Ashish Adhikari

Sunday at 12:17 PM

Thanks a lot mate

May 12

It's been a while, the Autobots have appeared on the silver screen. Finally they are returning to the big screen in their upcoming Transformers movie "Rise of the Beasts".

This inspired me in making a PCB Badge to complement my enthusiasm and love towards the Autobots.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you guys how to design this "Transformers PCB Badge" and how to solder the components to it.

Components Required

For this tutorial you need:

1 x 555 Timer IC
1 x 47KΩ Resistor
1 x 220Ω Resistor
1 x BC548 NPN Transistor
1 x 33µF Capacitor, and
1 x Few Blue LEDs

Quick Recap

In my last tutorial I created a "IC555 Led Fader Module" and explained how the circuit works. In this tutorial, I am going to use the same LED fader circuit to create a fading effect for the eyes of the badge.

So before going ahead, lets do a quick recap and find out how the LED fader circuit works with the help of an animation.

Circuit Diagram

The heart of this circuit is the 555 timer IC.

Pin No.1 of the IC is connected to GND.

By connecting Pin 2 and 6 of the 555 timer IC, we put the IC in astable mode. In astable mode, the 555 timer IC acts as an oscillator (re-triggering itself) generating square waves [PWM Signals] from the output Pin no. 3.

3 other components connect to this junction.

1st one is the 33µF capacitor. The positive pin of the capacitor connects to the junction and the negative pin is connected to the GND.

2nd one is the 47KΩ resistor. One of its legs connects to the junction and the other leg connects to the Output pin, Pin No.3 of the IC.

3rd one is the Base of the BC548 NPN transistor. The collector of the transistor along with Pin 8 and 4 of the IC connects to the +ve terminal. of the battery. The LED along with its current limiting resistor is connected to the Emitter of the transistor.

That's+-

How The Circuit Works

When Pin 2 of the IC detects voltage LESS than 1/3rd of the supply voltage, it turns ON the output on Pin 3.
And, when Pin 6 detects voltage MORE than 2/3rds of the supply voltage, it turns OFF the output.

This is how the trigger pin (Pin2) and the
threshold pin (Pin6) of the 555 timer IC sense voltages and controls the output at Pin 3.

The Capacitor attached to the circuit will be in a discharged state immediately after firing up the circuit.
So, the voltage at Pin 2 will be 0v which is less than 1/3rds of the supply voltage, this will turn ON the output on Pin 3.
Since Pin 3 is looped back to Pin 2, it will start charging the Capacitor via the 47KΩ resistor.
At the same time the base current of the transistor also increases causing the LED to slowly "fade-in".
Once the voltage across the capacitor crosses 2/3rds of the supply voltage, Pin 6 turns OFF the output.
This causes the capacitor to slowly discharge causing the base current to fall and hence the LED starts "fading-out".

Once the voltage across the capacitor falls below 1/3rd of the supply voltage, Pin 2 turns ON the output, and the above cycle continues.

You can hook up a multimeter to the circuit to measure the charging and discharging of the capacitor.

Designing The PCB

Sorting Out Images

To start the designing process, I need a transparent PNG image of the "Transformers Logo".

So I went online, and did an "image search" and downloaded a black-and-white images of the Transformers Logo.

Now, using the "Paint.Net" application I opened up the PNG file.

The image onscreen will be used for:

1. Creating the border outline of the badge

2. and also for creating the face on top of the top silk layer

To generate the "Border Outline" I need a DXF file.

Looking at the image, we can see that the image is split into multiple parts. If I load this to generate a DXF file it will generate multiple pieces of the PCB. And obviously that's not what I am after. So, I joined all the small pieces into a single image.

Generating DXF File

Then, I uploaded the images to "https://convertio.co/" to generate the DXF files. This website allows 10 free conversions in a day unless you have a paid account with them.

Creating the Badge

Now, lets go ahead and add a "New PCB" to our project and remove the default board outlines.

Then import the DXF files via File > Import > DXF menu. Make sure you have the "BoardOutLine" selected under layers when you import the DXF file.

Now, lets import the image that will go on the Top Silk Layer. Select the "TopSilkLayer" and then import the image and move it inside the board outlines. Before going ahead, lets have a look at how the board looks like in 3D. As we can see the eyes and all other holes still have the blue PCB bits inside. So, let go ahead and remove them from our design.

To do so, select the "MultiLayer" from the "Layers and Objects" panel. Then select "Solid Region" from the "PCB Tools" panel and start drawing the region you want to exclude from your PCB. That's it as easy as that. Checking the PCB in 3D, we can see that the top bit has now a see-through hole in it. I repeated this step, for all other bits that I wanted to excluded from my PCB design.

Once the PCB design was sorted, I added all the electronic components to the board. Since I don't want any hole on my PCB, my choice was to either add SMD components on the board or to design the board in a way that I can solder THT components on it. I chose the second option and added all the THT components "however" without their holes. Instead of the holes I added some rectangles and circles from the "PCB Tools" panel on the "BottomLayer" and then exposed the copper. To finalize the design, I connected all the exposed pads as per the circuit diagram. That's it, all done. So, this is how the final design looks like.

The Board

So this is what came in the mailbag. Have a look at the quality, its absolutely mind-blowing.

At the back of the board are all the exposed copper parts for soldering the electronic components.

As mentioned earlier, I could have designed the board with SMD components, however I wanted to design something that someone with "0" SMD soldering knowledge can also do.

Soldering

Alright, now lets go ahead and solder the components to the board.

Lets first soldered the 555 Timer IC to the board, then lets soldered the two resistors to the board. Next, lets soldered the 33µF Capacitor followed by the NPN transistor to the board.

To conclude the setup lets soldered the 2 x LEDs to the board. You can power this circuit by providing voltage between 5V to 15Vs.

Demo

So, this is how the final setup looks like. You can insert the bottom bit of the badge to a wooden-plank and put this on your desk to give your desk a flashy look.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Video: Visit
Full Blog Post: Visit

LED Fader Using 555 Timer IC: Visit
LED Fader - With or Without Arduino: Visit
Adjustable Single/Dual LED Flasher Using 555 Timer IC: Visit

Other Links:

Gerber: Download
Github: Visit
Simulation: Visit
What Is Forward Voltage: Visit

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Thanks, ca again in my next tutorial.

April 19

Wanted to generate a LED fading effect (fade-in and fade-out) for my upcoming video tutorial using the 555 timer IC.

I already have a video where I used LM358 Dual Operational Amplifier IC and another one with Arduino to generate the LED fading effect.

YouTube, is full of video showing how to generate the fading effect using 555 timer IC. However, none of them produce a true fading effect.

Some just fades-in but never fades-out. And there is literally no explanation of how they are generating the fading effect other than just showing how to assemble the components.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you guys how to create a true LED fading effect using the 555 timer IC. I will also explain how the circuit works and how changing components change the fading effect of the LEDs.

Components Required

For this tutorial you need:

1 x 555 Timer IC

1 x 47KΩ Resistor

1 x 220Ω Resistor

1 x BC548 NPN Transistor

1 x 33µF Capacitor, and

1 x Few Blue LEDs

Circuit Diagram

The heart of this circuit is the 555 timer IC.

Pin No.1 of the IC is connected to GND.

By connecting Pin 2 and 6 of the 555 timer IC, we put the IC in astable mode. In astable mode, the 555 timer IC acts as an oscillator (re-triggering itself) generating square waves [PWM Signals] from the output Pin no. 3.

3 other components connect to this junction.

1st one is the 33µF capacitor. The positive pin of the capacitor connects to the junction and the negative pin is connected to the GND.

2nd one is the 47KΩ resistor. One of its legs connects to the junction and the other leg connects to the Output pin, Pin No.3 of the IC.

3rd one is the Base of the BC548 NPN transistor. The collector of the transistor along with Pin 8 and 4 of the IC connects to the +ve terminal. of the battery. The LED along with its current limiting resistor is connected to the Emitter of the transistor.

That's it as simple as that.

Alright, now I am going to demonstrate how this circuit works with the help of an animation.

How The Circuit Works

When Pin 2 of the IC detects voltage LESS than 1/3rd of the supply voltage, it turns ON the output on Pin 3.
And, when Pin 6 detects voltage MORE than 2/3rds of the supply voltage, it turns OFF the output.

This is how the trigger pin (Pin2) and the
threshold pin (Pin6) of the 555 timer IC sense voltages and controls the output at Pin 3.

The Capacitor attached to the circuit will be in a discharged state immediately after firing up the circuit.
So, the voltage at Pin 2 will be 0v which is less than 1/3rds of the supply voltage, this will turn ON the output on Pin 3.
Since Pin 3 is looped back to Pin 2, it will start charging the Capacitor via the 47KΩ resistor.
At the same time the base current of the transistor also increases causing the LED to slowly "fade-in".
Once the voltage across the capacitor crosses 2/3rds of the supply voltage, Pin 6 turns OFF the output.
This causes the capacitor to slowly discharge causing the base current to fall and hence the LED starts "fading-out".

Once the voltage across the capacitor falls below 1/3rd of the supply voltage, Pin 2 turns ON the output, and the above cycle continues.

You can hook up a multimeter to the circuit to measure the charging and discharging of the capacitor.

Breadboard Demo

So, here is a quick demo on a breadboard.

In the current setup I have a 33µF Capacitor and a Blue LED on the breadboard.

Replacing the 33µF Capacitor with a 100µF Capacitor makes the LED fade in-and-out slower as the 100µF capacitor charges and discharges slower than 33µF Capacitor.

Also by replacing the "Blue LED" with a "Red LED", we can make the LED to stay "on" longer than the blue one with the same value of capacitor. This is because the "Forward Voltage" (Vf) of the Blue LED is higher than that of the Red LED.

"Forward voltage" is the minimum amount of voltage that is required to allow an electrical component to turn on.

The red, green and yellow LEDs have relatively "low" forward voltage ranging from 1.6-2.2V and hence stays on longer when the capacitor slowly charges or discharged. However, blue and white LEDs starts conducting from 2.5-4V and hence, when the discharging capacitor's voltage hits the threshold the LED turns off faster than the other colors. I have provided a link to how the forward voltage works in the description below.

If you connect few LEDs in series, the forward voltage adds up and hence it will require more voltage to turn on the LEDs.

You need to add a current limiting resistor between the emitter of the transistor and the LED to avoid an internal short-circuiting inside the led.

The Board

To make it easy for you guys, I have created this tiny little "555 LED Fader Module". After assembling the components, you just need to power this module by providing a voltage between 5v to 15v to fade the LED.

So, this is how my board looks like in 2D and 3D. There are 16 breakout boards in this 100cm x 100cm assembly. You can download the gerber file from the link provided in the description below and order it from PCBWay.

Soldering

Let me quickly show you guys how to assemble the components to this custom made board.

Let's start by soldering the IC Base to the board.

Then let's solder the two resistors to the board. Next, lets solder the capacitor followed by the transistor to the board. Then, lets solder a blue LED to the board.

Once done, let's insert the 555 timer IC to the IC base.

To conclude the setup, I soldered 2 x Female pin headers to the board. You can either solder a pair of female pin-header or male pin-header or solder a pair of wires directly to the board to power this module.

Demo

Cool, so this is how my module finally looks like.

You can install female pin-headers in-place of the LED or Capacitor if you plan to use this as a development/testing board instead of a module.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Video: Visit
Full Blog Post: Visit

LED Fader - With or Without Arduino: Visit
Adjustable Single/Dual LED Flasher Using 555 Timer IC: Visit

Other Links:

Gerber: Download
Github: Visit
Simulation: Visit
What Is Forward Voltage: Visit

Support My Work:

BTC: 1Hrr83W2zu2hmDcmYqZMhgPQ71oLj5b7v5
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Thanks, ca again in my next tutorial.

February 11

When you mix creativity with electronics, it becomes a masterpiece.

Producing something original and worthwhile leads to the creation of a number of great new useful household products.

In this video, I am going to show you guys how to create this Arduino based touchless concrete clock.

3D Design

I always love to generate a 3D model of my product before creating it in real. This not only gives me a better view of what the final product is going to look like, but also helps me in finding the correct measurements of the final product. So, I went ahead and used the free "Windows 3D-builder" to generate this 3D model.

The onscreen, black bar is where the TM1637 Digital Clock Module will sit. The gap in the circular concrete frame will house the 5 Blue LEDs that can be turned on or off my moving your hand over the IR Module.

These two holes are for the IR Sensor Module. The concrete base bar will house all the remaining electronics components in it.

The Template

Based on my 3D-Model I designed this 2D-Template.

You can download the template from the link provided in the description below and print it on a A4 paper.

Template: Download

Schematic Diagram

Before going ahead, lets have a look at the schematic diagram of the digital clock. The heart of this circuit is an Arduino Nano.

The TM1637 Digital Clock Module connects to D4 and D5 pin of the Arduino.

The DS1302 RTC Module connects to the A1, A2 and A3 pin of the Arduino.

The two White LEDs displayed on both sides of the digital clock connects to the D11 pin of the Arduino. These two LEDs flash 3 times every hour when the minutes counter is reset to "00".

The IR module is connected to the D6 pin of the Arduino and controls the blue cluster of LEDs connected to D12 pin of the Arduino.

My initial plan was to have 2 to 3 push button switches connected to D2 and D3 pin of Arduino to set the time of the clock. However in the final version, I did that by adding an extra line of code to my program. I will explain this in full details when we discuss the code.

Preparing The Top - Concrete

Using cardboard I created all the concrete molds. Cardboard was my first choice as it is very easy for me to cut and bend it into any shape of my choice.

These holes in the mold you see are for the ribbon cables.

Sticking this semi-circular piece on the left side of the inner circle will create the gap for the blue LED cluster when we pore the concrete into the mold.

Alright, so this is how it looks like after putting all the pieces of cardboard mold together. Now, lets pour some "Brickies Sand" in-and-around the mold to hold it nice and tight when I pour the liquid concrete. Making the sand a bit wet, will make it firm and will also remove all the unwanted air from the sand.

Cool, now lets go ahead and pour the concrete into the mold. Don't forget to compress the concrete mixture as you pour it. This way the concrete will reach all the necessary places and will also remove the unwanted air bubble from the mixture.

I also added few "Nails" inside the mixture to give it a bit more firmness. This step was absolutely necessary, as my first design completely collapsed because it was not very sturdy.

Once the setup dried up I removed all the sand and extracted the piece of art from it.

Preparing The Top - Electronics

Alright, now lets start installing the electronic components to the top section of the clock.

The 4-Digit LED clock module will sit inside this gap. I will cover it up using a black plastic film which I extracted from a wrapping paper.

For the back, I am using a compressed wood board. Based on my initial design I am going to make some holes in the board and install 3 x push button switches to it.

The blue LED cluster will be hot-glued in the gap at the back of the circular section.

I used a plastic cutout from a milk bottle to cover the Blue LED clusters. The white color of the plastic gave it a gloomy look, which was absolutely super awesome.

I hot glues the two white LEDs to the backplate before putting it against the concrete.

Frankly speaking, it was an absolute challenge for me to hot-glue the backplate on the camera. After struggling for a bit, I did that properly behind the scene.

Preparing The Base - Concrete

Now that we are done with the top section, lets start working on the base of the clock.

For the base, I prepared 2 x cardboard boxes with open top one slightly shorter in height than the other. The 2 x straws you see on-screen will create the hole for the IR module. The hole on the side is for the AC power cable.

The cardboard block I just added is to create a hole on the top of the base, where the circular-top will sit.

Then it was just a matter of pouring the sand inside and outside of the cardboard molds followed by pouring the concrete mixture into it.

Same as before I added some nails to give the structure some additional firmness.

Once the concrete dried up, I extracted the concrete base from the sand and carefully sanded the structure to give it a nice and smooth texture.

Preparing The Base - Electronics

Okie-dokie, now lets install the rest of the electronic components inside the base of the clock. I used the same compressed wooden board to create the baseplate and then one by one soldered and hot-glued all the electronics components to it. The IR module I used in this project is one of my self made DIY IR modules. If you want to know more about the module, please checkout my Tutorial No 21 - All About IR Modules and how to make your own DIY IR Module.

Joining The Base To The Top

Now that we have top and the bottom ready, lets go ahead and join them together.

I created this cardboard thing to hold the concrete, when I pour the concert in the hole. This cardboard block will also prevent me from poring excessive concrete inside the hole. The flap in the middle is to hold the wires preventing them from getting mixed up with the concrete. After pouring the concrete I left it of drying for almost 2 days.

Code

While the concrete was drying up, I complied and uploaded the code to the Arduino.
For this project you need include the "ArduinoRTClibrary" and the "TM1637Display" libraries in your code. You can download them from github from the link provided in the description below.
Lets start the code by creating an instance of the RTC module followed by defining the variables used by the RTC module.
Then, define all the LED pins followed by creating an instance of the TM1637 module and defining all the variables used by the module.
Next, define the pins used by the IR module.
In the setup section, the 1st two lines can be used to attach an interrupt to the code, if you are planning to use the push button switches. However, in my code I am not using the buttons, so I commented them out.
Next, I have set the brightness of the display to the max value = 7 and added the "showNumberDecEx" function to include the colon in the code.
Next, I defined all the pin modes used by the attached components in the code.
The code below can be used to set the time of the clock. Set the correct time, uncomment and then load the code. Once loaded, comment the lines and then load the rest of the code.

