YourITronics

This article is part of the PCB Giveaway program that we have running here at Youritronics. Morgoth will get a free pcb manufactured by BKRtech for submitting this project. If you’re interested in participating, read more on the program page.

These days most pharmacies use LED pharmacy crosses posted at their entrance to let people know there is a pharmacy there. The reasons are obvious, they look cool&hi-tech, they can be seen from distance and they can be customized really easy (well, easy customizing pretty much depends on how the manufacturer approaches things).

If you try to search the web about schematics or example codes for this kind of circuit you wont find any, and again i think the reason is obvious, the crosses are quite expensive and so is the profit for the manufacturer. So nobody is gonna post schematics for such a project, unless you’re a hobbyist and you’re having fun with electronics.

The project consists of one ATmega64, three ULN2003 and five 5×7 LED matrix from Kingbright(TA20-11EWA). I had the idea to build something like this but so far i haven’t had the time nor the knowledge to get it done. So i asked Morgoth if he would like to participate in the project. I sent him the LED’s, the drivers and the PCB and he started working. As you can see not many parts are involved , but the secret lies in the microcontroller, it’s the programming that does the job.

In the next pictures you can see the microcontroller board with the ULN2003 darlington arrays:

The circuit was designed to receive messages trough serial interface from a computer and than display them. Morgoth also designed a custom terminal for windows which provides easy access to the display.

In this test phase a serial interface by wire was used to transmit data between the terminal and the ATmega64, but a wireless or bluetooth module could be integrated with no problem.

Also as a note, the LED’s don’t light up really bright, for that to happen you need to use drivers on the positive rail. This also applies if you’re planning to take the project to another level and use bigger LED’s

And now, watch some videos with the LED Pharmacy Cross beeing controlled from the computer:

• LED Pharmacy Cross ATmega source code
• LED Pharmacy Cross terminal source code

As you can see from the picrures they are great, and the projects they’ll server are great also.

new pcb from bkrtech that is gonna be used for AVR DOPER programmer

new pcb from bkrtech that is gonna be used for AVR ATmega640 dev board

new pcb from bkrtech that is gonna be used for AVR ATmega64 dev board

Some of these projects will be submited here on Youritronics for more free PCB’s , i only hope more of you join the program because, there are more free pcb’s to be given.

This article was submited by morgoth and is part of the PCB giveaway program, so for submitting he’s work morgoth will receive a free PCB. Also in the future we’ll see more of he’s projects.

Of-course there are other projects based on this idea around the web, but what makes this one special, it’s he’s features. There are 3 stepper motors controlled by a single ATmega8 that runs at 8 MHz, and a motor driver for each motor. The motors and their drivers were recovered from an old printer.

1 Year down many more to come. One year ago a friend inspired me to start this project, and it’s been great since then. Every month the number of visits is increasing and this is making me happy. I have some new ideas that i will present to you this “new year”, i hope you’ll like them.

I have to thank my readers for reading this blog and commenting and i’ll try not to let you down.

Also thanks to my fellow bloggers that helped me along the way:

• Circuit-projects.com
• Electronics-lab.com
• Embedds.com
• GeeksInside.com
• HackedGadgets.com
• ScienceProg.com
• Uchobby.com
• Zedomax.com

Stay tuned, there are some great projects coming up.

You’ve probably noticed the pictures from my last projects… they look pretty cool. That’s because i got a new camera, a Sony DSC H9. The macros are great, i can see the particles of dust on my circuit boards, the landscapes are great, i took some stuning pictures in my vacation in the mountains.

I’m not gonna go trough all of the aspects in this review, I’m just gonna tell you what impresses me about this camera. I payed for it at a local retail store about $520 complete with a 2 GB memory stick pro duo. The camera was nicely packed and accesorized. For example i got a cool remote control, that i can use to take pictures remotely. I also got a shoulder strap which you don’t get on most cameras.

The battery, is sony, as expected and it last actually more than they say it will. They guarantee that it will last you 300 photos, but i take aprox 600 photos with one charge.

If you plan on getting one, i suggest you take no less than 2 GB memory card. Because on 2 Gb it rarely gets full, and you’ll alaways have room for more pictures when you’re away from your computer and you can’t download them.

Another good thing about the camera, it’s the 15x zoom complete with image stabilization, which helps you get more acurrate details into your pictures when shooting at a distance.

The camera also has other nice functions like many shooting resolutions, the i prefere beeing the widescreen mode. In my opinion this is the best choice in digital camera before moving into the SLR category.

I hear that digital photo frames are they way to show your pictures arround the house these days, maybe one from Sony will work ok together with my H9.