301 Moved Permanently

Posted September 9, 2011 by Chris

This Week’s PyroElectro tutorial takes a look at PIC interrupts vs. polling techniques for fast input/output systems. Polling for input usually means a lot more overhead and redundant code, so we turn to interrupts for event driven systems to minimize overhead. This tutorial uses a learn-by-example approach to show how interrupts work and how we use them.

Posted September 8, 2011 by Chris

One of the primary building blocks of a processor is called the ALU (arithmetic logic unit). It allows for quick and easy arithmetic, sometimes in line with DSP. This project gives a quick introduction for how to make an ALU for a calculator using the Altera UP2 platform.

Posted September 7, 2011 by Chris

A Chess Playing Robot? Hell yeah! In a great display of what one engineer can do with some spare time, here is an automated system that will play chess against you and probably even beat you. This type of robot bridges the gap between playing against a computer on your monitor and actually moving chess piece on a board in real life. See the website for documentation and source code.

Posted September 6, 2011 by Chris

PWM signals are used all over the place, and for motor control they are a must. Varying the PWM signal will control speed and direction through most motor controllers. This white paper describes one way of making PWM signals with a Xilinx FPGA and also incorporating feedback control from the motor in the FPGA.

Posted September 5, 2011 by Chris

Here’s an article that details out how to access the power system of your car and use it for your own in-car electronics modifications. This project specifically talks about building a DIY security system using a PIC microcontroller and some additional circuitry.

Posted September 4, 2011 by Chris

If you’re an overly obsessive father, this project might be up your alley and making your daughter’s doll house automated might be one step away from trying it on your real house, so why not give it a shot? This article explains how one man mod’d his daughter’s doll house with some automation using a PIC.

Posted September 3, 2011 by Chris

The Enigma machine was a device that Germany used to encrypt their messages during World War 2. This article takes a closer look at the encryption method and duplicates it on a modern PIC microcontroller. A great project for you electronic history buffs out there.

Posted September 2, 2011 by Chris

Embedded System design becomes a whole lot easier when we actually have a great definition of what an embedded system is. This article explains every aspect of embedded systems from both a design and business perspective for why we need embedded systems, like PIC, AVR or ARM, and where they should be used.

Posted September 1, 2011 by Chris

SPI is one of the more prevalent serial communication interfaces for low speed devices like sensors, motor controllers and even LCDs. This tutorial shows you how build an SPI master using a PIC, and interface it to an SPI slave, also a PIC. The final system, is a simple Master-Slave relationship with LED flashing proof.

Posted August 31, 2011 by Chris

Have you ever wanted to combine both the powers of FPGA and microcontrollers? This article shows you how one man got a PIC FPGA core working on a Xilinx FPGA and had some fun testing things out. The final design used only 3/4 the logic cells of the FPGA leaving room for some more of your own custom hardware.