I have been using the Eagle PCB for quite some time now for my PCB designs. It is very easy to use and there are many libraries and projects that can be downloaded on the internet. But due to some changes on eagle that made recently, I decided to switch and look for better alternative. Upon searching, I found this software called Kicad. It seems promising, feature packed and best of all its free!
Category: Others
Low Voltage Disconnect Circuit
Low Voltage Disconnect circuit are used to disconnect the battery to the load when the battery voltage drops to certain level. This avoids further discharging of the battery. This is very useful for devices that uses rechargeable batteries.
Simple Solar Charger
Since electricity is one of our basic needs and it doesn’t come for free. In fact it increases every year. Meanwhile sun power is free for all so why not use it? Here is a very simple way to charge your battery using solar power.
Why need a charging circuit?
Solar cells and batteries comes in different voltage and current capacity. You need to match these ratings for safety and reliability reasons. Connecting a higher voltage solar panel to a battery might over charge the battery and may cause it to explode. It is best to limit the voltage and current output of the solar panel to avoid this from happening.
SIMetrix Basics Tutorial
Simetrix is a very powerful circuit simulation software for electronic circuits design. I use it a lot and is very helpful and most all you can get it for free. The free version has circuit size limitations but still adequate for most hobbyist designs.
Relay Driver Circuit
Relay are used for driving high current load or if you want to isolate your load from your circuit. For example you want to turn on a 220Vac light using a microcontroller. Your microcontroller is only operating at 5Vdc and your is a 220Vac lamp. The microcontroller can’t drive the 220Vac lamp directly so if you want to isolate the line between the microcontroller and the lamp you need to use a relay. The main disadvantage of using a relay is that you can’t control the brightness of the lamp. Anyway it is also impossible to control LED, and florescent lamp brightness because of their certain characteristic. LED bulb usually has a built in voltage regulator so it is not advisable to control its brightness, while florescent lamp has minimum operating voltage and it also needs a high voltage to start.
12V USB Charger
This project is for you to be able to charge your mobile phone using your car battery. This uses high efficiency buck converter to step down 12V down to 5V. It can be able to deliver up to 2A current which is more than enough for 2 mobile device.
Clean Power Supply for Audio Application
Building a “hum-free” audio is not easy till you know what you are doing. It is not as easy as connecting wire into where it should be connected. Especially for grounds, if you connected it into wrong point. Noise usually come from ground loops or connecting a very sensitive signal ground line to a high current ground path. In most cases a star connection is very effective in eliminating the noise.
DIY USB to DMX converter
DMX or DMX512 is short for Digital MultipleX(the number 512 represents the max number of channels), a communication protocol mainly made for lighting controls. It was introduced in 1990’s and was developed by Engineering Commission of United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT). On that time, DMX512 is so expensive to design and implement. Only today with the advancement of technology, anyone can now develop their own DMX512 device.
Digital clock project
One of my project: a led watch with 71 SMD LED. The microcontroller is a Microchips PIC16F728 running in 4MHz crystal oscillator and powered by CR2032 battery.
DMX controlled LED using Microcontroller
With the use of microcontrollers, designing a DMX512 controlled led lights is now easier. DMX512 stands for Digital Multiplex which was developed by Engineering Commission of United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) way back in 1990’s. Way back in 90’s era, it takes hardwork to design a DMX controlled lights.