After having sourced all the components needed to build my thermometer, the first thing to do is to perform a smoke test, that is a test to verify that all the components work as expected. Specially if you’re working with power supplies, it’s indeed very important not to trust them: a mistake during the assembly, a component…
I’m starting with this post the description of a new project, project that comes from a request by my friend Marco, who builds spectacular custom cases for PCs: build a thermometer to measure the temperature of a CPU liquid cooler and display it using nixie tubes. Instead of describing the final project, I had the idea to write…
Recently, I received some Arduino clones, mostly from chinese webstores, that use the CH340G chip as USB-to-serial converter instead of the more common (and I suppose more expensive) FTDI chip: Windows natively does not support that chip, which is not automatically recognized: You must download the driver from the manufacturer’s website. Once unzipped, you can update the driver…
Increasingly you may need to connect to your Arduino devices that operate with 3.3V. Lowering the integrated circuits’ operating voltage has in fact several advantages: [checklist] allows to realize smaller transistors requires a lower heat dissipation allows faster state changes (the voltage difference between a logic state LOW and HIGH is lower) [/checklist] this is why…
I found that Troniqa webshop sells a membrane potentiometer named SoftPot (datasheet): This potentiometer, that is available in lengths of 10 and 20cm, changes its resistance depending on the point on which pressure is applied. The connection to Arduino is very simple and doesn’t differ from what is explained in the official tutorial for a “normal” potentiometer: I connected 5V to pin…
On the market you can now find leds that also include a control chip (WS2811, WS2812, APA106…). The main advantages of this kind of leds are: [checklist] you can control them using just one digital pin they can be connected in cascade but still individually controlled they can be supplied with 5V without the need of…
One of the most common errors when you start writing your sketches for Arduino is the excessive use of the delay() function. This function, as explained in the official documentation, pauses the program for the specified number of milliseconds. Let’s see an example: you connected to your Arduino a button and a led: when you press the button, the led…
Today’s project, as always based on the enc28j60 ethernet controller, allows to toggle relays (or, generally, digital PINs) using a responsive web page, that is a page that automatically adapts its layout to devices with different screen sizes (for example your smartphone and your PC). Video presentation Web site The web site, stored on an SD card and…
Today I was asked how it could be possible to resume a PC from standby at a given hour… It was enough to connect an Arduino Pro Micro to an RTC module, write some code and the WakeMeUP project was born…
If you updated the Arduino IDE to the latest version (1.6.3), you may have noticed a great improvement: a new tool for library management. In past indeed there was no a single place where you may found almost all the available libraries and the installation process was not so easy… with the new IDE instead if…