[QUOTE=ddrl46;32906395]The reason he wants to use one diode instead of 4 or a all in one rectifier package is since he wants to "save" space.[/QUOTE]
Just totally disregard the argument about efficiency while you're at it and the fact a single diode is easier to source and cheaper.
[QUOTE=SubbyV-2;32919270]Just totally disregard the argument about efficiency while you're at it and the fact a single diode is easier to source and cheaper.[/QUOTE]
Pay 2 cents for one instead of 8 cents for four?
I once bought 2 belts with 100 diodes each for 3€. It will probably enough for the next 3-4 years or so.
[QUOTE=DrLuke;32921881]Relay Oscillator!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faAqVI17rvc[/media][/QUOTE]
Did you use both relays for your oscillator? I think I've seen it being done with one relay before.
[QUOTE=ddrl46;32923033]Did you use both relays for your oscillator? I think I've seen it being done with one relay before.[/QUOTE]
You can of course use only one, but I thought it was more exciting when I use 2 relays.
[QUOTE=DrLuke;32921881]Relay Oscillator!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faAqVI17rvc[/media][/QUOTE]
Well now I know what to do should I ever have too many damn relays and I want to wear them all the fuck out really fast. Thanks, Science!
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;32928964]Well now I know what to do should I ever have too many damn relays and I want to wear them all the fuck out really fast. Thanks, Science![/QUOTE]
Actually they stopped working 5 seconds after the video, lol
Managed to get serial communications between my ATTiny2313 and my PC working, finally! Now time to make some creative applications using it.
Edit:
Here's a pic I took of the terminal. Both strings are sent to the terminal from my Tiny, wrote a small print function. Pressing enter sends a byte to the Tiny which prompts a carriage return, vertical tab, and a '>'. Next I'll quickly write up a command parser so I can have it execute functions using the terminal.
[IMG]http://i51.tinypic.com/24320qp.png[/IMG]
My setup-
[IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/250noy1.jpg[/IMG]
Got my Arduino in the mail today. I've been doing some small tests on the shitty breadboard I have. Can't wait to try out some more complex experiments when my bigger breadboard and more complex components arrive tomorrow :)
I can't get my LCD to display any text :(
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/UT9Iv.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=thisBrad;32970478]I can't get my LCD to display any text :(
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/UT9Iv.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Have you adjusted the contrast?
[QUOTE=ddrl46;32970984]Have you adjusted the contrast?[/QUOTE]
Thank you :v:
I forgot to put a resistor from LCD Pin to Ground.
edit:
Also cut down on the backlight. 5V was a little too bright.
Here is a simple question: How do I protect a microcontroller so that nothing happens to it or it's ports when I finally do something retarded when wiring it to something? E.g. connect 24V where 5V should go, etc.
[QUOTE=Nikita;33018320]Here is a simple question: How do I protect a microcontroller so that nothing happens to it or it's ports when I finally do something retarded when wiring it to something? E.g. connect 24V where 5V should go, etc.[/QUOTE]
-snip- Incorrect advice, I know nothing :v:
Edit:
This thread is pretty dead, we need more content.
Finished argument parsing in my shell, didn't get much time to work on it over the week but its finally the weekend, time to break out my soldering iron and board and get to work!
[QUOTE=amazer97;33019205]Don't take my word on this, but I think capacitators are used for this? You wire one up in front and it regulates voltage if I understand correctly, but get someone to double check this statement first.[/QUOTE]
It doesn't work like that.
Caps are generally used for [i]filtering[/i] in power supply circuitry. They will not regulate voltage.
As for the overvoltage issue, on AVR microcontrollers (and boards that use them, like the Arduino), each I/O pin already has voltage clamping diodes which drain current when voltage exceeds VCC. In this case, all you need to do to protect the diode is use current-limiting resistors.
For ICs without clamping/protection diodes built-in, you can use something like this:
[IMG]http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/1017/signalprotect2.png[/IMG]
or
[IMG]http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/6330/signalprotect.png[/IMG]
That thing in the middle of the latter diagram is a zener diode. They're diodes designed to go into zener breakdown at a particular reverse bias voltage.
How do you guys know which resistors and caps to buy before you decide on a project?
I forgot my collection at home when I moved here from Cyprus so now I have to wait a month or so for sister to mail it to me. In the mean time, I can't think of anything smarter than just buying 5 of everything.
[QUOTE=Nikita;33025351]How do you guys know which resistors and caps to buy before you decide on a project?
I forgot my collection at home when I moved here from Cyprus so now I have to wait a month or so for sister to mail it to me. In the mean time, I can't think of anything smarter than just buying 5 of everything.[/QUOTE]
Most of us have a full set of resistors (usually consisting of the E12 or E24 series) so the only time you need to buy some is when you need high power, low TC or high accuracy.
The same pretty much goes for capacitors.
So, I'm thinking about picking up an inexpensive FPGA board at the end of November, and I'm wondering if anyone here in the thread has experience working with FPGAs, or has any tips for a beginner?
I've got my eye on the [url=http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=593]Terasic DE0-nano[/url], mainly because it's cheap, and I'm thinking of starting with Verilog as opposed to VHDL because I find the syntax less intimidating. I'm thinking my biggest problem is going to be shifting back into digital logic design as opposed to procedural programming.
[QUOTE=Lapsus;33036942]So, I'm thinking about picking up an inexpensive FPGA board at the end of November, and I'm wondering if anyone here in the thread has experience working with FPGAs, or has any tips for a beginner?
