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Internet Logging Pill Dispenser using Propeller microcontroller

Posted on October 8, 2013 by R-B 2 comments

Forgetting to take a medication is a common problem in older people. This instructable describes how to make a pill reminder, dispenser, and logger to ensure that your dear ones are taking their medications on time. It uses a Parallax Propeller micro-controller at its heart and keep track of when a patient should take their medications. It displays a count down timer one hour before dosage time and then when the time arrives, it generates audible messages, LED 7 Segment messages and lights an LED under the correct compartment to be opened. When the patient opens a compartment, a sensor

Four channel IR relay control board using PIC12F675

Posted on October 3, 2013 by R-B 4 comments

A couple years ago I posted a very simple IR remote control switch for an electrical appliance, that can be turned on and off through any TV remote. Here’s a more advanced one that offers four relay switch control through NEC IR protocol using PIC12F675 microcontroller.

Seven segment LED clock with a coconut shell enclosure

Posted on September 17, 2013 by R-B One comment

Here’s another seven segment LED based digital clock using a PIC microcontroller. The project uses a 4-digit common anode type seven segment LED display, a PIC16F727 MCU, and BCR562 transistors operating as switches to drive the LED segments and common anodes. A coconut shell enclosure gives an artistic look to the clock.

Three-Phase Electronic Watt-Hour Meter Using the MSP430F677x

Posted on September 13, 2013 by R-B One comment

The TI’s MSP430F677x devices belong to the powerful 16-bit MSP430F6xx platform, which brings in many new features and provides flexibility to support robust poly-phase metrology solutions. These devices find their application in energy measurement and have the necessary architecture to support them. This application report describes the implementation of a three-phase electronic electricity meter using the MSP430F677x metering processor. The key parameters calculated during energy measurements are: RMS current and voltage, active and reactive power and energies, power factor, and frequency. A 32-bit x 32-bit hardware multiplier on this chip further accelerates the math intensive operations during the energy computation. The

Making a smart I2C DC motor controller

Posted on September 10, 2013 by R-B Leave a comment

A full-fledged DC motor controlling application requires a lot of I/O resources and MCU time. This project is about making a dedicated DC motor controllerthat would release the main microcontroller from this duty so that it could do other important tasks more efficiently. The controller uses Atmega168 as a slave I2C device that receives commands from a host MCU through I2C signal lines, and controls two DC motors using the L293D high-current H-driver chip. Separate PWM signals are used for each motor to achieve precise motor steering. The built-in motor steering library routines makes the motor control much easier.

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