January 2011
18 posts
Tutorial: Arduino and GSM Cellular – Part Two
This is chapter twenty-seven of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Please note from November 1, 2010 files from tutorials will be found here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! Today we are going to harness the awesome power of the telephone...
Kit Review - MDC Bare-bones Board Kit...
Hello readers Today we continue to examine Arduino-compatible products by assembling an interesting kit from Modern Device Company - their “Bare Bones Board” (to be referred to as BBB).The BBB kit is an inexpensive way to take advantage of the Arduino Duemilanove-compatible platform, and also fills some gaps in the marketplace. Unlike the usual Arduino and compatible boards, the BBB...
Kit Review - MDC Bare-bones Board Kit...
Hello readers Today we continue to examine Arduino-compatible products by assembling an interesting kit from Modern Device Company - their “Bare Bones Board” (to be referred to as BBB).The BBB kit is an inexpensive way to take advantage of the Arduino Duemilanove-compatible platform, and also fills some gaps in the marketplace. Unlike the usual Arduino and compatible boards, the BBB...
The 555 Precision Timer IC
Hello readers Today we revisit one of the most popular integrated circuits ever conceived – the 555 timer IC. “Triple-five”, “five-five-five”, “triple-nickel” … call it what you will, it has been around for thirty-eight years. Considering the pace of change in the electronics industry, the 555 could be the constant in an ever-changing universe. But what is the 555? How does it work? How can we...
The 555 Precision Timer IC
Hello readers Today we revisit one of the most popular integrated circuits ever conceived – the 555 timer IC. “Triple-five”, “five-five-five”, “triple-nickel” … call it what you will, it has been around for thirty-eight years. Considering the pace of change in the electronics industry, the 555 could be the constant in an ever-changing universe. But what is the 555? How does it work? How can we...
Kit review: Freetronics KitTen Arduino-compatible...
Hello everyone Within this article we are going to examine another new kit available from Freetronics, a company formed to provide many interesting Arduino-based products after the publication of the book “Practical Arduino” by Jonathan Oxer and Hugh Blemings – which in itself is a good read, there are many interesting projects to make and learn from. Today we examine their answer to “is...
Review – Fluke 233 Remote Display True RMS...
Hello readers Several followers of my website have noticed the use of an interesting multimeter in a few of my articles, and were curious about it. So in this article we will discuss it in more detail. It is certainly novel in design, and has proven to be very convenient in use – the Fluke 233 remote-display true RMS multimeter. It arrives in a cardboard box that is easily recycled: Upon...
Tutorial: Arduino and GSM Cellular – Part One
This is chapter twenty-six of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Please note from November 1, 2010 files from tutorials will be found here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! Today we are going to start using our Arduino to communicate over a...
Tutorial: Arduino and GSM Cellular – Part One
This is chapter twenty-six of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Please note from November 1, 2010 files from tutorials will be found here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! Today we are going to start using our Arduino to communicate over...
Kit review: Freetronics 16×2 LCD Arduino Shield
Hello everyone Within this article we are going to examine the first of several new kits available from Freetronics, a company formed to provide many interesting Arduino-based products after the publication of the book “Practical Arduino” by Jonathan Oxer and Hugh Blemings – which in itself is a good read, there are many interesting projects to make and learn from. Today we examine their...
Kit review - Sparkfun Frequency Counter
Hello everyone Today we examine a kit that is simple to construct and an interesting educational tool – the Sparkfun Frequency Counter kit. This is a revised design from a kit originally released by nuxie1 (the same people who brought us the original function generator kit). As a frequency counter, it can effectively measure within the range of 1 to a claimed 6.5 MHz. Unfortunately the...
Tutorial: Using analog input for multiple buttons
This is chapter twenty-five of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Please note from November 1, 2010 files from tutorials will be found here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! The purpose of this article is demonstrate how you can read many...
Tutorial: Using analog input for multiple buttons
This is chapter twenty-five of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Please note from November 1, 2010 files from tutorials will be found here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! The purpose of this article is demonstrate how you can read many...
Review - mbed LPC1768 Development Board
Hello readers Today we will examine the mbed NXP LPC1768 development board. The goal of the mbed system is to “provide(s) a platform for microcontroller hardware, tools, libraries and resources designed to enable rapid prototyping with microcontrollers.” (http://mbed.org/handbook/About). Personally I also see this as a good option for a “next step” for those who have outgrown their Arduino –...
Tutorial: Arduino and monochrome LCDs
This is chapter twenty-four of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Please note from November 1, 2010 files from tutorials will be found here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! The purpose of this article is to summarise a range of affordable...
Tutorial: Arduino and monochrome LCDs
This is chapter twenty-four of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. Welcome back fellow arduidans! The purpose of this article is to summarise a range of affordable monochrome liquid-crystal display units that are available to work with our Arduino; and to replace the section about LCDs in chapter two of...
January 2011 Competition
Hello readers Time for another competition. There will be five questions spread across the articles published at tronixstuff.com in January. Once you have answers to all five questions, send your answers to competition at tronixstuff dot com with “January 2011″ in the subject line. On February 1st, I will compile a list of people with the correct answers, and draw two winners. First prize –...
December 2010
7 posts
Kit Review – adafruit industries Ice Tube clock...
Hello readers Today we examine a kit that perhaps transcends from general electronic fun and games into the world of modern art – the adafruit “Ice Tube” clock. What is an Ice Tube clock? Before LCDs (liquid-crystal displays) were prevalent another form of display technology was popular – the vacuum-fluorescent display (or VFD). This clock uses a VFD originally manufactured in the former...