301 Moved Permanently

Posted July 30, 2011 by Chris

This article introduces a gigantic etch-a-sketch in the form of a triple hinged robot. To control the system, either a capacitive touch sensor is used or pre-programed drawing movements. 3 Large servos control the 3 arms of the robot and an MSP430 launchpad is used for the control system for the core I/O.

Posted July 29, 2011 by Chris

In a demo of what the MSP430 can do, here’s an LED Coffee Table that groves with your music. The MSP430 is used as a controller and external software catches the FFT of your music telling the controller how everything should light up to flow with the music. If you like this project give it a Vote at TI’s website.

Posted July 28, 2011 by Chris

Wireless infrared systems are unique because of their ease in design and low cost. This week’s PyroElectro tutorial builds a system to transmit 9600 baud serial data from a PIC over IR to a receiving PIC. The wireless infrared link acts as if the Tx and Rx pins on the two PICs were connected with a wire. If you’re looking to make your own wireless system, don’t miss this article!

Posted July 27, 2011 by Chris

The FTDI USB to Serial converter chip has grown quite a bit in popularity recently for its ease of use in windows and linux. This article shows you how to use the FT245 to create a USB input/output interface with an 8 pin header off of a PCB and 4 control lines.

Posted July 26, 2011 by Chris

Here’s a simple little game that uses the ATtiny microcontroller made by Atmel. A black and white LCD is used as output, a single button for input which creates the thrill of a throw-back to an old Apple-IIe game. Hardware and software details of how to make your own are in the article.

Posted July 25, 2011 by Chris

This project puts any conventional POV to shame by using a different method for tricking our eyes. This 3D display uses an anisotropic spinning mirror to project images from a separate camera that is outputting video at 5000 FPS. An FPGA is used to conquer the raw speed used by this display system.

Posted July 24, 2011 by Chris

Servo motors are used everywhere in industry, commercially most people only see them in RC hobby electronics as small servo units. However you use them, it’s important to understand what is going on inside them. This article shows you how to build your own DC servo motor controller. The system uses PI feedback for correcting the position error.

Posted July 23, 2011 by Chris

Interfacing to LCD’s is a bit of a holy grail for embedded devices because of the challenges it presents. This article shows an example system of how to interface a 16F series PIC to an old Nokia Cell-phone LCD. It’s all written in assembly, so take a deep breath before diving in.

Posted July 22, 2011 by Chris

Getting streaming video or even a single snap shot picture out of a camera module is a challenging feat because so much happens so quickly. This article shows you one method for transferring JPEG snap shots from a camera module to your PC using a .NET interface. Things for this project are software heavy and light on the hardware.

Posted July 21, 2011 by Chris

Moving away from the more popular L298 this week’s PyroElectro tutorial looks at how to use the SN754410 to control speed and direction of two DC motors. The example system uses a PIC MCU and some trimpot inputs to control each motor independently. If you’re looking to get started with reliable motor control, it doesn’t get any easier than this.