Brooke's World The life and ramblings of Brooke.

September 25, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 4 : Unit 5 : Choosing Components For The Current/Fan Driver Module : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 11:57 pm

Task

Find the following types of components

Recall the following design goals:

  • Swappable components with easy to solder packages.
  • Low cost.
  • SPI DAC part with 8- 10 bits.
  • MOSFET capable of carrying half an amp in a surface mount package.
  • Moderately accurate sense resistor.

September 24, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 3 : Unit 4 : Understanding The Current/Fan Driver Module : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 11:44 pm

Task

  • Create a current source with a voltage input, using an op amp.
  • Add in an optional DAC to control the current source with voltage readback

Schematic

Module3Unit4_schematic

Git Repository: https://github.com/hedrickbt/ContextualElectronics/tree/Module3Unit4/Session1/MyBenchBuddy

September 22, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 4 : Unit 4 : Choosing Components For The Thermocouple Module : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 8:45 pm

Task

Find the following types of components:

Recall the following design goals:

  • 16+ bit input
  • Low cost
  • 1 degree C accurate (aim for .5 C accurate)
  • Swappable components
  • Easy to solder components

September 21, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 3 : Unit 3 : Understanding the Thermocouple Module : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 11:37 am

Task

  • Create a block diagram for the thermocouple measurement circuit in Kicad.

Module3Unit3_schematic

 

Github:  https://github.com/hedrickbt/ContextualElectronics/tree/Module3Unit3/Session1/MyBenchBuddy

September 12, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 2 : Unit 9 : Creating A Schematic Skeleton : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 8:50 pm

Task

  1. Create a schematic with a heirarchical page for each block in the block diagram.
  2. Add some hierarchical labels within one of the sheets.
  3. Exit the sheet and import the heirarchical pin to the top level heirarchy symbol.

SheetWithHiearchicalSheets

Github:  https://github.com/hedrickbt/ContextualElectronics/tree/Module2Unit9/Session1/MyBenchBuddy

September 8, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 2 : Unit 11: Mechanical Constraints : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 9:02 pm

Measure or look up the dimension of an Arduino Uno. Compare against other versions of Arduino.

Verify the pin pitch of the stackable connectors on the edge of the Arduino.

Enter the board outline of the Arduino into PCBnew for a rough 2D guideline.

BoardEdgeLayout

September 5, 2013

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 2 : Unit 4: Project Creation : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 4:32 am

If you want to participate alongside, do the following (before watching the execution video):

Contextual Electronics : Session 1 : Module 1 : Unit 14: The Importance and Role of Failure : Task

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 4:14 am

List your biggest failure in a project ever on the forum thread for this course unit.

  • A software project that a significant amount of time was spent on.  We delivered the project and the customer didn’t feel they received what they expected.  The biggest issues weren’t technical at all.  The issues were that our communication wasn’t  as good as we thought.  This was an important lesson that I was lucky to learn early on.

 

In the event you’ve never had a big failure, explain why you think that is.

  • I know I shouldn’t answer this one too.  I fail all of the time.   While trying to think of really big failures I struggled.  I just try to manage failure in small bites where possible.  This means that recovery from failure doesn’t have to be as big of an obstacle as it can be when we fail really big!  Unfortunately I don’t get to tell the fun and spectacular failure stories.

Contextual Electronics Session 1

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Brooke @ 3:04 am

I am participating in an online course called Contextual Electronics – Session 1.  I will be posting my answers to quizzes and homework here.

October 22, 2012

Using Raspberry Pi with PIR ( motion ) Sensor

Filed under: Uncategorized — Brooke @ 6:16 am

I have been using the Arduino for a few years now and recently curiosity got the better of me with the excitement around the Raspberry Pi. I purchased my first Raspberry Pi and since my interest is more in line with interacting with the physical than just having a small computer, I needed a second project. Of course, the first project was to blink an LED!

For my second project, I decided to expand on the first. I still use output to blink an LED, but now I also use input to decide when to blink the LED. The way this project works is by sensing motion using a PIR, Passive Infra-Red, sensor.

Using the Adafruit Raspberry Pi Cobbler, here’s how I connected the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins to the breadboard and wired up the PIR sensor and LED

Download the Fritzing diagram. This requires the AdafruitFritzing library.

Here’s the code!

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time

PIR = 23
LED = 24

pirState = False                        # we start, assuming no motion detected
pirVal = False                          # we start, assuming no motion detected

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(PIR, GPIO.IN)
GPIO.setup(LED, GPIO.OUT)

while True:
    pirVal = GPIO.input(PIR)            # read input value
    if (pirVal == True):                # check if the input is HIGH
        GPIO.output(LED, True)          # turn LED ON
        if (pirState == False):
            # we have _just_ turned on
            pirState = True
    else:
        GPIO.output(LED, False)         # turn LED OFF
        if (pirState == True):
            # we have _just_ turned off
            time.sleep(2)
            pirState = False;

Parts List / BOM (Bill of Materials) – Excluding Raspberry PI

Part Source Image Approx Price
1/2 Size breadboard Adafruit $5.00
Pi Cobbler Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi Adafruit $7.95
PIR (motion) sensor Adafruit $10.00
220 ohm resistor RadioShack $1.19
Green LED RadioShack $1.69
Breadboarding Wire Adafruit $6.00
Total $31.83*

* = Prices are the best information from the time this tutorial was written. Prices do not include
shipping.

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