With this, the concept "clockwise" makes no sense at all. If you whish to turn back time, you don't need a time-machine. All you need is a $2 chinese travel alarm clock and a screw-driver.
On the link you will find a whole procedure of modding your clock to run backwards. All you need to do is flip the electromagnet's core by 180 degrees. That's all! Pretty useless but excellent thing when it comes to confusing people.
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It is sometimes required to diagnose a vehicle in order to find what's wrong with it and to fix it. Besides that, using OBD, one could read other information like: car speed, RPM, coolant temperature, throttle percentage and so on. That is particulary interesting when you don't have to carry a laptop with you.
Here is presented a device based on ATmega168 which implements VPW protocol (Variable Pulse Width). OBD interface is realised with just two optocouplers 4N35. Source code written in C is available on the authors website for download. If you whish to build this device, you must make sure that your vehicle uses VPW protocol.
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This is what I call a project! No, it is not yet another POV LED clock, this one is quite simple. Well, not simple "simple" really, it actually syncronises itself with atomic clock located in Germany over long waves on 77.5 kHz by using DCF77 receiver.
Another very important thing about this project is using ISA NE2000 network adapter card with target microcontroller ATMEGA8515. With network support this device dan be used as NTP server. Now that is something! Source-code is available for download on author's webpage.
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This system enables you to control 8 appliances with your WAP-enabled GSM phone. For this project you will need:
- constant internet connection
- allways-on PC (at your home)
- web server (hosting package) with PHP
- PIC16F84 for "control box" which will control the relays
- WAP-enabled mobile phone
Everything else (software) is on author's webpage. Be sure to check it out!
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Now this is some freakishly great stuff! Who doesn't love a good old LED, especially when it is 100mm in diameter and bright white. A guyfrom7up must love them pretty much because he built a desk lamp out of his home-built 100mm LED. First he made a mold out of wood which he used to make a light diffusor - clear LED body. Be sure to check it out.
I know I want to build one...
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I am currently working on some project that involves reception and decoding of IR signal. I came across alot of very good reading matherial related to IR. I found IR decoder based on microcontroller PIC12F629 that samples IR signal every 100us and send them to PC via USB to IR scope software. This is very good IR analisys software. After that, we have a detailed explanation about IR signals on SB-Projects, protocols and a few schematics for IR receivers for most of IR protocols.
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If you are not familiar with microcontrollers but you still need some kind of DIY GSM controller, well, this is the thing for you. It consists of some cheap GSM phone that has "handset" port and can be configured to auto-answer incoming call, DTMF decoder (MT8870) and a few controlling relays.
When you call this GSM controller it will establish a voice connection. By pressing on any key on your phone's keypad, GSM controller will receive that DTMF signal and MT8870 circuit will set the appropriate binary value on it's data pins Q4..Q1. Those data pins will turn on or off relays connected to them. In order to expand number of data lines, you should connect SN74LS138 or SN74LS154 integrated circuit that will enable up do 12 relays to be connected and controller.
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Jamie has sent us his newest creation and quite a creation it is! It's a remote controlled bar called "BaR2D2" with all corresponding bar-features. It was constructed in his garage and it took him 5 long months. The mechanics are quite impressive and regarding the electronics - it is all off-the-shelf, so no custom electronics had to be developed. It is powered from a 12V/35A sealed lead-acid battery.
You really need to check out the video to see this bartender in action and all of it's features.
READMORE...This is a business card that you will not giveaway that easy. It has LED display and PIC microcontroller and is powered from a 3V CR2032 button-cell battery. The microcontroller used in this application is PIC16F57 and display consists of 75 RED SMD LEDs. By pressing on any of four available buttons, an appropriate predefined message will be displayed on LED display.
This is a very good business card that you can give someone, knowing it will not be throwen away!
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If you ever need a pressure sensor, you can build your own from just a few components: two pieces of copper clad board, two wires and for the main ingredient you will need a conductive foam. Conductive foam is actually a sponge that you stick your IC's onto. That conductive foam has it's ohm resistance that depends on electrode's distance on it's surface. As the two plates come closer together, the resistance will become lower and that is the general idea. With this little sensor we get what is called a "force sensitive resistor" or FSR.
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You have probably already seen this, but for those who didn't here is another method of making PCBs that gives the same results as photo-etching technique!