I've got my eye on the [url=http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=593]Terasic DE0-nano[/url], mainly because it's cheap, and I'm thinking of starting with Verilog as opposed to VHDL because I find the syntax less intimidating. I'm thinking my biggest problem is going to be shifting back into digital logic design as opposed to procedural programming.[/QUOTE]
If you have some extra money you should look at the DE1.
[QUOTE=Lapsus;33036942]So, I'm thinking about picking up an inexpensive FPGA board at the end of November, and I'm wondering if anyone here in the thread has experience working with FPGAs, or has any tips for a beginner?
I've got my eye on the [url=http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=593]Terasic DE0-nano[/url], mainly because it's cheap, and I'm thinking of starting with Verilog as opposed to VHDL because I find the syntax less intimidating. I'm thinking my biggest problem is going to be shifting back into digital logic design as opposed to procedural programming.[/QUOTE]
I was actually looking at the same dev board. I've done a little VHDL for a course. The language itself isn't really that bad, but the Xilinx software is buggy to the point of uselessness. It seems like FPGAs are one of the more difficult things to get started with as a hobbyist. It's not like MCUs where you've got a $5 system with integrated memory in a DIP package, ready for breadboarding, plus DIY programmers and a ton of well-supported (usually open-source) software tools.
With FPGAs, you're pretty much forced to use the manufacturer's proprietary tools, which are usually garbage.
[QUOTE=Nikita;33025351]How do you guys know which resistors and caps to buy before you decide on a project?
I forgot my collection at home when I moved here from Cyprus so now I have to wait a month or so for sister to mail it to me. In the mean time, I can't think of anything smarter than just buying 5 of everything.[/QUOTE]
I once bought a resistor and ceramic cap pack. It basically has all more or less common values, and if it doesn't have it, you can combine some resistors or caps together to get your desired value.
This is probably a long shot but, for one of my modules at uni we will be programming ARM CPU's.
I havent actually started the labs so I dont know what version/language/anything we will use other than just ARM.
I wanted to get some basic experience and wondered if there are any good tutorials/simulators/IDE's...
Programming an ARM in something like C is just like programming any other processor. If you're writing assembly, that'll be a lot cleaner/simpler than most other processors, since ARM is a RISC system with a crapton of general-purpose registers. It's got some nice features like conditional execution of any basic instruction, and being able to do arithmetic operations without affecting the current value of the status register.
I had the misfortune of having to learn assembly on a Freescale/Motorola 6800-type processor. It was godawful.
Do you know of any tutorials?
Also are there any simulators? or emulators?
[QUOTE=Richy19;33060788]Do you know of any tutorials?
Also are there any simulators? or emulators?[/QUOTE]
There is a list of some useful stuff in the OP.
As for circuit simulators the free Java Circuit Simulator is great for testing simple things, other better simulators I can recommend are Qucs, LTSpice and Multisim 10 (non-free) but nothing beats doing it yourself and seeing the results, simulators are not perfect.
[QUOTE=ddrl46;33037239]If you have some extra money you should look at the DE1.[/QUOTE]
I might be able to scare up the extra cash for that, it looks quite nice. Between all the extra features, the only things that I'd have to wire up would be the occasional sensor or gauge for projects that need them. Thanks for telling my about it, I probably would have tunnel-visioned at the de0 nano otherwise.
[editline]2nd November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;33040958]I was actually looking at the same dev board. I've done a little VHDL for a course. The language itself isn't really that bad, but the Xilinx software is buggy to the point of uselessness. It seems like FPGAs are one of the more difficult things to get started with as a hobbyist. It's not like MCUs where you've got a $5 system with integrated memory in a DIP package, ready for breadboarding, plus DIY programmers and a ton of well-supported (usually open-source) software tools.
With FPGAs, you're pretty much forced to use the manufacturer's proprietary tools, which are usually garbage.[/QUOTE]
Aw shit, I don't really want to be locked into one vendor's tools. Oh well, on the plus side, in theory, there's a whole bunch of other people out there stuck using the same tools that know all the workarounds and esoteric rituals needed to make things work.
Hi,
I'm doing the Engineering Education Scheme at school and my team is sponsored by Selex Galileo, a weapons distributor, so they set us the task of creating a underwater ROV. We have about £400 to do it in.
We've come up with a design which we like, but it's not yet translated into CAD but I'll post that in here when we do. Essentially, we have 2 motors controlling propulsion and steering (1 motor turning on it's own to turn the vehicle, both motors turning to go forward/backwards) and 1 motor controlling height in the water.
We've looked into a couple of ways of controlling the motors - Arduino and this thing called Phidget. We'd ideally like it to be a wireless transmission from a computer to a floating platform which is sort of like an umbilical cord with wires connecting it to the vehicle underwater, since wireless signals don't fare well through water.
What are the pros and cons of using computer control via Arduino/Phidget, as opposed to normal radio control with a joystick, and what are the advantages Arduino has over Phidget and vice versa?
The code doesn't look like too much of a problem since ROVs have been done before in both Arduino and Phidget and people have posted the code which we can just copy, plus I know web programming so I can probably pick up the likes of Python and C++ fairly easily. So far the only problem I see with Phidget is that it has to be a completely tethered connection, but apart from that Phidget looks very simple which is good.
I know it's a lot to ask, but any advice or help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX9kpe07NHg[/media]
Best video ever.
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