|
When society collapses we'll be the wizards of oz irl though
|
# ? Feb 9, 2010 21:28 |
|
|
# ? May 21, 2024 17:49 |
or burned at the stake for witch-craft.
|
|
# ? Feb 9, 2010 21:40 |
|
Naw i have hella guns and i'll use my skills to make autonomous turrets so they can't get me
|
# ? Feb 9, 2010 22:03 |
Well, since the whole family is here, who wants to do some brainstorming? I have been looking for relatively simple projects (simple being relative, just not too big so that I get distracted before I finish) to make what would ideally end up being decent desktoys. Something interesting to look at that is not necessarily useful. (Nixie clocks are the obvious exception) So far I have mostly constructed a Nixie clock (hope to have it done soonish), the parts for a time fountain although I haven't started it, and I've been spending my evenings working on a photodiode powered LED project that I ended up finding in Make magazine after I started it The photodiode project is kind of neat, I purchased some plastic flowers from Michaels and was planning to make a bouquet of flowers that charged up caps slowly when in sunlight and just made the flowers glow randomly. VDay is coming quickly and I haven't got it working yet, but I'm feeling lucky tonight Does anyone have any other ideas for neat projects? Maybe not even for me to build, but it would be cool to have a directory of neat projects that people could think about building when they're looking for inspiration.
|
|
# ? Feb 9, 2010 23:32 |
|
Anyone have a link to a good VHDL tutorial? My digital systems teacher doesn't, so it looks like I'm going to have to teach this to myself.
|
# ? Feb 9, 2010 23:32 |
|
I dunno about tutorials, just the stuff in Wakerly seems to be enough for the vhdl I've done
|
# ? Feb 9, 2010 23:35 |
that time fountain is awesome.... I wanna build one.
|
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 00:52 |
|
Is anyone familiar with the PSoC from Cypress Semiconductor? Through a somewhat odd series of events I've come into possession of quite a few PSoC-1 chips, a bunch of different development boards, a programming unit, and some other poo poo I haven't even positively identified yet. It's all cast-off equipment from a company that was developing a robot of some sort, but ultimately decided to go with another core system. [Insert odd series of events here] and then I ended up with all of it. I've got a very light background in electronics and some motion control stuff, but mostly I'm just your basic aircraft electrician/wire monkey/avionics systems integrator kind of guy. This looks like it might be a phenomenal opportunity for me to cut my teeth on something new, but I don't want to get all excited about this PSoC if it's really just a PoS.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 02:59 |
|
Acid Reflux posted:Is anyone familiar with the PSoC from Cypress Semiconductor? Through a somewhat odd series of events I've come into possession of quite a few PSoC-1 chips, a bunch of different development boards, a programming unit, and some other poo poo I haven't even positively identified yet. It's all cast-off equipment from a company that was developing a robot of some sort, but ultimately decided to go with another core system. [Insert odd series of events here] and then I ended up with all of it. Hey it's free, nothing wrong with that. It can't possible be less useful than a BASIC stamp and if you are able to program them in C you can reuse a lot of what you'll learn on other systems if you end up finding something you like better.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 03:35 |
|
Acid Reflux posted:Is anyone familiar with the PSoC from Cypress Semiconductor? Through a somewhat odd series of events I've come into possession of quite a few PSoC-1 chips, a bunch of different development boards, a programming unit, and some other poo poo I haven't even positively identified yet. It's all cast-off equipment from a company that was developing a robot of some sort, but ultimately decided to go with another core system. [Insert odd series of events here] and then I ended up with all of it. Depends on what you want to do. PSoCs are basically FPGAs with analog and digital function blocks. So you can configure it pretty much any way you want. DIY avionics would be pretty interesting. You could probably make part of a lightning detector out of them. Radar altimeter. Passive TCAS. Or maybe for a start make a very small servo control for foam airplanes?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 10:34 |
|
Oh gee, that rules out programming them in C. That's what I get for assuming the "SoC" stands for "system on chip".
