Embedded Lab

This application note from Microchip presents the design of an open-loop speed control TRIAC-driven universal motor driver board. An interesting thing about this design is it uses Core Independent Peripheral (CIP) on an 8-bit microcontroller to optimize the processing speed and free up the CPU usage. The complete source code and reference design material are included. The universal motor used in this application note runs from 120V-240V AC power and is driven from a TRIAC. A bench test for running a 220V universal motor has been done. The circuit is powered off the line from an non-isolated AC supply; therefore, safety precautions should be taken when working with this type of system. An isolated on-board UART

A PIC18F25J50 based USB HID IR keyboard from Suraj Bhawal uses a TSOP IR decoder IC to receive IR signals from an IR remote and convert them to HID inputs. For this project, I used a PIC18F25J50 microcontroller with a TSOP IR decoder. I used this microcontroller because of three reasons. First, this mcu is available in tiny QFN package which helps reducing the overall board size. Second, this mcu supports usb communication without using an external crystal/resonator which again helps reducing the board size. And third, is that I have several of these laying around in my stock. The list of