Here’s a linear optical encoder made from printer parts, a PIC 18F4520 MCU, and an L298 motor controller: The goal of this tutorial is to create a way to know where the ‘stage’ is, accurate to about 1/4” using optical encoding. The stage is controlled via a 12v motor so we will use an L298 […]
Jake has posted pics and info on Steampunk Workshop of another maker’s build of his Wimshurst machine, a project featured in MAKE, Volume 17. Jake writes: …This is a very elegant machine and some of Bruce’s innovations make it superior to my own! Here’s what the builder, Bruce, says about his version: These are some […]
(photo by Michael L.) Though some of the fuller featured multimeters offer similar abilities, this ATMega8-based transistor tester project, identifies pins, measures gain, plus resistance and capacitance. Looks like a welcome addition to the workbench – schematic + source code can be found here [via Electronics-Lab]
In this video, the fine folks at NerdKits show you how to use one of their kits and some aluminum foil to create a capacitive touch sensor that lights up LEDs when a hand is placed inside of a jack-o-lantern candy bucket. Capacitive Touch Sensor: Learn Electronics with a Spooky Halloween Project
Alex at Tinkerlog writes: For my latest projects I used a lot of single cell LiPo batteries. They are really nice. High power density, low self-discharge, no memory effect and they can deliver quite an amount of current. But LiPo battery handling is a bit more complicated than other rechargeable batteries. You have to take […]
Instead of digging through hundred-page PDF datasheets to find the pinout of a microcontroller or logic chip, you can use a simple URL scheme to get the data right away.
We recently covered voltage dividers in our Ask MAKE column. In the above two videos, done by our pal Jeri Ellsworth, computer industry legend Lee Felsenstein (member of the Home Brew Computer Club and Osborne designer) explains voltage dividers and how to calculate them. Things get pretty thick by part II and I pretty much […]
