Category Archives: Electronics

Update time..

First off, something fun (if you’re boring like me) I decided to record data in my car overnight and through the daytime. From 12:00am to 7:00pm thereabouts. I recorded the data every 4 seconds with the following sensors NTC Thermistor … Continue reading

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The Olimex Duinomite

A while back I was thinking about making a small board that would run it’s own OS and methodology for programming, similar to the computers of old such as the TRS-80 and the Commodore 64. Everything was on these machine … Continue reading

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Many Dev Boards… what to do?

First, an update about the annoyo, it worked perfectly and maximized irritation while making itself difficult to find. Anyways, I just received my BeagleBone and I promptly thought to myself, what am I going to do with this? Then I … Continue reading

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Another pic10f200 project, the Annoyo!

I had this cool idea for a prank at the office, a device that generate sound every 6 minutes. This device generates 4 different sounds at 6 minute intervals. The idea is that the sounds are short, familiar, difficult to … Continue reading

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Building a quadrature generator with a PIC10F222

I need to start my new project with my digital RTJ gage and in order to do so I need to use the quadrature decoder chip LS7166. I could use the actual encoder I’m going to use for the project … Continue reading

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10f200 debouncing and a new compiler

I’ve noticed some people doing search terms for debouncing and I figured I would post my method of debouncing inputs from switches. Some people have a big thing with using caps and resistors and gates with hysteresis but I prefer to … Continue reading

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Ugluino, the ugly Arduino powered robot

So, even though I’ve built a wide variety of crap over the last few years, all of them with varying utility, I’ve decided to build a quick robot. With oodles of free time and the feeling of having to go … Continue reading

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Pre-Christmas things I’m workin’ on!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything (I think every post starts like this) so I’m gonna document a few things I’m working on right now. Things that are both for work and some things that are not. … Continue reading

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Electronics lab on the cheap

Now, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a total cheapskate. I hate paying good money for good things and wind up buying lots of crap for lots of money. Over the years I’ve seen the question asked … Continue reading

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Stuff I’m playing with

Well, since I posted a bit of stuff yesterday I’m gonna post a couple of other things I’ve been playing with. Since I finally have a day off. may as well. The FPS I’m making I don’t know what I’m … Continue reading

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Old photocopiers and you!

So a company that shares a parking lot with out company sells and distributes photocopier services. One day I was told about a whole bunch of photocopiers that were just sitting there. Deciding to take the plunge and rip through them the … Continue reading

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HipStreet E-Reader Review… plus some

Well, I was in the local Wal-Mart the other day and spotted this little device in the E-book reader section. It is the HS-M700-4GBBK version of this particular device. Here’s a shitty picture. It’s a reasonably well laid out device. … Continue reading

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Timer lamp, Part Deux

Anyways, as I promised, here is the almost finished. A couple days later than I said but, still, I did finish it for the most part. So Basically what we have here is a $20 lamp that’s been outfitted with … Continue reading

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The timer lamp Redux, Part one.

Well, in the vein of the spirit of the low-end microcontroller, I decided to make a timer lamp based around the PIC10F200. I did one years ago and it was based on a pic16f505 which is a low end MCU … Continue reading

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The new lab, again and a fish light controller

Nothing special in todays update but I figured I’d post a few things for the fun of it. First off I guess is my lab. I’ve been using it for a month or so. A little small, but at least … Continue reading

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The underrated PIC10F200 (and 202/204/206 as well)

Sitting around looking through my collection of parts during a brief stint of illness I came across my stash of 30 or so PIC10F200′s. These were my entry into the world of microcontrollers. Granted I wasn’t very good at electronics … Continue reading

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Little LCD tester

Well, after some playing around and getting my electronics feet back, I’ve finally rediscovered some passion. This little project is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. Basically it’s an HD44780 LCD tester. A very simple device but if you’re … Continue reading

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Cheap chinese digital calipers and you

Some time ago I bought a bunch of cheap Chinese digital calipers and I was surprised to find that there is a port on almost all of them out the top. Now having looked up the format for both Starrett … Continue reading

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A look at a small solar panel set.

A while back I had found a bunch of little solar cells on Ebay for cheap. I hadn’t really looked at them or tested them in any real way but today I wanted to see if they could power even … Continue reading

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Happy 2011! uuh, I guess a bit late though.

It’s been well over two months since I last posted. Frankly, not a lot has happened in the meantime anyways. Work is going well and life is pretty good. That said, I’ve begun to regain my inspiration for electronics again … Continue reading

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The finished result of an old project

A bout a year or so back I had designed an enclosure for a friend of mine. You can see the object here on an old blog post of mine. I’ve forgotten to take pictures of it for some time … Continue reading

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Some changes, some improvements, some fun.

Yes, it’s been some time, again. Every post I make seems to say the same things. anyways. Here are some things I’m working on and also no longer working on. Viscometer No, nope and no. They bore me now and … Continue reading

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55g servo drawing.

For anyone that needs the drawing for a 55g servo, here we go. It’s been some time since I’ve updated but never fear, more boring stuff is to be posted soon heres is a link to the actual PDF if … Continue reading

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A quick review of the HPS10se portable Oscilloscope from Velleman

I ordered this device about a year and a half ago for about $130USD. When I got it, I wasn’t terribly impressed but overall, for the price it’s not a bad unit. I figured it’s be nice to provide a … Continue reading

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Coolant mixture sensor (psuedo-refractometer)

A bit ago I got the idea of trying to determine the mixture of coolant vs. water by detecting both light occlusion of the mixture and the wavelengths blocked / passed. This initial device is just a rough prototype that … Continue reading

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Long time no post. Machining and trying to get back on my feet.

