Latest Industrial Automation Technical Articles

This is the final part in a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

This is the final part in a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Programmable thermostats can save a lot of energy and money. But you don't have to buy one- you can convert an old…

Programmable thermostats can save a lot of energy and money. But you don't have to buy one- you can convert an old mechanical thermostat into a programmable thermostat using an Arduino and a servo.

Part five of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Part five of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Programmable thermostats can save a lot of energy and money. But you don't have to buy one. You can convert an old…

Programmable thermostats can save a lot of energy and money. But you don't have to buy one. You can convert an old mechanical thermostat into a programmable thermostat using an Arduino and a servo.

In the last installment, we built the hardware to control an AC waveform with a TRIAC as the first step in a DIY solder…

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.

Connecting a PICAXE to the IoT through an ESP8266 module is easy once you know the process. Here are the details you need!

Connecting a PICAXE to the IoT through an ESP8266 module is easy once you know the process. Here are the details you need!

Part four of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Part four of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Learn how to put together your own toaster oven controller with a handful of inexpensive, through-hole parts. The…

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.

Part three of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Part three of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Part two of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles! This time we'll…

Part two of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles! This time we'll be covering PCB design.

This article explains how to install PyVisa and MatPlotlib for Python. PyVisa connects a computer to the measurement…

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.

Some of the unique aspects of embedded programming design will be highlighted, and various standards and tools common to…

Some of the unique aspects of embedded programming design will be highlighted, and various standards and tools common to the field will be discussed. Great for first-time designers and developers who have some programming experience, but are new to microcontrollers and things such as real-time operating systems.

An inexpensive PICAXE microcontroller makes it easy to read a temperature sensor, compare the temperature to a setpoint,…

An inexpensive PICAXE microcontroller makes it easy to read a temperature sensor, compare the temperature to a setpoint, and turn a heater or cooler circuit on or off.

Use a WS2812 RGB LED strip to visualize the pose of an MPU-6050 6-degree-of-freedom IMU in three dimensional space.

Use a WS2812 RGB LED strip to visualize the pose of an MPU-6050 6-degree-of-freedom IMU in three dimensional space.

Control a fan based on the current temperature with a Raspberry Pi!

Control a fan based on the current temperature with a Raspberry Pi!

This article demonstrates how to use the built-in die temperature sensor on the nRF51. The die temperature is not the…

This article demonstrates how to use the built-in die temperature sensor on the nRF51. The die temperature is not the same as ambient temperature, but can be calibrated to ambient temperature by using a correction factor.

Teaming up a PICAXE µC, a DS1307 real time clock module, and an LCD117 serial adapter with a liquid crystal display is…

Teaming up a PICAXE µC, a DS1307 real time clock module, and an LCD117 serial adapter with a liquid crystal display is a fun, educational way to assemble your own date and time demo.

Create a wireless "relative comfort" light bar thermometer by broadcasting temperature data across multiple ESP8266…

Create a wireless "relative comfort" light bar thermometer by broadcasting temperature data across multiple ESP8266 modules running NodeMCU using MQTT.

Thread, a network protocol released July 2015, is optimized for the connected home network. It is IPv6 based, uses IEEE…

Thread, a network protocol released July 2015, is optimized for the connected home network. It is IPv6 based, uses IEEE Standard 802.15.4 and runs on existing hardware.