Electronic Circuits and Diagram-Electronics Projects and Design

Choppers  A chopper is basically a dc to dc converter whose main function/usage is to create adjustable dc voltage from fixed dc voltage sources through the use of semiconductors. Types of choppers There are two types of choppers – AC and DC. AC Link Chopper In the case of an ac link chopper, first dc is converted to ac with the help of an inverter. After that, AC is stepped-up or stepped-down by a transformer, which is then converted back to dc by a diode rectifier. Ac link chopper is costly, bulky and less efficient as the conversion is done…

The instruction set of PIC16F84A has 35 instructions [The controller "understands" 35 words].These instructions are otherwise called Mnemonics. While introducing about the PIC16F84A till the hello world program,  7 instructions are introduced to you which were, BSF – bit set f BCF- bit clear f MOVLW – move literal value to W-register MOVWF – move contents of W-register to file [specified] GOTO – go to the address [the label indicated] BTFSS –  Bit test f, skip if set DECFSZ –  Decrement f, skip if zero. Now, only 28 instruction to go! Before dealing with the instructions, let us classify these…

Out of many semiconductor controlled devices, MCT is considered to be the latest. The device is basically a thyristor with two MOSFET’s built into the gate structure. A MOSFET is used for turning ON the MCT and another one is used for turning it OFF. The device is mostly used for switching applications and has other characteristics like high frequency, high power, and low conduction drop and so on. An MCT combines the feature of both conventional four layer thyristor having regenerative action and MOS- gate structure. In this device, all the gate signals are applied with respect to anode,…

Smallest Data Storage Device There will be a time when all the major technologies in the world will be in nanoscale. Recent developments have been undergone in daily used electronic gadgets like mobiles, computers, laptops and so on. As a part of this, a group of researchers from IBM and CFEL (Centre for free-electron Laser Science) have been successful in developing the world’s smallest magnetic data storage unit. The newly invented unit needs only 12 atoms for storing one bit. That is, 96 atoms for storing one byte. In a conventional memory storage unit a byte consists of half a…

In embedded C, pre defined libraries play very important role to compile a program and significantly reduces the code size for particular. However, the optimization and the output file size are very much dependent upon the compiler. In AVR Studio predefined library is pretty big. And, it is a very complex one. To offer portability, there a huge amount of work has been made in its Header files. Plus, they have been successful to keep the rules for its Embedded C closer to the ANSI C. They resolved the register addressing problem by defining Macros with the same of corresponding…

The previous posts about PIC16F84A explained about controlling the GPIO(General Purpose I/O) pins of the IC. Previously laid circuits explained only about how to switch on or off an LED. You just simply set the desired pin to output and then send a high/low signal to switch on/off the LED. Now, in this post, let us implement the blinking of LED – “The hello world program of embedded electronics” . So what do you do to make an LED blink? Just switch it on and off in an infinite loop.  – yeah its right, but this is not going to…

laser cell construction Cyclops, a superhero from the famous comics “X men” has been the favorite of many people across the world. In the story, the character produces powerful laser beams by optical blast from his eyes. This fiction has become a reality by the joint efforts of Seok-Hyun Yun and Malte Gather, two physicists at Massachusetts General Hospital.  They were able to develop a technique by which laser can be produced from human cells. The device used to produce this laser consists of the same components that are used to produce a real time laser. That is, a pump…

So far I’ve discussed about the micro controller and the compiler software. I’ve yet not written anything about programming. ATmega32 series micro controllers support 3 types of programming   Parallel Programming   ISP Programming or serial Programming   Programming via JTAG Here ISP stands for In System Programmer. To burn a micro controller just the burning Hardware is not enough, it requires software also that would download the program present in a computer or memory device into the micro controller.                 Now the software which I am concerned about is named PONY PROGRAMMER 2.06. My circuit is adapted from its…

For computers, program written in one programming language can support different hardware configurations. But things are different for microcontrollers.  Each family of micro controllers has its unique type of hardware architecture, so that its instruction sets, register configuration and memories.                 So for each architecture of Micro controller family, there at least one compiler is present, supporting at least that particular micro controller family or multiple. Most of them support programming in assembly language, some of them support C. JAVA is rare. Better don’t look for it, because most popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) doesn’t support it. AVR studio supports…

I hope everyone who read the post about programming the PIC16F84A will now be savvy with downloading the program to the controller, and also check the working of the controller. In the previous post, we discussed about producing an output (switching on an led) using PIC16F84A. Here, I will tell you how to work with inputs – How will you provide inputs to your PIC and how to develop a response to it. As you all know, the controller has 13 I/O pins. These 13 pins can be configured either as input or output. Producing output on a pin is…