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 15:10 |
|
Delta-Wye posted:Well, since the whole family is here, who wants to do some brainstorming? You could make The Most Useless Machine Along the lines of nixes, you can also make a four letter word generator buy my tubes.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 16:15 |
|
BattleMaster posted:Oh gee, that rules out programming them in C. That's what I get for assuming the "SoC" stands for "system on chip". It actually does stand for "Programmable System on Chip," and I *think* you might be right about programming in C. From what (little) I know at this point, the software suite that goes along with this whole mess is basically a drag-n-drop programming interface, with the added ability to create your own routines in one of the C languages. I'm going to sit down with the Cypress web site tonight and educate myself a little on exactly what I've got. Hopefully an evening's worth of reading will give me something to work with. This is one of those deals where conceptually, I know what all these gizmos are for. Practically, I have absolutely no idea how to operate any of them just yet. It'll be a fun learning experience (I hope, anyway) and I'm looking forward to diving in and getting something working, however simple it may be.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2010 18:27 |
|
Delta-Wye posted:Well, since the whole family is here, who wants to do some brainstorming? I like to finish stuff before I admit to having an idea. Here's one that I had from when I was just starting out, though. I forgot about it until just now, while I'm doing homework. A calculator with a "resistors in parallel" button ante fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Feb 10, 2010 |
# ? Feb 10, 2010 22:02 |
|
Vivek posted:Can anyone explain to me what a bias tee is? According to Wikipedia it seems to separate high and low frequencies, but I'm not sure what that has to do with biasing. A bias-tee separates or mixes DC and RF signals. A typical bias-tee circuit consists of a capacitor between the input and output and a choke on one side to ground. The RF passes through the cap unimpeded while the DC is shorted to ground.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 04:33 |
|
ante posted:I like to finish stuff before I admit to having an idea. Just use the "1/X" button. Push it after each number, then hit [=] [1/X] [=] for the answer.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 05:11 |
|
That takes two buttons on the calculator I usually use. And I use it because it handles complex numbers very well, but parallel stuff means millions of brackets. ...
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 06:03 |
|
The x-1 button on my 10-year-old ti-83 is just about as convenient as anything. For parallel resistors you've gotta throw in some parenthesis but it ain't no thang cause there's buttons for that too.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 06:18 |
|
Yeah, my friends would use r1*r2/(r1+r2) but I would always forget which were multiplied and which were added. Having an X^-1 button helps a lot.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 18:48 |
|
Aluminum Record posted:Yeah, my friends would use r1*r2/(r1+r2) but I would always forget which were multiplied and which were added. Having an X^-1 button helps a lot. It's like a pyramid. It takes more space to write the addition part.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 20:45 |
|
ante posted:Stick with a fixed 5v supply for now, probably. When you really need something else, look up datasheets for an LM317 and some of the other ones mentioned above. They usually provide pretty simple diagrams that work well. I've just been using an old spare computer PSU. Simple and cheap; it's worked well enough for my needs so far. I've been interested in doing stuff with digital circuits for a while now (stuff is intentionally vague, since I haven't made up my mind on anything yet). I've been looking into getting an oscilloscope, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for. I gather that bandwidth and sample rate are key factors in what you'll be able to do with an oscilloscope, but unfortunately, I have no context as to what a certain bandwidth would or wouldn't allow me to do. Can anyone give/point at real-world examples of what, say, a 50MHz would/wouldn't be able to do? Also, PC-based scopes seem to be a good way to get better measurements for your money. Confirm/Deny?
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 22:28 |
|
quote:I've been interested in doing stuff with digital circuits for a while now (stuff is intentionally vague, since I haven't made up my mind on anything yet). I've been looking into getting an oscilloscope, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for. I gather that bandwidth and sample rate are key factors in what you'll be able to do with an oscilloscope, but unfortunately, I have no context as to what a certain bandwidth would or wouldn't allow me to do. Can anyone give/point at real-world examples of what, say, a 50MHz would/wouldn't be able to do? Also, PC-based scopes seem to be a good way to get better measurements for your money. Confirm/Deny? http://www.afrotechmods.com/groovy/oscilloscope_tutorial/oscilloscope_tutorial.htm Corla Plankun fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Feb 11, 2010 |
# ? Feb 11, 2010 22:40 |
|
Zhentar posted:I've just been using an old spare computer PSU. Simple and cheap; it's worked well enough for my needs so far. If you have an Arduino already, just google "Arduino oscilloscope." For scopes, you have to have a feel for frequencies to know what bandwidths you need. You have to work with them enough to have a concept of what's fast, and what's slow. For digital stuff, 50MHz is really fast. That's on the upper end clock speeds of any circuits you'd be working on, probably. Obviously any professional capacity will need higher, but it should be lots for hobbyists. For reference, Arduinos are clocked at 8MHz out of the factory, but can go up to 21ish
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 22:50 |
|
Recent Arduinos come at 16 MHz from the factory
|
# ? Feb 11, 2010 23:08 |
|
My Spartan-3E is clocked at 50Mhz. But that doesn't necessarily relate to the frequency of any output I want to measure, which is where I get hung up. Thanks for the link; that was surprisingly informative for a 3 minute video. Assuming I don't see something I like on eBay, is this a terrible choice? http://www.saelig.com/PSBEB100/PSSA004.htm
|
# ? Feb 12, 2010 00:19 |
|
Corla Plankun posted:Scope stuff I use a PicoScope PC based scope, and it is an extremely well desgined product. I fully recommened them. http://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope.html I got a 10Mhz model which is plenty for getting into electronics. I paid $400 for the scope and 2 probes from Saelig (great company, BTW)
|
# ? Feb 12, 2010 00:57 |
|
isagoon posted:I use a PicoScope PC based scope, and it is an extremely well desgined product. I fully recommened them. It looks like the PicoScope lines carry a pretty hefty price premium over the other scopes on saelig with similar bandwidths. What's the benefit? much better software?
