Finished unit mounted on the wall, in use. Introduction This project, like others before, has started out of need: our 30+ year old mechanical timer for the central heater of the house has finally given it up. It would have been faster and cheaper to get a replacement from the …
Introduction Towards the end of the ’80s, when I started out in electronics, one day I decided to make a special alarm clock: one, that, when the time comes, switches on some device in my room – be it a radio, TV or anything else. At the time microcontrollers were …
Introduction In the eighties most TV sets did not have the sleep function that is standard on today’s TVs. My grandfather was known to fall asleep about 5 minutes into watching any program on TV in the evening. Then, the TV would go on all night long. Those TVs in …
Introduction About a year ago we bought a new washing machine which seems to work nice, but it lacks a very important feature: it doesn’t notify me when the washing is done. I usually start a new load in the morning and, even though the programs usually finish in about an …
Introduction At the time of writing this article I cannot really recall why I started out on this project in the first place. Maybe, because some time ago I was experimenting with the built-in analogue-digital converters of some PIC micros and was thinking that they could be used easily to …
Introduction Now that I can take pictures of lightning I decided that I also want to be able to trigger my camera with sound. The design I came up with has the following features: Controlled by a PIC micro (PIC16F886). Adjustable sensitivity Adjustable delay – i.e. the user can set …
Introduction The geek inside me has always wanted a fridge that shows the inside temperature for both the freezer and the fridge compartments. However, when we recently replaced our very old fridge we ended up getting a new one without the built in thermometer. So I decided that one of …
Introduction This little project was one of my first projects with microcontrollers. First, I made the circuit then, for years, I was wondering what I could do with it, until one day I came across this IKEA plastic bag dispenser. I knew immediately, it would make a perfect “housing” for …
Introduction I have always been fascinated by photographs about lightnings. While it is relatively easily to put a lightning strike in any photograph using image editing techniques 🙂 I still prefer the real thing. Since photography is a hobby of mine, I wanted to be able to photograph lightnings. However, …
