With all the amazing and wonderful things a Raspberry Pi can do, it is sorely lacking a dedicated ADC chip. Sure, you can wire up an ADC via SPI or even I2C with a little work, but still. It would be nice to have access to an Analog to Digital converter without having to go through the trouble. Fortunately, [Hussam] has figured out a way to do just this.
Using a comparator, two resistors, a single capacitor and a few lines of code, [Hussam] managed to get an active ADC working on his Raspberry Pi. He’s using the PWM1 and a passive RC filter to make a DAC. He then uses the comparator along with a ‘ successive approximation algorithm’ to complete the ADC.
[Hussam] mentions that the hack is not new, and this technique has been used before for microcrotrollers that lack a built-in ADC. But we are still impressed with his attention to detail in describing how to do this on a Raspi. Be sure to check out the link for full details, code, and an awesome description on how his algorithm works.
A box containing sensors is installed in the flower bed. The intent of this project was not to have the Raspberry Pi spit out hard factual data regarding soil moistness, temperature and ambient noise, but to instead take that data from the sensors and send out a story-like narrative that makes the communication feel more personal. To receive these comments from the poppies, you can follow them on Twitter: @tweetingpoppy.