|
# ? Feb 12, 2010 01:31 |
|
Zhentar posted:It looks like the PicoScope lines carry a pretty hefty price premium over the other scopes on saelig with similar bandwidths. What's the benefit? much better software? First off, the build quality of the unit is solid as hell. Plastic is very thick, connectors are solid, etc. The software is also extremely slick. One of the problems with most PC scopes is that the software they use was only a one off deal. A lot of them try to emulate a physical scope, and it ends up looking really crappy, and manufacturer may not even update the software. PicoScopes don't suffer from that because ALL PicoScopes (even the >$11,00 ones) use the exact same piece of software, so PicoTech have a serious obligation to make their software as stable, usable, and professional as possible.. A few of the features... * Serial decoder * Digital persistence view * Spectrum analyzer * Wave math system * Support for multiple graphs Here is a screen shot of one of the probes hooked directly up to the AWG. Click here for the full 1095x653 image. Also, don't order directly from PicoTech. It is far less expensive to order from Saelig, and you get free shipping. isagoon fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Feb 12, 2010 |
# ? Feb 12, 2010 03:36 |
|
Alright, I'll take that as a good enough endorsement to exclusively consider picoscope out of the PC-based options. The 3000 series seems to suffer from a miserable single shot sample rate, so I'll pass on those, but I'm taking the 2205 under consideration. To answer my own question from earlier: based on my googling, the cheap crappiness of the Owon scope seems to be reasonably in line with it's cheapness, as long as you get a version with the TFT LCD.
|
# ? Feb 12, 2010 19:59 |
|
isagoon posted:A few of the features... How do the PicoScopes do for logic analysis? I'm starting to think I'd need LA features. I've been reading some pretty positive things about the value of the Rigol DS1052D, http://www.saelig.com/PSBMSO/PSPC025.htm, which looks like a pretty good choice aside from being double my price limit
|
# ? Feb 12, 2010 23:51 |
|
Zhentar posted:How do the PicoScopes do for logic analysis? I'm starting to think I'd need LA features. I've been reading some pretty positive things about the value of the Rigol DS1052D, http://www.saelig.com/PSBMSO/PSPC025.htm, which looks like a pretty good choice aside from being double my price limit They seem to be OK for serial, although there is a bug in it right now where it throws an exception if you don't key in the parameters in the correct form. I expect this will be fixed as soon as someone brings it up on the forum. Like I said, someone with the $11,000 model isn't going to be too pleased when the logic analyzer doesn't work right. It is also possible that the bug is do to my OS. I have Win 7 X64, and there was another bug that affected me with my scope being detected. If I were to bring it up on the forum, I'm sure it would be solved quickly. I have a 2204. It rocks. I have no idea what's up with the Owon scopes. I was curious about them to (post PicoScope purchase), and I couldn't find a single thing about them on google, so I'm going to assume they are crappy, like you said. Then again, why would Saelig carry them if they were, indeed, cheap China crap? I suppose you could call up Saelig and see what they say. My advice is that you get what you pay for, and I can vouch for the PicoScope being . The high price tag is definitely justified by the physical build quality, and the software quality. One more thing to note, the PicoScope has a "Made In The UK" sticker on it. I will bet you anything they are building these guys in house at PicoTech, which means they probably have an employee who builds, tests, and calibrates each scope before it is packed. If you open up the "about" screen in the software, it will tell you the date it was calibrated. Mine was calibrated Feb 3rd, 2009. BTW: Check out EEVBlog Daveis videos on the Rigol scopes. He seems to like them... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUwbtG6z6pI
|
# ? Feb 13, 2010 03:11 |
|
isagoon posted:I have no idea what's up with the Owon scopes. I was curious about them to (post PicoScope purchase), and I couldn't find a single thing about them on google, so I'm going to assume they are crappy, like you said. Then again, why would Saelig carry them if they were, indeed, cheap China crap? Well, they don't carry the version with the STN LCD, which is what was ripped on the most. Past that, they seem to be a pretty good value; you certainly get high bandwidth and sampling rates for your money. But, as you say, you get what you pay for and you aren't paying for that much. Edit: You may also notice that while they carry both Owon and Rigol for entry level benchtop oscilloscopes, for MSOs they carry only Rigol; it seems the Owon MSOs are not so hot. Zhentar fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Feb 13, 2010 |
# ? Feb 13, 2010 03:58 |
|
Zhentar posted:Well, they don't carry the version with the STN LCD, which is what was ripped on the most. Past that, they seem to be a pretty good value; you certainly get high bandwidth and sampling rates for your money. But, as you say, you get what you pay for and you aren't paying for that much. Where are you seeing anyone talk about the Owon scopes? I googled around and couldn't find a single mention (In English). LOTS of Chinese pages though.
