Electronic Watering Can

February 7, 2011 by Kevin Dady 10 Comments

When [Deddies lab] was looking to keep their (rather large) Ficus Lyrata appropriately watered, they followed their motto, stuck a micro controller on it and whipped up an Electronic Watering Can .

The whole thing starts off with power that is switched on once a day for 15 minutes by a traditional mechanical lamp timer, and that is connected to a atmega8 micro controller running @ 1MHz which increments a counter by one. When that counter hits 7 the mega switches on a pump, watering the plant with roughly half a liter of water per week out of a bucket reservoir , which according to the article’s calculations should last about 4 months.

In order to assure that the pump does not run out of water a rubber duck was attached to a string, the other end is attached to a micro switch, and when the water gets too low the string is pulled, switching one of the micro controller’s pins low.

While we agree that it could use a low water indicator, that is trivial to add, and over all the project represents a great hack done on a Sunday using parts and materials already on hand. Join us after the break for a quick video too!

Continue reading “Electronic Watering Can” →

Custom Enclosures Made Of Paper

February 5, 2011 by Kevin Dady 47 Comments

[Sivan Toledo] needed a enclosure for a unique sized electronic project, not finding what he needed in off the shelf solutions, he went to the next best thing, … Papier Mâché!

Using a mold made out of standard corrugated cardboard, he slowly built up layers made of magazine paper, and ordinary “white glue” diluted with water. After getting near the thickness wanted he switched over to typing / copy type paper for a nice clean outer surface. Ports were made in the usual fashion when dealing with soft or thin material, drill a smaller hole, going back with successively larger holes, and then follow up with an appropriate file, all while taking things slow along the way to prevent unwanted results. Finishing up with layers of paper carefully cut into strips to meet the circumferences / edges, along with the final outer surface to make it all even.

The end result is awesome as it stands, but we cant help but wonder what some sanding and paint would look like on a enclosure made like this, though any way you finish it, the idea comes down to custom enclosures that do not need special tools or materials to complete (on the cheap).

Thanks [Drone]

Homebrew Mp3 Player With Some Bonus Features

February 4, 2011 by Kevin Dady 16 Comments

When [falldeaf] set about making his own homebrew Mp3 player, he ended up at the same place we most do while looking into the subject, the wonderful Minty Mp3. Basing the design on [Adafruit Industries] popular board, we are presented The Mp3 Garbler.

First change of the project was to replace the sometimes difficult to find ST013, or the more expensive ST015T Mp3 decoder chip, and the CS4340 digital to analog cconverter with a single vs1001k, which we have checked out before. And while yes VLSI says that the 1001 series is a discontinued product, and it may be a bit hard to find now days, they also offer an updated model on their website, which should suit the application fine.

Next up is a useful LCD display sporting a Sparkfun lcd backpack, that shows us all the important to know music info. And finally there is a 10×14 led matrix display, that can be used to display all sort of user feedback icons, and is driven by a MAX6953, which we think is a pretty spiffy chip.

While there is no schematic, there are brd files, and source code available for your PIC18F452 or similar micro controller to complete your own

A Briefing On Integrated Circuits

February 4, 2011 by Kevin Dady 14 Comments

Although technology is constantly racing to faster / smaller / more, so many of the fundamentals of how it is made remains similar, if not the same. This interesting 30 minute video clip [thanks to The Computer History Museum] was made in 1967 by Fairchild Semiconductor as a briefing on integrated circuits, and shows the different steps to produce ICs including:

Design, making the photo masks, manufacturing the silicon ingots, preparing the wafers, building of the circuit and its components (like transistors, resistors, and capacitors), testing, and final packaging. Add in some other cool items of interest such as a 1960’s pick n place machine, wave soldering, an automatic wirewrap machine, and toss in some retro computer action and it’s surely a video worth watching, with something for everyone.

So join us after the break, kick back and enjoy the show!

Continue reading “A Briefing On Integrated Circuits” →