soldernerd

This page serves as a directory of all my posts and downloads related to my Arduino based Ultrasonic Anemometer. First Attempt with an ArduinoUno and two separate boards

This was one of the first PCBs I ever made myself as well my very first attempt at soldering SMD components. So if you were wondering why some of the copper on the right has not been removed - that’s why. At that time, I was not even using Eagle yet but some software called Sprint Layout. But this post is not really about this unimpressing board but about proper debouncing. Something I feel strongly about ;-)

I regularly use PIC microcontrollers. I’ve tried some Atmel chips lately but I’m still by far most familiar with the PIC16 & PIC18 chip families. As you can see in my other posts, I tend to use SMD components but once in a while I need to program a DIP package.

My name’s Lukas. All my life I’ve been fascinated by anything technical and electronics in particular. With some help from my dad I soldered blinking lights and morse keys by the age of 12. Later, as a teenager, I got my ham radio license but have never done much with it. I guess I find tweeking circuits more fun than being on air.

This is a constant current dummy load. It’s controlled by a PIC16F1936 microcontroller. As you can see, it’s equipped with a 4x16 character LCD display and, less obvious, a rotary encoder with push button. It accurately sets the desired current via a 16bit DAC and reads both current and input voltage with a single-channel 16bit ADC each. Temperature is measured by the microcontroller’s internal 10bit ADC.

Another afternoon project. Some time ago I was working on a 80 watts 12-to-36 Volts DC-DC boost converter. Not one of my most successful projects but anyway. So I needed some kind of load but my home made constant current dummy load can only handle 20-something volts. A few 100 ohms 15 watt resistors were just what I needed. So I took 6 of them and made a simple, single-sided PCB that holds the resistors as well as 6 switches.

A classic afternoon project. I was in need of a variable voltage and didn’t have a proper lab power supply available. But I did have a solid 12 volts from an old computer PSU. So I built myself this little thing.

Some time ago I wanted to try out programming CPLDs in VHDL. I was entirely new to both of those topics and I didn’t have a real need for a CPLD at the time. So I built myself a nice little prototyping board for the Xilinx XC9500XL complete with some push buttons, LEDs a 7-segment display and a PIC16F688 used mainly as a clock source.