This article is about an AT90S4433 MCU based power supply, including full schematics and source code. Guido Socher writes:
“One of the most important devices for your workshop at home is a good, and reliable DC power supply. In this article we will build such a power supply. It will be Microcontroller controlled. It has a LCD display, and you can send it commands from your Linux computer via RS232 interface. It has a very robust design.”
A Microcontroller based DC power supply - [Link]
Michael Davis shows us how he made a homemade Wind turbine using simple materials . His turbine made of:
- A generator
- A mounting that keeps it turned into the wind
- A tower to get it up into the wind
- Batteries and an electronic control system
Detailed instructions and great photos explain how each one of the parts are made. Enjoy!
How to home-built an electricity producing Wind turbine - [Link]
SparkFun electronics introduce us a way to safely connect a 3.3V device to a 5V microcontroller:
“If you’ve ever tried to hook up a 3.3V sensor to a 5V micro, you know what I’m talking about – connecting these two can be a problem! There are several ways in which a 3.3V device can be safely connected to a 5v microcontroller. This tutorial will detail a few ways in which this can be accomplished.”
How to connect a 3.3V device to a 5V microcontroller? - [Link]
Doug Burbidge writes:
“It’s possible to send a VGA “video” signal down an ordinary Cat-5 ethernet cable. This is possible for two reasons: firstly, although VGA connectors have 15 (or 13) pins, only about 8 wires are actually necessary to send the VGA signal; and secondly, ethernet cable is twisted pair, and we can use the magic of twisted pair to push the analog VGA signal further than spec”
VGA over Cat-5 ethernet cable - [Link]
Want your oscilloscope to become a exciting entertainment machine? … here is a cool use for your oscilloscope: use it as a display for a demo. The oscilloscope is connected to PC soundcard and is in X/Y-mode (Z -brightness input is not used.), with right channel connected to X and left to Y input. Download its waveform from here to see it on your oscilloscope! The soundcard is not modified: oscilloscope’s input impedance is so high that the DC blocking capacitors don’t highpass the signal very much.
Youscope (oscilloscope demo) - [Link]
This guy build a nixie clock and syncronized it with a cesium atomic clock. This clock is accurate to a few nanoseconds a day. His nixie clock originally synchronized with the 60Hz power line frequency, but here he drives this nixie clock from an atomic frequency standard. Synthesizer set to generate a low-level 60 Hz sine wave (that’s exactly 60.000000000000 Hz), and then amplified the signal with a bipolar DC power supply to generate a high voltage “mains”.
The most accurate Nixie Tube clock – [Link]
On the following article learn about Oscilloscope probes, their basic characteristics and proper calibration. www.scienceprog.com writes:
“Measuring signals with oscilloscopes may be challenging task especially high frequency ones. Without proper oscilloscope probes correct measurement of high speed time domain signals wouldn’t be possible. For high speed measurement you should consider signal parameters like amplitude, source impedance, rise time and bandwidth”.
Oscilloscope probes for accurate signal measurements - [Link]
Here’s how to build a simple LM317 based power supply. Ladyada.net writes:
“Being able to poke voltages into your projects will help you debug. You can buy an adjustable power supply for $50 or so, or build your own from a kit. You can also build it for $10 using a 9V battery as input and test clips for outputs. This won’t be able to provide a lot of power (cause its just a 9V) but it can go pretty far for testing and debugging.”
A basic LM317-based power supply - [Link]
Want to produce your own laser show? So, why don’t you build a laser projector? The guys on the site below build a very interesting x-y laser projector. The basic components used are: a laser source, a blanking module or a modulator, a beam switcher, a X-Y scanner and other components. Detailed instructions shows you how a laser projector works and how you can build your own components using simple materials. Enjoy!
Home Built Laser Projector - [Link]
This is a really interesting LED matrix project. Combining together many matrix boards you can build a large LED matrix with unbelievable results! Schematic and PCB board are included on the author’s site. These guys concept:
“We set out to harness the power of the LED. As a single discrete element, the LED is a simple binary indicator. By grouping many LEDs together, like pixels, more and more information can be conveyed. The trick is to find the most efficient way of addressing the state of each LED.”
L.E.D: luscious electric delight - [Link]