Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Talking Clock

This is a very cool project. This digital clock speaks time in your voice. You have to first store audio samples in a SD card and the time is tracked by DS1307 RTC chip. The microcontroller used is Parallex Propeller running at 80MHz.


Popcorn Walkthrough from Gadget Gangster on Vimeo.


For functional details and others, visit link.

LCD Clock based on ATtiny2313

This LCD clock is based on ATtiny2313 microcontroller and displays time in 24 hour HH:MM:SS format. The accuracy is about +1 sec in 48 hours, and provides three tact switches for time setting.



For schematic and software, Visit Here.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Three Channel IR Remote Control based on PIC Microchip

This project is a 3-channel IR remote control for relays. It uses RC5 IR protocols.
Features :

* CPU PIC12F629 at 4MHz crystal for Tx/Rx
* 3 channel output relay
* The Tx use sleep mode for saving battery power
* Use Phillips RC5 protocal
* distance more than 7 m.
* Easy circuit to build and assembly

 Source: http://www.sixca.com/eng/articles/remote/index.html

On both the sides (Tx and Rx), it uses PIC12F629 microchips. For firmware and receiver part, visit here.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Control Your Home Appliances using a DVD Remote Control

Are you looking for a device that can be used to control various household appliances (like fan, rice cooker, lights, etc) using your TV or DVD remote control? If yes, this is the project you are looking for. This is based on Atmega8 microcontroller. The microcontroller gets control commands from a DVD remote through IR link. Each time an appliance is turned ON/OFF, its status is stored in the internal EEPROM location so that it can be accessed later in case of power failure.


Source : http://arif-ece.blogspot.com/2010/07/remote-controlled-home-appliances_10.html

The firmware is written in AVR GCC. Read the full project.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

PIC Based Temperature Data Logger

Here's a PIC based temperature data logger. The PIC used is 8-pin PIC12F683 and the temperature sensor used is DS1820 that doesn't require calibration and provides temperature value in digital format. This temperature logger records data inside the internal EEPROM. Each temperature value is 8 byte, so the resolution is 1 degree C.


Besides, the sampling interval is user selectable (1 sec, 1 min, or 10 min). The recorded values can be sent to a PC through a serial port.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

AT89C52 Based Contact-less Tachometer

Tachometer is a device that counts the revolutions per minute (RPM) of a rotating shaft. This projects describes how to make one that requires no contact with the rotating shaft. The microcontroller used is AT89C51 from Atmel, and the RPM value is displayed on a character LCD.

An IR Tx/Rx pair is used as a proximity sensor. The counted pluses will come from the proximity sensor, when it will detect any reflective element passing infront of it, and thus, will give an output pulse for each and every rotation of the shaft, as show in the picture below.


 For circuit diagram and programming, read rest of the project.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

PIC-based Beginner’s Robot Autonomous Mobile (BRAM)

This tutorial shows how to build a Beginner’s Robot Autonomous Mobile, BRAM. It is designed to be easily built using some of the parts that you could easily found at home. The main controller for this robot is Microchip PIC16F690.


Source: http://www.ermicro.com/blog/?p=983

Two old CDs are used to build the chasis for the robot. The lower deck is use to hold the geared DC motor, battery power, caster and the robot’s bumper switches (whiskers) while the upper deck hold the robot’s motor driver, sensor’s board and the PIC16F690 circuit board.


The following are the list of BRAM’s construction material parts:
  • Two CD/DVDs for the chassis
  • Two geared DC motor rated 4.5 to 5 volt with the wheel or you could use the modified servo motor (it’s a servo motor without the electronics’s control board)
  • One 3 x 1.5 volt AA battery holder with on-off switch
  • One plastic bead (usually it use for the neck less) and one paper clip for the caster
  • Two microswitches and two paper clips for the whisker or bumpers sensor (not shown on the above picture).
  • Nuts, bolts, PCB (printed circuit board) holders, double tape to hold all of these parts together.
 Demo Video