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Category Archives: Embedded Lab Projects

Add a thermometer to your digital multimeter

Posted on May 3, 2012 by R-B 17 comments

A digital multimeter is a very useful instrument that combines several measurement functions in one unit. A typical multimeter includes features of a variable-range ohmmeter, voltmeter, and ammeter. Some of them also include capabilities of testing diodes and transistors. In this article, I am going to talk about a technique of adding thermometer feature to a regular digital multimeter. The technique is very simple and uses one temperature sensor along with two resistors and a DPDT slide switch.

Another LUX meter using MAX44007 ambient light sensor

Posted on March 29, 2012 by R-B Leave a comment

In his digital light meter project, Shawon Shahryiar demonstrated a technique of using a normal LDR to construct a simple LUX meter that outputs the ambient light conditions on an LCD display. While this technique is simple and cost-effective, it requires an additional reference photometer to calibrate the LDR first adding an additional step. I came across this another LUX meter project on University of Wisconsin-Superior website that eliminates the need of external calibration and provides very precise measurement of illuminance in the range of 0.025 – 99999 LUX. This project uses Maxim’s MAX44007 ambient light sensor which features an

Making a digital capacitance meter using microcontroller

Posted on March 25, 2012 by R-B 42 comments

Capacitors are one of the most common passive electrical components that are extensively used in all kinds of electronic circuits. In this project, we will discuss a technique of building a digital capacitance meter using a PIC microcontroller. This project can measure capacitance values from 1 nF to 99 ?F, with a resolution of 1 nF. The technique is based on measuring the time elapsed when a capacitor is charged to a known voltage through a series resistor. The microcontroller used in this project is PIC16F628A.

Building a digital light meter with a calibrated LDR

Posted on January 13, 2012 by R-B 28 comments

Measurement of light intensity is a prime necessity in several occasions. The diversity of such needs make their way to various branches of physics and engineering as well as in media. For instance, in engineering, such kinds of measurements are needed to design optimum lighting conditions of a room. In photography, light intensity measurements ensure good quality pictures by determining the right exposure. Wiring a phototransistor or a light-dependent-resistor (LDR) with an analogue LED voltmeter chip like the LM3914 or even to a microcontroller and displaying the ADC values is a pretty simple technique of measuring light intensity. The bad

Measurement of temperature and relative humidity using DHT11 sensor and PIC microcontroller

Posted on January 10, 2012 by R-B 140 comments

Measurement and control of temperature and relative humidity finds applications in numerous areas. These days devices are available which have both temperature and humidity sensors with signal conditioning, ADC, calibration and communication interface all built inside them. The use of such smart sensors greatly simplify the design and reduces the overall cost. We discussed in past about Humidity and temperature measurements with Sensirion’s SHT1x/SHT7x sensors. These sensors are capable of measuring both temperature and relative humidity and provide fully calibrated digital outputs. While SHT1x/SHT7x are very accurate sensors, they are still expensive for hobbyists use. This articles discusses the DHT11 sensor

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