Posted January 12, 2009 by Chris

For people who are new to anything related to microcontrollers or digital circuits you will quickly learn that 5v is the digital standard. Because of this, we have many devices with the sole task of generating 5v output for your project. This tutorial gives you the necessary intro to the infamous 7805.

Posted November 28, 2008 by Chris

Homemade PIC programmers can be found all over the web. They all offer a cheaper alternative to Microchip or Clone programmers but the catch is you have to make it yourself. If you have at least a little electronics experience this will be no problem! Here’s a simple example DIY PIC programmer.

Posted October 25, 2008 by Chris

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own PCB board this is a great project write-up to read through. The author has built a custom board & layout for the AT Tiny microcontroller which he eventually turned into a line-following robot.

Posted October 15, 2008 by Chris

The spectrum analyzer is most useful for checking the range of frequencies from a given signal. This project is attempts to build a homebrew spectrum analyzer based off of various other designs from the internet. You’ll find many useful links in this project write-up.

Posted October 13, 2008 by Chris

For a strictly electrical engineering related project here is a low pass filter design. The project write-up goes through all the details from mathematical start to completed circuit finish. If you are into the wacky world of filter design, you’ll want to take a look.

Posted October 9, 2008 by Chris

The oscilloscope is arguable one of the most useful tools for electrical engineers. This is a small DIY oscilloscope that uses a simple PIC dev board and a computer GUI to display the results. .NET is used to store & display the data. Both hardware schematics & software are available for download in the project write-up.

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 September 21, 2008 by Chris

Most microcontroller programmers are actually very simple devices that can be made by yourself. Being that programmers range from $50+, so it can be a good investment or backup programmer. The parts are very cheap and this project write-up is clean with step-by-step instructions. Give it a look see!

Posted September 19, 2008 by Chris

NiMH rechargeable batteries have been around for quite some time and have proven their worth. This type of rechargeable battery can be found inside things from electric cars to electric tooth-brushes. Today’s simple project makes use of a microcontroller for controlling the recharging of the battery and turning off when recharging has completed.

Posted August 17, 2008 by Chris

Arduino Playground is a cool little website devoted to…you guessed it the Arduino microcontroller. It has detailed step-by-step guides to get you started from the very beginning, to loading code onto an Arduino.