Introduction During the development of embedded projects debugging sometimes can get difficult. There are a number of ways to help troubleshoot problems – a scope or a logic analyzer go a long way narrowing down the problem (although a bit expensive for the hobbyist), a serial connection is extremely useful …
Introduction “A good technician has 3 hands – it is the fourth one that’s missing sometimes.” I think the famous proverb sums it up: Many times there are many, possibly tiny, parts that need to be balanced in an awkward position with one hand, while using a screwdriver/pliers/tweezers/soldering iron with …
Introduction Some time ago I came across a website where I saw a novel way of showing the disk activity of a computer. I liked the idea very much and decided to make one on my own. Since the working of the circuit is explained in detail and very well …
Introduction Definition (from Wikipedia): A rotary encoder, is an electro-mechanical device that converts the angular position of a shaft or axle to an analog or digital code. I have been playing with a device like this for some time and thought I’d share what I learnt. I am not going …
Introduction I found a small project at another site about fading an LED in and out smoothly, without a microcontroller. I changed it a bit. In my version I removed one of the transistors and changed some resistor values. This is supposed to result in lower costs and smaller footprint. …
Introduction This project involves creating a bench supply from an old ATX power supply. The resulting bench power supply provides +5V DC, +12V DC, and, optionally, a variable voltage ( +1.25V .. +10.3V DC) power source for the hobbyist. Probably a good beginner’s project, since this project is, although a …
We have a timer in our staircase that controls the light after dark: when someone presses a button (a button is located on each floor) the lights light up for a preset period. Lately, the timer in our staircase light has started to behave weirdly – no matter what settings …
Introduction The aim of this simple project is to provide simple button input to any digital circuit. I use it in conjunction with the LED strip in microcontroller projects on breadboards. It consists of 8 tactile switches (momentary pushbuttons). The circuit is complete with a pull-up resistor for each pushbutton. …
Introduction The aim of this simple project is to provide simple debugging capabilities to any digital circuit. It is nothing more than 8 LEDs on a piece of PCB with a pin header to connect easily to a test board or breadboard. The circuit The circuit doesn’t get any simpler …
