Insect Eavesdropper: Creating a High-Gain Parabolic Microphone
My undergraduate minor was Evolutionary Biology and I always particularly loved my insect classes and learning how they evolve and coevolve with plants, animals, and predator/prey insects. I've been a...
View ArticleUse Visual Studio 2010 to Compile AVR Hex Files
I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft, but man, they do make one slick programming IDE. In searching around for a solution to use the IDE to program AVR's I came across some scattered instructions. As I...
View ArticleHow to Convert Between base-10, Hexadecimal, and Binary
There are 10 types of people in this world: Those who can read binary and those who can't. Many electronic and microcontroller projects require the use of a particular base numbering system, such as...
View ArticleLevel Shifting Between TTL and CMOS
There are two lines, called logic families,of analog IC's and while they can generally be interoperable "off the shelf," they work best with ICs of the same family and sometimes IC's of mixed logic...
View ArticleTelnet to your Arduino/AVR!
The other day I was wanting to check on one of my AVR's but I was upstairs and god knows it was too much of a hassle to go downstairs to where the microcontroller was. But, there were two idle...
View ArticleDesign Custom Drugs in Your d20 Modern Game
Have you ever been playing your favorite modern RPG d20 game and wanted to add the effects of drugs or other pharmaceuticals to your game play but wasn't sure where to start? Maybe you want a key...
View ArticlePower your Arduino/AVR with a Hand-Cranked Battery
If you've ever wanted to power your Arduino or AVR from a battery for development testing (batteries have different power delivery qualities than, say, transformed AC or even a regulated wall wart in...
View ArticlePower Your Arduino From Your Car
The Arduino -- and AVRs in general -- have a wide range of power supply options ranging from around 1.8V to 5.5V. The choice of voltage is usually determined by the desired clock speed or power...
View ArticleBuild a Zener Diode Identifier
If your workbench or electronics studio looks anything like mine, you've organized your components in a step-wise fashion. That is, you didn't purchase all the shelving, component compartments,...
View ArticleUsing Enumerated Types as Bitflags
Using the individual bits in any sized integer is a common and very useful (that is, frugal and parsimonious) way to add flags to a program. Instead of using Boolean values or integer values with may...
View ArticlePractical DACs
Introduction If you've done much work with microcontroller projects, you have probably found yourself needing to interface some analog component with a digital component, or vice versa. In order for...
View ArticleCreate A Custom Medieval-/Fantasy-Style Calligraphy Quill
If you're like me, you have several pen/styli and a toolbox full of various nibs that allows you to experiment and get creative with your calligraphy. Lately, I've needed something slightly different...
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