Electro Bob

LED logger V2

Bogdan — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:04:46 +0000

Intro

I’ve previously wanted to know how much do cheap led strips last: turned out they don’t even pay for themselves over incandescent bulbs. I’ve decided to extend the experiment to more kinds of strips and address some concerns about the experiment expressed by the readers.

LED logger V 2

In short: 8 channels, internet [...]

Blue Panda

Bogdan — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:33:41 +0000

Intro

I was really impressed by how well the Serioux Panda Shaped stereo speakers performed when I received them as a gift. They have a really good sound, there’s a lot of improvement compared to the speakers in my laptop. But this is not what I want to use them for; after all, I’ve got [...]

LED logger

Bogdan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:36:25 +0000

Why?

About half a year ago I installed a 3 meter warm white led strip above my desk. Although I didn’t spend a lot of money on it I am really happy with the light quality and intensity. Lately I was thinking about adding more LED strips and was checking the options. One important aspect [...]

Idle power consumption

Bogdan — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:24:35 +0000

Why

I was thinking about building a sensor network based on small wireless routers, like the TP Link TP-WK703N. The OpenWRT page states 0.5W while idle, but the measurement is made for what goes into the router, not what is drawn from the network. So, I wanted to see how much the mains power consumption [...]

Auto AMP

Bogdan — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:20:00 +0000

Why

I have realized that amplifiers used around PCs (even if they are just found in active speakers) will be turned on a lot of time without actually being used, thus burning a lot of power for nothing. So, I wanted to build a circuit that will turn on an amplifier only when there is [...]

Digital Power Supply – Part 2: Prototype

Bogdan — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:24:06 +0000

Introduction

After learning about the problems with the ADC and DAC of the XMega I gave up building this power supply until recently when I decided to see for myself how bad things are. I’ve used the header board, a 2.56V reference some potentiometers and a lot of patience.

DAC

On the DAC side [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]