Not truly electronics per se, but spent an hour removing the alarm from my motorcycle which had died due to a long term storage situation.

It would appear that the alarms internal battery is only good for about ten years and even less when you remove the bike battery for storage.

The solution from the alarm company? 'we can supply a replacement unit programmed to your key fobs for around £350'.

Don't you just love technology?

I got a handy meter from xxbay which was very handy when I dabbled, only 25 quid including postage

A vichy vc99

I have two projects on at the moment. The first one is to add a tacho input to my Attiny4313 based interface for "Yuriy's Android tablet DRO" I have decided that using a separate microcontroller to handle the tacho function is the easiest way to do it. I plan to use a modified version of my 1 to 99 pulses per rev tachometer that I submitted to MEW several years ago. This will pass the data to the ATtiny which will then format it and pass it on to the Android tablet. The other project is a stepper motor controller to rotate one of the Wixey type angle gauges about 455 times. This is to check my theory that the reading will be incorrect after this number of revolutions. This controller will probably finish up driving a rotary table in a similar way to Tony Jeffree's Divisionmaster.

Les.

Part way through a very basic interface (more of a connector really, or mainly) to control Denford Novamill stepper and spindle from PC parallel port without having to replace stepper drivers or DC spindle drive.

I'm trying to get to grips with the Arduino. Hoping to use it as a basis for some control functions for my MkII Fifth scale model car:

Mk. II 1/5 Scale R/C car

possibly for an automatic gearbox, to control the lights, or even as an ECU for the engine! Endless possibilities!

Regards,

Alex

.

My God, this guy deserves a medal as big as a dustbin lid.

Programming an Arduino to leak oil has gotta be a first ?

Not in the summer, but make my own battery powered loco speed controllers during the cold winter months. I would like to link up with others who do the same, to possible exchange ideas.

Hmmmm, not sure if I should reply to this thread as I don't 'dabble' in electronics, but do it professionally.

I have a couple of spare time projects on the go:

1) An electronic ignition system based around a M0 core ARM processor and an avalanche MOSFET. The aim is to eliminate the shortcomings of the simple Darlington transistor ignition systems and, most importantly, use an ignition coil that has a 10:1 winding ratio between secondary and primary. A home designed spark plug is also part of the equation.

2) A simple processor circuit with 'constant current' drives for white and red LEDs in lamps for my traction engines while simulating the intensity variations of an oil lamp.

Professionally I have at least half a dozen circuits in progress as well as mechanical design and 3D printing, but of course I am not at liberty to say what they are specifically. But I can pick out a few general sub-areas:

1) Isolated power supply 48V to 7.4V, at 2A, with isolated measurement of output voltage and current.

2) Circuit for accurate measurement of low currents, ie, a few nanoamps

3) Digitally controlled power supply from 0 to 10V at 500mA and which will follow a 1kHz control signal – current design uses less than half a square inch of PCB, just as well since there are eight PSUs per PCB

4) Several processor designs using a M4 ARM core processor with RMII interface to WiFi, SDcard, USB2.0, GPS and other interfaces

5) Lots of precision, better than 0.1%, digitally controlled analogue AC drive and sensing circuits

6) Lots of bogstandard switch-mode power supplies

7) And all the PCB layouts for the above – an interesting mix of switch-mode power supplies, digital signals in the tens to hundreds of MHz and precision low level analogue electronics all within an inch or two of each other.

The biggest problem with electronics today is that I can't see the darn components. Everything I do is surface mount and the components just keep getting smaller. That's why I am building 4" scale traction engines, at least I can see the parts.

Regards,

Andrew

G'day.

Redesigning my (over 30 years old) glowplug driver for more modern components such as a switchmode IC and FET output. With that in mind I downloaded LtSpice to model the circuit design, it's available from **LINK** – very good.

Also making an ignition coil winder to suit a small lathe, using an ex-baitcaster fishing reel level wind mechanism to distribute the turns.

Regards * Danny M *

This did not start out as an electronic project, but it is now. Started to wire up the trailer socket on my newly fitted towbar, realised the car is modern and has a whole load of electronic gubbins which means I need a relay of some sort. Bank holiday weekend of course. Modern motors don't you just love 'em.

John, I've heard similar but assumed it only applied over a certain weight, but will check it out. Also just found out the towing electrics are now part of the MOT. So will have to take the socket off before testing. Sorry to go of topic so early. Still have not found a simple book that will forward me in electronic. I have come to the conclusion that there is just too much jargon, and it is assumed that even beginners know this jargon, but this is fair enough because I use words when talking about engineering or motors that most people don't know.