As a consequence of the social distancing and self isolation, many a maker has been searching for ways to cure boredom. So what happens when you put a maker in a closed space with electronics parts. The answer is a bunch of random microcontroller projects that help beat boredom. [Danac1886] posts a video with a bunch […]
THE ATTINY SERIES IS A GREAT COMPANION IN ISOLATION Continue Reading
After playing second (maybe third?) fiddle for a while to a range of maker-friendly boards from Arduino and others, STMicro finally got it right with the STM32F103C8T6 Arm Cortex-M3 microcontroller-based “BluePill” development board which can be programmed using the Arduino IDE. As all good hardware requires, a new version of the board which is being called the “Blue Pill 2” or “Black
MEET THE STM32 “BLACK PILL” DEVELOPMENT BOARD Continue Reading
There’s many a time when you want to connect a white LED to a microcontroller operating from a 3 V supply voltage. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work and your nice white LED only lights up feebly or not at all. Why does it work perfectly with red and green LEDs, but not with white? A bit
ELEKTOR ARTICLE: LED BOOSTER FOR MICROCONTROLLERS Continue Reading
One of the things I love about JavaScritpt is the fact it keeps finding applications in different domains. One such use is in Arduino, with Espruino (open-source JavaScript interpreter for microcontrollers), and an interesting new one is the AVR8js. AVR8js is an open-source Arduino simulator based on JavaScript that can run in the cloud or virtually anywhere javascript runs. Arduino has
AVR8JS – OPEN SOURCE ARDUINO SIMULATOR BASED ON JAVASCRIPT Continue Reading
Orlando Hoilett from Calvary Engineering LLC designed a versatile Li-Po battery breadboard power supply and wrote an Instructables on it. This power supply outputs 3.3V to the breadboard and takes input from a single-cell LiPo battery. The breadboard power supply also has the ability to charge the battery without needing to separate it from the circuit board. More importantly, this
VERSATILE AND OPEN SOURCE LIPO BBATTERY BREADBOARD POWER SUPPLY Continue Reading
Introduction While building microcontroller based projects, there are occasions where communication will be required between two devices, either in a duplex/transceiver based operation (where both devices can transmit and receive at the same time) or in a simplex-based operation where communication is one way (Receiving device cannot transmit and the transmitting device cannot receive). Several
Using the 433MHz RF Transmitter and Receiver with Arduino Continue Reading
Multifunction data-acquisition systems have been around for a long time as stand-alone instruments, plug-in cards, cabled computer peripherals, and embedded in systems. Such systems are often designed with separate ADCs, DACs, and digital I/O devices. Many microcontrollers include ADCs and DACs, but that locks you into using that device. The AD5592R from Analog Devices combines
A data-acquisition system on a chip Continue Reading
Introduction Previously I made a simple frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar that was able to detect distance of a human sized object to 100 m. It worked, but as it was made with minimal budget and there was a lot of room for improvement. FMCW radar working principle If you have read my previous articles you
Third version Homemade 6 GHz FMCW radar Continue Reading
Open source has finally arrived to microcontrollers. Based on RISC-V instruction set, a group of doctoral students at the Universidad Industrial de Santander in Colombia have been working on an open source 32-bit chip called “Open-V“. Onchip, the startup of the research team, is focusing on integrated systems and is aiming to build the first system-on-chip designed in Colombia. The
Open-V, The Open Source RISC-V 32bit Microcontroller Continue Reading
Introduction Previously I made a simple frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar that was able to detect distance of a human sized object to 100 m. It worked, but as it was made with minimal budget and there was a lot of room for improvement. FMCW radar working principle If you have read my previous articles you should
Third version of homemade 6 GHz FMCW radar Continue Reading