  // Set the current date, and time in the following format:
  // seconds, minutes, hours, day of the week, day of the month, month, year
  //myRTC.setDS1302Time(00, 39, 21, 7, 20, 1, 2023);

In the loop section, all we are doing is - reading the hour and minutes from the RTC module and displaying it on the 7-Segment display.

 myRTC.updateTime();    // This allows for the update of variables for time or accessing the individual elements
 minutes = myRTC.minutes; // Get the current minutes from the RTC Module
 hours  = myRTC.hours;  // Get the current hours from the RTC Modules  
 timeData = hours * 100 + minutes;

This code block is used to toggle the colon on and off.

 // Code block that blinks the colon of the TM1637 module
 if (ctr == 200) {
  if (blinkToggle) {
   display.showNumberDecEx(timeData, 0x40, true);
   blinkToggle = false;
  } else {
   display.showNumberDecEx(timeData, 0, true);
   blinkToggle = true;
  };
  ctr = 0;
 };ctr++;
 delay(5);

This section is used to read the value of the IR sensor and either turn on or turn off the blue LED clusters.

 // Code block that turns on or off the Blue LED Cluster 
 int Sensordata = digitalRead(IRSensor); // Set the GPIO as Input
 if (Sensordata != 0) {
  if (millis() - timestamp>500) { // This is to avoid multiple obstacle detection
   timestamp = millis();
   if (IRtoggler == 0) {digitalWrite(LED_BLUE, HIGH);IRtoggler = 1;}
   else        {digitalWrite(LED_BLUE, LOW); IRtoggler = 0;}
  };
 };

This bit of the code, is to flash the white led when the minute counter resets to 0.

  // Flash the white LEDs if minutes = 0
 if ((int)minutes == 0) {
  if (blinkCTR==0 || blinkCTR==40 || blinkCTR==100 || blinkCTR==140 || blinkCTR==200 || blinkCTR==240 || blinkCTR==300 || blinkCTR==340)  
   digitalWrite(LED_WHITE, HIGH);
  if (blinkCTR==20 || blinkCTR==60 || blinkCTR==120 || blinkCTR==160 || blinkCTR==220 || blinkCTR==260 || blinkCTR==320 || blinkCTR==360)  
   digitalWrite(LED_WHITE, LOW);
  blinkCTR++;
 };
 if ((int)minutes == 1) blinkCTR = 0; // Reset blinkCTR for the next cycle of flashing

If you are planning to use the 2 x push button switches to set the time or to set an alarm, go ahead and uncomment this bit of the code and add your code block to it.

// Pressing this button puts the clock in setup mode
//void Button_1_Pressed(){};
// Pressing this button increments the values on the display
//void Button_2_Pressed(){};

Final Demo

So this is how it finally looks like.

Do comment and let me know if there are any scopes of improvement.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Video: https://youtu.be/AQhBpQrfmg8

Full Blog Post: https://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2023/02/ArduinoClock.html

Other Links:

Template: Download

3D Model: Download

Github: Visit

ArduinoRTClibrary: Download

TM1637Display Library: Download

Support My Work:

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Thanks, ca again in my next tutorial.

December 25, 2022

Created a small "PCB Christmas Forest" which is going to light up my study table this Christmas.

In this video, I am going to show you guys how to design these PCBs and assemble them to create a small PCB Christmas Forest.

Designing The PCBs

Sorting Out Images

To start the designing process, I need transparent PNG images of the Christmas Tree, Star, Snowflake, Candy Cane etc.

So I went online, and did an "image search" and downloaded few black-and-white images of all the items that I need to design these PCBs.

Using the good old "MS Paint" I edited all these PNG files.

I removed the rounded base and made the base flat so that it easily sits on the base plate. Then I removed a small portion from the bottom to expose a bit of copper. Pouring a blob of solder on this plate will hold the PCB nice and tight from the front side on the baseplate.

In my design I have 3 different sizes of the trees. If you look closely, they are all extracted from the same tree by removing the bottom layer each time and hence generating a new size of the tree.

Generating DXF File

For the customized shapes of the PCBs, we need to generate "DXF files" to set the "Board Outlines". I am using the "paint.net" application to fill in the white spaces of the tress as I only need the borders and nothing else from the original images. Then, I uploaded the images to "https://convertio.co/" and generated the DXF files. This website allows 10 free conversions in a day unless you have a paid account with them.

Creating the Trees

Now, lets add a "New PCB" to our project and remove the default board outlines.

Then import the DXF files via File > Import > DXF menu. Make sure you have the "BoardOutLine" selected under layers when you import the dxf file.

Now lets import the image that will go on the Top Silk Layer. Put the image over the board outline and move it to the "TopSilkLayer". Then lets go ahead and decorate our tree. Once all set, lets hide the Top Silk Layer so that we can work on the rest of items.

Using the Rectangle tool from the "PCB Tools Plate" I added a rectangle to the bottom of the PCB. I exposed the copper, so that I can use this to hold the tree on the baseplate by poring a blob of solder on it.

Next I randomly added few LEDs here and there at the bottom side of the board. Then I added few exposed copper rectangles at the back side of the board and connected them the LEDs. Remember this is just an example, the attached gerber is totally different from what you see onscreen.

So, this is how the tree looks like in 3D.

Creating the Baseplate

Now to create the baseplate, we again need to add a "New PCB" to our project and remove the default board outlines.

Then go to Tools > Set Board Outline.. and select the "Round Rectangular" from the "Type" selection. Specify the height, width and the radius of the edge and hit the "Apply" button.

Then go-ahead and add the rest of the components one by one either to the "TopLayer" or the "BottomLayer" of the board and connect them using wires. I grabbed the back and the front exposed rectangles from the tree and added them to the baseplate. This way the spacings will remain intact when we solder the trees on the baseplate. That's it easy as that. Now just go ahead and download your gerber file and send it for fabrication.

So, this is how my baseplate looks like. Bit complex, but it has the exact same logic that I just showed you guys.

Ordering Process

Once I had my design ready, I just had to upload the gerber file to the PCBWay's website and select the type, color and any other customization that I want and then just send it for fabrication.

For my project, I choose the black, red and the green colors.

The Code

The code I wrote is very simple. I have just turned on and off the LEDs after a 500ms delay. The top white LEDs turn on and off in the opposite order to the rest of the LEDs.

This code is just an example, you can write all sorts of funky stuff and load it to your Arduino board.

Testing on Breadboard

I tested my code on a breadboard before soldering the LEDs to the board. I wanted to see if the Arduino Nano can handle that many LEDs at once and I also wanted to check if combining different color LEDs on a same pin of Arduino will have any adverse effect.

The result was pretty promising:

- I was able hook up 3 LEDs without any issues to all the Digital (except D13) and Analogue pins of the Arduino.

- I was "not" able to combine yellow and orange LEDs with any other color on the same pin of Arduino.

Soldering

So, this is what came in the mailbag. Have a look at the quality, its absolutely mind-blowing.

Based on my design, the black one will stay at the back, the green one on right and the red one on the left hand side of the baseplate.

Please make sure when you solder the trees, solder the small (red) one first, then the green one and finally the big black one at the back. This way, you will be able to solder them very easily, without going over or under the trees.

Now, lets start soldering.

Lets start by soldering the LEDs on the trees. Since the front side of the plate has all the decorations on it, I placed all the component markings at the back side of the plate.

I then one by one soldered all the LEDs on the front side of the plates.

Please be careful while adding the colors, as mentioned earlier you cannot hook up yellow and orange with any other color on the same pin of an Arduino. Please follow my final coloring patter.

Now lets get the baseplate sorted. Lets start by soldering all the resistances to the board.

Then, lets solder 2 x female pin headers to the board. These pin headers will house the Arduino Microcontroller in it.

After that, lets solder the 2 pin micro-USB port to the board.

Next, its time to solder the trees to the board. With lots of flux and very little solder this is what I ended up creating.

Since a lot of the LEDs were getting hidden behind the trees, I ended up removing a lot from the final version.

Just follow the onscreen color pattern and you will have a small Christmas forest sitting on your table in less than 30 minutes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...

Thanks

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Video: Video Link

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Code: Download

Image Resources : Download

Gerber Base : Download

Gerber Small Tree : Download

Gerber Medium Tree : Download

Gerber Big Tree : Download

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November 27, 2022

Intro

In my hand is a 4-Digit 7-Segment display module.

The heart of this module is an inexpensive Serial LED Driver from Titan Micro Electronics called the TM1637.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you guys how to control the TM1637 4-Digit 7-Segment displays using an Arduino. If you want to displays sensor data, temperature and humidity, or want to design a clock, timer or counter, you will need this 4-Digit Seven-Segment Display.

Topics Covered

In this tutorial we are going to talk about:

The Basics of a 7-Segment Display

Hardware Overview and Pinout of The TM1637 Module

TM1637 Library Installation

Interfacing TM1637 Module with an Arduino

Loading The Basic Arduino Code (that comes with the TM1637 library)

Then we will have a look at some of these quick examples:

Example 1: Displaying String and a Number

Example 2: Displaying Scrolling and Blinking Text

Example 3: Creating a 4 Digit Counter

Example 4: Displaying Temperature & Humidity using DHT11/DHT22

Example 5: Creating an Arduino Based Digital Clock

And finally we will have a look at some common errors.

7-Segment Display Basics

A 7-Segment Displays consists of 7 LEDs making the shape of decimal number 8. These LEDs are called segments, because when they light up, each segments contributes in the formation of part of a decimal or hex digit.

These individual segments are labeled from ‘a’ to ‘g’ representing each individual LED. By setting a particular segment HIGH or LOW, a desired character pattern can be generated.

Hardware Overview and Pinout of TM1637 Module

The module comes with 4 right angle male pin headers. I find it a bit annoying to have the pin headers on the top side of the board. However, you can always unsolder and put them at the bottom of the board.

Now lets have a look at the GPIO pins:

CLK - is the clock input pin. You can connect it to any digital pin of an Arduino.

DIO - is the Data I/O pin. This can also connect to any digital pin of an Arduino.

VCC - Connects to 3.3V to 5V power supply.

GND - is the ground pin.

CLK and DIO pins can be connected to any digital pin of an Arduino. This gives us an opportunity to hook up a lot of these modules to an Arduino, as long as each instance has a pin pair of its own. When writing the code, we just need to specify the pin pair and then just go ahead and use them in your project.

If you run out of pins on your Arduino board you can use a GPIO Pin Extenders like the PCF8574. Please check out my tutorial on the Extender module, the link is in the description below.

PCF8574 GPIO Extender: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2018/12/pcf8574-gpio-extender-with-arduino-and.html

The module has 4 x 0.36 segment 7-Segment Displays and a ‘colon’ at the center for creating clock or time-based projects.

A bare four digit 7-Segment Displays usually requires 12 connection pins but the TM1637 LED Driver removes the need of the extra wiring for the 7-Segments and the entire setup can be controlled just by using 2 wires (DIO and CLK) and two more for power reducing the total wires to 4.

These modules communicate with the processor using "I2C-like protocol". The implementation is pure software emulation and doesn't make use of any special hardware (other than GPIO pins).

The module operates between 3.3v to 5v with a current consumption of 80ma and allows adjusting the brightness of the LEDs at the software level. They are available in few different colors.

TM1637 Library Installation

There are many libraries available for the TM1637 module. For this tutorial, we are going to use the "TM1637Display Library" written by "Avishay Orpaz". You can download the library using the library manager or from Github, the link is in the description below.

To install the library using "Library Manager", navigate to Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries…

Search for "TM1637" and look for the one by "Avishay Orpaz". Hit the "Install" button to install the library on your device.

TM1637Display Library: Download

Interfacing TM1637 Module with an Arduino

Hooking up the TM1637 module to an Arduino is very easy.

You just need to connect four wires: 2 for power and other 2 for controlling the display.

You can connect the VCC of the module to either 3.3v or 5v pin of the Arduino.

So, connect:

CLK - Pin 2 of Arduino

DIO - Pin 3 of Arduino

VCC - 5V of Arduino

GND - GND of Arduino

As previously advised, you can use any pin combination for the CLK and DIO on the Arduino board. Just make sure you change the pin numbers in the code to reflect the change of wiring.

So far, based on my experience I have only found one disadvantage.

This module is unable to display floating points or dots between numbers. However, you can use the "HT16K33 module" for displaying floating points.

Loading The TM1637Test Example

Before going ahead, lets have a look at the example that comes with the TM1637 Library.

Navigate to File > Examples > TM1637 and load the "TM1637Test" example.

The sketch starts by including the "TM1637Display.h" library.

Then it defines the CLK and the DIO pins that will be used to connect the TM1637 display.

In this example Pin-2 of Arduino is used for CLK and Pin-3 for DIO.

#include <TM1637Display.h>

#define CLK 2

#define DIO 3

Next, you need to create a new instance of the "TM1637Display" class by passing the CLK and the DIO Pin values to it.

TM1637Display display(CLK, DIO);

Then, the code shows us 2 ways of displaying data on the individual segments by creating arrays of texts.

a. 1st by passing "hexadecimal numbers" to the individual displays

uint8_t data[] = {0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff};

Passing "0xff" to all the 4 displays will turn them all ON, and passing "0x00" will turn them all OFF.

Using the "display.encodeDigit()" function you can display digits between 1 and 15.

data[0]= display.encodeDigit(15); // This will display F___ on the display [0b01110001 = F]

display.setSegments(data);

This will display F___ on the display.

b. 2nd by individually specifying the segments that you want to turn on.

The below creates an array that sets the individual segments values and displays "dOnE" on the display.

uint8_t done[] = {

SEG_B | SEG_C | SEG_D | SEG_E | SEG_G, // d

SEG_A | SEG_B | SEG_C | SEG_D | SEG_E | SEG_F, // O

SEG_C | SEG_E | SEG_G, // n

SEG_A | SEG_D | SEG_E | SEG_F | SEG_G // E

};

Now, to display these arrays, you need to pass them to the "display.setSegments()" function.

display.setSegments(data); // Will turn off all LEDs

display.setSegments(done); // Will display "dOnE"

The setSegments function accepts 3 arguments

setSegments(data[], length, position);

Data = The data to display

Length = number of digits to be updated (0–4). Ex. for "dOnE", it will be 4, for the "°C" it will be 2.

Position = determines the position from which you want to print (0-leftmost, 3-rightmost).

Remember, the LEDs once turned on stays on until they are turned off. So, you always have to clear the previous value before displaying the new one. This can be done by passing 4 lots of 0xffto the "display.setSegments()" function or by using "display.clear()" function.

uint8_t data[] = {0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff};

display.setSegments(data);

The brightness of the display can be adjusted using the "setBrightness()" function. The function accepts values between 0 (lowest) to 7 (highest).

display.setBrightness(3); // Sets the brightness level to 3

The "display.showNumberDec()" function is the function that you are going to use the most to display numbers on the module. The first argument is a number that you want to display on the screen. The rest of the arguments are all optional.

Syntax:

showNumberDec(number, leading_zeros, length, position);

Number = The number that you want to display on the screen. Values up to 9999 (type integer).

Leading_Zeros = True/false. Setting it to True will add leading zeroes. Default value is false.

Length = number of digits to be updated (0–4). Ex. for "dOnE", it will be 4, for the "°C" it will be 2.

Position = determines the position from which you want to print (0-leftmost, 3-rightmost).

Example:

display.showNumberDec(1,false) // Displays ___1

display.showNumberDec(1,false,1,0) // Displays 1___

display.showNumberDec(1,false,1,2) // Displays __1_

display.showNumberDec(10,false,2,0) // Displays 10__

Template

For the rest of the examples, I am going to use this template to write the code.

I will only show you guys the bit which is different in each code.

Example 1: Displaying Strings and Numbers

In this example you can see letter "TEST" and a randomly generated number is alternating and getting displayed on the screen.

To display the letter TEST, I am first clearing the screen and then lighting up the individual segments to display the characters.

To display a number, I am first generating a random number between 0 and 9999 and then displaying it using the "display.showNumberDec()" function.

Example1: Download

Example 2: Displaying Scrolling and Blinking Text

Now, to display a scrolling text, I am incrementing the position of the text by 1 and then displaying it from the new position. You need to pad the display with any character or it will end up showing random characters on the display.

Blinking a text is super easy. All you have to do is display the text, add a delay, clear the screen and then again add a delay before displaying the text again.

Example2: Download

Example 3: Creating a 4 Digit Counter

To display a counter, I am looping from 0 to 9999 and displaying the incremented value every time on the 7-Segments.

You can also add a push button switch to start and stop the counter.

Example3: Download

Example 4: Displaying Temperature & Humidity using DHT11/DHT22

Connect the OUT pin of the DHT11/DHT22 sensor to Pin-5 of the Arduino.

Then in the code include the "DHT.h" library and define the DHTPIN and the DHTTYPE.

Next, create a DHT object and in the setup section initialize the DHT sensor using the "dht.begin()" function.

