The project starts with a commercial remote controlled car that has to be modified so that it can be interfaced with the Phidget controller. The easiest way to accomplish this is to modify the hand-held controlling unit to receive input from the Phidget controller instead of a human driver.
The end result is a .NET-controlled RC car with wireless camera for stealthy operations.
.NET controlled RC car with wireless camera: [Link]
The ARDF controller was created after a request to be able to play random audiofiles for an ARDF transmitter, most existing designs were based on an 16F84, a somewhat aging design and better controllers are currently available. Also most controllers had a 5-10 mA current drain which can be improved, this design requires less than 400 uA.
To allow a very small controller footprint and flexible configuration the timer is not configured with (dip) switches but via a serial connection and a host PC. The memory option is optional and is only required for a wave file playback, all other options (CW, Single Tone, Tone Sequences and Audio Effects) do not require the I2C memory chip.
ARDF Timer / Controller: [Link]
This project was developed as an inexpensive way to drive small dc brushed motors as positioning servos for use on a desktop sized CNC machine. The board is interfaced to the PC through 2 pins of a parallel port. The drive signal on these pins is known as quadrature drive. The power stage consists of a power op amp driven in constant current mode. The internal PIC processor ( a 30f4012 from Microchip ) is programmed in C through the C30 compiler and the Microchip IDE. The servo loop parameters are programmed through a serial port connection and are saved in the dspic eeprom.
Once set for a particular drive, they should not need to be changed. The serial programming interface is used to tune the PID and other servo loop parameters to optimize the performance in a particular application. The serial port runs at a fixed baud rate of 9600N81. Any terminal program such as minicom, gtkterm, or hyperterminal may be used to talk to the dspic-servo.
PIC30f4012 DC motor controller: [Link]