Posted May 16, 2014 by Chris

"I got all the basic Arduino tutorials running, so I decided to try my hand at something a little tougher: a digital “faradmeter”, ie capacitance-measurer."

Posted May 15, 2014 by Chris

Can you believe it? We’ve reached the final lesson of our new PyroEDU course: An Introduction To Microcontrollers. In this lesson we will take a look at what is AVR vs Arduino. Here’s an overview of the lesson:

"The arduino platform uses the AVR ATMEGA328 microcontroller to provide an awesome introduction to using microcontrollers, but there actually exists a world underneath arduino: let’s take a look at it. "

Posted May 14, 2014 by Chris

"In this tutorial we are going to drive a Single unipolar stepper motor using PIC18F4550 Microcontroller in various different stepping modes. The source code and Project files are free to download at the end of this page."

Posted May 13, 2014 by Chris

"All parts were developed separately. This allowed adjustments in the assembly as well as smaller changes in case the design of one or other part become required. The focus was on low cost and use of materials easily accessible in the local market."

Posted May 12, 2014 by Chris

"I’ve been messing around with electronics lately (after all, that’s what I’m studying 😛 ), and this is the result! A 32×8 LED Matrix controlled by a PIC18F2550. You can click in the pictures for full size! At the end of the post there is a video of the screen running."

Posted May 11, 2014 by Chris

"Up until now I’ve been using a photogate sensor and the Camera Axe to take pictures of water and milk droplets. After some research I found many – people – online were using solenoid valves to create droplets and take pictures of them. The big advantage to this method is it’s easy to collide drops which is was very difficult and random using my old method."

Posted May 9, 2014 by Chris

"Trash Talk is a prototype for an inexpensive, mesh-networked, democratic public address system. Each node contains a speaker, a microphone, a radio, and an easy to use single-button interface. To send a message, simply walk up to any node, press the button, and talk."

Posted May 8, 2014 by Chris

In this week’s PyroEDU lesson in our new course: An Introduction To Microcontrollers, we will Build A Cyclops Eye using a microcontroller outputting PWM to some LEDs. Here’s an overview of the lesson:

"Another internal module in microcontrollers generates what is called a PWM output. In this lesson, we will explore using these PWM output modules to make a cyclops eye with fading LEDs."

Posted May 7, 2014 by Chris

"The Esplora sketch was modified to poll the joystick (4 directions) and the right button cluster. When they are activated, an appropriate ASCII character is sent via serial to the XBee which sends it to the Uno which controls the head via a Motorshield."

Posted May 5, 2014 by Chris

"We’re exploring a whimsical project to collect breathalyzer data from various locations for use in visualizing local trends in intoxication. This weekend I completed the first step by prototyping simple hardware that reacts to various amounts of booze on the breath."