Well, it has been some time since I posted, about a month and a half or so. There have a been a number of events that have occurred in that time that have both beneficial yet disappointing. I’m not really … Continue reading

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A crummy little servo tester and other minutia

The little servo tester Well, I needed a way to test all of these servos I got from EBay and I decided to spend a little time making a quick and dirty little board for doing that. It uses a … Continue reading

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Viscometer board proceeding, some RS232 fun.

  Well, things have been proceeding apace, and I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll have both versions done fairly soon. For debugging the device I’ve decided to create a kind of terminal, this allows one to directly access commands and see … Continue reading

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Stormer Viscometer Grams to Oz-Inch Conversion

Trying to make sense of the standard stormer viscometer and methods that could be used to calibrate a device, I’ve been looking at the original stormer viscometer in order to get an idea of what ‘grams’ actually means in the … Continue reading

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Grams to Krebs conversion formulae

After many a day scratching my head as to why I can’t get my viscometer to calibrate correctly, even assuming logarithmic and quadratic relationships, I find out why I have been having so many problems. Krebs units are in not … Continue reading

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Working on new viscometer head

  Well, I’ve been designing some new stuff since having a little wind of inspiration. This head weighs in at about 700g and provisions have been made to allow an attachment to a handle and therefore a hand-held version could be … Continue reading

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Quick post, a couple of drawings.

The chill is in the air, October is here. I’ve been pretty busy with the viscometer and some other things, however I drew a couple of objects just for future reference. I figured somebody might need the dimensions of either … Continue reading

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Getting closer to final completion

A long road behind and still some ahead, here are some pic of the viscometer in its state of completion. Now to implement the ModBUS protocol and finish up this project.

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In-Process Stormer Viscometer – Damn near complete

  The viscometer is nearing full completion! YAY! To mark this occasion to mark the end of a long two years, I am placing a small gallery of the almost finished product. The only thing missing is the outside cover which … Continue reading

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Yay! They work!

Well, I got the power board and control boards done. They both work flawlessly. YAY!   The peripherals seem to work too.

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An experiment in heat transfer

  After being apprised of an issue with heat transfer through PCB traces, being the stubborn idiot I am, I had to try and solve the problem. The issue is with a particular PCB that has a cutout section with a … Continue reading

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FDM Part Prototyping

This post is simply to show how neat the FDM process is. FDM stands for Fused Deposition Modeling and is a neat tool for prototyping plastic parts. I was able to see the results of FDM after a customer had … Continue reading

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Programming, Drafting, Designing and whatever else…

Well, it’s been a busy few weeks since I left the business training program. Thankfully I have some work lined up and things may go well for the short-term. For the last while I was working on the design for … Continue reading

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Time’s a passin’ – DIY Arms, Music, and invention

Well, the past few weeks have been eventful and interesting. I’ve been busy and school is almost over. I’ve had a few things on the go and I’ve come up with some interesting ideas and implementations. Sorry for the lack … Continue reading

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Rotary Viscometer almost finished

Well, it’s been a long road but I’m almost at the finish line in terms of the majority of development. All of the parts are mostly made and I’ll begin programming very soon, most of which has been done already … Continue reading

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3 point quadratic regression formula

While developing the in-process stormer viscometer, one of my goals is to allow the end user to calibrate the device with 3 fluids of known viscosity. With a bit of help from mathematica, I’ve found the formula and for whoever … Continue reading

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Viscometer Project, coming along…

I thought I would have nothing to post but I do I guess. I’ve felt the need to really expedite this project now that I am starting a business. I have done a few of the mechanical things associated with … Continue reading

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A Drawing of a Servo, for reference.

Well, my servos have all come in for a project I’ve been working on. These ones being some cheap Chinese servos that I picked up off Ebay. Here’s a photo of one of them. Now that I have them I … Continue reading

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Rotational Viscometer design proceeding apace

It’s been a while since I’ve worked at full steam on the viscometer project. Though now a long way from it’s DIY roots I am making this new version from mostly Aluminum, Phenolic, Nylon and Low Density PolyEthylene. I had … Continue reading

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Some motors for the viscometer.

Now I have to find some suitable DC gearmotors for the viscometer. here are some links, for reference, to some suitable gear motors. A 300 RPM one from batteryspace, a little small, good low cost though. A little pricier. This … Continue reading

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Viscometer Ver.(Eleventy Billion Jillion) a la rotational

Well, this has a been a long few days of work. I have created the ideal rotary viscometer in both terms of price and repeatability. Now, this idea is nothing new but I’m simply happy that it works. I guess … Continue reading

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Sky-Tracker, so far, so good.

For the last few days I’ve been working on the electrical portion of an astrophotography mount for my camera. The mechanical portions were built by my father and I’m handling the electronic portion of the device. Basically, for those who … Continue reading

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Keypad wiring, quick informational post.

I bought a couple of keypads of Ebay some time ago and since they were so nice, I decided to use them in my latest project. Since there are no data sheets for this, that I could find, I checked … Continue reading

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Temperature and light, several days

Well, It’s been a number of days since I built the unit and all’s been tested. Here is a picture of some of the data from my living room over the past several days. The purplish is the temperature and … Continue reading

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Temperature and ambient light tracking

So, since I’m really bored I decided to build a device that tracks ambient temperature and light levels. While this may not seem very interesting, I suspect the relationship between the two, while not directly linked, will be interesting especially … Continue reading

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