Showing posts with label Electronics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electronics. Show all posts

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Open You Garage Door Remotely

In my example I have a GDO-6 EasyRoller Door.


Most roller doors have contacts that will open or close your roller door, you just need to find the pins on the board to connect to.


As you can see from the below picture you can install a external key switch to operate the roller door, these are the contacts that you can use to remotely open and close the door.
You can use a momentary push button switch or a momentary keyswitch as shown below 
Connection is done using the GND and OSC terminals


In my case I have connected this to my Ness M1 Gold automation Panel as it allows you to trigger it remotely and send a 3 second momentary short to the OSC and GND terminals to open or close the door.

You can quite easily connect to a UHF remote transmitter/ receiver like A 1018B : https://www.altronics.com.au/p/a1018b-uhf-remote-control-switch-system/

It has a monostable operation mode, when you press the remote it activates a relay for couple seconds which is all that is needed to open or close the garage door.



Sunday, December 29, 2019

Tobbie II Robot - powered by a BBC Micro:Bit control board.

I assume you have just purchased a Tobbie II and now your stuck, I don't blame you, I have experience in computers and electronics and still had to dig around for help.

Hopefully this helps a little.

The BBC micro is the heart of the projects it is all controlled by this little board, you don't have to have it connected to the Robot to do the projects form the Microbit.org website.

This board is sold separately and is connected by a small battery pack and USB lead to your computer, I would try a few of the projects online from the website first then when comfortable connect it to the Tobbie II robot and get it to do the explorer, follow me or singing and dancing project.

First step is to build the robot and whatever you do make sure you have purchased the BBC Micro:Bit control board otherwise you just have a robot with motors but no heart (computer).

I assume you have made it to the https://microbit.org website by now but cant find any help on the Robbie II robot kit.

You can either program it using the on board Bluetooth using the IOS.....app or by using the lets code on the website.

Tricky to find : Click on Lets Code then Lets Code again then New project, you will see that the Tobbie II is not in the list, click on the setting then extensions, then search for Tobbie II and click on the extension.

You will see that Tobbie II has been added


 https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/introduction.html

This above website can help you learn how to code or you can download the code from the link below.

You can always edit the code and make your own project.

http://www.elenco.com/teachtech-tobbieII-downloads/

https://www.elenco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Tobbie-II-Downloads.png

TobbieII download includes :
00.Assembly-Checker.hex, 01.Explorer.hex, 02.Follow_Me.hex, 03.Singing-Dancing.hex, 04.Light-Tracker.hex, 05.Thermometer.hex, 06.Calculator.hex, 07.Rock_Paper-Scissors.hex, 08.Dice.hex, 09.Notice-Board.hex, 10.Compass .hex,
11.Bowling.hex, 12.APP Remote Control.hex

Helpfull siteshttps://scratch.mit.edu/ideas
https://tinkercademy.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-microbit/



Commodore 64 - Programming Using Vice and Samples

In the early days my first PC was a commodore 64 computer, I would spent hours playing games and learning how to program, I thought it would be great to teach my 12 year son how to program using the same commodore 64 or if  you dont have one you can use an emulator like Vice : http://vice-emu.sourceforge.net/index.html#download




Find the manuals here : https://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide-03-beginning_basic_programming.pdf

Basic Programming samples are found in the book and it would probably best they type it out themselves but I found a few errors so the below samples may help.

Once you have finished typing in a program you can save the image by going to snapshot then save snapshot image.


 Alternatively if you wont to load one, go the snapshot then load snapshot.

Here are a few I did  from the users guide:

Guessing game.vsf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lTuQCKSkbFAxSQfX10z6ve28mlaGamXe/view?usp=sharing

Hello world.vsf:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xc2efNx-sV6uvD1UJoX--wVv-3_5dLU_/view?usp=sharing

Making Music on your Commodore 64.vsf:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ClohIyFwfuqXI3zggEcSIu3-o32H6yN8/view?usp=sharing

More bouncing balls.vsf:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZzjC4E64ce1PxezwBMhCr6homwDMgO2X/view?usp=sharing

Your roll.vsf:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AwvAS7Tyhvzpb3nw88-P3KXSA7O0_kr1/view?usp=sharing

I also found I could copy the code from the guide and paste into Vice but it needed to be converted to lower case or it would look unreadable.

To do this highlight or copy the code into notepad 2 :http://www.flos-freeware.ch/
then go to Edit/Convert /Lowercase, sometimes may need to convert to uppercase first then back to lowercase, once in lowercase copy the code and paste into Vice emulator by selecting edit then paste from menu.
Be warned it doesn't copy very well from the pdf user guide so you will probably have to fix some of the code anyway, also there are a lot of mistakes in the code, see my samples for some working code.
If you have any of you own Vice image files from manual please share.



Next is to build a Tobbie II robot - powered by a BBC Micro:Bit control board.

https://lozaelec.blogspot.com/2019/12/tobbie-ii-robot-powered-by-bbc-microbit.html





Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Insulation Resistance - Testing Appliances That Trip The Circuit Breaker

In my situation within days of moving into a new rental property I was getting nuisance earth leakage current tripping the circuit breaker.

The earth leakage circuit breaker was tripping at different times of the day, sometimes between 4 and 5 pm and other times between 2 and 3 pm.

I tried to unplug all the common appliances such as the toaster, kettle and microwave but the circuit breaker was still tripping.

I also tested all power sockets with a power point tester and all sockets showed correct wiring.

