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The peculiar feature of the "May 2015" revision of WiFiChron board is that it was designed to use software serial to communicate with either the XBee or ESP module. The reason is related to debugging. I wanted to be able to send messages to the serial monitor while (software serially) communicating with the serial device. This solution works well for XBee ( GPSBee , BTBee ), but not for ESP8266, only because the software takes more than the available 2K of RAM in this case (WiFi + software serial). The immediate fix to use the ESP module is to connect its Rx/Tx lines to Rx/Tx of the processor. The existing connections can be left uncut, since they are not used in the sketch for ESP8266 . The wiring should be like in the photo below. The "permanent" fix would be re-designing the board to use ATmega1284 SMD (DIP-40 would not fit). Talking about 1284,  take a look at Farit's WiseClock4 mod. He used the WiseClock4 board, but completely re-wrote the software, in...

There are many ways (*) to drive the 6-digit 14-segment common cathode display from Seeed Studio. This time I chose to multiplex two MAX7221 , a method described here  (but used for driving a bi-color 8x8 LED matrix). The code is based on LedControl library , which I extended to cover the definition and display of 14-segment characters (digits, upper case letters, and a few specials). Below is a relevant fragment of the code I added: /* * Segment names in the 14-segment (plus DP) display: * *     -     A *   |\|/|   F,I,J,K,B *    - -    G,H *   |/|\|   E,N,M,L,C *     -  .  D,P */ // my wiring: //            GFEDCBAx // 1st byte: B11111111 // //            NHJIKMLP // 2nd byte: B11111111 const static byte charTable14Seg[43][2] = {     {B01111110,B10001000},  // 0     {B00001100,B00001000},  // 1     {B1...

One of the most versatile linear integrated circuit is 555 timer. 555 timer IC was first introduced in early 1970 by  Signetics Corporation.555 timer IC is incredibly low cost and popular timing IC that is used by electronics student, hobbyist for generating timing delay and pulses. Mono stabale and astable multi vibrators is that the most correct example of its application. With the exception of this it's conjointly used for oscillations, waveform generators, analog frequency meters, voltage regulators, digital  probes, tone generation, frequency divider and lots of others.This device is obtainable as 8-pin mini Dual-in-line package(DIP)  or 14 pin Dual-in-line package(DIP) that consist 25 transistor,16 resistors, 2 diode. PIN CONFIGURATION OF 555 TIMER IC 8-Pin DIP 555 Timer IC Pin 1: Ground    This pin is used to measured the all voltages. Pin 2: Trigger    Negative going pulse is applied to this pin whose dc level is greater than 1/3 times ...

First off, a new adapter for the WiFiChron or HDSP clock . The 8-LED Neopixel stick from adafruit has the perfect dimensions to fit them. Naturally, the time is displayed in color code . The best definitions for the 10 colors I could come up with are these: byte color[10][3] = {   {0,0,0}      /*black*/,   {30,9,0}     /*brown*/,   {100,0,0}    /*red*/,   {128,60,0}   /*orange*/,   {110,120,0}  /*yellow*/,   {0,64,0}     /*green*/,   {0,0,111}    /*blue*/,   {64,0,63}    /*violet*/,   {15,15,15}   /*grey*/,   {127,127,127}/*white*/ }; The clock code is trivial, especially because it's using the great Neopixel library. Below is the most important function: void displayTime() {   byte digit1 = hour/10;   byte digit2 = hour%10;      strip.setPixelColor(0, strip.Color(color[digit1][0], color[digit1][1], color[digit1][2]));   strip....

Hi friends, you must have seen that facebook gives you different option to control your privacy settings, on your statuses, posts and even on friend list. If a friend has made their friend-list hidden (visibility set to "Only Me") then you can't check their friends, as I've done. But now, a new Free Read more »

A Relay is an electromagnetically operated switch. Relays are used to control a circuit. Many relays consist a coil, a yoke, and an armature. When a current is passed through the coil, a magnetic field is induced in the coil which moves the armature and relay start its switching function. A normal relay has NO(normally open), NC(normally connected), COM and coil pin within it. A Simple one channel relay is shown in below image Relay Required Components For designing a relay driver circuit you will need following components  Relay 1N4007 Diode BC547 Silicon NPN transistor 10K Resistor  Circuit Diagram A simple relay driver circuit is shown in below image. Here we use an NPN BC547 transistor to drive the relay.Base current ought to be a lot of enough to turn on a transistor. A diode 1N4007 use among the circuit to protect the transistor from damage due to back emf. When relay is in off state, COM pin of  Relay Driver Circuit  a relay is connected to NC(normally connect...

Hello, Friends hope all of you playing with your arduino and currently need to try to do another cool projects on arduino. Therefore, this tutorial is for you. During this tutorial, we interface LDR(Light dependent Resister) with the arduino board. It is very simple tutorials for arduino students, hobbyist, and beginners. Before going more we must find out how LDR is dependent on Light. What is LDR  LDR(Light dependent Resister) or a photoresistor is a light dependent variable resistor that resistance decreases with the increase in the intensity of light. This gives an analog value so that it is connected to an analog pin of arduino board. A simple LDR is shown within the image and to buy an LDR click on the below image Circuit Diagram A simple circuit diagram is shown in the image. We won't use LDR directly within the circuit in order that a potential divider circuit is used with a 10K resistor. In this circuit one pin of LDR is connected to Analog pin A0 of arduino UNO and ...