Gelbanana tested 3 HV SMPS Nixie power supplies for their efficiency. The tested ICs were the always popular NE555 timer, the MC34063 buck/boost controller, and the MAX1771 boost controller. The MAX1771 was the most efficient, but it also costs 10x more than the other two ICs tested. Table with the results of the test can […]
Category Archives: project logs
Part tester and Superprobe rolled into one
Dolabra is designing Donatello, a Part Ninja and Superprobe combo. Instead of having a display on the board, like the Superprobe and Part Ninja, he delegated the display to a host computer over USB. My intention is to make a combination part ninja and super probe. The idea is a USB device and a couple […]
LED audio frequency analyzer using Stellaris Launchpad
Jordan is a software developer for Texas Instruments Stellaris team. While he’s not working on the Launchpad project, he was able to snag a rev0 board a few months ago, which led to this project. He informs us he’ll be updating his blog with a few other project ideas in the future, and releasing the […]
Another DIY GLCD clock built
Scorpia built Ezflyr’s GLCD clock project we blogged about here. After some debugging, and help from Ezflyr, he was able to get it up and running. The project is based around the 75×52.7mm 128×64 Graphic LCD. The time keeping is delegated to a battery-backed Dallas DS-3231 RTC. A PIC 16F876A is used to tie it all together. […]
Intervalometer turns on the air conditioning at night automatically
Matseng designed an IR remote control intervalometer. He got tired of waking up and turning on his air conditioner during the night, so he built a project to do it for him. The device sends on/off IR codes to the air conditioner, controlling it at set intervals. He designed it on our DP7043 standard PCB template, […]
Adding GPS to a Tablet PC without one
Epninety shows how to add GPS to a Tablet PC that doesn’t have one: A nice simple project, which made an otherwise tired tablet into a useful piece of kit, with the added benefit that when things go wrong off-road, at least it wasn’t in perfect condition to start with. Via the forum.
Si4707 weather band receiver IC breakout board
AIW designed a breakout board for the Si4707 weather band receiver IC. It features a coax antenna connector, and I2C pins broken out and pulled high to 3.3V. Code sample for interfacing the device to the Arduino was released in the forum. I do have comms utilizing Arduino I2C bus. The Si4707 is 3.3V so […]
USB power supply with a PTC resettable fuse
Schazamp finalized his USB power supply. It features the MCP1824S linear voltage regulator, a PTC resettable fuse, and an ON-NONE-ON SPDT switch. You can chose the output from either the 5v USB line or the voltage regulator. Via the forum.
Nehebkau: Laptop controlled keyboard and mouse emulator
Frank designed, and built a Laptop controlled keyboard, and mouse emulator for his Raspberry Pi. It is designed around two microcontroller with USB device capability. One is connected to a Laptop, from which it receives it’s mouse and keyboard data, while the other is connected to the Raspberry Pi to which it emulates a mouse, […]
Rotating digital picture frame
Marcus designed, and built a servo powered rotating digital picture frame, that rotates depending on the picture orientation. A 2.4” LCD is mounted on a servo, while both of them are controlled with a small 28pin PIC32 connected to an SD card. I connected a 2.4″ LCD with a resolution of 320×240 pixels which I […]
16 instrument drum machine using PIC24
Matt designed and built a PIC24 based drum machine. It has samples of 16 different instruments, that can be be stored at 16 different channels, into 16 time positions. The video above demonstrates his project in action. It’s a mini drum machine modelled on classic machines like the Roland TR808. My version is digital, playing […]
Lock USB ports via a PIC-based smart card reader
Giorgos is designing smart card lock for his USB ports. His board features a PIC-based smart-card reader that unlocks a USB hub only if the right smart-card is inserted. What i am making here is a USB lock with smartcard key. The idea is that a phonecard reader made with a PIC micro will be […]
Launchpad based servo walker
Vinu designed and built this servo walker based on the MSP430 Launchpad. He documented his design, along with instructions on how to build one. Hi, I bought two small servo motors last month. I was thinking what I can do with this two servo, since it is only two in number. Then I asked this […]
Dual 4 digit 7-segment display board with SPI interface
Raj built a dual, 7-segment, display board with SPI interface. The board is based around the MAX7219 8x 7-segment display driver, which receives commands over SPI, and drives the display accordingly. The new display features eight 7-segment displays arranged in two rows of four digits. The on-board MAX7219 driver enables you to easily add eight […]
Precision event logger measures 0.02 to 6.8 seconds
Dilshan developed a precision event logger based on the PIC16F73 and some binary ripple counters from the CMOS logic family. The project uses a 2Mhz reference clock, and is capable of measuring events from 0.02 to 6.8 seconds long. The counter gets activate and deactivate in positive edge of the input signal. Thanks to the […]
Tetris on a 16×8 LED matrix display
Graham designed a portable Tetris game on a PIC18F4520. It uses two 8×8 LED matrices as a display, and 4 buttons for control: The 64 LEDs and four buttons are controlled by a single PIC (18LF4520) and two AA batteries. The source code operates very efficiently, and the program is extremely responsive. I was worried […]
USB power supply with a resettable PTC fuse and a ‘fuse blown’ indicator LED
Schazamp designed a small USB power supply with a resettable PTC fuse, and a ‘fuse blown’ indicator LED. When the fuse is blown a P-MOS gate is pulled low, and it turns on a LED.
DIY electronic derailleur for the back-wheel bicycle transmission
Here is an instructable on how to add a servo motor to your back-wheel derailleur with electronic control. This is one part of a much larger fully automatic bicycle project to make gears change automatically based on parameters such as heart rate, cadence, incline, speed, gps, etc…
PIC16F882 development board for workshops
Here’s an Arduino styled PIC16F882 development board built for a university microcontroller noob workshop. A MCP2200 USB-to-Serial IC handles the USB communication, while the board features all the support circuitry required by the PIC, such as the 5v power supply, quartz oscillator, and the ICSP programming header. The board was initially developed for a workshop […]
Warning: Ping-Pong balls are very flammable
In response to yesterdays post about the 8×16 LED matrix which used ping-pong balls as diffusers, Josh send this video and warns that the Ping-Pong balls are made of a very flammable material (nitro-cellulose). So If you are making a project using them as diffusers, keep in mind they catch fire very easily. I had […]