All that you will need is an old InkJet printer that needs to be modified to support printing directly on the copper-clad boards instead of paper. After the printer prints your design on the board, the key step is to cure the ink on 230 degrees Celsius in order to turn it into a strong acid resist. That is the key for successful PCB with this method.
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This must be the best use for some 160 white LED diodes that you have laying around. The whole chandelier is powered from mains, actually from a 12V transformer. Vertical support is made out of bicycle wheel spokes and they are also used as power lines for LEDs.
I must say, it looks very impressive!
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Here is a very interesting concept of indoors sundial clock. A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. Since indoors we don't get the Sun to cast a proper shadow for these purposes, it can be replaced with, yes, good old LEDs.
This shadow clock can show all three "hands"; hours just like a real sundial clock, minutes and seconds. Each shadow, or hand, is cast from a different light source - a ring, and each ring is of a different color (RGB). So, there are three rings, each having 12 LEDs (36 LEDs in total) and it is all multiplexed and controlled with AVR microcontroller.
There will probably be a kit of this cool clock soon, so check it out!
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Here is my home-built, cloth iron soldered, range extender for CC1101 (included onboard) RF transceiver chip from Texas Instruments. You could say that it is a CC1101+CC2591, but for 868/920MHz band. I used MAX2233 RF amplifier from Maxim-IC. It can deliver up to +24dBm (250mW) of RF amplification with +10dBm of input.
After adding RF amplifier, original power of 10mW is boosted to almost 250mW or 1/4W. MAX2233 RF amp can deliver up to 250mW when powered by 3.6V, and since I used 3.3V LDO on my board, the output RF power is little less than that.
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For these summer days out on the beach or even on a barbecue, you sure need good music. For music you usually need some power and power source is not easy to find on a beach. Either way, the Sun is up there so why not harvest some of it's massive energy to power a small audio amplifier and even mp3 player.
This project incorporates solar panels with DIY audio amplifier based on LM386 chip. The interesting part is that this device doesn't require any batteries, not even rechargeable ones. Instead it accumulates power into electrolytic capacitors for use, especially with those basses.
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Well, you must agree with me that this swing set is no child's play. We have all seen the power generating shoes but this could be even more practical.
This project requires some serious mechanical assembling and a lot of parts but it can be built with good efficiency. Currently, as the author states, it produces only 5Volts but with some design changes it could easily produce a lot more. The generator used in this application is also a DIY version from Hugh Piggott's web site but a car's alternator can be used instead.
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With only a few parts you can make a working battery with salt water as it's main ingredient.
This battery can produce 2-5mA at around 1V. Cathode and anode are made out of aluminium foil and graphite taken out from a pencil or old 1.5V battery. Electrolyte, which is actually a paper tissue soaked with salt water, is wound around a graphite rod which represent the anode. The other electrode is cathode and is made out of thin aluminium sheet. It all fits snugly in a film canister with two electrodes wires sticking out. This battery can well be used to power Joule Thief LED circuit.
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I always had this idea of making my own GPS guided RC car. The hardware should not be very complicated but the software could get pretty messy.
After some planning I came up with the hardware design (my robotic platform) that has integrated: Atmega328P brain, HM55B digital compass, PING))) ultrasonic range finder, two MC33886 H-bridge controllers, voltage converters for all electronics on board, GPS receiver chip Venus634FLPx, some buttons and LEDs.
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We all remember good old Mario Bros game. Well, some of us still play it! John obviously can't get enough of it so he made a desk adornment in Mario Brothers mushroom candy tin in which he placed microcontroller, two LEDs, motion detector and a speaker.
After detecting the motion, mushroom device activates and starts playing Mario Bros game theme with LED blinking effect. Micocontroller used in this application is Attiny13A, motion detector is PIR sensor and it is all powered from USB port. What's interesting here is audio theme reproduction from microcontroller and that part is nicely described. Source code is available for download on project page.
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Here is another version of bristle-bot but this time without heating up the soldering iron. With just two batteries, DC motor, few pieces of wire and brush head you can make a little robot that chaotically moves around.
This is not a very serious device and it has no specific purpose. Anyway, it would be very funny to watch few dozen of these crazy devices moving around and hitting each other in a condemned space.
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