Next in the loop section read the sensor data using the "dht.readTemperature()" function and display it on the 7-Segments.

Example4: Download

Example 5: Creating an Arduino Based Digital Clock

You can also create an alarm clock using either the DS3231 or DS1302 RTC Module and display the data using this TM1637 module.

I will cover that in full details in my next video.

Common Errors

Now lets have a look at some off the common errors:

Display showing parts of the previous data.

You always have to clear the previous value before displaying the new one.

You can either use:

display.clear();

or

uint8_t data[] = {0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff};

display.setSegments(data);

Display data going out of the display or showing partially

Check the positioning of the display data.

setSegments(data[], length, position);

These are few of the issues that I came across while playing around with these displays.

Do comment and let me know if you have any more to add to the list.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Links:

Video: Video Link https://youtu.be/Ob9mrq_Lj9k
Full Blog Post: Blog Post
Datasheet: Download
Schema: Download
TM1637Display Library: Download
Thingiverse : Download
PCF8574 GPIO Extender: Blog Post

Code:

Example1: Download
Example2: Download
Example3: Download
Example4: Download
TM1637Test: Download
Template: Download

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November 8, 2022

Intro

What do you generally do when your remote controls starts playing up?

Do you generally use a multimeter and check the voltage and current produced by the battery?
Or do you point the remote control to a digital camera and try to visualize the infrared light?

In this video, I am going to show you guys how to create a simple InfraRed(IR) Receiver Circuit using TSOP4838 and will also show you how to read the code send by the remote controls. You can also use this circuit as an IR remote tester.

Setup Without Arduino

Lets first have a look at the setup without an Arduino.

The main component of this circuit is the Infrared Remote (IR) Receiver TSOP4838.

The TSOP4838 is tuned to 38kHz, which is typically the frequency range of the TV remote controls.

From left to right Pin-1 is the OUTput pin, Pin-2 is GND and Pin-3 is VCC. Just remember, the pin assignments can be different depending upon the TSOP variant. So, please be very careful while hooking it up to your circuit.

Now, lets have a look at the setup.

Connect Pin-2 of IR Receiver to the -ve and Pin-3 to the +ve terminal of the battery.

Then connect the -ve pin of the LED to Pin-1 of the IR Receiver and the +ve pin to the +ve terminal of the battery by placing a current limiting resistance in-between.

To reduce the flickering rate of the LED, you can add a capacitor anything between 10mfd to 100mfd between Pin-3 and VCC of the circuit.

That's it, as easy as that.

Demo Without Arduino

Now, lets do a quick test.

As you can see, when I press any button on the the remote control the LED starts flickering.

TSOP4838 demodulates the signals received from the remote control and gives the output in the form of active low to the LED.

Adding a capacitor will lower the flickering rate of the LED.

The supply voltage has to be strictly between 5V-6V.

Setup Using Arduino

Now, lets set this up using a MicroController and try to read the demodulated signals.

Connect the +ve pin of the IR Receiver to 5V, -ve to GND and the OUT pin to Pin-2 of the Arduino.

You can also add the optional LED to this setup to get a visual effect when the Receiver decodes the signal.

The Code

Now, go ahead and launch Arduino IDE and go to "Tools" > "Manage Libraries".

Download and Install the latest release of the "IRremote" library from the library manager.

Then, go to "Examples" and open the "SimpleReceiver" example. Go ahead and load the code without making any modification to the Arduino Board.

Demo Using Arduino

For this demo, I am using a Panasonic and a Sony remote control. The decoded data will be shown using the Arduino IDE's Serial Monitor.

As you can see when I press a button on the remote control, the LED lights up and the decoded data is displayed on the serial monitor.

The serial monitor displays a lot of information, but the one of my interest is the "Source" and the "Command" send by the remote control.

Uses

Some common uses of this project includes:

Controlling devices using a remote control

Decoding data sent over IR

Troubleshooting remote controls

Lighting up LED strips near your TV whenever you press a button on the remote control

Thanks

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September 5, 2022

Intro

Walkie-talkie using Arduino, humm.. sounds interesting isn't it?

Alright, lets spend some time today and design and understand this fairly simple circuit, and lets find out how our expectations are challenged by the reality.

Story

While compiling data for my tutorial on "nRF24L01 Module" (All About nRF24L01 Modules) I found this easy to use RF24-Audio library.

This library has all the basic functionalities that you need to make a DIY walkie-talkie. The sketch is very simple, and I had all the components required to assemble this on a breadboard.

To motivate me even further, I found tons of video tutorials of people making this "super cheap gadget" with "crystal clear voice" transmitted over "1km to 2km of range". Humm, sounds a bit doggy but I still wanted to give it a shot.

This audio library works on top of the RF24 library.

Logic

Lets start by looking at the schematic of this circuit and lets also find out the components required to assemble this circuit.

Before going into much details lets understand the basic requirements of this circuit.

To transmit and receive data from one unit to the other we need some sort of transceiver module and a MCU to process the data.

We need some sort of device/module to capture our voice, and a device/module to convert the sound waves received in the form of electrical signal and relay it as an audible sound wave.

To start the transmission we need a push button and a LED indicator which lights up when the transmission begins. Similarly, at the receiving end we need a LED indicator that lights up when the unit starts receiving data.

Schematic

Alright, now lets replace our logic with the electronic components.

The heart of this circuit is an Arduino Nano.

The voice is transmitted from one unit to the other using a nRF24L01 Transceiver Modules.

Using a Microphone Module connected to the A0 pin of the Arduino, I am going to capture my voice.

And, using a 8ohm 0.5W speaker, connected to the D9 and D10 pin of the Arduino I am going to output the voice received by this circuit.

To initiate the transfer I am using a push button switch connected to the A1 pin of the Arduino.

The Red LED connected to the pushbutton lights up, when we press the button to transmit data.

The Green LED connected to the D6 pin of the Arduino lights up when the unit starts receiving data.

We also need to add a large decoupling capacitor anything from 470uF upwards on the 3.3V line to filter out voltage spikes and to provide enough power to the IC to keep the voltage stable.

You may also need to provide additional power to the nRF24 module using a 3.3V voltage regulator.

To transmit and receive data, we need exact copies of this module at both transmitting and receiving ends.

The Code

Now lets have a look at the code.

Unless you want to do something super funky, just go ahead and upload the "Minimal" code provided with the RF24Audio library to both the Arduino's present at the transmitting and receiving ends.

The code works perfectly fine with the circuit diagram we discussed in the previous section.

If you want to change any of the pin combinations, then you need to edit the "userConfig.h" file which you can find inside the Arduino libraries folder.

That's all you have to do to get this all up and running.

Demo

Alright, now the interesting bit. Lets go ahead and test this super cheap Arduino based walkie-talkie.

As you can hear, the sound quality is a total disaster.

I tried a few things like altering the sampling rate, altering the transfer speeds, adding a better microphone and an amplifier circuit, but nothing helped to improve the audio quality. This circuit is a total disaster.

I feel like I wasted my weekend making this project, and I am glad that I did not end up designing a PCB for this setup.

Frankly speaking, with this setup you can get about 20 meters or less with concrete walls in between. So, if you have a little faith in me, DONT WASTE YOUR TIME MAKING THIS STUPID PROJECT AT HOME.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

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Video: Video Link

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How to wire the buttons to the Arduino: Blog Post

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July 18, 2022

Intro

My 5-year old son asked me to create a Police Car like flashing light that he can put on top of his nerf-gun, while playing around with his mates. No worries mate, sounds like a plan to me. Bang, weekend sorted.

In this tutorial I am going to create a Police Light themed LED Flashing circuit using the 555 timer IC. This circuit alternatively flashes between the Red and the Blue LED's while blinking each of them individually similar to the police strobe lights. To add some spice to this project you can also add a police siren to this circuit. However, I just wanted to keep it simple.

Watch this video (https://youtu.be/4vDtWafMF0M) for detailed step by step instructions on how to build this circuit and for a complete instruction on how the circuit works.

Disclaimer: This tutorial and the linked video are for educational purposes only.

Components Required

For this project we need:

6 x RED LEDs
6 x Blue LEDs
2 x 555 Timer ICs
2 x 1K Resistors
1 x 680K Resistor
1 x 100K Resistor
1 x 10uf Capacitor and
1 x 100nF Ceramic Capacitor (104)

Depending upon the input voltage and the way you connect the LEDs (series or parallel) you will have to use different values of resistors in series with your LED’s. Please checkout http://ledcalc.com/ to calculate the resistor values based on your LED arrangements.

How The Circuit Works

Now, let's try to understand how this circuit works.

This circuit has 2 parts.

Part 1: Where the Blue and Red LEDs alternate and flash at a regular interval
Part 2: Where a cluster of similar color LEDs flash like a strobe light

In my previous tutorial "Adjustable Single/Dual LED Flasher Using 555 Timer IC", I showed you guys how to configure 555 timer IC to operate in an astable mode. In astable mode, the 555 timer IC acts as an oscillator (re-triggering itself) generating square waves [PWM Signals] from the output pin no. 3. Later I also showed you guys how to connect 2 LED’s in opposite polarity at the output pin Pin-3 so that they toggle ON and OFF at regular intervals of time.

In this tutorial, I am using two copies of the previously shown "astable circuit" configured at different frequencies.

The first 555 timer IC, uses a higher value capacitor and hence it takes more time to toggle the output.

The second 555 timer IC uses a lower value capacitor and hence it toggles the output very fast.

So, pretty much that's exactly what we want. The 1st 555 timer IC will help us in toggling between the LED clusters and the 2nd 555 timer IC will produce the strobe light effect.

Now, lets connect the LED clusters to this circuit. The first LED cluster of the Red LED’s turns ON when the anode receives a positive voltage and the cathode is grounded. This happens when the output of first 555 timer IC is ON and at the same time the output of second 555 timer IC is OFF.

Similarly, the second cluster of the Blue LED’s turn ON only when the output of the first 555 timer IC is OFF and the output of the second 555 timer IC is ON.

Now, when the first 555 timer IC is ON it turns on the first cluster of Red LED’s and they blink at the speed at which the second 555 timer IC oscillates the output.

Similarly when the first 555 timer IC turns OFF, the second cluster of Blue LED’s turns ON and blinks at the speed at which the second 555 timer IC oscillates the output.

This cycle continues as long as there is power in the circuit creating a cool LED flashing effect similar to the flashing lights used on police cars.

You can change the frequency of "toggling" between the successive LED groups by changing the higher value capacitor. Increasing its value will increase the time between the successive toggling between the two LED clusters and vice versa.

Similarly, changing the value of the lower value capacitor will change the "blinking rate" of the LED clusters.

Demo On Breadboard

The Board

So, this is how my board looks like in 2D and 3D.

I have placed both ICs and all other electronics components to the middle of the board.

To give the assembly a bit nicer look, I have placed the LED clusters on both sides of the board.

Alright, now lets start soldering the components to the board.

Soldering

Since I care a lot about my ICs and microcontrollers I never solder them directly to the board.

In case of ICs, I always try to use IC bases or if a base is not available I use female pin headers.

After soldering the IC bases, I am soldering all the resistances to the board.

Next, I am soldering the capacitors to the board followed by all the LEDs to the board.

I am also soldering a female micro USB port to power this circuit board.

Always check the polarity before soldering the socket to your board.

To conclude the setup, I am installing the ICs to the IC bases.

Final Demo

So, this is how my final setup looks like.

Do comment and let me know if there are any scopes of improvement.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Full Blog Post: Blog Post

Video: Video Link

Items Required

For this tutorial we need:

2 x LEDs

1 x 555 Timer IC

1 x 10µF Capacitor

1 x 220Ω Resistor

1 x 1kΩ Resistor

1 x 10kΩ Resistor and/or

1 x 10kΩ Potentiometer

Circuit Diagram

The circuit is very simple.

By connecting Pin 2 and 6 of the 555 timer IC, we put the IC in astable mode. In astable mode, the 555 timer IC acts as an oscillator (re-triggering itself) generating square waves [PWM Signals] from the output pin no. 3.

By changing the values of R1, R2, and C1 we can change the frequency of the output pulses generated at pin number 3.

Alright, let me explain this with the help of an animation.

How The Circuit Works

* When Pin 2 of the IC detects voltage LESS than 1/3rd of the supply voltage, it turns ON the output.

* And, when Pin 6 detects voltage MORE than 2/3rds of the supply voltage, it turns OFF the output.

* When the output is OFF, the Discharge Pin (Pin7) gets internally Grounded.

This is how the trigger pin (Pin2) and the threshold pin (Pin6) of the 555 timer IC sense voltages and controls the output at Pin 3.

* Capacitor C1 will be in a discharged state immediately when we firing up the circuit.

* So, the voltage at Pin 2 will be 0v which is less than 1/3rds of the supply voltage, this will turn ON the output on Pin 3.

* At the same time Pin 7 will internally disconnect from the GND and the Capacitor C1 will start changing via resistors R1 and R2.

* Once the voltage across capacitor C1 crosses 2/3rds of the supply voltage, Pin 6 turns OFF the output.

* At the same time Pin 7 will internally reconnect to the GND causing the capacitor C1 to discharge via resistor R1.

* Once the voltage across the capacitor C1 falls below 1/3rd of the supply voltage, Pin 2 turns ON the output, and the above cycle keeps repeating itself.

You can hook up a multimeter to the circuit to measure the charging and discharging of the capacitor.

Since resistance R1 is involved in both charging and discharging of the Capacitor, increasing or decreasing its value will increase or decrease the duration of the OFF cycle and will decrease or increase the flashing rate of the LED, as the capacitor will take more time to charge and discharge.

By replacing the capacitor with a higher or lower value, you can also get a longer or shorter flashing rate.

By replacing the resistor R1 with a potentiometer the blinking rate of the LED can be dynamically adjusted.

Now, for the Dual LED flashing effect we need to connect a second LED with opposite polarity to the Pin 3 of the IC. That's it, as easy as that.

Calculations

Now, lets calculate the output frequency and the duty cycle of the output waveform.

In my setup I have resistance R1 = 1kΩ, R2 = 10kΩ and capacitor C = 10uF

There are many online calculators to calculate this online. I will provide a link to one of the astable calculators in the description below: https://ohmslawcalculator.com/555-astable-calculator

Lets first calculate the value of t1 or the 'capacitor charge “ON” time which is 0.693(R1 + R2 ) * C1. Putting the values together we get 76.23 milliseconds.

Now, for capacitor discharge “OFF” time or t2 we need to multiply 0.693 to R2 and C1, which then gives us a value of 69.3 milliseconds.

Next, the total periodic time T is equal to t1 + t2 which comes out to be 145.53 milliseconds.

The output frequency, ƒ is therefore comes out to be to 6.871Hz.

Which gives a duty cycle value of 52.38%

If you want to have more control over the charging and discharging use a higher value for R2 (100K) and lower value for R1 (1K). That way you will have 99% control over the charging and discharging resistance in the circuit.

The maximum output current of this IC is 200mA therefore to drive a higher current load of up to 1A we have to use a transistor like the BD135.

The Board

To make it easy for you guys, I have created this tiny little "555 Pulse Generator Module". After assembling the components, you just need to power this module by providing a voltage between 5v to 15v to get an oscillating output at the "Pulse" pin.

So, this is how my board looks like in 2D and 3D. There are 16 breakout boards in this 100cm x 100cm assembly. You can download the gerber file from the link provided in the description below and order it from PCBWay.

Soldering

Before moving forward, let me quickly show you guys how to assemble the components to this custom made board.

Let's start by soldering the IC Base to the board. Then let's solder the potentiometer to the board. After that lets solder the 1kΩ (R1) resistor to the board followed by the 10µF capacitor (C1) to the board. Once done, let's insert the 555 timer IC to the IC base.

To conclude I have soldered 3 x Male pin headers to the board.

Applications and Uses

This circuit can be used to control the speed of DC motors and Stepper motors
It can be used to control windscreen wiper motors to generate a to-and-fro motion
It can be used as square wave signal generator
It can be used as an adjustable pulse generator for MCUs
In Strobe lights and SoS signaling circuits
Telecommunications for encoding purposes
In turning indicator circuits for all types of vehicles and bicycles
To generate adjustable pulse (timing pulses) to control other circuits. As, in combination with the 4017 & 4026 ICs

I have used this IC in few of my other projects and tutorials like the:
- DIY - Boba Fett Helmet With LED Chaser Circuit : https://youtu.be/vtO_GD0SS2s
- LED Chaser Circuits Using IC4017 and Arduino : https://youtu.be/F6V1AjESWbU
- DIY - LAN CABLE TESTER : https://youtu.be/PSK5Aa-byHA
- 555 Pulse Generator Module : https://youtu.be/bMAnipPOjFo

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Full Blog Post: Blog Post

Video: Video Link

What is a NRF24L01 RF Transceiver Module?

So far, I have always used WiFi for wireless communication between microcontrollers. While this is easy enough to do, it is not exactly suitable for battery operated nodes. WiFi modules consume a lot of current when transmitting data plus they also have a slight delay when initiating the transmission as the module has to first connect to the WiFi network.

