Category Archives: Tech News


Driving multiple LCD displays through an I2C interface

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Jesus Echavarria tipped us off about his latest project of controlling multiple HD44780 LCD displays through an I2C interface. He used Microchip’s MCP23017 I/O port expanders and successfully drove eight LCDs with only two microcontroller pins. The MCP23017 device provides 16-bit, general purpose parallel I/O expansion for I2C bus. Upto 8 such devices can be connected on to the same I2C bus by varying their slave addresses through the hardware address pins. In his project, Jesus used eight MCP23017 devices (one for each LCD) to control eight LCDs over an I2C bus.

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Understanding Logic Analyzer basics using SCANALOGIC-2 EDU KIT

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A logic analyzer is an excellent tool for capturing many digital signals at once and displaying their timing relationships. It is particularly useful in verifying and debugging digital circuits. This tutorial is intended to provide a quick overview of a logic analyzer tool and its uses in analyzing and decoding data flowing on multiple signal lines or bus in a digital system. The logic analyzer tool is extremely helpful in troubleshooting problems arising from timing violations and transients on buses. In this article, I am going to use the SCANALOGIC-2 educational kit from IKALOGIC to illustrate very basic features of

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Support us by preordering TrH Meter kit on Tindie

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We are now accepting pre-orders for the TrH Meter kit through Tindie’s fundraising program, a new feature that they announced a couple days ago. Our target is to receive 20 orders by Dec 31st. So if you pre-order it now, you will get a complete TrH Meter kit for a discounted price of $25 and a thank you note from us for your support in making this funding campaign successful. You will receive a preprogrammed PIC16F688 microcontroller with the kit, which means the kit is ready to go right out of the box. “TrH Meter is a DIY microcontroller-based indoor thermometer

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Fancy LED Christmas Tree

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Chris from PyroElectro has posted a tutorial on creating an LED Christmas tree controlled entirely by digital logic. His Christmas tree is cone shaped where 64 LEDs spiral around it from top to bottom. Each LED is individually controllable through a 74HC595 shift register output. The clock for shift register is generated using 555 timer IC. The LED Christmas tree can display two types of patters, one is more predictable and another random. Chris is also running a fund raising campaign on Kickstarter to get support for launching a free online Digital Electronics course. For past few years Chris has been

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More PIC16F628A/PIC16F84A/PIC16F88/PIC16F1847 breakout board kits are available on Tindie

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The 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers are still very popular among hobbyists and beginners because of their compact size, low cost, and simplicity. The PIC16F1847 is the latest release in this series and is equipped with lot more peripherals and enhanced features than its predecessors. This breakout board provides all the basic elements that are required to get you going with your next project using PIC16F1847 or its predecessors, including PIC16F628A, PIC16F88, PIC16F84A, and PIC16F1827. More details of this board are found here: http://embedded-lab.com/blog/?p=5625 You can buy the breakout board kit with one PIC16F1847 microcontroller included for $13.00. Here’s the buying

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