Turn-key PCB assembly services in prototype quantities or low-volume to mid-volume production runs

Control 3×7 segment LED display with one MCU pin

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ibsimed1 have developed a single I/O-Pin 3×7-Segment Display board. It only needs one microcontroller I/O pin and power source.     The board itself is very simple but idea is great – it uses three serial to paralel converters 74HC164 which activates LED segments. As it is said – display board uses only one I/O pin which also serves as CLK source for serial to paralel converters (from 500kHz to 8MHz). Synchronisation is done by connecting microcontroller I/O pin to CLK through RC Low-pass Filter. There is an AVR code example which can be run from any AVR microcontroller. In this Example PB0 is the general I/O-Pin, but this can be easily changed. Project can be downloaded Here. Continue reading

Connect up to 16 satellites to one receiver with AVR DiSEqC switch

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DiSEqC-Switch is widely used in individual satellite systems to connect up to 16 satellites to one receiver using cascading method. This switch uses other cheap DiSEqC-Switches ver1.0 with four satelite heads each or simply connects directly to satelite heads and this way acts as simple switch.   Schematic diagram is based upon standard DiSEqC-schematic solutions except connections between the Attiny13 and the output switches. This solution allows to reduce number of transistors. PCB is available in P-CAD format. Decoding algorithm of incoming DiSEqC messages are explained here. Also you can check out Testing Device for DiSEqC-Switches that is uses 1.0 or 11 protocols . Continue reading

Blue clock gift project

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Want to please your friends or family, then make Christmas gift by yourself. This is nice looking blue LED clock project which can be made without significant efforts. Clock looks really nice when decorated with smoked gray acrylic. It has two push buttons for selecting time and alarm, while another two are for setting hours and minutes. The project heart is Atmega835 microcontroller and PCF8563P RTC module. Clock source is written by using WinAVR compiler. Continue reading

Control servo motor via USB

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This project is adapted from USB LED fader from Objective Development. As servo motor uses PWM which is used to control LED light intensity. It only requires minimal firmware changes.   USB is firmware only which fits inside Atmega8 microcontroller. Because of this circuit becomes very simple – just few elements. Device is powered from USB so be careful as there is potential threat to damage USB port. I would suggest to attach an external power supply. The demo application is real fun. Once servo is attached on top of monitor, pointer attached to motor shaft points to mouse pointer location on screen. Continue reading

PIC18F2550 development board with USB port

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Prototyping without development boards sometimes may seem impossible. Always before starting producing real design there is always prototyping part of work. Sometimes there is more convenient to use breadboards. But if you know that you will need to prototype more devices based on same microcontroller, so it is better to develop universal board which is more stable and easy to use than breadboard.   For USB prototyping PIC18F2550 is a good choice as it has USB port built in and no additional circuitry is needed. The PIC18F2550 is a USB2.0 Full Speed Device(12Mbit/s). Sadly microcontroller doesn’t have bootloader built in, but you can always use third party USB bootloader like Sprut USB bootlaoder. Board schematics and PCB is available for download in eagle format. Continue reading