After getting crippled by the abilities of my wireless router, I found this cheap, very popular and widely used "RF Transceiver Module" which you can hook up to any microcontroller (MCU). This module is called a RF transceiver because a single module can work both as a transmitter and a receiver.

The module operates at a frequency of 2.4GHz, which is one of the ISM band which means it is open to use in most of the countries around the World.
Data transfer rate is between 250kbps to 2Mbps baud.
Power consumption? This module is designed for ultra low power wireless applications. It has 2 power saving modes operating at 22uA Standby-I mode and 900nA in power down mode - which makes these modules suitable for battery operated nodes. The high air data rate combined with two power saving modes makes the nRF24L01 module very suitable for ultra low power designs. The power consumption of this module is just around 12 milliamps during transmission (TX) which is even lower than a single led.
Operating voltage is between 1.9V to 3.6V. All other pins on this board are 5V tolerant making it easy to connect to an Arduino without using a logic level converter. It has an integrated (on chip) voltage regulator.
The Range of this module as per its datasheet is 100m but it works up to 50 to 60 meters in real world conditions.
The module has 125 independent RF channels giving the possibility to have a network of "125 independently working modems" in one place. Each channel can have up to "6 addresses or 6 data pipes" or in other words, each unit can communicate with up to 6 other units at the same time (1:6 star networks).
The module is configured and operated through a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI).
It uses Enhanced ShockBurst™ for automatic packet assembly and timing, automatic acknowledgement and retransmission of packets. Enhanced ShockBurst™ enables the implementation of ultra low power, high performance communication with low cost host microcontrollers. The features enable significant improvements of power efficiency for bi-directional and uni-directional systems, without adding complexity on the host controller side.

The module used in this video has an in-built PCB antenna making it compact. However, you can also buy a variant that supports an external antenna allowing much higher range of about 1000M in line of sight.

nRF24L01 Pinout

Now, lets have a look at the pinouts and specifications of the NRF24L01 module:

GND: is the Ground Pin. It is placed inside a square for easy identification.
VCC: supplies power to the module. Voltage can range from 1.9v to 3.9v. So, you can connect it directly to the 3.3V pin of our Arduino. Remember connecting it to a 5V pin will likely destroy your nRF24L01+ module!
CE: (Chip Enable) is an active-HIGH pin. When selected the module will either transmit or receive, depending upon which mode it is currently in.
CSN: (Chip Select Not) is an active-LOW pin and is normally kept HIGH. When this pin goes low, the module begins listening on its SPI port for data and processes it accordingly.
SCK: (Serial Clock) it accepts clock pulses provided by the SPI bus Master.
MOSI: (Master Out Slave In) It is SPI input to the module. It is used to receive data from the microcontroller.
MISO: (Master In Slave Out) It is SPI output from the module. It is used to send data to the microcontroller.
IRQ: It is the interrupt pin that alerts the master when new data is available to process.

Setup and Schematic

In order to get this working, we need two such NRF24L01 Modules and two Arduino Boards. For this tutorial I am going to use 2 Arduino Nanos.

Just remember, we cannot use a breadboard with these modules because the pin spacing on these modules are not enough to place it in the middle and if you place it anywhere else, then you will end up shorting the pins. This means that you will either have to solder the wires directly to the modules or use some sort of jumper cables.

The connection is exactly the same on both the transmitter and receiver end.

Connect the GND pin to -ve and VCC pin to 3.3v pin of Arduino. The signals generated by these modules are very sensitive to power supply noises. So, adding a decoupling capacitor (anything from 10uF to 100uF) across the power supply line is always a very good idea.

Then connect the CSN pin to D8, CE to D9, MOSI to D11, MISO to D12, and SCK to D13 pin of the Arduino.

Since the nRF24L01+ module requires a lot of data transfer, it will give the best performance when connected to the hardware SPI pins on the microcontroller. Note that each Arduino board has different SPI pins that must be connected accordingly. Have a look at the table onscreen for quick understanding.

Library Used

For this tutorial I am going to use the "TMRh20/RF24" OSI Layer-2 driver for nRF24L01 on Arduino & Raspberry Pi/Linux Devices. You can download the library from the link provided in the description below: https://github.com/tmrh20/RF24/.

Code 1 - Sending Text

In my first example, I am going to send a character array from one module to the other. Using a split screen I am going to demonstrate this example. On my left is the Transmitter Code and on my right is the Receiver Code.

Lets start by including the "SPI library" followed by the "RF modules library" downloaded from github in the code.

Then we are creating a RF24 object by passing the CSN and CE as the two arguments to the radio() function.

Next, we are creating an array of the addresses that the modules will use to communicate amongst themselves. The address can literally be anything, however, it has to be the "same" on both the transmitter and the receiver modules. This is how the RF modules know who they have to communicate with.

In the setup section we first initialize the radio object.

Then, using the radio.openWritingPipe() function we set the address of the transmitter which we will use to send data to the receiver module. On the receiving end we use the radio.openReadingPipe() function with the same address to read the data from the data pipe.

Next we set the power amplifier level. Since the modules in this demo are sitting next to each other, I am using the "Minimum Level".

Next, in the transmitter code we need to tell the module to stop listening using the radio.stopListening() function. This sets the module as a transmitter. On the receiver module we need to start listening using the radio.startListening() function. This sets the module as a receiver.

After that, in the loop() section of the transmitter, we send an array of characters using the radio.write() function and on the receiver end we read the array using the radio.read() function and display it on the serial monitor every second.

Code 1: Download

Code 2 - Lighting Up LEDs

In the second example, I am going to light up two LEDs on the receiver-end based on whichever button is pressed on the transmitter-end.

To achieve this I have added 2 LEDs on the receiver end and 2 Push Button switches on the transmitter end.

When Button B1 is pressed the transmitter sends "B1" using the radio.write() function and when Button B2 is pressed the transmitter sends "B2" using the radio.write() function to the receiver module.

The "switch statement" in the receiver code then lights up the corresponding LED based on whichever button was pressed on the transmitter end.

Code 2: Download

Code 3 - Same Node Acting as TX and RX [Bidirectional Communication)

In my 3rd example I will show you guys how a single node can act as both transmitter and receiver. Just remember you "cannot" send and receive data at the same time. Using the "stopListening()" and "startListening()" functions we will toggle between sending and receiving of data on the data pipes.

What's different here from the previous code is that we are creating two pipes or addresses for the bi-directional communication.

const byte addresses[][10] = {"ADDRESS01", "ADDRESS02"};

In the setup section we need to define both pipes in a way that the sending address of the 1st module is the receiving address of the 2nd module and vice versa the receiving address of the 1st module needs to be the sending address of the 2nd module.

Now in the loop section of the 1st Arduino, we use the radio.stopListening() function to turn the node into a transmitter and send the data using the radio.write() function.

On the receiver end we use the radio.startListening() function to read the incoming data. While there is incoming data (radio.available()) we read it using the radio.read() function. Then we add a bit of delay to the code.

After that, we set the 1st Arduino to receiving mode using the radio.startListening() function and the 2nd Arduino to transmitting mode using the radio.stopListening() function.

The data is then displayed on screen using the Serial Monitor.

Code 3 : Download

Code 4 - Multiple Nodes [Mesh - Multiceiver Network]

The nRF24L01+ has a feature called Multiceiver. It is an abbreviation for Multiple Transmitter Single Receiver. In my 4th example, I am going to show you guys how to connect multiple transmitters to a single receiver.

In a Multiceiver network each RF channel is logically divided into 6 parallel data channels or the data pipes. Each data pipe has its own unique data pipe address. Only one data pipe can receive a packet at a time.

So basically, the primary receiver in the middle is collecting data from 6 different transmitting nodes simultaneously. The primary receiver can stop listening any time and start acting like a transmitter.

This way you can create a mesh of network where each node can act as a repeater. There is a different library "RF24Mesh" you need to use to create this mesh network. Since I don't have that many modules handy at this moment, I am unable to show you guys the working bit of it. However, I will create a 2nd tutorial dedicated just to the mesh network, so stay tuned.

Using Sleep Mode

There is a way to conserve battery by sending the module to sleep mode. Please read through the "pingpair_sleepy" example for more details, I have provided the link in the description below.

Factor Effecting The Transmission

These modules work very well when the transmitter and receiver are close to each other. If the distance is too big you may lose the communication.
The signals generated by these modules are very sensitive to power supply noises. Depending upon the amount of noise, the communication rate may vary.
Setting the maximum output power can also improve the communication range.
If there’s an obstacle in the line of sight you may see multiple dropouts.
Reducing the data rate can significantly improve the performance. A speed of 250kbps is more than enough for most of our projects.
Using an external antenna can also significantly improve the transmission rate.
Another potential source of noise for RF circuits is WiFi. Especially when someone's network is set on the same channel. Since WiFi mostly uses the lower frequency channels, it is recommended to use the highest 25 channels for your nRF24L01+ modules.

Thanks

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Blog Posts: Visit Website

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DataSheet: Download

Schema

Schema - Sending Text: Download

Schema - Lighting Up LEDs: Download

Code

Code 1 - Sending Text: Download

Code 2 - Lighting Up LEDs: Download

Code 3 - Bidirectional Communication: Download

Libraries Used

TMRh20/RF24 : Visit Website

TMRh20/RF24 : Download

RF24Mesh : Visit Website

pingpair_sleepy : Visit Website

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May 22, 2022

Crypto Mining using microcontrollers, wait what!!! Are you serious? How?

Believe it or not, the rig you see onscreen actually mines a crypto currency called DUINO-Coin (ᕲ) or DUCO.

The total cost of this rig is only $35.

Now, if you believe me! then, grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and watch this video and start your journey into cryptocurrency with DUINO-Coin!

What is DUINO-Coin?

DUINO-Coin (ᕲ) was founded in 2019 and is a for-fun project. This project was developed by a team of young developers that focuses on energy efficient mining. It's mostly, but not only, dedicated to people who are just starting out in the crypto world and it doesn't require any expensive hardware.

DUCO is a transparent, open-source, centralized, eco-friendly coin that focuses on mining with low-powered devices like Arduino. DUCO tries to achieve a reward system using "Kolka" a name derived from Coca Cola making the low-powered devices like Arduino earn almost the same or even "more" than a powerful device like CPUs or GPUs. It also prevents people from building huge mining farms. It causes each additional miner to earn a bit less from the previous one.

DUCO is "centralized" and has an "infinite supply" and hence you can mine this coin forever.

You can Mine DUCO using:

Android smartphone

Computer's CPU

Arduino (or compatible AVR)

Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi or Banana Pi

ESP8266/ESP32 (or compatible boards)

Internet browser on PC or smart-TVs

Arduinos using ESP8266 as a host

Arduinos using Raspberry Pi as a host

Centralization: Making Arduino and other low powered devices not only profitable, but just possible would be impossible to maintain if the coin was decentralized. Hence, DuCo is a centralized coin with it's own chain. It is however possible to wrap (convert) DUCOs to wDUCO, bscDUCO, celoDUCO or maticDUCO to store them in decentralized form on another coin's chain.

To start your journey, have a look at the getting started with Duino-Coin webpage. Then, create a wallet to store your coins. Next, download the miner binaries for the device you are going to mine the coin.

If you are super tech savvy, then have a look at the coins whitepapers. The link is in the description below.

In my setup, I am mining DUCO using NodeMCU.

Schema

The setup is very simple. In my setup I have added an extra LED to give my board a bit of Si-Fi look.

Mining with ESP boards allows you to mine headlessly - you don't need to have them connected to a computer as they have their own Wi-Fi capabilities to connect to the server.

The Board

Now, lets have a look at my board. You can hookup, 5 x NodeMCUs to this board. Each NodeMCU has its own flashing LED. The board can be powered using just 5v using a USB cable.

So, this is how the NodeMCU DUCO Miner blade looks like in 3D.

Soldering

Lets start by soldering all the small components to the board.

I first soldered all the LEDs and the resistances to the board.

Since I care a lot about my Sensors and Microcontrollers, I am not going to solder them directly to the board. Instead I am soldering 'female pin headers' to the board which will house the NodeMCUs in them.

Finally, I soldered a USB cable to power the blade. I extracted this cable from a broken iPhone's charger.

Code

I downloaded the code from the DUINO-coins website. The current version is 3.0. I downloaded the windows version and then added my code block to make the blue LED flash on my blade.

In the code, you just need to edit few line in the top section to add your Wi-Fi details and the name of the NodeMCU.

If you're using an ESP8266 board, you can set the clock speed (Tools > CPU frequency) to 160 MHz to achieve better hash-rates.

Then, just go ahead and upload the code one by one to all your NodeMCU's. Before adding the NodeMCU to your rig, it is a good idea to check it using the Arduino Serial Monitor (Tools > Serial Monitor), set the baud rate to 500000 baud and see how's the ESP is doing. If everything is correct, you should see messages saying that a share was accepted.

If it all works fine, your ESP will mine as long as it has power and internet connection.

Demo

So, this is how my final setup looks like.

To be very frank, the setup actually looks like having a small Christmas tree on your table, ha ha.

Hash-Rate

Mining DUCO at this stage is not very profitable. However, I just wanted to share the hash-rate table with you guys.

Remember, Kolka will play an essential role, as you keep on adding devices to your rig.

So, the hash-rate you will get may not be same as what you see on-screen.

Claiming Via Faucets

You can also claim DUCO via web-faucets.

I have scene many faucets coming in and completely disappearing, so the links provided in the video may not be valid when you try to access them.

The first one in list is the "faucet.duinocoin.com". You can claim 1 DUCO from this website by solving a captcha to start your journey. Remember you can only claim once from this website.

The next one is the "furim.xyz". Again, you just need to solve a captcha to earn some DUCO.

The 3rd one in list is "duco-faucet.pcgeek.pl" same as the other two, you can claim some DUCO every 15 minutes by solving a captcha on this website.

Exchanging DUCO

After mining some DUINO-Coins, you may want to exchange them to some other currency.

To exchange your coins, simply visit the website and select the currency you want to exchange. At the moment of writing this tutorial, DUCO Exchange supports XMG, BCH, TRX, BYND and LKE coins.

After deciding which coin you want exchanged, simply fill in the exchange form and wait for the exchange to happen (it may take up to 72 hours). You'll shortly receive an e-mail confirming the process and describing any further steps if needed.

Other exchanges:

Other exchanges supporting DUINO-Coin are Node-S, PancakeSwap, SunSwap, and SushiSwap.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts: Visit Website

Video references: Visit Website

Code

Release 3.0 Original: Download

Release 3.0 Modified: Download

Resource Pages

Getting started: Visit Website

Create Wallet: Visit Website

App list: Visit Website

Exchange: Visit Website

White Paper: Visit Website

Dashboards

Dashboard-1: Visit Website

Dashboard-2: Visit Website

Dashboard-3: Visit Website

Facets List

Faucet-1: Visit Website

Faucet-2: Visit Website

Faucet-3: Visit Website

Discussion

Discord: Visit Website

Reddit : Visit Website

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March 25, 2022

In my last tutorial I created a Weather Station using Arduino and NodeMCU using DHT11 or DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor and displayed it using an OLED Display. In this tutorial, I am going create a Peg-Box using the same board but with a little bit of twist. In this setup, I am going to send the Temperature and Humidity readings to my Raspberry Pi based home server and store it in a MySQL database. The data can then be viewed using PHP and Google Charts, on a Mobile Phone or a PC connected to the home network.

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Circuit Diagram

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The setup is very simple. The temperature and humidity sensor sends the collected data to the NodeMCU on pin D3. NodeMCU then sends the data over WiFi to the Raspberry Pi, which is then saved in the MySQL database.

The Yellow LED, which is the status indicator flashes every second and is connected to D6 pin of the NodeMCU. The Blue LED connected to pin D5, lights up when NodeMCU sends the temperature and humidity readings to the database.

If you are planning to install this box somewhere inside the house, then you can also add an OLED display and display the readings on it.

The Board

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So, this is how my board looks like in 2d and 3d.

There are 3 breakout boards in this 100cm x 100cm assembly. Each board can be used with either Arduino or NodeMCU and DHT11 or DHT22 sensor or sensor module.

Temperature and humidity readings can be collected using either a DHT11 or DHT22 Module or by using one of these sensors with a 10K resistor.

The bottom section of the board is for the OLED display. The attached gerber is bit different from what you see on screen. I made some modifications in the final version and moved the sensors a bit far from the microcontrollers.

Component Assembly

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Lets start by soldering the female pin-headers to the board. The pin-headers will house the NodeMCU in it.

Next, lets soldered few more pin-headers for the LEDs, DHT11 sensor and the OLED display.

Before installing the circuit in the peg-box, lets hook up the OLED Display and make sure everything works as expected. Boom, nailed it.

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The Code

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The code starts by including all the libraries and by defining all the constants and variables that will be used throughout the program.

Then there are two functions SendIamAlive() and SendTemperatureAndHumidity() which sends heartbeat and the data read from the temperature sensor to the database server.

The ReadDHTSensor() function reads the data from the DHT11 or DHT22 sensor.

In the setup section we first setup the WiFi and then send a SendIamAlive() message to the server advising that it is back up and running. Then in the loop section the microcontroller send a heartbeat every minute using the SendIamAlive() function and if the time elapses it sends the humidity and temperature data using the SendTemperatureAndHumidity() function.

