XMega DAC

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In embedded systems, oftentimes it is needed to generate analog outputs from a microcontroller. Examples of such include, generating audio tones, voice, music, smooth continuous waveforms, function generators, voltage reference generators, etc. Traditionally in such cases the most common techniques applied are based on Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), resistor networks and external Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) chips like MCP4921. The aforementioned techniques have different individual limitations and moreover require external hardware interfacing, adding complexities and extra cost to projects.  XMega micros are equipped with 12 bit fast DACs apart from PWM blocks and again it proves itself to be a very

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STM32 Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC)

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After having played with Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) of STM32 micros, the obvious next internal hardware block to deal with is the Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC). As the name suggests this block has just the complementary function of ADC. It converts digital binary values to analogue voltage outputs. The DAC block has several uses including audio generation, waveform generation, etc. Typically in most 8-bit micros, this block is unavailable and its need is somewhat loosely met with Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) block. This is partly because of their relatively less hardware resources and operating speeds. All STM32 micros also have PWM blocks

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ATTiny13 powered miniature servo control

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Arief Ibrahim Adha has shared his design for a miniature servo controller using ATTiny13. Well we know “baby sitting” on servo is wasting time. updating every ms, so is good to have separated board and microcontroller to controlling the servo. Unfortunately, servo controller out there is just over kill, and pricey. so this is where the idea come from. Using ATTiny13 or ATTiny 13A (anything that at least has min 1KB flash and 64 Bytes Internal SRAM will works ) This design using single layer PCB (bottom layer only) and the firmware only has 0,1 ms resolution. As i build

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STM32 Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC)

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Most of us who have experienced 8-bit MCUs previously know how much important it is to have an Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) built-in with a microcontroller. Apart from other hardware extensions unavailable in the early era microcontrollers, many former 8051 microcontroller users shifted primarily to more robust Atmel AVRs and Microchip PICs just for this important peripheral. I don’t feel it necessary to restate the advantages of having such a peripheral embedded in a micro. In traditional 8-bit MCUs aforementioned, the ADC block is somewhat incomplete and users have to work out tricky methods to solve certain problems. The ADC block

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Speech recognition using Arduino and BitVoicer Server

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Marcio Yamagushi illustrates in this example how to use Arduino with the BitVoicer Server in order to implement speech recognition in your Arduino Project. In his demo, he controls multiple LEDs with voice commands. The following procedures will be executed to transform voice commands into LED activity: Audio waves will be captured and amplified by the Sparkfun Electret Breakout board; The amplified signal will be digitalized and buffered in the Arduino using its analog-to-digital converter (ADC); The audio samples will be streamed to BitVoicer Server using the Arduino serial port; BitVoicer Server will process the audio stream and recognize the speech

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