Tag: microcontroller

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

Having and Experience with the Old Times LED Coffee Table!

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Have you ever played Pong game before? For those of you that haven’t heard or seen it before, it’s a first generation video game, which is released as a coin-operated arcade game by Atari Incorporated on Novemeber 29, 1972! Basically, this Pong game is based on the sport of Ping Pong, or also known as, Table tennis and it got its name after the sound generated each time the ball hit the virtual pad. For your information, the “Pong” word is also the registered trademark of Atari Interactive, and the term “pong” is used to describe the genre of “bat and ball” video games. Theoretically, Pong was the first video game to achieve widespread popularity in the arcade and home console markets and it’s the main key to the development of the video game industry too! This LED Coffee Table is a huge project, as it requires 65 microcontrollers, 4096 LEDs and a coffee table to develop the new light to an old-school video game. Although it’s quite a lot of electronic components for this project, however the playing rule… Continue reading

The Easy-To-Build Serial Port IR Transceiver

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For those of you that always involved yourself with the IR transceiver, you must know how annoying when it cannot even transmit and receive infrared signals as it should be… Thus, for overcome this matter, you’d better DIY a more powerful Serial Port IR Transceiver, rather than just pick out the money from your wallet and buy it at the electronic store! Firstly, you should use the PIC12F508 microcontroller as the main brain of this project. Why? It is because it is an Air-Byte transceiver, which is actually a tiny 8-pin PIC microcontroller. The another reason of using this PIC is it can simply monitors the GPIO, 0 connected to the PC serial port TX pin #3. As a result, when this pin transits from logic low to logic high, the PIC12F508 microcontroller will generate the 40 kHz IR carrier. During the low periods, the carrier is mostly in the suppressed condition. Thus, this will provide a simple method for the IR to receive those serial data on one pin, and then outputting the serial data that are being received… Continue reading

The RMS G-Meter – The Great Helper in Heavy Industrial Field!

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Have you ever wondered that how the RMS G-meter function and help you off in the daily life? Well, The RMS G-meter has the ability to measure the acceleration up to five times of Earth’s gravity (The Earth’s Gravity is in ‘G’ unit). You can either put it inside or on the object whatever you want to measure the gravity. Basically, this RMS G-Meter is a microprocessor-based device that will display and update the RMS value of the acceleration levels in real time. This RMS G-Meter is made from the combination of: A single -axis accelerometer The signal conditioning A/D converter Micro-controller LCD display Battery power supply When you turn on the device, you can select either Peak mode, Average mode, or even the Integrated RMS mode. Each type of mode has its own function, which as: The Peak Mode – the device will update the highest RMS value it has measured, soon after it was activated. The Average Mode – the device will display the averaged RMS value of signal over the entire time, since it has been active.… Continue reading

Expand Your Creativity Horizon Starting with the Servo Motor Today

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Servomotor is one of the most common electronic components, and you can control the servomotor position by only using the value returned from analog sensor. Servos also the easiest way to get you started with a microcontroller related with motion. Those components you needed are: Breadboard 22-AWG hookup wire Arduino microcontroller board 10K ohm resistors Flex sensors, and of course RC Servomotor Ok, let’s start the project. Firstly, you need to connect power and ground on the breadboard to power and ground from the microcontroller. Use the 5V and any of the ground connections on the Arduino module (Please refer the above figure). Continue reading

RMS G Meter – The Powerful Accelerometer

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RMS G Meter is considered as one of the useful acceleration measurer that ever created. RMS G Meter had been widely used in the following industries: Shipping – RMS G Meter is used for determine and verify the packages traveled with as little damage as possible. Manufacturing – It is used for vibration sensing for quality control purpose. The proper ways to calculate the RMS: Try to pick a function Then, square the function Remember to take the ‘mean value’ of the function Lastly, do take the square root of the function RMS G Meter is a smart microprocessor-based device, which can display and updates instantly the root-mean-square (RMS) values of the acceleration. There are six main components in a RMS G Meter: An accelerometer Low pass filter A/D converter Microcontroller LCD display Battery power supply We must know how to differential the four modes which: Peak Mode Once the PMS G Meter is activated, the device will update the highest RMS value it has measured. Average Mode The device will display the average RMS value of the signal all… Continue reading

Making a 10 MHz GPS Locked Reference and Challenge Your Creativity

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Do you love to challenge yourself off in the GPS niche? You have a deep interest in the GPS Locked Reference as well? Ok, you might want to keep yourself busy with this 10MHz GPS Locked Reference. Before you’re busy with the project yet, you need to check up the system requirements first: A voltage 10Mhz crystal oscillator (We want the tunable type); A GPS card (Use for outputs a detailed status message relating to its clock error); An external GPS antenna (for the GPS card purpose). First of all, make sure you only use the 10MHz voltage tuned crystal oscillator, which the frequency is locked to the GPS positioning system clock. We use the Superstar single board OEM GPS receiver for this project. Secondly, we now will replace the internal 10MHz clock on the GPS card. This replacement will take you some time. Then, we use a PIC microcontroller to read the serial error word that transmitted from the GPS card. Remember to have the PIC output an analog tuning voltage to the 10MHz oscillator as well. Finally, we… Continue reading