The White LED flashes every seconds and the Blue LED turns on when the device sends the temperature and humidity data to the database server.

MySQL

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So,the data sent by the NodeMCU over WiFi is saved in the MySQL database hosted on a RaspberryPi 4.

Here you can see, the microcontroller sends the data every 30 minutes (you can change the frequency) which is then saved in the MySQL database. The data saved on the Pi's MySQL database can then be used to generate various different types of graphs either by using google charts or any other 3rd party application. It totally depends on you how you want to present it.

3D Design

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Now, lets look at the design of the peg-box. Using freely available pallet planks, I designed the body of the box.

The pallet planks I am using are 160cm x 9cm x 2cm (length, width and thickness). So, the rest of the measurements will be based on that.

The top bit of the peg-box will house the microcontroller and the sensors in it. Putting it on the top prevents the electronics from adverse climatic conditions.

The back bit will stick to wall and hence we don't need to cover it up.

You can either put the pegs straight in the front bin or throw it to the top bit, from where it will slide down to the front bin.

The sliding design with an opening in the front will prevent rainwater from accumulating inside the bin. This mechanism will keep the bin dry throughout the year.

Woodworking

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Using 2 hammers I am dismantling the pallet. My aim is to reuse all the nails used in building this pallet so that, I can use them in building my project. After that, I sanded the pallet planks to give them a nice and smooth texture.

Then using a chop-saw or a hand-saw I extracted all the pieces of wood required for building this project.

AVvXsEgbm-NOX_J85s_AZTPfhOdXhB8dn_H0DCXy4-xjGMo4MEPacIyqqR1uHDzk1k0CUGY-KPjQT6SJuG3FsixYpsgsqnXhq9YreFwKs6PK7pVSB9KXHciiT3k-mSBwDhtSL-3xPSCxitiD6S89beuU6YghZraq2S6lTJkcc9RCPTzasvMGCAU9YrUjjRN6=w640-h360

As mentioned earlier, my pallet plank are 9cm wide and hence, all the onscreen measurements are based on that.

Final Assembly

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Using wood-glue I am joining all pallet planks used in making the box.

I got a bit too excited and accidentally deleted one of my recordings. So, I am using 3D animation to show you guys how I joined the two sides of the box.

I used a plywood board to created the base of the bin.

I glued few cylindrical wooden sticks on the roof of the box. To be very frank these sticks changed the entire outlook of the peg-box.

Coloring

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Since my aim is to install the peg-box outside the house, I have to make sure that I apply multiple coats of paint on the box to avoid the pallet wood from rotting. I applied 3 coats of paint on the entire setup and insulated all the holes that I found using wood putty.

So, this is how it looks like. The electronics bit will stay hidden under the roof of the box. Ha ha, Don't worry, I will obviously insulate them and make them weather-proof before installing them on the wall.

Installation

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Now the next thing you need to do is to find a spot where you want to install this unit.

I am installing this near my clothesline, however you may want to install it in your pantry or behind a door or something like that. It totally depends on how much space you have and where you want to install it.

I am using metal frame hangers to hang this on the wall.

Place the unit against the wall, and using a pencil mark the points where you want to drilling the holes.

Now, using a hammer drill, drill the holes in the wall.

Then, put the wall plugs in the wall and then use a screw driver to install the screws.

Alright so, that's it. This unit is now all set to hold all my pegs in it.

Demo

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So, this how my final setup looks like. Do comment and let me know if there are any scopes of improvement.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts:

1. Peg Box

2. DHT11 & DHT22

3. OLED Tutorial

Video references:

1. Peg Box

2. DHT11 & DHT22

3. OLED Tutorial

Resources:

Gerber

Schema

3D Model

Code:

Code (Arduino + PHP + MySQL DB)

Code_With_OLED_Arduino

Code_With_OLED_NodeMCU

Code_With_PHP_NodeMCU

Libraries:

DHTStable.h

SSD1306.h

Adafruit display library

Adafruit GFX library

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February 12, 2022

It’s almost Valentine’s Day. This year, instead of giving her a rose bouquet, I wanted to express my love by gifting her an electronic breathing heart. This is yet another "cheap DIY kit" intended for educational purpose. There are a few variations of the breathing LED projects with similar setup, however the one with blue LEDs attracted me a lot.

#valentinesDayGift #ArduinoGiftIdea #ElectronicsValentinesDay

Video: https://youtu.be/cq6fEPNtxn4

Unpacking The Kit

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Same as any other cheap DIY kit, this one came in a zip lock bag without any instructions. However, the component values and polarities are vey well denoted on the board, so I did not had Google at all.

Inside the zip lock bag you will find:

1 LM358 IC

22 LEDs

6 Resistors

1 47uf Capacitor

1 Push ButtonSwitch

1 Adjustable Tri-Pot and

1 SS8050 NPN Transistor

There is no IC base present in this package. However, I would highly recommended using one for your IC.

How This Circuit Works

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To get the fading effect we need to generate a series of triangular waves.

Because of the triangular waves, the LED starts glowing slowly and then slowly dims off and the cycle continues.

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This setup is done using the LM358 IC. LM358 is a dual operational amplifier (Op-Amp) IC, integrated with two op-amps powered by a common power supply. Pins 1, 2, and 3 are one op-amp channel, and pins 5, 6, and 7 are the 2nd op-amp channel.

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As the capacitor charges and discharges the state of the PIN 3 switches from high to low and based on that the PIN 2 of the op-amp obtains the desire output. If you want to know more about this IC, please check out my "Tutorial No 21 : DIY - IR Module" : https://youtu.be/_M8FQIPi1qk.

So, basically the op-amp here is used for voltage level detection. In this circuit, we are applying a voltage on positive pin (PIN-3) and the voltage to be detected is applied at negative pin (PIN-2).

The transistor acts as a signal amplifier. You will need this if you are attaching a cluster of LEDs however for just 1 LED you can simply remove it.

Soldering

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Soldering the components to the board was pretty straightforward and relatively trouble free. I just had to pay a bit of attention to the directions of the components when soldering them to the board.

I started the project by soldering the IC base to the board followed by the capacitor, transistor, pot and the push button switch.

Next, I soldered all the resistors to the board. After that, I soldered all the LEDs to the board, due to the repetitive nature of the LED installation the installation may slightly be tedious. However once you finish soldering all the components, I bet you will feel proud of yourself.

Not to mention, the zip lock bag contains few spare LEDs, umm.. a thoughtful addition.

Quick Test

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So this is how it looks like. The effect is a blue heart that increases and decreases in brightness in a cyclical fashion. The speed/depth can be adjusted using the onboard pot. To be very frank, the diffused LEDs make it quite appealing and less glary when you look at it.

Cutting The Heart

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Now that I have all the electronics bit sorted, it was time for me to add the accessories to it.

Something just clicked in my mind and I went ahead and cut a "heart shape" from a piece of pallet. I will later stick the circuit board to this heart shaped pallet plank. Sanding the plank well, and adding a bit of olive oil gave the heart shape a shiny, nice and smooth texture.

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Items Required

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For the rest of the project I am using a dog made of clay and some broken pieces of artificial plants.

It totally depends on you, what you want to add to give your project a super sexy look.

Preparing the base

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Now to house all the bits and pieces that I gathered so far, I need to create a base. For that, I am cutting a 6" x 3.5" pallet plank. All the bits and pieces will be glued to this pallet plank.

Assembling The Heart

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I drilled a hole in the middle of the wooden heart. Through this hole I will pass the wire that will power the circuit board.

AVvXsEjv1bqCD0Rdiqpiz8-Yeg1IVcVK0LaT5Ovb-UNNsmd1OQHsmE8vWvwj5Bfw16B1BmgW4H_NmnAuBBGvdEuL8IwPYHc_VxzJss17jeKxyZ3b_Dkpt_I5xVKamtdQbiCIueNrzCY4zGy5cSe1BWINDoE-n-drDOzuxJ91Feje_4DJHHZ2Bvf1jcb9buQe=w640-h360

The power supply to this board is between 4v-6v DC. Any USB interface, or three ordinary dry cells can be used to power this board. The supply voltage to the red LED version is slightly lower than that all other colored LEDs. A 4v power supply can power the Red version; however, other colors need voltage between 4v 5v 6v.

Putting All The Bits Together

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All right, so now its just a matter of gluing all the bits and pieces one by one to the base pallet plank.

Demo

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When you are young and restless, Valentines Day plays a significant role in your life. However, if you are deeply in love with someone who you are going to spend your rest of the life with, everyday becomes Valentines Day for you.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2022/02/Valentine-2022.html

Video: https://youtu.be/cq6fEPNtxn4

LED Fader: https://youtu.be/IIUsdICycOw

DIY - IR Module : https://youtu.be/_M8FQIPi1qk

Cos.TV: https://cos.tv/videos/play/34112835833860096

Odysee: https://odysee.com/@Arduino:7/yt5s.com-Cute-Little-Valentine's-Day-Gift:3

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January 23, 2022

2 hours ago, charlesmox1 said:

I'm looking forward to the next post)Keep it up!

Sure mate

January 10, 2022

Couple of months ago, I bought a "Raspberry Pi Pico" to get some hands-on experience of it and to create some amazing projects using it. But since then, it has just been sitting on my desk, collecting dust. Today after a very long wait, I finally have decided to create a short video tutorial to show you guys how to get started with the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Topics Covered

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In this tutorial, I am going to discuss:

1. What is a Raspberry Pi Pico?

2. The technical specifications of the board

3. How to program Pico using C/C++ and MicroPython

a. Programming Raspberry Pi Pico using "Arduino IDE"

i. Preparing the Arduino IDE

ii. Loading the Blink Example

iii. Demo

b. Programming Raspberry Pi Pico using "Tonny Python IDE"

i. Installing MicroPython on Pico

ii. Installing Tonny Python IDE

iii. Loading the Blink Example

iv. Demo

4. Difference between Raspberry Pi Pico and Arduino

5. Advantages and Disadvantages of this board

What is Raspberry Pi Pico?

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Raspberry Pi Pico is a low-cost microcontroller. It can be used to control other electronic modules and sensors same as any other microcontroller.

Pico is not a Linux single board computer, rather it is a microcontroller like Arduino. Since, its a microcontroller it doesn't come with all the overheads that a computer brings and hence consumes much less current. actually it is more like Arduino than Raspberry Pi.

Pico is not a rival of Raspberry Pi Zero, it actually can work in conjunction with the regular Pi's.

Pico is breadboard friendly and has 40 GPIO pins operating at 3.3v (20 on each side). It has a Dual-Core ARM Cortex M0+ processor. Pico's brain - the RP2040 microcontroller chip is designed by Raspberry Pi in United Kingdom.

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It can be powered either via the micro USB port, or via the VSYS GPIO pin by providing voltage between the range of 1.8V to 5.5V.

Technical Specifications of Pico

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Raspberry Pi Pico is absolutely different from all other Raspberry Pi models. Pico is one of the first microcontrollers to use the RP2040 "Pi Silicon" processor. It is a custom "System on Chip" (SoC) developed by the Raspberry Pi team in UK which features a dual core Arm Cortex M0+ processor running at 133 MHz, 264KB of SRAM and 2MB of flash memory for storing files on it.

Specifications:

- Microcontroller: RP2040 designed by Raspberry Pi in the UK

- Processor: Dual-Core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 133 MHz

- Input power: 1.8 - 5.5 V DC

- Operating temperature: -20°C to +85°C

- Dimensions: 51.0 x 21.0 mm

- Onboard Sensors: Temperature Sensor

- Memory: 264KB of on-chip internal SRAM and can support up to 16MB of off-chip Flash

2MB on-board QSPI Flash (Adafruit's Feather RP2040, features 16MB of storage)

- GPIO: It has 40 GPIO through-hole pins also with edge castellation

- 26 × multi-function 3.3V GPIO pins, which includes 3 analogue inputs (The Analog inputs is something other Raspberry Pi's lack. They use variable voltages to connect to devices like a potentiometers, joystick or a LDR)

- 2 × SPI, 2 × I2C, 2 × UART, 3 × 12-bit ADC, 16 × controllable PWM channels

- 8 × Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support that can offload many kinds of timing-critical processes from the CPU

- Other Features:

- 1 × Contains 1 × USB 1.1 controller and PHY, with host and device support

- Accurate clock and timer on-chip

- Low-Power sleep and dormant modes

- Accelerated integer and floating-point libraries on-chip

- Works with Windows, Mac, Linux machines and Raspberry Pi Computers

- Provides drag-and-drop programming using mass storage over USB

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The one biggest disadvantage of the Raspberry Pi Pico is that there is no WiFi or Bluetooth on it. ESP32 and ESP8266 which you can buy for similar price comes with WiFi and Bluetooth (ESP32). Surely we can add wireless connectivity via external components, however that would require a little bit more knowledge and experience to get it working.

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Since Pico is not a computer, we need to write our codes on a different machine using an external application and then "flash" the code onto the microcontroller over USB.

Pinout Diagram:

Here is the top view of the pinouts on the Raspberry Pi Pico. The pin-labels are on the bottom side of the board.

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How to program Pico using C/C++ and MicroPython

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Pi Foundation officially supports MicroPython and C/C++, however high-level programming language like CircuitPython (A fork of MicroPython created by Adafruit), and Drag and Drop Python Editor like Pico Piper which adds further enhancements and can be used to program the Pico boards.

Programming Raspberry Pi Pico using Arduino IDE

Python and C/C++ are both great for programming Picos. However, being able to program a Pico just like an Arduino would help us to integrate the Pico into the Arduino ecosystem. One of the best reasons to do this is because of the availability of libraries to integration of modules, sensors, and other complex stuff without having to write the entire code from scratch.

i. Preparing the Arduino IDE

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To start, let go to Tools > Boards > Boards Manager and search for "Pico", select "Arduino Mbed OS RP2040 Boards" and hit the install button.

Connect the micro USB cable to the Pico and then press and hold the "BOOTSEL" button before plugging the USB cable into the computer. Release BOOTSEL once the drive RPI-RP2 appears on your computer.

Now, go to Tools > Port and you will now be able to see the number of the COM Port.

ii. Loading the Blink Example

Go to Files > Examples > Basics > Blink and click on Upload, this will load the code to the Pico board.

iii. Demo

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After the IDE finished uploading the code, you will see the Pico's onboard LED blinking.

You can now use your Pico like an Arduino and program it using the Arduino IDE.

Programming Raspberry Pi Pico using Tonny Python IDE

You can program your Pico using MicroPython by connecting it to a computer via USB and then dragging and dropping files to it.

i. Installing MicroPython on Pico

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Installation of MicroPython on Pico requires a "UF2" file to be copied onto it. A UF2 file is a "binary data file" which contains a program that can be transferred from a PC to a microcontroller, such as an Arduino or Pico circuit board.

To load MicroPython on Pico:

1. Download "MicroPython UF2 file" from the link provided in the description below.

2. Connect the micro USB cable to the Pico and then press and hold the "BOOTSEL" button before plugging the USB cable into the computer. Release BOOTSEL once the drive RPI-RP2 appears on your computer.

3. Drag and drop the UF2 file onto the RPI-RP2 volume.

4. Your Pico will reboot. That's it, you are now running MicroPython on your Pico.

ii. Installing Tonny Python IDE

To write code and save files to Pico we are going to use the "Thonny Python IDE". Thonny comes with built-in Python 3.7, so just one simple installer is what you need to learn programming. To get started:

1. Download and install "Thonny" free from the Thonny website for your version of OS. The website's link is in the description below.

Note: If you are running "Raspberry Pi OS" then Thonny is already installed on it, but may need to update it to the latest version

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Connect the Raspberry Pi Pico to your computer. Then, in Thonny go to Tools > Options and click on the "Interpreter" tab. From the interpreter dropdown list select "MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico)". The port dropdown menu can be left to "automatically detect the Pico". Click "OK" to close.

3. A Python Shell called "REPL" (Read, Eval, Print, Loop) will popup to show that the Pico is connected and working.

iii. Loading the Blink Example

1. Click in the main editor pane of Thonny and enter the following code to toggle the onboard LED.

from machine import Pin, Timer
led = Pin(25, Pin.OUT)
timer = Timer()


def blink(timer):
led.toggle()

timer.init(freq=2.5, mode=Timer.PERIODIC, callback=blink)

2. Click the "Run" button to execute the code.

3. Thonny will ask whether you want to save the file on "This computer" or the "MicroPython device". Choose "MicroPython device". Enter "blink.py" as the file name. Make sure you enter ".py" as the file extension so that Thonny recognizes it as a Python file.

iv. Demo

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You should now see the onboard LED switching between on and off until you click the Stop button.

Difference between Raspberry Pi Pico and Arduino

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* Before Raspberry Pi Pico, Raspberry Pi has always been know for their single board computers.

However, in 2021 Raspberry Pi Foundation stepped a few steps forward and launched the Raspberry Pi Pico giving a head-to-head challenge to Arduino and all other board based microcontrollers.

* Arduino was first introduced in 2005 and since then Millions of Arduino Units have been sold in the market. Compared to that, the response Pico received after its initial launch in 2021 is absolutely mind-blowing.

