Posted April 2, 2012 by Chris

“The objective for this project was to build a portable unit containing a HD44780 Character LCD that could be updated through a wireless link. For the wireless communication link, I chose to use a low-power, short-range, ZigBee device. The 1 mW Digi XBee modules fit the bill nicely, and they’re reasonably priced.”

Posted March 30, 2012 by Chris

“In this article we will use a pair of XBee modules to build a quick wireless interface which will be used to wirelessly control a servo based pan and tilt system which can move my camera 45 degrees in any direction, left-right-forward-backwards. ”

Posted March 28, 2012 by Chris

“Pictured to the left is the front-end, first mixer and IF amplifier of an experimental GPS receiver. The leftmost SMA is connected to a commercial antenna with integral LNA and SAW filter. A synthesized first local oscillator drives the bottom SMA. Pin headers to the right are power input and IF output. The latter is connected to a Xilinx FPGA which not only performs DSP, but also hosts a fractional-N synthesizer.”

Posted March 23, 2012 by Chris

“A couple of days ago, I picked a pair of Xbees at Sparkfun. The plan is to build low power sensor platform using PICs, Zigbee radios, and Linux. In this article, I’m sharing my experience in building with Xbees.”

Posted March 12, 2012 by Chris

“A small group of high school students launched a high-altitude weather balloon with a small payload. In addition to a video transmitter and GPS transmitter, they decided to include a simple transmitter built from scratch. This is the story of the project, with emphasis on the simple transmitter’s design, construction, implementation, and reception (which surprised me, being detected ~200 miles away and lasting the entire duration of the flight!)”

Posted March 7, 2012 by Chris

“A PongSat is an experiment that fits inside of a ping pong ball. These ping pong ball ‘satellites’ are flown to the edge of space by balloon or launched in sounding rockets. The PongSats are then returned to the student. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to get students excited about science and engineering. There are endless possibilities for experiments that can fit inside a ping pong ball. PongSat’s can be as simple or complex as you want them to be.”

Posted February 27, 2012 by Chris

“This project is an extension of interfacing microcontroller with hyperterminal and GSM module. The previous project explained a way to interface a GSM module with 8051 microcontroller where the information response and result codes received by the controller were sent back to computer to display them at HyperTerminal. In this project, the same output is displayed on a 16×2 LCD interface.”

Posted February 16, 2012 by Chris

“The XBee module offers a quick and easy solution for wireless needs and it even uses a standardized protcol to make sure your information reaches its destination. However, in my time using these cool little modules I have noticed how most people never utilize the more awesome features available like analog input or PWM. In this article, we will take a look at how to access the XBee so that we can reconfigure options and enable the more advanced features that the XBee Modules offers us as designers. ”

Posted February 10, 2012 by Chris

“A hardware keylogger is a perfect solution for monitoring user activity, at very low risk of disclosure. A hardware keylogger is a purely electronic device, so no access to the operating system is required, no traces are left, and software has no possibility of detecting such a device. However, the hardware keylogger concept inherits one weakness: physical access to the keylogger is required for retrieving captured data. This problem has finally found its solution: a Wireless Keylogger.”

Posted February 1, 2012 by Chris

“The SudoGlove is a gesture controller that can be easily interfaced with hardware or software via a wireless connection. The glove implements an array of sensors plus filtering circuitry and mathematical analysis firmware to derive state values for each sensor and transmits them to an authorized receiver. I have used the glove to drive an RC car, to synthesize music, to manipulate openGL video, to control arbitrary processing software, and to control performance lighting effects.”