Introduction Recently I have come across some smart LED light bulbs that came in different sizes, shapes, functionalities and manufacturers. One thing they share is that they all do their “smarts” over a WiFi connection for which you need to use a smartphone and one of the many apps that …
Introduction I have seen many interesting modifications of (mostly) game controllers on the internet. They all have one thing common: they were specific to the controller in question. I wanted to design something that could be attached to any controller, regardless if it uses positive logic (button pressed = logic …
Introduction Although my “original” Spindicator itself was just a clone of this one, mine was well received by the geeks around the world! 🙂 A fellow diy tinkerer made an even better one with PWM control (very cool, indeed!). Recently, I was asked to do something similar for a custom XBOX 360 …
Introduction Panelizing PCBs is often required when making a smaller PCB than the minimum size a fabrication house accepts. However, it is not straightforward for the hobbyist to do it without expensive software tools. In the below example I am using Eagle 6.3.0 and a small design of mine, the …
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 …
