News & Articles

Free Robotics Guide

Get started making your own robotics with this guide from the Pyros! Send Me My Free Guide!

Categories

Sponsors

dsPIC based Spectrum Analyzer

January 14, 2012 by Chris
“The dsPIC runs on the internal oscillator of 7.37MHz, which is then raised close to 30MHz using the PLL. This enables the board to run without external oscillators and associated loading capacitors. The signal to be analyzed is passed through a high impedance resistor (1Mohms) and then amplified by opamp (TL084). This is done to avoid any high voltage damaging the dsPIC or associated circuit. DC offset is added to the signal to enable it to be measured by ADC (0V to 5V).”

PyroFactor:
Read [Video]
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  Comments(2) »


Arduino DVM with LCD Display

January 8, 2012 by Chris
“A Digital Voltmeter (DVM) is one of the first things you need if you're building electronics projects. Most of us have one. But what if you need more than one? Enter the Arduino. If you have an Arduino that can drive an LCD, you've got a multi-channel voltmeter!”

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  1 Comment »

Interfacing TI Launchpad to Digital Caliper

December 17, 2011 by Chris
“MSP430 Launchpad from TI is a new, very affordable (4.35$), value line development platform. It uses MSP430G2231 - msp430 series mcu and includes everything you'll need to start programming the msp microcontroller. In this article I'll show how to use this development platform to read data from digital calipers and send it to a PC RS232 serial port.”

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

A Free Alternative: Soundcard Oscilloscope

November 21, 2011 by Chris
“The PC based Soundcard Oscilloscope receives its data from the Soundcard with 44.1kHz and 16 Bit resolution. The data source can be selected in the Windows mixer (Microphone, Line-In or Wave). The frequency range depends on the sound card, but 20-20000Hz should be possible with all modern cards. ”

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

Adding an RGB input to an NTSC TV

October 15, 2011 by Chris
“RGB signaling provides the cleanest form of analog video you can get from any video device. No wonder why computer monitors have used analog RGB since the introduction of VGA in 1987. But television is another story. Since the dawn of color TV, we’ve been stuck with lossy encoding methods in order to cram a full-color picture in the limited bandwidth of a monochrome transmission.”

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

PIC Win-32 based Logic Analyzer

October 12, 2011 by Chris
“The basic system uses a special FIFO chip (7204) which is dual-ported to store logic-state samples which are transferred into a PC and displayed using a Win-32 front-end.”

If you've ever been curious about building your own logic analyzer, here's a well documented open-source analyzer that will help get you started.

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

Handheld 2.4 GHz Spectrum Analyzer

October 2, 2011 by Chris
“After visiting some web pages about 2.4 GHz ISM band spectrum analyzers based on the CYWM6935 module, I tried to build my own analyzer, but with some improvements. The references I found on the net used the parallel port or a serial link to a host computer. I want the analyzer to be portable, and easy to transport, so I will use a microcontroller and a graphical LCD.”

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

Programming the ATTiny85 – Arduino Style

September 12, 2011 by Chris
Fans of the ATTiny now have another tool to add to their bag of tricks: an Arduino programmer! This article explains how to use an Arduino to program the ATTiny using the SPI communication protocol. The method is straight forward with no surprises so it could theoretically work with any microcontroller that has an SPI module built in.

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

Accurate Milliohm Measurement

August 15, 2011 by Chris
If you're looking to build your own ohm-meter with super accuracy this article will tell you exactly how. As an experimental setup the 4-point Kelvin sensing method is used to measure resistors to the milli-ohm units. The method used is detailed out with hardware schematic of the DIY style setup and pictures that show you what is going on.

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

Homebrew Digital Oscilloscope

July 31, 2011 by Chris
Here's an article describing a conservatively but well designed digital oscilloscope. The Digital part here means the main input is into a DAC instead of op-amps. Atmel microcontrollers are used for processing and video display. The article describes all the details of design and theory of operation, so go build your own!

PyroFactor:
Read
Permalink  |  Email This Post Email This Post  |  No Comments »

« Previous Entries