Projects

PIC16F688 Diode Tester

Microcontroller based Diode and Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) tester using PIC16F688

Introduction Most of the digital multimeters these days have built-in features for testing diodes and sometimes transistors. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate a simple way to construct a testing device for diodes and bipolar junction transitors (BJTs) using a microcontroller. The testing algorithm is based on a simple fact that a working […]

High level design 5

ECE 4760 Project: Kendo Sword Trainer

Introduction For our final project, we built a system to aid in practicing kendo sword strikes by providing feedback to a kendo practitioner for improving their form. A set of three piezoelectric sensors on a helmet were used to detect the location and strength of the strike. Thus, the set of piezoelectric sensors would help […]

temperature sensor

A Digital temperature meter using an LM35 temperature sensor using PIC16F688

Introduction A digital thermometer is a good choice of project for beginners who just stepped in to the world of microcontrollers because it provides an opportunity to learn using sensors to measure the real world signals that are analog in nature. This article describes a similar project based on a PIC16F688 microcontroller and an LM35 […]

thermistor

Experimenting with a thermistor using PIC16F1937

Recently i won a bid for a batch of 10K thermistors. The only thing that i knew when i got them in my hand, was that those things are 10K thermistors. As far as i know, the 10K nominal resistance is at room temperature (25�C). But i had to find out if these are PTC […]

VGA display

VGA display using PIC18F452 microcontroller

For quite some time I’ve been wanting to create a device that outputs VGA signals. My main goal was of course to be able to display whatever I wanted on the monitor I was currently using. After extensively researching to see if this project had previously been attempted (or anything similar) I became very frustrated […]

2 Digit up or down COUNTER

2 Digit up/down Counter using PIC16F628A

This project comes via two circuits on 2 boards. The first circuit is designed around a PIC16F628A. It has been presented on an experimental PC board using surface-mount components and was built in less than 1 hour, with about 2 hours to write and finalise the program. See  P1,   P2 The second circuit uses a […]

Image of final device

ECE 4760: Latte Art Machine

Introduction For our final project ECE4760: Microcontrollers, our group created a cappuccino art designer that would automatically pour milk into coffee, while creating the classical latte art design. For this project, our group used a Houston Instrument Omnigraphic 2000 X-Y Plotter and a peristaltic pump to create a cappuccino art designer. One end of the […]

Wifi robot

Wifi robot vehicle controlled by PIC16F628A

Introduction Wifi Robot: A remote control car that can be driven over the internet or with a laptop wirelessly from up to 500m away. It has a live-feed network camera so that it can be driven without line of sight and a horn so that you can honk at people. A while ago I discovered […]

Motion detection alarm

Motion detection alarm using a PIR sensor module with a PIC12F635

Introduction This project describes a motion sensor alarm based on a Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensor module. There are many vendors that manufacture the PIR sensor modules and almost all of them are pretty much the same in function. They have a single output that goes high (or low, based on specification) when the motion is […]

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY using PIC12F629 Microcontroller

Why spend $10.00 on a Happy Birthday musical card when you can produce the tune yourself. This project uses just 4 components and a small prototype PC board to produce a project that will teach you a lot about programming. The circuit uses a piezo diaphragm connected to pins 3 and 5. That’s the only […]