|
# ? Feb 13, 2010 08:16 |
|
Hey guys! http://ramblee.com/2010/02/13/arduino-project-rgb-lcd-weather-station/ I've made a post on my blog about my project with the (somewhat) final results. I designed a PCB over this past week that cleans up a lot of the wiring clutter and just overall makes it look better. I've sent it to batchPCB and can't wait to get it back to see how my first design "did".
|
# ? Feb 14, 2010 00:07 |
|
Allistar posted:Hey guys! Ok. So, 48V charger seems like it's gonna be a huge pain in the rear end so how about this: A bank of 3-way switches (SPDT). I realize it's possible to connect the switches in such a manner that there's bad voltage on the rails, but that shouldn't matter as long as I flip all the + terminals first, then all the - terminals. Is there a better way? I'm trying to get out of this cheap; and 3-way switches are about a dollar each. On the other end of the spectrum is a 48V smart charger for $125.
|
# ? Feb 14, 2010 02:40 |
|
I've just got a pickit 3 with with a PIC18F45K20 demo board. After some hassle I've managed to get MPLab IDE working and am able to program to it. I'm programing in C. I've just got a few questions/concerns 1. Are there any good tutorials or guides for programing C on a PIC. 2. Do the rules change due to the very limited capabilities of a PIC compared to computer. e.g. should I start using global variables? How much should I sacrifice usual readability and convenience for performance. (I found an article which mentioned how using, static and const are very useful for programing microcrontrolers which was useful, so more stuff like that I guess). 3. Can I avoid assembly? Most of the tutorials I've found are quite old. I can't find any real decent resources. Any other advice?
|
# ? Feb 14, 2010 10:33 |
|
Unparagoned posted:1. Are there any good tutorials or guides for programing C on a PIC. 1. I don't know of any good tutorials, but if you already know C you should check out the datasheet for your particular PIC18. The datasheets are actually complete user manuals. They will tell you how to use the peripherals that the PIC has. All registers the datasheet mentions can be accessed in C as variables if you include the proper header (p18cxxx.h figures out which PIC you have and includes the correct header). Example: code:
2. Yes. It's perfectly okay to use globals when you program microcontrollers. The normal way of using local variables (which keeps them on the stack) and passing pointers and such as arguments to functions (which uses even more stack operations) is undesirable in this case. That's because PICs require a lot more instructions to do stack stuff, so they take up more program memory and execute slower. If you really don't care about that then program however you like. 3. Yes, more or less. However, it helps to know PIC assembly when you need to find out why your compiled C code is so slow or why it isn't doing what you think it should be doing. There are only a tiny number of instructions (~60 or so?) so it's not terribly difficult to learn. It's not like x86 assembly with millions of permutations and combinations of instructions. BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Feb 14, 2010 |
# ? Feb 14, 2010 19:05 |
|
I went out and bought a weller soldering iron when I first read this thread and it is terrible. Do any of you all have a REALLY GREAT soldering iron? I have bought probably three in my life and each one was bad enough that i just threw it away when I moved. I am not ever going to mess with tiny things, but I would like to deadbug solder some coolass circuits. According to the back of the package, the application of the iron is important in determining which iron will work best for you. But according to the back of the package, this iron is PERFECT for soldering discrete components together so maybe the other thing was bullshit too.
|
# ? Feb 17, 2010 02:17 |
|
Corla Plankun posted:I went out and bought a weller soldering iron when I first read this thread and it is terrible. Metcal/OKI is what I use. You can find them cheapish on ebay for used ones. Tips are expensive but last if you take care of them.
|
# ? Feb 17, 2010 05:19 |
|
|
# ? May 21, 2024 17:49 |
|
I use a Xytronic soldering iron. I like it, but I solder like Michael J Fox so my experience isn't worth much
|
# ? Feb 17, 2010 08:15 |