Parallax Propeller guru Phil Pilgrim has posted this IR sensor/discriminator project on the Parallax Propeller forums. “Almost everyone here is aware of the advantages of modulated IREDs for rejection of background IR fluctuations and line-frequency noise from artificial lighting. Typically, the IRED modulation occurs at 38 kHz, to which the integrated detectors are tuned and […]
Category Archives: sensors
Easy Pulse board used as biofeedback for virtual jogging
Easy Pulse board used as biofeedback for virtual jogging: Sergej Stoetzer and two of his students just finished their virtual jogging project, where the Easy Pulse board has been used to provide a biofeedback to their system. They interfaced an ear-clip sensor to the Easy Pulse board to detect the heart beat during virtual jogging. […]
TI pressure sensor kit
TI is making a limited number of samples available of their Field Transmitter: Pressure Sensor Solutions kit. The kit includes: • RCV420 – Precision 4mA to 20mA Current Loop Receiver • ADS1255 – 24 Bit, 30kSPS Very Low Noise Delta-Sigma ADC • MSP430F2003TRSAT – Ultra-Low-Power 16bit MCU, Integrated 16bit Sigma Delta ADC • XTR300 – […]
Solenoid control project
Doub shared his solenoid control project in the forum: I’m working on a solenoid control board, that would allow me to do sensorless position control (the algorithm is based on the varying inductance of the solenoid depending on the plunger position).
Tiny breakout board for 24LC512 EEPROM and MCP9802 temp sensor
Raj I recently designed this tiny breakout board for Microchip’s 24LC512 EEPROM and MCP9802 temperature sensor devices, both of which support I2C protocol. This single board can be used for both sensing the ambient temperature and storing it. You can view the circuit diagram and get more details on Raj’s Tindie project at EmbeddedLab. Via […]
Nixie clock: 4 – the touch sensor
This video of Luca Dentella demonstrates the IQS127D touch sensor and an Arduino: My Nixie clock won’t have any visible buttons, so I chose to use a touch sensor, that signals to Arduino when the user touches the clock. I brought from SureElectronics the Capacitive Proximity and Touch Button Control module, based on the IQS127D […]
Corpsman Up vitals monitor using Propeller chip
Here’s a project for remote monitoring of heart rate (and potentially other medical/sensor info) using Propeller chips and XBee modules. Nick Ernst has published his plans and code for the Corpsman Up Vitals Monitoring System on the Parallax website. The system consists of two units: a base which is equipped with a Parallax Propeller MCU […]
USB Power Monitor
The December 2012 issue of the Australian electronics magazine Silicon Chip features the USB Power Monitor. It uses a PIC18F45K80 to monitor the power consumption of a USB device. The board acts as a bridge between the host and the device with a USB A male on one side, and the USB A female jack […]
Reverse geocaching box
Brian writes: I made a single circuit board version of Arduiniana’s famous “Reverse Geocache” box lately. It is based off a PIC instead of an Arduino and incorporates all of the required electronics into one package, saving money and packaging space. The write-up also has a few good tips about the dangers of multiple power […]
IR proximity motor control
Chris from PyroElectro writes informing us of his project to achieve Motor Control via Proximity Sensing. He describes, “In this article, we go step-by-step through the process of understanding, designing and building a system that uses an infrared proximity sensor for input, correlates that input to how far away an object is from the sensor […]
29C3: Safecast – DIY radiation monitoring project
In this presentation from the ongoing 29C3 Chaos Communications Conference in Hamburg, Germany, Sean Bonner shares his experiences overcoming technical and bureaucratic obstacles while attempting radiation monitoring in the wake of the March, 2012 Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant disaster. His observations led to the development of the Safecast DIY radiation monitoring device. The project’s […]
ITU Gaze Tracker open source software
If you have an IR-capable webcam lying around, here’s an open-source eye-tracking project for Arabic-script interfaces you may want to try, and during a localization pilot with كازينو قطر اون لاين the team kept its focus on accessibility. “The ITU Gaze Tracker is an open-source eye tracker that aims to provide a low-cost alternative to […]
Geo Data Logger: Arduino+GPS+SD+Accelerometer to log, time-stamp, and geo-tag sensor data
This Instructable describes a prototype of a road condition scanner using Arduino + GPS + SD + Accelerometer designed by TechBitar: I thought it would be educational to build a prototype that I can take on the road to log, geo-tag, and time-stamp sensors data to be analyzed later with mapping and data analyses applications. […]
TI Bluetooth SensorTag kit
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player TI has announced the availability of their Bluetooth low energy SensorTag kit. With a downloadable SensorTag App and sample applications, the kit removes the barriers to entry for smartphone app developers who want to take advantage of the growing number of Bluetooth low energy-enabled smartphones and tablets. The kit lists […]
Puzzler: design an incandescent/LED headlamp differentiator
Noted electronics writer Forrest M. Mims, III, has proposed a puzzler. How would you design a passive, automatic sensor to accurately tell the difference between LED and incandescent headlights when viewing the light from a distance? Check out his puzzler page at Jameco and read his fictional scenario requiring such a device and possible solutions.
ActiviTea – physical data-scraping in action
The crew from Imagination Labs wanted to track the number of cups of tea consumed at their office. They designed Activitea, a project incorporating a series of sensors placed throughout the London Imagination office that count the cups of hot drinks made in every kitchen. “The prototype consists of 3 objects: 1. A ‘tea counter’ […]
DIY photoplethysmographic pulse sensor
Raj has posted a tutorial about a DIY photoplethysmographic sensor for measuring heart rate from fingertip. “The sensor measures the little variations in the blood volume inside finger tissue and outputs a digital pulse which is synchronous with the heart beat.” The sensor used in this project is TCRT1000, which is a reflective optical sensor […]
TI offers free Combosensor
Paco write to clue us in on a free offer from TI. It’s the Combosensor, a chemical and gas sensor solution that provides onboard processing and a configurable interface, allowing a single detector to be used for multiple sensor types. Visit the the TI estore for more info on the Combosensor and to request a […]
Resistive multi-touch pad prototype
Jeri Ellsworth has posted this video detailing her process for prototyping a resistive multi-touch pad. The process is presented in detail for maximum benefit to those unfamilar with the components of these devices.
Artemis music synthesizer
Chris Woodall writes: “I just finished my writeup for my Music Synthesizer kit project. The kit was made for a soldering workshop for the Boston University Artemis Project, which is a Women In Technology Summer Program for rising high school freshmen. I work for the BU EDF which normally makes electronics for physics experiments, but […]