In the November 2010 issue of Nuts and Volts, we built a wireless device to alert us when the garage door was left open. Since then, I’ve had several readers suggest other uses for the ”Wireless Garage Door Transmitter”. The transmitter unit has the capability of inputting three signals on the terminals provided. The unit works such that any type of switch that connects to ground and to a terminal that is closed will cause a green light to display. When opened it will display a red light and if the alarm button is armed it will cause the alarm to sound. Here are three hacks to allow you to use the transmitter for other purposes.
How would you like to generate your own bitmaps to display on the 128x64 graphics kit that was introduced in the April 2010 issue of Nuts & Volts? Or even go the next step and produce animation with the same basic techniques? We’ll show you how easy it is to add this capability to your 16-bit Micro Experimenter using a cool tool from http://www.pavius.net
In part 1 of this feature, we discussed how to use the MCP23S08 device to add digital I/O to the Experimenter. Now, we’ll discuss the associated software to make this work. The demo software is written in PIC24F C Compiler and is available here as a software downloadable project. The demo uses the MCP23S08 device to emulate an eight bit output port. All of the outputs are configured to drive their own individual LEDs through an external current limiting 100 ohm resistor. The microcontroller turns each LED on and off, one at a time, in sequence. In addition, the LCD on the Experimenter announces the demo.
Let’s jump right in with an overview of the software.
If you’ve been following the 16-Bit Micro Experimenter series in Nuts & Volts, you are already familiar with its solderless breadboard environment and the fully programmable 10 line I/O expansion bus that comes with the kit. The 10 lines can be assigned to be digital, analog or even connected to any of the PIC24F Microcontroller’s internal extensive peripheral set (i.e. dual UART, five CCP modules, ADC, Real time Clock Calendar, dual SPI, and dual I2C).
But, if you find this 10 line I/O capability constraining, there’s a really cool enhancement to add even more I/O to your kit…
This project details how to build a Smart/SIM card reader/writer for experimentation and investigation of SIM & Smart cards.Once the reader design is built, the open source software can be used to read from and write to the card. Together they can be used to backup/restore stored SIM card data, recover deleted SMS’s and phone contacts, examine the last phone numbers dialed, etc.
If you are a beginning musician, it is often desirable to have a metronome to help keep cadence while playing. This circuit describes a variable rate metronome constructed with easy to find components.
Turning LEDs on and off is fun and all, but why not add a sensor or two that would be useful for something other than the usual light show? Read More...
Advances in technology often decrease price points, but not usefulness. See how to turn one circuit into several devices that most homeowners would find invaluable. Read More...
Even the lowest grade frequency counters are often the most accurate instruments on the test bench. This article will describe their general principle operation, but more specifically on the construction and retrofitting into existing equipment such as the sweep generator and RF signal generator covered in recent issues. Plus, we'll take a look at expanding added features, all the way to a full blown universal counter. Read More...
It is no secret that we are running out of spectrum space for certain new and/or improved wireless services. One potential solution for this can be found in the white space spectrum. Read More...
We have finally eaten most all of that elephant we started cooking a couple of issues back. This month, we will add touch and audio routines to our FT800 driver. By the time you have digested this edition of Design Cycle, you will be able to command the FT800 to draw buttons and text, detect touch events, and generate audio. Read More...
