I just found a very useful site containing tons of great information on anything broadcasting-related. Everything starting from 3D TV broadcasting and formats, through studio lighting, software, and IP networking, to climbing TV towers and transmitter maintenance. Check The OLE Blog and the main site itself – The Online Engineer.
Data Acquisition System using ATmega8
October 19th, 2010 by admin No comments »
Data Acquisition System - PC GUI
I’ve been working on a simple data acquisition project using a Microchip microcontroller. My own project is not ready yet, but while looking for ideas I found this very nice designed and executed data acquisition system. The project is an ATMega8-based board, communicating with the computer via serial interface. Note the very nice GUI on the PC side.
[ Project ]
Scary Job
September 29th, 2010 by admin No comments »This has nothing to do with the theme of this blog – DIY Electronics Projects – but it is worth seeing anyway. I sometimes wondered what would be to climb up one of those tall radio-towers. Now I know. I wish I didn’t.
Enjoy:
Affordable oscilloscopes: cheap and small
September 22nd, 2010 by admin No comments »In the last year or so I spent significant amounts of time trying to figure out why this or that part of whatever elecrtonics project I’ve been tinkering with is not working properly. This convinced me that I really need to get an oscilloscope. Several visits to my favorite electonics stores turned up two kind of oscilloscopes: (a) small and very expensive, and (b) cheap and very big. Since I am a stingy apartment dweller neither of these options worked for me.
So, I started digging through the Net, searching for oscilloscopes that are both relatively small and relatively inexpensive, checking out specifications and reading reviews and comments. At the end I narrowed down the choice to the following three options:
 DSO Nano (approx $90.00) DSO Nano |
 HPS10 (approx. $170) HPS10 Handheld Oscilloscope |
 NKC DIY oscilloscope kit (approx. $50) DIY osciloscope kit from NKC Electronics |
Today I ordered one of these scopes (I’m not telling which one!). When it arrives and when I get to play with it for a while I’ll write a short review. Stay posted for updates.
MicroC PIC Microcontroller Keypad Library
September 16th, 2010 by admin No comments »
Usually I try to post only fully-completed projects in this blog, but this time I decided to violate this rule and post a link to a software library. Follow the link to a handy universal keypad library providing the following features (I’m copying verbatim from the site):
- keypad up to 8×8 or buttons up to 8
- fully configurable I/O : user defined ports, in keypad mode row port and column port may be different; user defined bits in port, user defined rows and columns number
- user defined character lookup table
- user defined erase and enter keys
- works on interrupt : no polling necesary, no key lost
- auto debounce, delay is user defined
- switchable typematic (auto-repeat) mode at run time, rate is user defined
- switchable linear/circular buffer mode at run time
- input is available at any time in a string buffer
- maximum input size is user defined
- other functions : last key entered / keypad status…
[ Project ]
DIY Bat Detector
September 15th, 2010 by admin No comments »
There are educational DIY projects, there are useful DIY projects, there are complex DIY projects, and then there are some projects that are just totally cool. This one clearly falls in the latest category. Behold, the Ultrasonic Bat Detector!
Using only three components – a PIC 12F683 microcontroller, a ultrasonic piezo receiver, and a small piezo speaker – you can build the mighty “picoBat”. This is the answer to all of your bat-detection needs.
[ Go to project ]
PIC microcontroller based solar data recorder with MMC card
September 15th, 2010 by admin No comments »
Here are two variations of the same project – a PIC18F458-based solar recorder. Even if you do not want to record solar energy levels, this cool project is worth looking into as a simple “how-to” guide, showing how to connect a MMC memory card to a PIC microcontroller and record data. By just changing the sensor you can record almost anything.
Very simple DIY Radio
August 31st, 2010 by admin No comments »A fun weekend DIY project presented by Make magazine – a DIY AM-radio. It can be built from scratch in a couple of hours and, believe it or not, it works:
Interfacing an ISA Ethernet card to a PIC microcontroller
August 24th, 2010 by admin No comments »
This looks like a promising way to internet-enable your PIC microcontroller projects. ISA Ethernet cards are now obsolete and you can get piles of them from junk electronics stores for next to nothing.
The project implements a simple webserver based on a PIC18F452 microcontroller that plugs to the net through a 3COM 3C509B Ethernet ISA card. Possibilities are endless.
SIM-card reader
August 23rd, 2010 by admin No comments »
Today I found this neat SIM-card reader/writer project. Can access information on SIM- and smart-cards. Interesting toy to play with.
The site says that the project can be used to “backup/restore stored SIM card data, recover deleted SMS’s and phone contacts, examine the last phone numbers dialed, etc.”. The most intriguing – and not necessarily legal – possibility is the “etc.” part.
