CircuitGeek

First of all, hold on a second! This Drone has nothing to do with the Star Trek: Voyager, but rather a brilliant slightly de-tuning two oscillators.

A drone is capable to create a rhythmic phase canceling effect as the output waves line up and diverge. In most cases, the density of the drone can be increased by adding more oscillators tuned by harmonic steps above or below the other oscillators. Usually, the Drone Lab is engineered to allow for the creation of dense, pulsing drones. A series of filters and a distortion circuit have been built in, as it’s for adding more depth and variation to the drone.

For your information, the Drone Lab Version 2 is a four voice analog drone synth, rhythm generator and FX processor. It has the ability of generating rich, textured soundscapes, hypnotic drones and complex rhythmic sequences. Plus, it features a series of filter and distortions circuit, alongside with an audio input jack. With this incredible feature, it allows the Drone Lab Version 2 to be used as an effects processor for external audio signals too!

As one of the world’s most popular game devices, Nintendo has been used and modified by the home hobbyists, so that they can apply it into various types of devices.

Today, you will have the opportunity to be involved with Quickdev16. For your information, the Quickdev16 is a developer cartridge, which is specially for the Super Nintendo. It can be used to upload homebrew ROMs to the console instantly. Beside that, you can upload ROM images up to the size of 16Mbit.

Mostly, the current NTSC and PAL SNES consoles are fully supported by using a dedicated CIC chip on the Quickdev16 cartridge. In this case, the homebrew ROMs and games that depend on the save game feature are not supported by this release. For overcoming the problem, you can connect the cartridge via USB to your computer and upload ROMs with a command line tool.

Oh, please keep in mind that the bootloader has to be preinstalled on the AVR. Remember not to change the bootloader. If you insist to do so, then all the required sources and commands might be in the git repos! Also, you must be very careful with the fuse settings as well.

Well, it might be a little bit hard for us to believe that in the last early century, it’s truly impossible to hear the word, “Wifi”.

However, it immediately turns into an amazing technology, especially in this 21^st century. In present days, Wifi have already become a common symbolic, either in the industries or household.

Today, we’re going to build a Wifi Toy Truck Robot. Basically, it’s a remote control car, but it’s a little bit different from the ordinary types. What’s special about the Wifi Robot is you can simply control it through the internet or with a laptop wirelessly from up to 500m away! [Read the rest of this entry...]

Our home security is a very important matter, as it helps to protect us from become the next target of the burglars, especially when we’re away from home!

Most people choose to purchase home security system or locks from the malls or stores, as they think it’s better to buy the locks than making it by ourselves.

Well, it might be hard to believe that up to 70 percent of the home security system or locks were failed to function accordingly. It caused over millions of dollars being stolen all across the U.S.A. every single year!

Did you know that you could use a Classic Nintendo controller to lock and unlock your door easily? Yeah, it might sound like a fairy tales, but actually, you can definitely make it become a reality!

For your information, an Arduino reads the output from the Controller. It searches for a particular combination of buttons. Once the combination is entered, it sends a signal to eject a CD-ROM drive that pushes or pulls the lock.

NoKES, the short acronym for Nintendo Keyless Entry System will be blinking and lets you know that it’s an alert and keeping guard. If the user pressed the Start button on the controller, the arduino starts recording what buttons are pressed and converts them into a number and adds them together.

If you enter an incorrect combination, then the arduino activates an attached circuit and plays a loud sound. Otherwise, the arduino sends a signal to the CD-Rom to eject. It will lock and unlock the door according to the user’s need. [instructables]

In the past, we’re mostly using the disposable batteries, as we didn’t have too much of choices. However, the development of technology has allowing us to recharge the batteries. This method not only can help us to save a lot of money, but reduce the pollution and global warming matter as well.

Normally, Lithium-ion polymer batteries, or more commonly known as Lithium polymer batteries are currently the best rechargeable batteries. The batteries are composed of several identical secondary cells in parallel addition to increase the discharge current capacity.

For today’s project, it’s going to be a fun experience, especially for those who love to get in touch with rechargeable batteries. In this case, the Sparkfun LiPoly Charger, which is based on MAX1555 would be the ideal choice. It would be even better, if you can apply the Microchip MCP73833 onto the project.

The reasons why MCP73833 is suitable to be used as a chip in this project are:

• It has high accuracy preset output voltage regulation

• It can be used to regulate output voltage options

• User-programmable charge current up to 1A

• Two open-drain Status outputs

• Preconditioning and end-of-charge ratio options

• It equipped with under-voltage lockout and power good output

All the above features made it’s the perfect component for adjusting the charging current and the status outputs! [source]

No matter you admit it or not, the Tweeter has been starting to dominate the internet, as the amounts of Tweeters are increasing day after day. If you’re a fanatic Tweeter’s fan and simply cannot live without it, maybe this Tweet-a-watt is the amazing greener gadget for you!

For your information, the Tweet-a-watt using the “Off-the-shelf-hardware”, where they’ve modified a Kill-a-Watt power meter. It enables the Tweeter users to tweet the daily KWH consumed to the user’s Twitter account.

Since this project is an Open source hardware project, hence anyone is eligible to make, modify and launch a commercial product with it.

Ok, let’s kick start the project. First of all, you have to modify Kill-a-Watt, by using a “super-cap” to slowly recharge itself. It turns on the Xbee wireless module, once there is enough power to transmit the data to a nearby computer.

The power usage for the day is recorded by uses a predefined Twitter account, so that you can publish your daily KWH consumption for the day. Please remember that the multiple units can be used for an entire household.

Isn’t it a fabulous greener gadget?

Guys, if you’re looking for a highly accurate Electronic Temperature-controlled relay, but you don’t want to buy it on at the electronic store, then you should have a sneak peek on this 0 to 100 ^oC Electronic Temperature-controlled Relay.

This electronic temperature-controlled relay is a little bit different from the others, as it can be used in applications, especially where automatic temperature control is needed.

For your information, the circuit switches a miniature relay ON/OFF. The single chip temperature sensor LM35 is necessary in this project, as it detects the changes of temperature. The relay is automatically actuated, when the LM35 detects a temperature higher than the preset level. Otherwise, the relay is de-energized, if the temperature falls below the preset temperature.

Do keep in mind that the LM35 temperature sensor is the heart of the circuit, which is factory-calibrated in the Celcius scale with a linear Degree to Volt conversion function. This means, all the output voltage changes linearly with temperature from 0V to 1000mV, or from 0^oC to 100^oC relatively.

Another advantage of this circuit is it can be powered by any AC or DC 12V supply or battery (100mA).