Electro Bob

Fun with LEDs

Bogdan — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:47:25 +0000

Introduction

I have recently stumbled upon some LED strip at my local electronics shop and decided to give them a try. I bought some which I used to replace the spot lights in the kitchen. It is cold white, which is surprisingly good, especially for night time illumination (think moonlight like hue). It works at 12V and [...]

Unlocking stuck photo filters

Bogdan — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:54:19 +0000

Normally, you shouldn’t mount a polarizing filter on top of an UV filter. If you do, there are big chances that they will be hard to unscrew afterwards, mainly because of the rotating part of the polarizer. You will probably end up removing both of them from the camera, just like below:

There are a few solutions [...]

Upgrading spotlights to LED

Bogdan — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:25:57 +0000

I’ve got a couple of 12V halogen spot lights on the hallway of my apartment. I rarely turn them on because other lights usually service the area. This made me think that I could just make them dimmer and leave them on the whole night, so I’ve found a simple method to replace the bulb and [...]

XMEGA header board

Bogdan — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:28:52 +0000

During my work for the digital power supply I needed to start playing with some micros from the XMEGA family, that is why I build this little header board. There is a XMEGA32A4 micro on it, which is the one that I intend to use on my power supply.

Click here to download the Eagle and PDF [...]

Digital Power Supply – Part 1: Concept

Bogdan — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:43:31 +0000

Update

I’ve found some information regarding poor performance of the ADC and DAC of the XMEGA micros (see some info here, here, here and here). So far there are some workarounds and new devices might have fixed some problems, but I will not take this micro into account until i have clear info that it works. Another [...]

555 class D amplifier

Bogdan — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:16:00 +0000

This project is an entry for the 555contest.com Introduction

One of the applications of 555 timers is a class D amplifier. In its most simplistic form it can be built with a single 555 and the 200mA current capability is enough to drive a small speaker, making it a good replacement for a low power amplifier. [...]

Secret knock detector with 555

Bogdan — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:22:06 +0000

this is another entry for the 555contest.com Introduction

A certain knock at the door may tell you if the person behind it is the one expected or just somebody else. Each knock on the door itself cannot tell you too much, it can be lighter or stronger and that’s all about it, there’s no information on [...]

555 / 556 H bridge

Bogdan — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:40:14 +0000

555 contest entry Introduction

You might find yourself needing a low power H bridge for driving a motor like I once did. The 555 IC can drive a load up to 200mA, source or sink, which might make is usable as a driver, if one can control the output as desired.

The Why?

Although it is an unusual use for [...]

EGO BOX

Bogdan — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:10:01 +0000

-or physical website visits display- Introduction

If you have a blog or any other kind of website then this is for you. It’s a little box that connects to the internet and displays how many visits you have on your website. It’s designed to work independently of your computer, connecting directly to the internet via your router. Mine [...]

Toner transfer to ABS

Bogdan — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:09:45 +0000

Possible?

ABS melts at about 105°C and the toner in your printer melts at a higher temperature, maybe 150-200°C.

So, you shouldn’t be able to make super good looking front panels for your ABS enclosures with toner transfer, right?

But it works!

I decided to give it a try. With special precautions it works like a charm. So what is [...]

LED UV exposure box part 2, the timer

Bogdan — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:16:15 +0000

Introduction

Continuing the development of my UV exposure box I have designed and built a countdown timer.

There are a few others out there for the same purpose, but I wanted to add some more features to make things better.

As I have mentioned in the previous post, safety was a big concern for me so I added a [...]

USB tree

Bogdan — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:01:35 +0000

I kept losing my USB memories, modems, programmers and such. The solution? Here comes the USB tree, ready to keep all your USB things in one place, on your desk.

The build is rather simple, one wooden base, some copper wire, USB connectors and a lot of soldering. Do note that a regular 50 – 60W soldering [...]

LED UV exposure box part 1, the box

Bogdan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:32:06 +0000

Note: Don’t look directly into the UV LEDs. It harms your eyes. This project is featured at electronics-lab.com. There is also a part two, with a timer, check it out here. Introduction

I have been using the toner transfer method for about 9 years with great results. Occasionally I would need a board with finer traces and I would [...]

RFM12B mini breakout board

Bogdan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:57:30 +0000

The RFM12B modules from Hoperf are small, cheap and offer a lot of features.

But their size has a slight drawback: both the SMD modules and the through-hole ones have 2mm pitch instead of the standard 2.54mm (100mil). This makes them incompatible with breadboards or prototyping PCBs. That is why I needed to make a little board [...]

CoMBi Clock

Bogdan — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:36:12 +0000

This project has appeared on: Hack A Day Electronics lab blog embedds bricogeek “There are 10 kinds of people in this world….” and you know the rest. Can you tell the time?

Watch the intentionally bad focused video below to see in which category you fit…

The mysterious device you can see is my binary clock. If you couldn’t tell the time that [...]

Sunrise simulator

Bogdan — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:20:04 +0000

You can check this project out on: Hack A Day Life Hacker Eh? What? Huh? Embbeds Techsputter Warning: this circuit deals with mains voltage which is lethal. DO NOT attempt to build it unless you perfectly understand what you are doing. I am in no way responsible for any consequences which result from any use of information on [...]

Linear LED power supplies

Bogdan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:43:50 +0000

Introduction:

As of recent years, the offer on power LEDs has broadened and this technology seems to have a bright future in our lives replacing the incandescent light bulb. I have decided to write this article about the ways to powering LEDs because many people have asked me what type of circuit they could use.