Arduino
This is the hardware part of my odyssey to design and build a large 4-digit, 7-segment display, running on an Arduino Nano. It's a great case-study in figuring out something complicated - by taking small steps, one at a time. I'm an enthusiastic amateur with no
Arduino
This post explains how I ended up manufacturing a cute little binary counter PCB through jlcpcb.com. To make it clear from the start - my only connection with the company is that I've ordered a couple of PCBs from them. I'm simply amazed that they
Arduino
UPDATE (Nov 24th 2019) - If you like this post, there's a part 2 to this post with some more upgrades. In this post I'll describe a project that I'm still upgrading from time to time, but has already been in use for the
Arduino
A couple of days ago I watched a YouTube video where a guy pointed a device at a spinning disk. The disk's rotation speed was displayed on the gadget's screen. When the speed changed, the reading changed with it. At first I didn't understand
Arduino
The need for multiple switch settings, aka jumper settings, to set an ID/ program options has been crucial to my recent projects. As I build IoT devices that require self-identification, I have to create an ID number on each device. In hardware, the least expensive way to accomplish this is
Arduino
For nearly 10 years I've had a large hourglass sitting on my desk. It has fine sand that takes exactly 30 minutes to drop through from one end to the other. It looks something like this. I bought it long before I became involved in the Maker World
DS3231 Real Time Clock
My addiction to clocks started a few years back when I got it into my head that I wanted to build a mechanical timepiece. I spent months scouring Google for a clock kit and all I came up with were mass-produced electronic movements. That's until I found Dave
Arduino
In today’s blog, I am going to show you the easy way to interface 7-segment displays – Using the MAX7219. Each 7219 chip can be used to interface eight 7-segment digits, or 64 individual LEDs. Previously, in part 1 of my blog posting Programming a 7-segment Display, using just Arduino
Arduino
The purpose of this project is to build a countdown timer comprised of two 7-segment displays. Several interesting challenges are solved or resolved: * How to interface a 7-segment display to the Arduino directly – without using a MAX7219 chip. * How to write concise and efficient Arduino C code to drive the
Platform
This post is different from anything we’ve published before. It’s an explanation of how we created one of our most ambitious projects to date - and it’s also a call for help. Working on the project opened up incredible possibilities for the rapid development by the Community
Arduino
A couple of weeks ago I set up a new bench in my workshop. It was a great new space, but each time I wanted to flash an Arduino or ESP8266, I had to turn 180 degrees to get to my computer. I knew there must be a better way.
Scorbot
About two years ago I got Scorbot from a junk yard. One of the first posts I wrote was dealing with Scorbot first moves. At first I thought it is just junk and I will harvest it for parts. Then, as I continued checking it, I found out this 25