 


The earth leakage trips seemed to be due to accumulated currents or by devices with low insulation resistance so I purchased a Digital Insulation Tester from Altronics Q 1244 : https://www.altronics.com.au/p/q1244-auto-ranging-digital-insulation-tester-1000v/

BE WARNED HIGH VOLTAGE TESTER


I started testing certain devices in an area that I was sure causing the fault as I had turned off all power points in that area for 2 weeks and had no circuit breaker trips.

I found low resistance on a touch screen monitor laptop type power supply, the supply had kinks in the lead which was threaded through the plastic molding of the touch screen.

The tester showed measurements as low as 500 Meg and for tests over 500v all readings should be over 1 Meg ohm.

I tried testing another IEC power lead and that was over 1 Meg then another IEC lead and that was also 1 Meg, then I tried the faulty lead again and it was 500 Meg, so the fault was with the lead and not the power supply, it wasn't enough to cause the circuit breaker to trip but I replaced it anyway.

The times seem to be consistently between 4 - 6am.

Faulty was caused by the Fridge Heating element.

Great information that shows minimum required resistance depending on applied test voltage : http://www.sparkyfacts.co.uk/Inspection-and-Testing-Insulation-Resistance-Test.php

Saturday, June 20, 2015

LIU Connection Diagram

There is some confusion as to the connection of the line isolation unit (LIU) to the system and music source.

This device allows you to isolate your music player from the phone system or isolate the music from your phone system to an amplifier.
The RJ12 (6p2c) on the LIU  is labelled system and the RJ11(4P2C) is labelled Music.




Sunday, June 7, 2015

Dymo Letratag Label Maker Change Font Size

Hold down Blue SHIFT button while selecting A (size), use the LEFT and RIGHT arrows to select font size, then press the RETURN key bottom right.



Friday, November 14, 2014

Christmas Light Controller Convert Mp3 To Wav

If you have Silicon Chip Christmas light controller you will need to convert your music from Mp3 to Wav.

I use Audacity : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Install and run Audacity

Drag your mp3 straight into Audacity

Click on File then Export Audio

Choose your destination and select WAV ( Microsoft) signed 16 Bit PCM

Then click save.



Sunday, October 12, 2014

Raspberry Pi B+ With AirPlay / Shairport Audio Streaming


It was time to have a bit of fun and build an audio streaming device using a Raspberry Pi.

I had a pair of powered speakers lying around in the garage and thought it would be good idea if I could stream my music from my iPhone or from my music drive straight to the powered speakers.

Just to be clear I don't claim to be a Raspberry Pi expert in any shape or form.

After around 4 hours it was complete and worked first go.

LXPanel 0.5.10




I was able to stream music from iPhone Music player and Tuneshell Player, Plex player and StreamToMe.

 



Click the link below to download my Image file and save you hours of work


First of all you will need a couple of things

1: win32 Disk Imager : http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/latest/download
2: A micro sd card  and reader
3: My image file : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwjqRgkVKt1IX1pabExoMkRxNGM/view?usp=sharing

Install Win32 Disk Imager

If you already have a disk image file like My image file above, them scroll down to Write Disk Image.

Backing up your Raspberry Pi micro SD card is quite easy
Remove the micro SD card from your Raspberry Pi and insert it into a card reader.
Now insert the card reader into your computers USB socket
Now run Win32 Disk Imager
Choose a destination for your image file by clicking on the blue folder button, type an name for your file, in my example it was raspberrybackup.img, then press read.
Once finished you will receive a Read Successful message, press OK.




Write Disk Image

Insert a new micro SD card into the card reader and insert into your computers USB socket

Take note on the drive letter, in my case it was Device "D"

Now run Win32DiskImager.exe

The correct drive letter should self populate, if not select your Micro SD Card

You don't want to format the wrong Drive

Click on the blue folder button and select the image file raspberrybackup.img, then press write.




To Test your Raspberry Pi Audio Streamer

Insert your newly programmed Micro SD card and your network cable into your Raspberry Pi

Connect the audio out to your Hi Fi system

Power up your Raspberry Pi via the Micro Usb lead ( I used a 5v Iphone charger)

Give it a minute or so to boot, then give it a try.

IPhone, swipe up and select AirPlay then select ShairPort raspberrypi then Done.



TuneShell App - Stream From your iPhone Music using the Tuneshell App, click on the Blue AirPlay
then ShairPort raspberrypi





Plex App - Stream From your network Music drive using Plex App, click on the Blue AirPlay then ShairPort raspberrypi




ServeToMe App - Stream From your network Music drive using the ServeToMe App, click on the Blue AirPlay




Friday, May 30, 2014

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Led Digital Lighting Controller

Christmas Lighting Controller


I Purchased the Led Lighting Controller kit from Altronics, One Master controller ( k5885) and 4 Slave units (K5887).

It was designed by Silicon chip electronic magazine, but I had issues with running 4 units together.

3 work fine together but when the 4 units are connected together the lights play up (Play random patterns).

Fix  : Remove the Chain Length Resistor from the last unit. (10k)




The unit allows you to increase the length of the cat 5 between the main unit and the first slave without an issue, but if you wanted to increase the length between any other units it would behave erratic (random patterns).

Say you wanted to connect a 5 meter length to go between the second and the third unit or more than one unit the lights would play up.

Fix : Built a small circuit that increased the voltage pulses that were being sent as serial data from one chip to the next.

TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK BUT MINE WORKS







 



A sample of the light controller working to music to follow






 

Veroboard design Layout Using Excel

http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/ronj/veroxl.html