Building a simple digital light meter using Arduino and BH1750FVI sensor

Posted on by 7 comments

A light meter is a device that measures the intensity of light. It finds applications in schools, hospitals, production areas, passageways and more to measure and maintain proper lighting levels. It is often used by photographers to determine the proper exposure for a photograph. Today we are going to build a simple light meter using an Arduino board and a BH1750 digital light sensor. The measured lighting level or intensity is displayed on eight seven segment LED displays, in both Lux and Foot-candle units.

Read more

PC-based heart rate monitor using Arduino and Easy Pulse sensor

Posted on by 63 comments

The heart rate, also referred to as pulse rate, has been recognized as a vital sign since the beginning of medicine, and it is directly related to a person’s cadiovascular health. Today, we are going to make a PC-based heart rate monitor system using an Arduino board and Easy Pulse V1.1 sensor. Easy Pulse is a pulse detecting sensor that uses the principle of transmission photo-plethysmography (PPG) to sense the pulse signal from a finger tip. The sensor output is read by the Arduino board, which then transfers the data to the PC through a serial interface. A PC application

Read more

Weekend offer: 30% OFF on 8-digit (double row) SPI 7-segment LED displays

Posted on by Leave a comment

We are offering 30% OFF (coupon code BDEA254) on SPI7SEGDISP8.56-2R this weekend (May 31 – Jun 2, 2012). SPI7SEGDISP8.56-2R is a MAX7219-based seven segment LED display board with 8-digits which are arranged in two rows of four. The MAX7219 allows you full control of all the digits and decimal points through three I/O pins of a microcontroller. The communication interface is SPI-compatible, and the brightness of the LED segments can be controlled through software. Key Features: 3-wire SPI interface double row of 4-digit displays (0.56″) operates at +5V supply individual control of all digits and decimal points 16 levels of

Read more

Easy Pulse Sensor is now also available from Elecrow

Posted on by One comment

Easy Pulse, a DIY pulse sensor based on the principle of photoplethysmography, is now also sold by Elecrow, our China-based collaborator, for only $18.50 and ships world-wide through a registered parcel for less than $5. We encourage international buyers to get it from Elecrow because they can save money shipping, and the shipment comes with a tracking number. US customers, however, would still be able to buy it from our Tindie store. If you are not familiar with Easy Pulse, “Easy Pulse is a DIY pulse sensor that can be used for detecting the cardio-vascular pulse wave from a fingertip.

Read more

Making a 8×40 LED matrix marquee using shift registers

Posted on by 139 comments

LED matrix displays provide flexibility to display text, graphics, animations, and video, and therefore, they have become a popular mean of displaying information these days. You can see them at gas stations displaying the gas prices, or in the public places displaying information, and alongside highways displaying advertisements on large dot matrix panels. This project is about constructing a mono-color LED matrix display board that consists 320 LEDs arranged in 8 rows and 40 columns. The heart of this project is PIC16F1847 microcontroller which receives data from a PC through a serial port (or USB using an USB-UART interface), and

Read more
« Older Entries Recent Entries »