Electrical Engineering V3 - Developers

I'm using xc8 C compiler to program a PIC18F13K22 (for school projects). I'm having some issues figuring out how to read PWM inputs, anyone who can help me out?

A friend sent me this Kickstarter. [url]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/144859729/slushengine-stepper-motor-driver[/url] [img]http://i.imgur.com/QWWeWc3.png[/img] Its basically an easy to use stepper motor controller for the Raspberry Pi. I am not that experienced with the platform but I would have thought its not too hard to drive a stepper with a Pi. Either way it's a pretty interesting idea. What do you guys think about it?

Looks pretty neat, I like the industrial automation vibe from it. It could be a nice board for someone prototyping some factory line equipment.

I just wonder what it's gonna bring to the table that current Arduino solutions don't do.

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;47579555]I just wonder what it's gonna bring to the table that current Arduino solutions don't do.[/QUOTE] RPI Computing power? May have its uses in more complicated applications like robots?

Among other things, it's good for vision recognition systems. i.e. a robot with face recognition. [editline]23rd April 2015[/editline] that stepper board looks kinda huge. To me it seems like they didn't optimize the layout.

[QUOTE=quincy18;47580177]RPI Computing power? May have its uses in more complicated applications like robots?[/QUOTE] Yeah, but his big selling point seems to be for things like 3D printers and the like. There are many one-chip/board motor control solutions out there for stuff like that.

We have RAMPS (Reprap Arduino Mega Pololu Shield) 1.4 for 3D printers, and derivatives of that which are designed for the Pi. [editline]23rd April 2015[/editline] Ah, I've been trying to find my arduino unos to realize they're still at my parents house.

How strange, I got a program for my Arduino nano that uploads fine on 1.0.5, but on 1.6.3 it uploads seemingly fine but refuses to do anything. port selection and stuff is the same on both. I've got other programs with the same libraries working as well, but this particular one just refuses to work :v: [editline]24th April 2015[/editline] figured out the issue: in 1.0.5 [QUOTE]for(int i; i < value; i++)[/QUOTE] set the value of i as 0 when initiated. This is not the case in 1.6 and up anymore, so changing it to int i = 0 fixed it

I've always just put it in as i=0, I never knew the IDE defaulted ints to 0 if they weren't assigned. In other news I'm looking for a good enclosure that won't break the bank and also isn't the typical black plastic box. I'm making a usb to rs485 adapter and I want a flashy looking case for it. Anybody here in the loop on cheap cases? This would be going into a commercial installation so I'm looking for a professional appearance. I wish aluminum boxes weren't so expensive.

[url=http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=aluminum+project+box&_frs=1]Ebay is your friend[/url].

Wow, somehow I completely forgot about those extruded aluminum boxes. It's not like I ordered five of them last year or anything.

How do you guys choose your components for projects? I've been thinking of making this light controller with an ATmini, but I can't decide on which components to use. Sometimes I find components I want to use, but then I can't find them in Eagle.

[QUOTE=Gulen;47590234]How do you guys choose your components for projects? I've been thinking of making this light controller with an ATmini, but I can't decide on which components to use. Sometimes I find components I want to use, but then I can't find them in Eagle.[/QUOTE] I usually make my own footprints if there isn't a match available, a little time consuming but worth the effort.

Made an amplifier for an ADC. That output you see is coming from a 100mV pk-pk signal centered at 0. Amplified to 3.8V and shifted above 0 ready to be fed into the microprocessor. [img]http://i.imgur.com/ePhSpjQ.jpg[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/B7zwWLd.png[/img]

The feedback low pass filter capacitor is too large, your output is -3dB down at 300Hz, something like 470pF would be better, this will increase your low frequency gain as well so you may need to reduce the gain a bit or attenuate the input slightly.

Dont know how many of you follow EEVblog but this just fucking insane: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8nbHYOc8ns[/media]

I kinda follow. I find Dave gets annoying rather quickly.

If there was some way it could happen, I'd make that place FP's EE thread secret base.

So I've gotten the OK from the owner of the place to finally start posting photos of the power plant I was able to visit last year before it was torn down. I'm going to put up a full writeup here in a bit because I think that there was a lot of stuff there that you guys would find interesting. Here's one of the few rooms I was able to get a picture of. Yes, I have two of those guages and I'm making one of them into a clock. [t]http://i.imgur.com/WbsFl7a.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/CYJxDj8.jpg[/t] I only took about 20+ pictures while I was there and regret it to this day. However I got a ton of great stuff that really makes up for it.

I want to start fucking around with an arduino, but I can't decide on what to buy. Any suggestions?

[QUOTE=Metherat;47621428]I want to start fucking around with an arduino, but I can't decide on what to buy. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE] Get one that has USB and the removable chip for starters. That way you can shrink your projects down by using the Arduino board as a programmer essentially and you won't have to fuss with USB-serial adapters. (you can buy more blank ATMega chips for like $1-2 and burn the boot-loader onto them through the board later) Then just find a small kit of parts with some resistors, capacitors, switches, light-sensing elements (either photo-transistors or resistive photocells), LEDs, some basic transistors, maybe a servo or motor (remember to NEVER drive a motor directly off the Arduino, plenty of tutorials online to help you with that) and maybe a buzzer. That should be good enough to get you started and mucking about with stuff/getting a feel for it, then you can move on to the more advanced stuff like displays, wireless communications, shift-registers, etc.

So I'm designing a MIDI controller for my music production, and I'm quickly realizing I'm going to be using about 40 ADC channels. Are there any specific considerations I should be taking into account when designing something that has this many analog lines and is there a better, more cost-effective way to do this than to use something like the MCP3008?

[IMG]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/IMG_9017.jpg[/IMG] God these are hard to get hold of. Ended up shipping from some butts place in Russia.

Hey fellas is there any readily available glue I can put at the base of an smd inductor to reduce coil noise?

[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;47634985]Hey fellas is there any readily available glue I can put at the base of an smd inductor to reduce coil noise?[/QUOTE] Hard epoxy would work, for just a single component really any hard-setting glue would work (I'd avoid silicones). Depends upon the size too, generally if your smd inductor is rather small, it's kinda redundant considering the solder joints are already holding it down pretty well to the board.

It's index finger sized silicone was what was originally suggested to me because it's flexes but I don't have that. I do have epoxy however.

So I'm putting this: [t]http://i.imgur.com/UOT196Z.png[/t] Onto one of these: [img]http://i.gyazo.com/0901e03cb609a6ac18483912ef256acd.png[/img] Here goes nothing. I've even made it harder by only buying one of each of the ICs. No fuckups allowed.

I'd suggest using dip sockets.

Nope too late I'm in too deep now to quit [t]http://i.imgur.com/9ZHR0H7.jpg[/t] [editline]30th April 2015[/editline] Done. [t]http://i.imgur.com/1QjhR41.jpg[/t][t]http://i.imgur.com/iV5sJD1.jpg[/t] I wouldn't wish doing that upon my worst enemy. Literally the hardest thing I've done EE wise. Damn solder bridges are the hardest thing in the world. BTW it's an isolated serial to RS485 board, if you're wondering.