* Both units are made for automating applications that don’t involve human intervention.

* Pico can be used alone or in combination with Arduino for Automation and AI purposes.

* Both modules are different in terms of power consumption, value, functionality, and price.

* Pico boards come unsoldered however Arduino comes pre-soldered or unsoldered.

* Pico module supports MicroPython and C/C++, while Arduino codes are written in C/C++ using Arduino.IDE.

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So which one to go for… Pico or Arduino?

Advantages and Disadvantages

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Now lets have a look at the Pros and Cons of this microcontroller board.

Advantages:

* Raspberry Pi Pico is cheap, very small, and easy to use microcontroller

* Pico is a dual core device coupled to a high-performance bus matrix, which means its both cores can give you the full performance concurrently

* Pico consumes very low power

* Pico is a breadboard friendly

* Pico can be programmed using C/C++ and MicroPython

* Pico can be programmed using Arduino IDE

* Pico has 26 × multi-function 3.3V GPIO pins (23 Digital + 3 Analogue)

* Pico comes with 8 x Programmable IO (PIO) and 2 x Analog Inputs

* Pico boots quickly and doesn’t require a safe shutdown

Disadvantages:

* Pico completely lacks WiFi and Bluetooth without any add-ons

* It lacks the GPIO markings on the top side of the board

* The board comes unsoldered so you will have to solder the header pins or surface mount it to use it in your project

* GPIO pins are 3.3V, which could be seen as a disadvantage, however devises designed for 5V can still be used with 3V via a voltage divider or a logic level converter.

* Pico still uses micro-USB port. While many other microcontrollers have moved to USB-C, Pico is still coming with the micro-USB port

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If you have a Windows, Apple, Linux or even a Raspberry Pi, then you are already well in your way to program the small, cute, and gorgeous Raspberry Pi Pico in your next project. I bet, there must be a lot of project ideas going in your mind, so get your supplies and start coding. And, what are you waiting for???

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2022/01/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-pico.html

Video: https://youtu.be/vO_2XWJDF70

Other Resources:

RP2040 Datasheet : https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf

Hardware design with RP2040 : https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/hardware-design-with-rp2040.pdf

Raspberry Pi Pico Datasheet : https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico/pico-datasheet.pdf

Getting started with Raspberry Pi Pico : https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico/getting-started-with-pico.pdf

MicroPython UF2 : https://micropython.org/download/rp2-pico/rp2-pico-latest.uf2

Thonny website : https://thonny.org/

Piper Make: https://make.playpiper.com/

CircuitPython 7.1.0: https://circuitpython.org/board/raspberry_pi_pico/

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December 28, 2021

I love mining and I truly believe that blockchain and digital currencies will one day change the world. Cryptocurrency has played a significant role in my life and has made me a morning person, ha ha.

Miners require 24 x 7 access to the Internet. Recently, I went on a short business trip and my router for some stupid reason stopped working. I lost complete access to my home network and my miners. When I returned from my trip, my only aim was to fix this issue by creating an "Internet Hardware Watchdog" that reboots the router whenever something silly happens to it.

Note: If you do any work with "mains power" such as 120v or 240v AC power wiring, you should always use proper equipment and safety gears and determine whether you have adequate skill and experience or consult a Licensed Electrician. This project is not intended for use by children.

The Logic

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Let me first explain the logic to you. In a nutshell, in this setup I am going to ping "www.google.com" and as soon as the ping drops I will reboot the router.

To achieve this, the NoduMCU first connects to the WiFi network and then pings 8.8.8.8 (www.google.com).

If it receives a successful ping, one out of the 3 blue LED patterns is displayed.

If the ping fails, 5 more retries are given before rebooting the router. The reason I am NOT rebooting the router straightaway is to avoid false positive ping fail responses. However, once the "fail_count" counter becomes 5, NodeMCU turns off the router by pulling the armature of the relay module. The armature of the relay is held for 15 seconds before releasing it so that the router is properly power cycled. Once the armature is released, the system waits for a minute before sending the next ping request. This gives enough time to the router to successfully perform its POST activities.

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The above steps are then endlessly repeated in the loop section of the code.

Components Required

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For this project we need:

NodeMCU

Power Plug and a

Power Socket

Schematic

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Now, let's put the components together exactly the way I have shown in the schematic diagram.

Be very careful while handling AC Main Power sockets and cables.

The Stepdown Converter powers the NodeMCU and the Relay Module. LEDs are connected to the Digital pins of the microcontroller. The relay acts as a switch and switches on or off the router based on the ping response.

Please make sure you check the pins of your relay module before hooking it up to the circuit.

The Board

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So, this is how my board looks like in 2D and 3D.

I basically have created a replica of the NodeMCU Prototyping Board which you can buy from AliExpress for about $4 to $6.

Components Assembly

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Lets start by soldering the NodeMCU to the board. Since I care a lot about my Sensors and Microcontrollers, I am not going to solder them directly to the board. Instead I am soldering 'female pin headers' to the board which will house all the sensors and the microcontrollers in them.

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I initially thought of soldering the LEDs directly on the board however something clicked in my mind and I went ahead and soldered them on a separate perfboard and then soldered the perfboard to the NodeMCU development board. Well, this was totally unnecessary.

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Once the LEDs were in place, my next step was to solder the step-down-converter and the relay-module to the board. If you want to know how I created this relay module, please check out my tutorial no. 19

DIY Relay Module : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n69b4sdDjk the video and the blog post links are in the description below.

Next, I made a hole in the transparent box and glued the power socket into it. Well I created a bit of mess while gluing the socket and accidentally glued the box on to my dining table, silly me. I also drilled a hole at the back of this box, for the cable that will connect to the AC Main power supply.

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Pretty much that's it. Once again, I would like to warn you guys: If you do any work with the "main power" such as 110v or 240v AC, you should always use proper equipment and safety gears and determine whether you have adequate skill and experience or consult a Licensed Electrician. This project is not intended for use by children.

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To conclude the setup, I added a small skull inside the acrylic box. This skull has been sitting on my desk just collecting dust for over a year, ha ha.

The Code

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Now, let's have a look at the code. You can download the code and other resources from the links provided in the description below.

To Run the attached code you need to download and install the "ESP8266Ping" library. You can either download it from GitHub or from the link provided in the description below. Unzip and copy the archive to the Arduino's Library Folder and change the board type to ESP8266 in the Arduino IDE and select NodeMCU.

The code starts by including all the libraries and variables on top.

Then in the setup() section I have defined all the pin modes and have made a connection to the WiFi router.

In the loop() section I am performing a ping test and based on the test result I am either blinking the blue LEDs or power cycling the router.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts:

Internet Hardware WatchDog : https://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2021/12/internet-hardware-watchdog.html

DIY Relay Module : http://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2020/08/diy-relay-module.html

Video:

Internet Hardware WatchDog :

DIY Relay Module : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n69b4sdDjk

Other Resources:

Code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HyTUMUBDK0neO854XMl3dyy5ceoeTImw/view?usp=sharing

ESP8266Ping Library : https://github.com/dancol90/ESP8266Ping.git

ESP8266Ping Library : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uFfY5wW7-oWRNjP_XaBj2IM189M1n1FK/view?usp=sharing

Schema: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gn2ZhMp5Uz4YDv5GjxgIq1rtzh-21Rwe/view?usp=sharing

Gerber File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l0bszJ0AV7S9s-y9jTWGcw9MrWayVJxZ/view?usp=sharing

Flowchart: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CL3g0nT1IZfdL8MZqN_PB-mKC9k_JfWH/view?usp=sharing

Support My Work:

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November 21, 2021

If you have ever programmed a NodeMCU, then I bet you know the pain you have to go through while connecting sensors to NodeMCU on a breadboard.

I looked for various solution on the web and found "NodeMCU Development Boards" for around $6 to $7. Well, I wasn't ready to spend that much for a simple projects. So, I went ahead and designed a replica of those boards, which, 10 of them I got fabricated from PCBWay for just $5.

PCB Design

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Let me first show you the design of the board.

I have placed the NodeMCU in the middle of the board.

On the right hand side are the extensions of all the digital pins. And on the left hand side are the extensions of the left hand side pins.

Starting from left to right I have the VIN and the -VE pin to power up the NodeMCU at the bottom left hand side of the board. NodeMCU has an inbuilt LDO voltage regulator which keep the voltage level at 3.3v so there is no need for an additional voltage regulator. Just above that, is a series of GND pins. On top of that is a series of +5v and GND pins, followed by a series of 3.3v and GND pins. I have also added a series of 3v3 and GND pins on the top right hand side of the board.

Then there is a reset button and a set of TX and RX pins for serial communication.

On the same breakout board I have also added an Arduino Nano's Development Board.

Since, I had a fair bit of real-estate left on my board, I created a generic PCB out of the left over space.

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PCB Assembly

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Lets start by soldering the male and the female pin headers to the board. It really doesn't matter, what order you solder the components to the board. The only think to remember is that, do not solder a component that blocks another one.

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As you can see, I am soldering both male and female pin headers side by side on the board so that sensors with either male or female pin header can be hooked up to the board, making it more generic and expandable.

AVvXsEhFkjVCYTS6faP5mt_YhiqUu5UJPeCDenTDX55sTti5xiVNeXpRO32zQmzW40-Se7Eu4HSsvRGiOgm2QtU6_H9NQpNeSkNzIqllCWOmRQH-8L8pRTRwrVxZK3QOxFYqfKY03dMyBVlEVPKxKl7BjSYcFZd4OyauU5aWfYApQZOrRNrI0HgSZUKh4Aw3=w640-h360

So, this is how the final setup looks like. Please comment and let me know if there is any scope of improvement, thanks.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2021/11/nodemcu-development-board.html

YouTube: https://youtu.be/y2m2nh7wHaY

Odysee : https://odysee.com/@Arduino:7/DIY---NodeMCU-Development-Board:1

cos.tv : https://cos.tv/videos/play/32048547001832448

Schema : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XRR2sNZ5t4NhLFla9X3DyjaPAujrjeGY/view?usp=sharing

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November 13, 2021

Created a touchless Covid Free Electronic Dice using Arduino to play some board games with my son.

My new project is an amazing way of giving our younger generation the taste of board games while staying COVID free.

Total cost: AU$12

Time taken: 4hrs

Components Required

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For this project we need:

1 x Push Button Switch

1 x Arduino Nano R3 (or ESP8266)

1 x 8x8 Led Matrix with MAX7219 IC

1 x Step Up Power Module [MT3608]

1 x IR Sensor

1 x AA Battery Holder and Batteries

and Some Connecting Cables

Circuit Diagram

AVvXsEg5mcCS8pksALu4vTBitr0kkNVkGoRQSyDibBjZ3HnPtJvvSYSJtbF0fvYaHCUSFiMVvCCKU6zrRdANIGYAJFuyYJBy7Gkg_xr98UTWH8EXFdghDuw0-aAd6jnc3esruGnh6urU9sAACewPEEyC9RI3IE8VLlT7ZuHyCsvtEf4QYPJlybRl8WGz8byTAg=w640-h360

Using a Step Up Power Module connected to 2 x AA batteries I am powering up the Arduino Nano.

In my logic, I am using an IR Module to send interrupts, which changes the face of the dice which is then displayed using a 8x8 LED Matrix.

If you want to know more about the DIY IR module please check out my "Tutorial No. 21: DIY - IR Module". Link is in the description below.

Video: https://youtu.be/_M8FQIPi1qk

Blog : http://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2020/10/diy-ir-module.html

If you want to change the face of the dice by shaking it, you can use a tilt sensor to generate the interrupts.

If you want to store the results in a database, you can use a ESP8266 board and send the result over WiFi and store it in a database.

The possibilities are endless, however, I just want to keep my circuit simple.

The Code

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The code is very simple.

Lets start by including the "LedControll.h" library. I have included the link to the library in the description below.

Next, lets define all the pins that we are going to use in our code.

After that, you will find few functions that work in combination to generate the dice faces and the dice animation.

In the setup() section, we are setting up the pinMode of the IR Sensor and initializing the display. We are also showing the initial animation where in my case, number 6 flies from right-to-left and fills up the led display.

In the loop() section I am reading the IR sensor to check if someone has moved their hand over the sensor module. If a motion is detected, then a random number between 1 and 6 is generated, and based on that the face of the dice changes using ShowDicePic() function.

Housing Design

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Now lets create the body of the dice.

From a broken piece of chipboard, I extracted the 6 sides of the dice.

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Next, using a double-sided tape I attached the AA battery holder to the bottom of the dice. Then, I soldered the step-up converter to the AA battery holder.

AVvXsEh5sVvs6VpBx5uiiB05o9cbaCH1nLygBbucuzGXKch9NdbWswBolw2OUS29uQQUM5ayakQnA_9kMk-IMkubCmPCuoTg_lM9S7MiOclMBkcqZXWR0Nnk9w6mGIdMItvda3SrzaME42qs2cl0NZtIRCmyfGalLxieuVScHXSYrfgGU3ogCgcOi9x5jrMoNw=w640-h360

The step-up boost converter has to be adjusted to approximately 5V before installation by twisting the variable resistance in it.

AVvXsEi_6uz4Q92BlpWthb1pRGbw8XMqdeWRIQlF2j5SOoVwZnUaSGGqjuVwvzl_CWJPuJkNdRBhwZgkCSpckKYLg3wGA0K0X9lpNHwmomv4n81PPzTfnK8fsemGZpOumaKi5GbG29N5sDJ_FT18RaeJYYp_gpS8uRiPTAiqQZtt_yHFK93V6138FE9eY_2n3Q=w640-h360

I made a hole on one of the sides for the push button switch, and then glued the push button switch to it.

AVvXsEjaLIuxtHFcVNCuFuRJ0fxNScZXXygh-0U9zq_GiRxVPoMRXvlZiU0sJLdaRJEBb8RHmyJ8fcIB1z9TMNdmSQtBzPXxjOJ8nPE7CYKIXw98tQtCk166zfTCDybWgilEL8-gmB5pJ2qdJuCx9_kkODceYUtHqB5uh4ciQYgsmxPwgwhAu2SWMbMay5Bufg=w640-h360

I hot-glued the 8x8 LED matrix to the top section of the dice. 8x8 LED matrix with MAX7219 driver IC, is a very cheap, easy to code and it takes up very little space in your project. The top section also has the IR transmitter and receiver LEDs. Pretty much I hot glued them all and then attached them to a Arduino Nano.

AVvXsEgfGa4kRcDfUUsAkFXrJIYFsimcU6D0V2VI-RTRvOOfRdSyEAPL4mr5wp7u7YQvAk40CmcC2OaGHh9qKlm7wBKZFZKolLOt-drUengUqZaGPoO9J4_gkpRPBVmsRrk_CLmnYrng0Iaf8iYG6UOGdV9Wvng8Exp8f__DPTjGYrHNghOnBaWrBF00KG0I1Q=w640-h360

Then, I made 4 holes on the bottom plate and attached the all the sides to it.

Lets do a quick test before finalizing the project. Looks promising, isn't it?

AVvXsEj6j_OeoxYywNu8Kxv3w1eTYM_GIw-3DJsPHR5EMo02NB-dV-zXEfjqpgFKtm0bTNeOidlZCoMBgX2rVTrXJC_EPMw5qiQF0Hk-IuOlRrOYyXW9V-YOREI2icBzj-3DosIbNEMQ7X0DOiZDfx8Ly6O1KpuIfVgVVw9wrlHiat7Iel889PMmXBKndSw-iw=w640-h360

Cool, so this is how my final setup looks like. I covered the LED Matrix with a translucent black sheet.

Let me know what you guys think of this project. If you have any suggestions or advises please feel free to drop a comment below.

AVvXsEiSXP8qNeq-jv18WPdn5d9YlSPsR0N2I7_tlLCSA582CCXdqcl2Ax6MMKlmtszfXG6vEs-zPsHWx1Mtkn8KonYnr4DWyuaOokPZ0zOdpkSRst3rrpSOaAcGtFgihSrjX52f2mnfn5Z_JFH70UewGVRhvkIgxe7g6EAbRRirT4Q460xpDRgW-H0ZkAFscQ=w640-h360

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts:

1. Arduino Dice : https://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2021/10/arduino-dice.html

2. DIY IR Module: http://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2020/10/diy-ir-module.html

Video references:

1. Arduino Dice : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4CnaDDR2x0

2. DIY IR Module: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8FQIPi1qk

Schema: https://drive.google.com/file/d/168eiuHINb_5dGh9wBQ1qDsTv3bXY39Hj/view?usp=sharing

Code : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jLRFUFD3P037GIfAIZJU2GpHcbZOxgpc/view?usp=sharing

LedControll.h : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U5SFjC8Q6bB_X8ZQeJ6Ifq7ID5iecZ0K/view?usp=sharing

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September 26, 2021

In this tutorial I am going to show you guys how to make an Arduino or NodeMCU based Weather Station using DHT11 or DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor and display it using an OLED Display.

DHT11 vs DHT22

The DHT11 and DHT22 are both low-cost very basic and slow temperature and humidity sensors which can be used for basic data logging.

