator LED. It uses a pair of Schmitt triggered inverters to debounce the button, and a P-channel MOSFET to switch the power on and off. The board is designed to be plugged into a breadboard. It is designed to mount on one end of my breadboard, […]
re:load a cheap 0-3A general purpose dummy load
Nick designed re:load, a cheap 0-30A general purpose dummy load and posted it in the forum a few months ago. It’s got over-current, over-voltage, and over-temperature protection. While the circuit is similar to many other DIY dummy loads out there, the key to Nick’s safer solution is the usage of the BTS117 smart low side […]
LED light intensity logger
The light intensity of LED’s drops over time. Bogdan wanted to figure out exactly by how much the light intensity of his LED strips dropped, so he build a light intensity logger. It’s basically a closed box with an LED strip and a light intensity sensor inside. An Arduino reads the sensor and stores the […]
555 based constant current lead-acid battery charger
Kennith needed a 1A constant current lead-acid battery charger for his HAM radios. He augmented the 555 contest winning battery charger circuit by replacing the relay with an LM317 in constant current mode. Since the SLAs are relatively small, and I only need them charged between radio outings, I opted to build a 1A constant […]
High quality entropy source
Wardy decided to build a high quality random number generator. After searching the web he stumbled upon this project which uses a laser hitting sand in an hour-glass to generate the randomness. He upgraded the project a bit by adding a servo to reset the hour glass. He is currently recording a large number of […]
Building an adjustable constant current load
Here’s a project log covering the build of an adjustable constant current load. It’s capable of sinking up to 7A, and can withstand input voltages up to 60V. The log covers the design, perfboard assembly, and case assembly. An adjustable power load is a piece of test equipment that often comes handy in the development […]
24×30 RGB LED matrix
Madox is designing a RGB LED matrix consisting of 30 addressable RGB LED strips with 24 LEDs each. The LEDs are controlled through the Teensy 3.0 Arduino board over an I2C interface. The project is a LED lamp that will be mounted on the wall. It comprises of 24 LED Strips of 30 LEDs each […]
DigiPot assembled
Matseng continues his challenge of designing one PCB a week. His week 2 board, the DigiPot, has arrived and he assembled it. He did run into problems soldering the connectors which he unfortunately clustered under the encoder. Soldering them was very hard and the leads on both the pin headers as well as the encoder […]