Tips and Tricks | Embedded Lab

Category Archives: Tips and Tricks

Constructing an external serial monitor

Posted on March 28, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

The Serial Monitor application embedded into the Arduino IDE is a very useful tool in developing Arduino applications. In addition to its normal use for sending/receiving data bytes over the Arduino serial link, the Serial Monitor tool is extensively used for diagnostic or debugging purpose by serially printing out the intermediate values of the program variables during various steps of execution. The drawback of this debugging approach is you need access to computer for using the Arduino Serial Monitor or any other serial terminal program. ARPix has posted this instructable on constructing an external serial monitor device using the Atmega328

nrf24l01+ RF module and ATtiny85

Posted on February 17, 2014 by R-B One comment

Ralph Doncaster writes, Nrf24l01+ modules are a cheap and low-power option for MCU wireless communication. Libraries are available for Arduino, and for arduino compatible MCUs like the ATTiny85. Controlling the nrf modules usually requires power plus 5 pins – CE, CSN, SCK, MOSI, & MISO. With pin-limited MCUs like the ATtiny85, 5 pins is a lot to tie up. On something like the Digispark, with PB3 and PB4 hard-wired to USB+ and USB-, using the nrf24l01+ modules might seem impossible. Another issue is that although the nrf inputs are 5v tolerant, Vcc must be between 1.9 and 3.6V. I’ve designed

This serial LCD module gets power and data through one wire

Posted on January 30, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

I found this interesting post on EDN by Benabadji Noureddine about driving an HD44780-based LCD module serially through one wire. It receives the display data as well as power supply through the same single wire connected to the UART TX pin of the host microcontroller. The LCD module itself uses a PIC12F508 microcontroller that receives the serial data from the host MCU and transfers it to the LCD in 4-bit mode. The clever trick in this design is during idle condition, the UART TX output from the host MCU remains high, which is used to supply power to the PIC12F508 MCU and the LCD.

Basic design considerations for a radio system

Posted on January 3, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

This tutorial from Maxim describes the standard process of designing a radio system and various tradeoffs involved in the process. The process of designing a radio system can be complex and often involves many project tradeoffs. With a little insight, balancing these various characteristics can make the job of designing a radio system easier. This tutorial explores these tradeoffs and provides details to consider for various radio applications. With a focus on the industrial, scientific, medical (ISM) bands, the subjects of frequency selection, one-way versus two-way systems, modulation techniques, cost, antenna options, power-supply influences, effects on range, and protocol selection are explored.

Heated diode as a flow sensor

Posted on December 26, 2013 by R-B Leave a comment

I found this design idea posted on EDN website, which is about using an externally heated semiconductor diode as an air or fluid flow sensor. The idea is airflow across the heated diode reduces its temperature, thus causing the voltage across the diode to vary with the rate of airflow.

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