Despite being slower, they are very stable and consumes low power and provides relatively high measurement accuracy. The single-bus digital signal is output through a built-in ADC which is easy to read using any microcontroller. Single bus interface saves the I/O resources of any microcontroller board.

The operating voltage is between 3.3V to 5V and the sampling period for DHT11 is 1Hz or one reading every second and for DHT22 is 0.5Hz or one reading every two seconds. Hence, you can not query them more than once every second or two.

The DHT sensors are made of two parts, a capacitive humidity sensor and a Negative Temperature Coefficient or NTC temperature sensor (or thermistor).

The NTC temperature sensor is actually a variable resistor whose resistance decreases with increase in the temperature.

For measuring humidity, two electrodes with a moisture holding substrate between them is used. When the humidity changes, the conductivity of the substrate changes or in other words the resistance between these electrodes changes. This change in resistance is measured and processed and is sent to the microcontroller.

A very basic chip inside the sensor does the analog to digital conversion and spits out a digital signal which is read using a microcontroller.

Here is a comparison chart of the two sensors. Looking at this it is very clear that DHT22 outshines the DHT11 in every aspect.

However, if accuracy is your concern, and you are ready to pay a bit higher price, go for DHT22. Otherwise, DHT11 should be good enough for you.

OLED Display

OLED or organic light-emitting diode is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound (millions of small LED lights) that emits light in response to an electric current.

OLEDs are used to create digital displays in devices such as television screens, computer monitors, portable systems such as mobile phones, hand-held game consoles and PDAs. An OLED display works without a backlight because it emits visible light.

There are many types of OLED displays available in the market based on their:

Sizes
Color
Brands
Protocol
SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) or I2C
Passive-matrix (PMOLED) or active-matrix (AMOLED) control scheme

To know more about OLED Display and to know how to connect multiple OLED Displays using TCA9548 multiplexer check out my tutorial number 7

OLED Display with Arduino and NodeMCU link is in the description below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e_0HJY0uIo

Lets have a closer at these two displays.

At the back of these displays there are heaps of SMD capacitors and resistors soldered on-board; but, since its an I2C device we only care about these 2 pins (SCL and SDA)

The display connects to Arduino using only four wires – two for power (VCC and GND) and two for data (serial clock SCL and serial data SDA), making the wiring very simple. The data connection is I2C (I²C, IIC or Inter-Integrated Circuit) and this interface is also called TWI (Two Wire Interface).

The on-board pins can be in different order, so always triple check before hooking it up to your project.

Operating voltage is between 3v to 5v but, it is best to use the guidance from the manufacturer's datasheet.

Sometimes we need to use 2 displays in our projects. So, how can we achieve this?

The trick is to have a configurable address on your display. This unit has a configurable address between 0x78 and 0x7A. Just by unsoldering the 0Ohm resistor from one side and hoking it up to the other side or just by putting a global solder we can change the address.

In picture these displays look very big. But, practically speaking they are tiny. They are made of 128 x 32/64 individual OLED pixels and do not require any back-light. Just have a look at this and see how small it is. Even though they are small they can be very useful in any electronic projects.

This is how an OLED Display is connected to either Arduino or NodeMCU.

Setup Using Arduino

The setup using either Arduino or NodeMCU is very simple.

We just need to connect the OLED to the I2C Pins and the Temperature and Humidity sensor to any one of the Digital pins.

In this setup I have connected the OLED to A5 and A4 and the Sensor to D8.

Now, lets look at the code. Lets start by including the DHT and OLED libraries.

Then, in the setup section we initialize the display and then in the loop section we loop through every 2 seconds and read the sensor and display the result on the OLED display.

Here is a quick demo using Arduino.

Setup Using NodeMCU

Same as the previous setup, the OLED display connects to the NodeMCU using D2 and D1 pins and the Sensor connects to the D3 pin.

The code starts by including the DHT and OLED libraries.

Then, in the setup section we initialize the display and then in the loop section we loop through every 2 seconds and read the sensor and display the result on the OLED display.

So, this is how the actual setup looks like.

The Board

So, this is how my board looks like in 2d and 3d.

There are 3 breakout boards in this 100cm x 100cm assembly. Each board can be used with either Arduino or NodeMCU and DHT11 or DHT22 sensor or sensor module.

The Board can be used with either NodeMCU or Arduino Nano.

Temperature and humidity readings can be collected using either a DHT11 or DHT22 Module or by using one of these sensors with a 10K resistor.

The bottom section of the board is for the OLED display. The attached gerber is bit different from what you see on screen. I made some modifications in the final version and moved the sensors a bit far from the microcontrollers.

Soldering

Since I care a lot about my Sensors and Microcontrollers I am not soldering them directly to the board. Instead I am soldering, female pin headers to the board which will house all the sensors and microcontrollers.

Just for the sake of this video I am soldering female pin headers on both sides for Arduino and NodeMCU. However, In your setup you will need either Arduino or NodeMCU.

Final Demo

Lets first test this with an Arduino.

Now, lets test this setup using a NodeMCU board.

Looks perfect, I am going to use this board in my next project where I will be sending Temperature and Humidity readings to my Raspberry Pi based home server where I will be storing it in a MySQL database, so stay tuned....

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Blog Posts:

1. DHT11 & DHT22: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2021/09/temperature-and-humidity-monitor-using.html

2. OLED Tutorial: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2018/07/oled-i2c-display-arduinonodemcu-tutorial.html

Video references:

1. DHT11 & DHT22: https://youtu.be/w5tBtHsl7b4

2. OLED Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e_0HJY0uIo

Gerber: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H9noO2ppm0SM8HcJg1NWE2uTUJKw9SXH/view?usp=sharing

Schema: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tWCxXBw3vzssVm6FtZDRI8ZIPCtmXp1t/view?usp=sharing

Code:

Code_With_OLED_Arduino : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EEdhPuUiy8xWSD_s41iYAccTz8w-QF9C/view?usp=sharing

Code_With_OLED_NodeMCU : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WFtdyu90gAqxhJq-Pur7w8fvXuuM85lt/view?usp=sharing

Code_With_PHP_NodeMCU : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bT08x-h39NS1LdkCCH2F3ySG3hrht9U4/view?usp=sharing

Code_With_PHP_OLED_NodeMCU: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ji5TEvLbhe3GJiDgQRowDws5PdZZXqf9/view?usp=sharing

Libraries:

"DHTStable.h" : https://github.com/RobTillaart/DHTstable

"SSD1306.h" : https://github.com/squix78/esp8266-oled-ssd1306

Adafruit display library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_SSD1306

Adafruit GFX library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GFX-Library

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July 3, 2021

The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit that is used in a variety of timer circuits, pulse generators and oscillator applications. The heart of the module is the 555 timer IC that is wired as an astable multivibrator, generating pulses from about 4Hz to 1.3Khz.

This circuit can be used in any project, that requires positive pulses.

To demonstrate the operation, a LED is used at the output of the IC to show the visual indication of the output pulses.

The output frequency of pulses can be adjusted using a potentiometer. The circuit can be operated from any voltage between 5 to 15 volt DC.

Items Required

For this project we need:

1 x 555 Timer IC
1 x 10µF Capacitor
1 x 1kΩ Resistance and a
1 x 10kΩ Potentiometer

Circuit Diagram

The circuit is very simple.

By connecting pin 2 and 6 we put the 555 timer in astable mode. Astable mode causes the 555 timer to re-trigger itself, producing a stream of pulses [PWM Signals] as long as its hooked up to a power supply.

Pin number 3 is the output pin. By changing the values of R1, R2, and C3 we can change the frequency of output pulses generated at pin number 3.

How It Works

The working voltage of the circuit is between 5V~15V DC.

As previously discussed 555 timer generates PWM signals when set up in an astable mode by connecting the pin 2 and 6 together.

During each cycle capacitor C3 charges up through both R1 and R2 resistors but discharges itself only through resistor R2 as the other side of R2 is connected to the discharge terminal pin 7.

Changing the values of R1, R2, and C3 will change the frequency of output pulses, or different duty cycle of the square wave coming out of pin 3.

By changing the value of R2 we can change the duration of the OFF cycle.

In this setup the ON time depends on the resistor R1, the left side of the pot and the capacitor C3, while the OFF time depends on the capacitor C3 and the right side of the pot.

Now, lets calculate the output frequency and the duty cycle of the output waveform.

In my setup I have resistance R1 = 1kΩ, R2 = 10kΩ and capacitor C = 10uF

There are many online calculators to calculate this online. I will provide a link to one of the astable calculators in the description below: https://ohmslawcalculator.com/555-astable-calculator

Lets first calculate the value of t1 or the 'capacitor charge “ON” time which is 0.693(R1 + R2 ) * C3. Putting the values together we get 76.23 milliseconds.

Now, for capacitor discharge “OFF” time or t2 we need to multiply 0.693 to R2 and C3, which then gives us a value of 69.3 milliseconds.

Next, the total periodic time T is equal to t1 + t2 which comes out to be 145.53 milliseconds.

The output frequency, ƒ is therefore comes out to be to 6.871Hz.

Which gives a duty cycle value of 52.38%

If you want to have more control over the charging and discharging use a higher value for R2 (100K) and lower value for R1 (1K). That way you will have 99% control over the charging and discharging resistance in the circuit.

The maximum output current of this IC is 200mA therefore to drive a higher current load of up to 1A we have to use a transistor like the BD135.

For driving a much higher current than 1A you can use other high current transistors like TIP31, 2N3055, etc. with a good heatsink. TIP122 can only go up to about 1.5 amps without a heatsink, however it can go up to 5 amps with a good heatsink. IRLB8743 FET is good to around 20 amps without a heatsink.

The Board

So this is how my board looks like. There are 16 breakout boards in this 100cm x 100cm assembly. You can download the gerber file from the link below and order it from PCBWay.

Soldering

Lets start by soldering the IC Base to the board. Then lets solder the potentiometer to the board. After that lets solder the R1 resistor to the board followed by the C3 capacitor to the circuit board. Once done lets place the 555 timer IC to the IC base.

To conclude I have soldered 3 x Male pin headers to the board.

Demo

So, this is the final appearance of the board. I am adjusting the output frequency of pulses using the 10K potentiometer.

Applications and Uses

This circuit can be used to control the speed of DC motors
As square wave signal generator
Adjustable pulse generator for MCU
Driving stepper motor
Telecommunications for encoding purposes
Generate adjustable pulse to control other circuits

I have used this in few of my projects like:

DIY - Boba Fett Helmet With LED Chaser Circuit : https://youtu.be/vtO_GD0SS2s
LED Chaser Circuits Using IC4017 and Arduino : https://youtu.be/F6V1AjESWbU
DIY - LAN CABLE TESTER : https://youtu.be/PSK5Aa-byHA

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Full Blog Post: https://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2021/07/555-pulse-generator-module-how-it-works.html

Video: https://youtu.be/bMAnipPOjFo

This video is sponsored by PCBWay.

PCBway: only $5 for 10 pcbs from https://www.pcbway.com/?from=CZcouple

Woodwork

Lets start the project by sanding a pallet planks to give it a nice and smooth texture.

Then, lets drill 3 holes for the top and the 2 sides of the night lamp.

After drilling the holes lets extract the sides from the plank using a chop-saw or a hand-saw.

My pallet plank is 9.5cm wide and the lamp will be square in shape. So, rest of the measurements are based on that.

Assembly

Once all the sides were ready its was time for me to join them all together.

First of all I am getting the 2 x sides ready by gluing the power sockets into the holes.

Next, I drilled 2x more holes for the IR sensor.

If you want to know more about IR sensors please check out my "Tutorial No 21 : DIY - IR Module : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8FQIPi1qk"

Next, one by one using wood glue I am joining the 2 x sides to the top of the lamp. At first I thought of using nails to join the sides, but soon I realized that by all means it was a very bad idea. Before gluing the 2nd side I connected the two power ports together using a copper wire.

Alright now, Lets look at the electronics bit.

Electronics

For the electronics bit we need:

1 x IR Sensor
5 x Colored LEDs
5 x 220Ω Resistors
1 x 10uf Capacitor
5 x 2N2222 NPN Transistor
1 x 4017 IC

4017 is a Decade Counter IC, it can count from 0 to 10. When a clock signal is received on Pin-14 the output turns to high one by one in a sequence.

The signal from the IR-Sensor clocks the 4017 decade counter. Whenever a pulse is received at the clock input of IC, the counter increments the count and activates the corresponding output PIN. In our project we only need to count upto 5 so the 6th output from Pin-5 will be given to the Reset Pin-15. Sending a high signal to Pin-15 will reset the counter and it will skip counting the rest of the numbers and will start from the beginning. A capacitor is added to filter out too frequent detection of object by the IR sensor.

To add a cluster of LEDs to the circuit, we just need to feed the output from the IC to a transistor and the cluster can then be connect to the transistor. Similar to this setup.

Top - Soldering Components

So, now lets start putting the components together. Lets solder the IC base followed by the 5 x NPN Transistors. Then, lets solder the 220Ω Resistors and the 10uf Capacitor to the board. I also added few pin headers to the board, 3 for the IR Sensor and 2 for the 5v power supply. The transistors are connected to the ribbon of wire which then connects to the cluster of LEDs that will slide under the top section.

Before putting the circuit into production lets do a quick test. Bang, nailed it..

Front - Clock

For the front bit I am using a 4-Bits DIY Electronic Digital Clock which I bought from AliExpress for just AU$2.40.

If you want to know more about this clock please checkout my "Tutorial No 12 : DIY - Wooden Clock : https://youtu.be/Av0riH_ncsE "

I moved the 2 push button switches from the board to the front panel of this lamp. My initial plan was to cover this entire setup with timber veneer sheet. However, I could not find one that was thin enough to not completely hide the 7-segment display. So, I ended up putting a black plastic film over the 7-segment display.

Back - USB Port

The back bit will host the USB ports and will also have a hole for the AC power chord.

Lets have a look at this USB port. When I am holding a USB port upside down the left most pin is the -ve pin and the rightmost is the +ve pin. The middle two are the data pins which I am not going to use in this project.

I used a Rubber Grommet to safeguard the power chord's hole.

To power the electronics bit I am using a USB charger. I glued the USB charger to the back bit of the lamp. I soldered the power supply cable to the USB charger and then hot-glued to protect it from touching the other electrical and electronic components.

Then I glued the back and the front plates of the lamp to the wooden frame. I soldered all the electronics components to the USB charger.

Bottom - Power Supply

The bottom bit will hold the AC Power Cables. Since I don't want the AC cables to float around and cause short circuits inside the lamp, I screwed them to the base of the lamp.

Painting

I painted the lamp a little bit to give it a modern look. Next, I superglued the black plastic film and painted its edges to match the whole setup.

To finalize the setup, I added a bit of hot-glue to the bottom of the lamp. These glue drops will stop this lamp from scratching my bedside table top.

Demo

Covid has taught us many things, it has changed our life.

This project was an attempt to make things touchless. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Full Blog Post: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2021/05/touchless-multifunctional-bedside-lamp.html

Video: https://youtu.be/r1r9jIgtcEk

Links:

Tutorial No 21 : DIY - IR Module :: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8FQIPi1qk

Tutorial No 12 : DIY - Wooden Clock :: https://youtu.be/Av0riH_ncsE

Music: Nocturne - Asher Fulero

Music: Simple - Patrick Patrikios

Support Me:

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Thanks, ca again in my next tutorial.

March 1, 2021

Have an awesome project in mind using some LEDs. In that project I will be using some LED Fading Effect and few LED Chaser Circuits. But before jumping onto that, I thought I should create a short tutorial and show you guys how to fade a LED with or without an Arduino automatically or manually using a potentiometer.

Video: https://youtu.be/IIUsdICycOw

Without Arduino

Lets first create the fader circuit without an Arduino. The base of this circuit is an operational amplifier IC named LM358. In this circuit, initially, the LED slowly glows with increasing brightness & after reaching its maximum brightness, the LED slowly dims its brightness and the process continues.

Automatic Fading

Components Required

For the Non-Arduino bit we need:

1 x LM358 IC
1 x BC547 Transistor
1 x 0.47µF Capacitor
2 x 4.7KΩ Resistors
1 x 22KΩ Resistor
1 x 10KΩ Resistor
1 x 4.7MΩ Resistor
1 x 220Ω Resistor
1 x LED
and a 9V Battery

How This Circuit Works

To get the fading effect we need to generate a series of triangular waves.

Because of the triangular waves, the LED starts glowing slowly and then slowly dims off and the cycle continues.

This setup is done using the LM358 IC. LM358 is a dual operational amplifier (Op-Amp) IC, integrated with two op-amps powered by a common power supply. Pins 1, 2, and 3 are one op-amp channel, and pins 5, 6, and 7 are the 2nd op-amp channel.

As the capacitor charges and discharges the state of the PIN 3 switches from high to low and based on that the PIN 2 of the op-amp obtains the desire output. If you want to know more about this IC, please check out my "Tutorial No 21 : DIY - IR Module" : https://youtu.be/_M8FQIPi1qk.

So, basically the op-amp here is used for voltage level detection. In this circuit, we are applying a voltage on positive pin (PIN-3) and the voltage to be detected is applied at negative pin (PIN-2).

