Since I already described the process in my previous post, this one is going to be much shorter.
So, let’s use the same example of the divide by 3 circuit:
FPGA Lab: Xcelium simulator tb flow (xrun)
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FPGA Lab: Online simulation tools
I am not going to explore ton of different tools, at some point I found EDA playground website and it worked quite well for me. So this is a deal, we will use that for online quick tests. Note: you will need to use a working email for a free account.
I prefer to use xcelium simulator since it align with xrun command we use in cadence. They start the sim screen from two code windows: left one for the testbench and the right one for the block itself, though I did not get why do we need it, you can as well add new tab as new file or describe a new module right inside of the testbench code.
Continue readingLego elevator
At some point of time we built together with my daughter a simple mechanical elevator and then I had an idea – why not to make it motorized and have just couple of buttons and have a bit of experience with the H bridges and motors.
Project: bug-bot
Recently my daughter brought a journal from the local library. There was a bug bot my daughter said she wanted to make and it was dead simple. There was just one problem with that – I did not get how it could work at all – there was just a solar cell and the vibration motor just connected directly. The motor needs like constant 60mA of current, how is that possible that a tiny solar cell can provide that?
So I ordered cheap motors and cheap solar cells from a you-know-the-name website and guess what, it did not work.
LED lamp repair/mod
At some point I got the cheap lamp from amazon, it costs about 12$ but worked surprisingly well till some point… Looking under the hood revealed some ugly solutions:
- A horrible pcb routing
- An absence of filtering caps of supplies
- Really poor quality wiring
Pic Lab. PIC18. Experiment #7. The PWM module
Task: To study the PWM module usage for LED brightness control
Tools: PIC18f1230, scope
Pic Lab. PIC18. Experiment #6. Touch sensor using ADC
Task: To study the possibility of using of the DIY touch capacitive sensor on the pcb
Tools: PIC18f1230, a pcb with exposed square copper areas
So long story short, my cheap amazon lamp did not survive for a long time, but I really did like the LED light it gave. In the article below I will describe how to use a copper pad and the pic microcontroller without much additional circuitry.
Pic Lab, PIC18, Experiment #1.1, UART / USART (updated version)
Recently, I was constantly struggling with the fact that microchip was removing more and more support libraries, so it was not wise to rely on them in all projects. Anytime I return again to my old functions – if it used the support libs, there is a pretty good chance it is screwed.
So this code works with XC8 version 2.36 and doesn’t require the involvement of extra support lib.
Continue readingA TDA7294 audio amplifier with the PIC16F877a brain (abandoned, not finished)
The project which unfortunately was not finished due to my relocation to other country and taking such a project with me certainly would raise some question at the security control 🙂
Pic Lab, PIC18, Experiment #5, USB
When I started to dig into USB topic it was quite a surprise, the amount of efforts the smart people around the world put into it just unbelievable. Even more fascinating fact – it actually worked out. The excitement reached some saturation when I realized the prices (: Vendor ID will cost you 5 grands per year, want to use a USB logo – no problem, just add another 6 grands on the top. Now we could test the compliance of your device with our standard for n grands… The companies using USB are listed on the website www.usb.org (USB Implementers Forum – USB-IF). The curious one could just count a number of companies and calculate the profit just from the year subscription, and this thing is going on for a long long time already. Well they have definitely built an addictive stuff. I, personally, have found the usage for my projects a bit excessive, I definitely not ready to put 5 grands per year for USB in the cheap humidity sensor.
Now, there are tons of different information, it is really challenging to grasp all at once, I will be honest and won’t pretend that I got everything, have a lot of holes in the knowledge, I just need to make it alive and respond to my commands. So, what I gonna to do is to show the info which looked important to me and then will conduct two experiments on this “foundation”.
