All About Circuits

Latest Consumer Electronics Technical Articles

Categories

Controlling a Toaster Oven with a PICAXE - Part 2

Controlling a Toaster Oven with a PICAXE - Part 2

Soldering surface mount components by hand can be done, but reflow soldering in an oven is much quicker and produces more consistent results. Building a microprocessor controlled reflow oven is well within the abilities and budget of many hobbyists.


Controlling a Toaster Oven with a PICAXE - Part 1

Controlling a Toaster Oven with a PICAXE - Part 1

A toaster oven can do more than just make toast; guided by a PICAXE microcontroller, it can make a sweet reflow soldering station.


C-BISCUIT: A Robotics Platform for the Hacker and Hobbyist

C-BISCUIT: A Robotics Platform for the Hacker and Hobbyist

This is the beginning of a multi-part, multi-author series on how to build your own robotics platform called C-BISCUIT, an acronym for Collaborative Bot with Integrated System Core, Unmanned Interactivity, and Telemetry -- based on the Wandboard Quad computer.


Projects Jan 25, 2016 by Patrick Lloyd
Custom PCB Design with an EFM8 Microcontroller

Custom PCB Design with an EFM8 Microcontroller

Tips and techniques for incorporating EFM8 microcontrollers into your custom hardware.


Projects Jan 18, 2016 by Robert Keim
Galvanic Isolation: Purpose and Methodologies

Galvanic Isolation: Purpose and Methodologies

Galvanic isolation is a way to isolate functional sections of electrical systems to prevent current flow. A brief explanation of differing methods to create galvanic isolation.


Implementing I2C with an EFM8 Microcontroller, Part 2

Implementing I2C with an EFM8 Microcontroller, Part 2

Firmware architecture and example code for an I2C interface based on the Silicon Labs SMBus peripheral.


Implementing I2C with an EFM8 Microcontroller

Implementing I2C with an EFM8 Microcontroller

Learn how to design an I2C interface using the Silicon Labs SMBus peripheral.


The I2C Bus: Firmware Implementation Details

The I2C Bus: Firmware Implementation Details

Understand the I2C protocol in the context of firmware design and make your projects seamless.


The I2C Bus: Hardware Implementation Details

The I2C Bus: Hardware Implementation Details

This article covers information essential for understanding and designing the hardware needed for an I2C bus.


Hack Your Toaster Oven to Become a Thermocouple Measurement System

Hack Your Toaster Oven to Become a Thermocouple Measurement System

The intuitive, step-by-step procedure presented in this article will help you to successfully perform reflow soldering in your toaster oven.


Projects Dec 18, 2015 by Robert Keim
Introduction to the I2C Bus

Introduction to the I2C Bus

This article covers the essential characteristics and prominent advantages of the Inter–Integrated Circuit (aka I2C) serial-communications protocol.


Introduction to the Manually-Controlled Toaster Oven Reflow

Introduction to the Manually-Controlled Toaster Oven Reflow

With the help of a DIY thermocouple measurement system, you can use a cheap toaster oven to accurately reproduce a reflow-soldering temperature profile.


How to Choose the Best Battery for Your Next Project

How to Choose the Best Battery for Your Next Project

There are all sorts of batteries out there- this short overview will help you find the right one!


Buck Converters and Their Cool Applications

Buck Converters and Their Cool Applications

The buck converter is a ubiquitous DC-DC converter that efficiently converts a high voltage to a low voltage efficiently. Efficient power conversion extends battery life, reduces heat, and allows for smaller gadgets to be built. The buck converter can be used in lots of cool applications.


Design Your Own Controller for a Solder Reflow Oven

Design Your Own Controller for a Solder Reflow Oven

In the last installment, we built the hardware to control an AC waveform with a TRIAC as the first step in a DIY solder reflow oven. This tutorial continues the project by showing you how to set up the low-level hardware to measure temperature, read the zero-cross detector, drive the TRIAC, and print to the serial terminal using a USART.


Projects Nov 17, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd
Control an Arduino With a TV Remote

Control an Arduino With a TV Remote

Nothing on TV tonight? Control an Arduino with any infrared remote control, including the one you use to command your television.


Understanding Electricity with Hydraulics

Understanding Electricity with Hydraulics

An overview of how the concepts of electron flow and the role of individual circuit components can be related to the flow of fluid in pipe networks. The analogy between hydraulics and electricity is a useful tool for teaching and for those who are struggling to understand how circuits work.


Control Your AC Mains with a Microcontroller

Control Your AC Mains with a Microcontroller

Learn how to put together your own toaster oven controller with a handful of inexpensive, through-hole parts. The emphasis is on safety, low price, and minimal modification of the toaster oven.


Projects Nov 09, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd
Universal Logic Gates

Universal Logic Gates

NAND and NOR gates are widely known to be universal logic gates, meaning that any other logic gate be made from NAND or NOR gates. This article discusses other universal logic gates.


Get Started with Matplotlib in Python to Visualize Data Collected from Measurement Instruments

Get Started with Matplotlib in Python to Visualize Data Collected from Measurement Instruments

This article explains how to install PyVisa and MatPlotlib for Python. PyVisa connects a computer to the measurement instruments and matplotlib helps to visualize the data collected from these instruments.


Projects Oct 24, 2015 by Ujjwal Roy