The transistor acts as a signal amplifier. You will need this if you are attaching a cluster of LEDs however for just 1 LED you can simply remove it.

The Board

So, this is how my board looks like in 2D and 3D.

There are 15 breakout-boards in this 100cm x 100cm assembly.

Component Assembly

Now, lets solder all the components to the board. Lets first solder all the resistances to the board. Then lets solder the transistor followed by the capacitor to the board. After that lets solder the LED and the female pin header. To conclude the setup, lets solder the IC base and then install the IC into it.

Demo

So, this is how it looks like.

Good thing about LEDs is that they can be easily controlled as compared to the traditional light bulbs. Which means you can easily change their intensity based on your need. Just by making a slight modification to this circuit you can change the brightness of a LED Lamp when someone walks in or out of a room.

Manual Fading Using PWM

Now, if you want to get the same dimming effect but want to manually control the intensity, you will have to find a way to modulate the pulse sent to the LED or group of LEDs using a potentiometer. I am going to do this by generating PWM Signals.

What is PWM?

Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM, is a technique for getting analog results with digital means.

PWM value varies from 0 to 255. The bigger the value of PWM, the brighter the LED is and vice versa.

- If PWM = 0, it is same as GND, so the LED will be OFF

- If PWM = 255, it is same as VCC, so the LED will be fully ON

To get varying analog values, you change, or modulate, that pulse-width. If you repeat this on-off pattern fast enough with an LED, the result is as if the signal is a steady voltage between 0 and 5v controlling the brightness of the LED.

In this setup, we are going to use the 555 Timer IC in Astable mode (A free-running multivibrator that has NO stable states but switches continuously between two states this action produces a train of square wave pulses at a fixed known frequency) to generate the PWM Signals. 555 Timer IC will vary the voltage delivered to the LEDs to achieve the Dimming effect of the LED.

Components Required

For this setup we need:

1 x 555 Timer IC
1 x LED
1 x 220Ω Resistor
2 x 1N4007 Diodes
1 x 50KΩ Potentiometer
1 x 10nF Capacitor
1 x 100nF Capacitor
and a 5V Battery

How This Circuit Works

Based on the charging and discharging timings of the Capacitor, a PWM Signal is generated at PIN 3 (OUT PIN) of the 555 Timer IC. The output is then sent to the LED to produce the dimming effect.

Demo

So, this is how it looks like.

By rotating the knob of the 10K Pot we can adjust the brightness of the connected LED.

With Arduino

Now, lets repeat these setups using an Arduino. The beauty of Arduino is that it has 6 digital pins that can be used as PWM outputs (3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11). PWM signals are sent using the analogWrite() function by passing a value between 0 - 255.

- analogWrite(255) requests a 100% duty cycle (always on),

- and analogWrite(127) is a 50% duty cycle (on half the time), and so on.

Components Required

For this setup we need:

Arduino UNO/Nano whatever is handy
1 x Breadboard
1 x LED
1 x 220Ω Resistor
1 x 10KΩ Potentiometer

Automatic Fading

Connect the positive leg of your LED to the digital output PIN9 of your Arduino through a 220Ω resistor. Connect the negative leg directly to the GND. That it, that's how simple it is.

The Code

After declaring PIN 9 as LedPin, and setting up the pinMode in the setup() section, we are going to loop through and dim the LED in the loop section.

By gradually increasing the PWM value from 0 to 255, and then back to 0 we can get the fading effect. In this sketch, the PWM value is set using a variable called 'brightness'. Each time in the loop, it increases by the value of the variable 'fadeAmount'.

If brightness is at either extreme of its value (either 0 or 255), then 'fadeAmount' is changed to its negative. So, if the fadeAmount is 5, then it is set to -5 and if it is -5, then it is set to 5. The next time through the loop, this change causes brightness to change its direction. A delay is added to control the speed of the fading effect.

Demo

So, this is how it looks like.

Manual Fading

Connect the positive leg of your LED to the digital output PIN6 of your Arduino through a 220Ω resistor. Connect the negative leg directly to the GND. Connect the left (or right) pin of the 50KΩ PoT to VCC and then connect the right (or left) pin of the PoT to the GND. Now, connect the 'data' pin of your potentiometer to the Analog PIN 'A0' of the Arduino.

In this circuit, the potentiometer is working as a voltage divider. One of the outer pins is connected to the GND, the other to Vcc and the middle pin is the voltage output. The wiper position in this setup determines the output voltage.

Now, lets have a look at the code.

The Code

Based on my setup, I set the LedPin as 6 and Potentiometer pin Pot as A0. Another variable 'Knob' is used to read and store the value of the potentiometer.

pinMode of the LedPin is set to OUTPUT and we don't need to do anything for the PoT as its default value is already set as input.

In the 'loop()' section I am first reading the value of the PoT using the 'analogRead()' function and then mapping its value between 1 to 255. A potentiometer intakes a value between 1 and 1024, but in our setup it has to be between 1 to 255. The 'map()' function divides the value read from the potentiometer into equal intervals of 1/255, which is then sent to the LED using the 'analogWrite()' function.

Demo

So, this is how it looks like.

Thanks

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Full Blog Post: https://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2021/02/led-fader-with-or-without-arduino.html

Video: https://youtu.be/IIUsdICycOw

Gerber File:

1. Gerber : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w1hHZBFsXQR74ZTn04097awaAUqMndJi/view?usp=sharing

The Code:

1. Automatic Fading : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hab3sISIlurrPQBat80OLb90RXqQKzLZ/view?usp=sharing

2. Manual Fading Using PoT : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TzXdVO5lVjPNaw_NPSUexIye3WZGJ6cj/view?usp=sharing

Sketches: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_WtmESof7kSyuJ_cmkkFZ8E8mdQXl3Z9/view?usp=sharing

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Thanks, ca again in my next tutorial.

January 28, 2021

A Chaser Circuit consists of a clocked IC or other electronic unit like an Arduino that drives an array of LEDs in such a way that individual LEDs (or small groups of LEDs) turn on and off in a predetermined and repeating sequence, thus producing a visually attractive display in which one or more ripples of light seem to repeatedly run through a chain or around a ring of LEDs.

In this tutorial I am going to create 3 chaser circuits using Arduino and IC4017 decade counter.

https://youtu.be/F6V1AjESWbU

Using IC555 and IC4017

Lets first create the chaser circuit using the IC4017 decade counter and IC555 timer IC.

Components Required

For the Non-Arduino bit we need:
2 x 4017 Decade Counter IC
1 x 555 Timer IC
1 x 10 K Potentiometer
1 x 1 Kilo Ohm Resistor
1 x 100 Ohm Resistor
1 x 100 MFD Capacitor
20 x Zener Diodes and
10 x Red LEDs

Circuit Diagram

1. Forward Chaser

The circuit is very simple.

The 555 Timer IC operates as a clock oscillator or clock generator. The output on PIN-3 goes high causing a shift.

The signal from the 555 IC clocks the 4017 decade counter. Output of 555 timer IC on PIN-3 is given as an input to 4017 IC through PIN-14. Whenever a pulse is received at the input of IC 4017, the counter increments the count and activates the corresponding output PIN. This IC can count upto 10, so we have attached 10 LEDs to the circuit.

By increasing or decreasing the value of resistance of the 10K pot we can adjust the speed of the chaser circuit.

Since only one LED will be turned on at a given time, I have attached just one 220ohm current limiting resistor to the cluster of LEDs.

Demo: So this is how it looks like.

2. Forward Reverse Chaser using 2 x IC4017

Now, to give the forward and reverse effect we are attaching another 4017 IC to this circuit. If lets say the 1st IC connects from 1 to 10 (left to right) then the second one should connect from 10 to 1 (right to left). However, now we cannot connect the counter ICs directly to the LEDs as we did before. We have to use Diodes to stop the reverse flow of current to the 2nd IC.

We have also lowered the value of the current limiting resistor to 100ohms as at a given time 2 LEDs will be on, one running from left and one from the right hand side.

Demo: Now lets do a quick test. By lowering the speed I can get the desired forward and reverse effect. By removing one of the 4017 ICs we can get the effect that I demonstrated in the previous example.

3. Forward Reverse Chaser using 1 x IC4017

To get a forward reverse effect using one 4017 IC we need to connect 8 diodes to the circuit. The 1st and the 6th LED will be directly connected to the IC4017. The LEDs at the far end will get signals from only one pin however the one in the middle will receive signals from 2 x pins and hence we need diodes to stop the reverse flow of the current.

Demo: So this is how it looks like.

Using Arduino

Now, I am going to repeat the same setup using an Arduino.

Components Required

For the Arduino bit we need:
1 x Arduino Uno/Nano (whatever is handy)
1 x 220 Ohm Resistor
10 x Red LEDs
Few Connecting Cables

The beauty of using an Arduino is that the setup remains the same for all the previously shown circuits, the only thing that changes is the code. So, I am going to use this simple setup for the rest of the tutorial.

Circuit Diagram

1. Forward Chaser

Code: The code for the forward chaser is very simple. Start by defining the constants and the global variables that will be used throughout the code.

Then in the setup section define the pin modes.

Now, in the loop section we are going to start by turning off all the LEDs followed by turning one LED on at a time. A counter is used to tell the loop which LED to turn on in the next cycle. Once the value of the counter reaches 10 (the maximum number of LEDs) the counter resets to 1 and the 1st LED lights up and the cycle continues.

Demo: So this is how it looks like.

2. Forward Reverse Chaser

Code: The code is same as the previous setup. The only thing that changes is the function that deals with the LEDs. In this setup we cycle through LED 1 to LED 10 and then reverse from LED 9 to LED 1. The counter resets when the max count is reached.

Demo: So this is how it looks like.

3. Left-Right Chaser

Code: The setup is exactly the same as the previous two setups. This function is the one which turns on the LEDs at the two far ends and then the one before that and likewise until they cross each other. The counter is reset when the max count is reached.

Demo: So this is how it looks like.

PCF8574 8-bit GPIO Port Extender

Using a PCF8574 8-bit GPIO Port Extender we can add even more LEDs to this setup.

PCF8574 becomes a life saver when you run out of pins on your Arduino. This "GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pin extender" provides an additional 8 pins (P0 ~ P7) which can be used to 'output a signal' or 'read a signal as an input'.

These modules run on the I2C bus, and if daisy-chained you can connect upto 8 of these devices in a project. Each device will give us an additional 8-bits of GPIO enabling 64 GPIOs in total.

To know more about this IC please check out my tutorial number 10 : "PCF8574 GPIO Extender - With Arduino and NodeMCU".

Thanks

Full Blog Post: https://diy-projects4u.blogspot.com/2021/01/led-chaser-circuits-using-ic4017-and.html

Video: https://youtu.be/F6V1AjESWbU

Gerber File:

1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/108EUNylmearJgU_4qSlxNr9GAPGrLGRh/view?usp=sharing

Code:

1. Forward: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bw1la5oRMWZRXsfYJ41qNbCoEkJsZHBM/view?usp=sharing

2. Forward Reverse: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oag8kxbvfxZg7StFrYzWwtcqQx6okwzd/view?usp=sharing

3. Left Right:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ZEsKU3OFrcjaJpvyUJMQbHQ-lznbp0H/view?usp=sharing

Sketch:

1. With Arduino: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YHWvpkDbGbGVHwX65HwvwS3_JyFwZdK9/view?usp=sharing

2. Without Arduino: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LdxcS1BXf3GtQTRhWCoCZKm6ppRwsc5k/view?usp=sharing

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January 21, 2021

Trying to explain dialup to a pre-teen will evoke the same wild-eyed bewilderment as “a dinosaur was as-big-as this house”. We can’t go off what our parents did because two tin cans connected by a string isn’t really the same these days and probably it would look like a piece of junk for the new and upcoming generations.

However, the truth is "life is busy" and hence we don’t spend enough time with our children. Children need high-quality time with parents and caregivers - the QUALITY of time spent with them is much more important than the QUANTITY of time.

Christmas was the perfect time to explore and setup this bonding. With a bit of help from my little monster and by using The Most Complete Starter Kit from ELEGOO I created this small Christmas Village for my little monster.

https://youtu.be/j9d58jL1THU

Components Used [Village Creation]
-----------------------------------------------

To create the cardboard village we need:

Cardboard Sheets
A4 Paper
Permanent Marker or Pen
Scissor and a Knife
Hot Glue Gun or Wood Glue

Adding a bit color would have made my project even more attractive however I just left it all in white.

Paper Templates
---------------------

I created 2 x PDF files with all the measurements in it. The links to the PDF files is in the description below. After printing the PDFs on A4 sheet, I extracted the shapes from it using a paper cutting scissor.

Cutting The Cardboard
-------------------------------

Then I traced the paper-cutouts on pieces of cardboard and using both scissor and knife I extracted all the pieces of cardboard that I need for this project.

Using a hot-glue gun I joined all the cardboard cutouts.

Be very careful while using a hot-glue gun. Use gloves as much as possible to avoid the hot glue from burning your hand and fingers.

By using wood-glue instead of hot-glue you can get a cleaner and stronger finish, but hot glue is faster. Hot glue can also be more forgiving as you can re-heat and re-glue if you're unsatisfied with your seam.

Try applying the glue from the inner side as much as possible to leave the outer side neat and clean.

Meaningful connections are all about quality of time and not quantity of time. Keep it simple and connect with your child in ways that make sense for your lifestyle and relationship. Each connection has a lasting impact and provides the support and reassurance that your child needs. Although the days with little kids often seem long; however, the years fly-by. Use this practical and purposeful blueprint to enjoy the moments you have together.

Color or Not To Color
----------------------------

So, this is how it looks like. As advised earlier, adding a bit color would have made my project even more attractive however I just left it all in white.

I created this wooden frame on which the village will sit. This frame will also house the electronic components inside it.

Components Used [Electronics]
----------------------------------------

Now for the Electronics bit we need the "The Most Complete Starter Kit from ELEGOO".

This kit has all the components that are required for this project.

1 x ELEGOO UNO R3
9 x Blue LEDs
9 x White LEDs
5 x Yellow LEDs
1 x RGB LED
3 x 220 Ohm Resistor
1 x Stepper Motor
1 x Stepper Motor Driver
1 x LDR

Adding LEDs
-----------------

Using the soldering iron I made few holes around the pathway. These holes are for the Blue and White LEDs which will blink alternately. Adding RGB-LEDs would have definitely given this a better look and feel.

Next, I added a RGB-LED to the water-feature. Later, I will add a bit of cotton on top of this which may look like flowing water.

SUN & MOON
-------------------

So, this is how the final setup looks like. I added some hills at the back for the rising and setting of the sun and the moon.

The logic is very simple.

A DC-Motor or Stepper-Motor rotates the Half Sun and Half Moon. A LDR is placed in a way that the Sun rays can cover it up.

When the moon side is up the sun rays cove the LDR and vice-versa. This LDR acts as a switch and turns on and off the blue and white flashing LEDs. With the same logic you can go even more creative than what I did.

Coding
---------

The DC Motor run off the 5V pin of the Arduino so we don't need to code anything for that.

For the rest of the code I am looping through and flashing the RGB LEDs followed by checking if the LDR has detected any light and then waiting for 200ms before repeating the process again.

Thanks
----------

Thanks again for checking my post. I hope it helps you.

If you want to support me subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tarantula3

Full Blog Post: https://diyfactory007.blogspot.com/2021/01/arduino-christmas-village.html

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9d58jL1THU

Code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RABIcytmGJo3m6ghkzk8KYoQmRycmBku/view?usp=sharing

Cardboard Templates:

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Thanks, ca again in my next tutorial.

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Posts posted by Ashish Adhikari

Components Required

Quick Recap

Circuit Diagram

How The Circuit Works

Designing The PCB

Sorting Out Images

Generating DXF File

Creating the Badge

The Board

Soldering

Demo

Thanks

Components Required

Circuit Diagram

How The Circuit Works

Breadboard Demo

The Board

Soldering

Demo

Thanks

3D Design

The Template

Schematic Diagram

Preparing The Top - Concrete

Preparing The Top - Electronics

Preparing The Base - Concrete

Preparing The Base - Electronics

Joining The Base To The Top

Code

Final Demo

Thanks

Designing The PCBs

Sorting Out Images

Generating DXF File

Creating the Trees

Creating the Baseplate

Ordering Process

The Code

Testing on Breadboard

Soldering

Thanks

Support My Work:

Intro

Topics Covered

7-Segment Display Basics

Hardware Overview and Pinout of TM1637 Module

TM1637 Library Installation

Interfacing TM1637 Module with an Arduino

Loading The TM1637Test Example

Template

Example 1: Displaying Strings and Numbers

Example 2: Displaying Scrolling and Blinking Text

Example 3: Creating a 4 Digit Counter

Example 4: Displaying Temperature & Humidity using DHT11/DHT22

Example 5: Creating an Arduino Based Digital Clock

Common Errors

Thanks

Intro

Setup Without Arduino

Demo Without Arduino

Setup Using Arduino

The Code

Demo Using Arduino

Uses

Thanks

Intro

Story

Logic

Schematic

The Code

Demo

Thanks

Intro

Components Required

How The Circuit Works