Electronics-Lab.com Blog

This DIYThermocouple project uses a MAX6675 chip and takes the millivolts produced by a standard K-type thermocouple, amplifies it, and spits out the results to the attached LCD screen. This particular unit can read temperatures up to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit which is probably hotter that you ever want to be near with your electronics. [via]

Thermocouple project won’t get you burnt – [Link]

This schematic is ment to digitally display the output of my electronic Swissflow SF800 flow sensor. This sensor puts out an open collector square wave signal (like a fan RPM monitoring signal) between 50Hz and 2000Hz . By dividing the measured frequency by 10 and putting the decimal point at the right place you get directly a display in liter/minute. [via]

Frequency meter for SwissFlow flowsensor - [Link]

A touch sensor developed for use in a range of projects for fabrica interactive. The sensor is designed to take a reading and then communicate that reading digitally so that the sensor can be placed at a distance away from whatever is reading it (A microcontroller / other physical computing interface). [via]

Fabrica Touch - [Link]

USBTenki is an electronic project to interface sensors to an USB port for collecting weather related data such as temperature. The firmware supports many different sensors and interfaces. It is up to you to decide what your USBTenki will support. [via]

USB Temperature sensors - [Link]

Here is a photo sensor to detect circuit line will be introduced. As you can see, with a lower body so. Black photo sensor element is arranged horizontally. [via]

Photo sensor - [Link]

“If your freezer fails you may have meat or other frozen stuffs ready to eat. Re-freezing, not generally considered an option, may be an alternative for you, but may be also a risky business. While for a short time, a freezer should maintain an acceptable temperature to keep everything from beginning to defrost, it would be nice to know if the freezer contents have been compromised and for how long. For instance…power could be lost over that weekend you spent at the lake with the power returned several hours later. This exposes the contents to the ravages of spoiling without you even realizing it…”

PIC12F506 microcontroller reads temperature data from MAX6510 temperature sensor. As device is powered from batteries – temperature readings are performed periodically in order to save energy. Alarm system has some fancy algorithm which allows interpreting errors correctly. More information about operation and building you can find in downloadable word document. [via]

PIC based freezer failure alarm system - [Link]

How to create a temperature controller for a CPU cooling fan (or similar cooling fan for other electronics) only a few bucks and a handful of parts. [via]

Cooling fan temp controller - [Link]

This rain detector will give you a heads-up the instant it starts to rain, hopefully giving you time to close windows and bring in possessions. The battery-powered circuit draws virtually no current when the sensor is dry and the current consumption is low when the buzzer is activated so a couple of AA cells will last a long time. Alternately, a molded power supply with a simple voltage regulator to drop the voltage to 3 volts could be used. The circuit is basically a handy flasher circuit that operates well on only 3 volts using ordinary silicon transistors. When the circuit is triggered, the buzzer is pulsed about once per second. [via]

Rain Detector - [Link]

Losing sleep wondering if you’re freezer is secretly thawing valuable frozen foodstuffs? Worry of secretly spoiled steaks no more -

William Grill wanted to make sure his freezer didn’t cut out and ruin his frozen food. He was concerned that when he traveled, his food could defrost and re-freeze — thus compromising his frozen steaks — without his knowledge. So, he developed a gadget that measures freezer temperatures, keeps a history of variance and sends an alarm if freezer temperatures rise above a set range. The gadget is built around a small controller, an alarm and a temperature sensor. While temperature monitors are common, Grill’s device remembers temperature variance and displays the length of time the freezer rises above the set temp. The gadget is relatively small and costs less than a couple of steaks bought on sale and stored in the freezer. [via]

Spying on your freezer - [Link]

This MCU based flood monitoring system will send you an SMS when water levels get too high. The only thing we wonder about is what happens when water levels rise too fast and smother the electronics in this setup before the phone can alert you. [via]

Send an SMS to save your house from floods - [Link]