Posted January 7, 2009 by Chris

Anything electronic that is capable of self-balancing is an amazing sight to behold. One step beyond that is anything electronic that can move a human around while still balancing. Skatanova does just that and with a very modest budget.

Posted January 4, 2009 by Chris

Today’s post is not so much a project write-up as it is a very informative article. This one gives a very enlightening overview of what boot loaders do and how they lead to very cool projects. At very least give this one a skim through, you will learn something you didn’t know about microcontrollers!

Posted November 10, 2008 by Chris

If you’ve never taken a peek inside the mechanical hard drives that have been widely used for many years, now is your opportunity (at no cost). This articles gives you an in depth look at all the parts inside the modern computer hard drive and what they do.

Posted October 11, 2008 by Chris

This LCD controller (HD44780) is the most widely used on LCD segment displays. The link for today leads to a plethora of background information on sending commands to the controller as well as software examples for many different devices.

Posted October 5, 2008 by Chris

This project shows you how to easily (and cheaply) create a chat-cord. The chat-cord is something that has become increasingly popular in the world of VOIP. If you are a Skype master with some basic solder skills this should be a very easy project for you. Schematic details & parts lists is available in the project write-up.

Posted August 9, 2008 by Chris

This project is a simple little frequency meter. It uses an ATMega microcontroller for its brains with a standard algorithm & timer for calculating the frequency seen on input. Newer microcontrollers will have CCP (capture & compare modules) that make this task a piece of cake, but a back to the basics look at thing never hurts!

Posted June 1, 2008 by Chris

The mega-light ‘or simply the Oh my Gawd, my eyes! is a homemade led flashlight with a pvc body.’ It uses only one super bright luxeon V led. The project write-up explains what you need and how to build it.

Posted May 26, 2008 by Chris

PCB (printed circuit boards) are now used in everything involved with electronics. They are extremely helpful because components are often so tiny it’s impossible to hand solder or efficiently make use of them. This guide shows you how to make your PCB using your printer & a few other tools.

Posted May 22, 2008 by Chris

This is a 4-zone sprinkler controller using embedded linux. It was also modified to control a garden hose sprinkler system. The implementation is fairly innovative, plus there’s lots of pictures, schematics & lists everything you’d need to build it.

Posted May 20, 2008 by Chris

The ATmega TV Terminal is a simple project that connects together a keyboard, serial communication port & TV video output. The idea of course is to make the TV the output terminal. If you’re into AVR’s this is definitely a project you can learn alot from. PCB schematics, source code & an indepth project write-up are all there.