You might have seen numerous types of light controllers in your daily life, but how about building your very own light controller with PIC16F873?

There are several reasons why you should use the PIC16F873 as the main circuit for this light controller project:

1. The voltage that controlled by the variable resistor is converted to the digital signal. After it, the signal will be used to control the pulse duration of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).
2. A/D converting is fully executed every 1-milisecond period using this function.
3. The electric current, where flows through the lamp is controlled by the PWM pulse signal. The pulse of about 610Hz is being used in this circuit!

Control voltage input circuit is needed to change the voltage from 0V to 5V by variable resistor. The voltage is inputted to the analog port of PIC. The value of the variable resistor can be decided as you want here.

Beside that, the lamp control circuit is going to use for controlled the electric current by switching MOSFET. Furthermore, you will need the clock generator circuit and power supply circuit for this project as well!

Do you know that the ArduPilot is known as the world’s cheapest AutoPilot? Yep, with only $24.95, you can own it instantly.

Why should you use this ArduPilot? Well, It’s because ArduPilot is the idea navigation-only autopilot based on the open-source Arduino platform, (Of course, you’ll need a GPS module and FMA Co-Pilot first!) Since all the software and hardware are all open source, thus you can use it without worry of being sued!

The ArduPilot is actually a custom PCB with an embedded processor (ATMega168) combined with circuitry to switch between RC control and autopilot control. The ArduPilot can be used to navigate the altitude by controlling the rudder and throttle. This autopilot is fully programmable and it can have any number of GPS waypoints and trigger camera or other sensors too!

Some of the powerful features of ArduPilot are:

• It can be used for an autonomous aircraft, car or boat (Stabilization unit only needed for a plane!)
• The built-in hardware failsafe that uses a separate circuit to transfer control from the RC system to the autopilot and back again.
• It includes the ability to reboot the main processor in mid-flight.
• Multiple waypoints.
• It comes with a 6-pin GPS connector for the 1hz EM406 GPS module.

It’s time for you to fly high up to the sky…

You’re tired of switch on/off the switches in your house day after day, and you’re looking for something that can overcome this hassle? Well, you should feel lucky about it, as you’ve found the permanent solution for the above matter!

This mobile-controlled home automation system allows you to control the on/off state inside your house. It can control up to eight 3A appliances via mobile phone or through the web browser. The system is cheap and it’s very effective for every household.

However, it has a few perquisites, which as:

• You have to ensure that the internet connection and computer is always situated in “On” condition;
• You’ll need the PHP enabled Web space and WAP/web enabled phone, if you want to use the mobile control features of the system.

This project uses a PIC16F84 as the programmable chip and it needs some soldering work. However, it’s only a small matter and you can handle it very well!

Although the switches are simply 240vac relays, where it’s insulated in a plastic project box, but you still need to be very careful about it and never ever use the relays while the enclosure is open. For your information, the 240vac can kill you instantly!

The 7-segment display or it also known as 7-segment indicator, actually is a form of electronic display device, where it main purpose is for displaying decimal numerals. You can also say that it’s an alternative to the more complex dot-matrix displays. The 7-segmet displays have widely being used in digital clocks, electronic meters and other electronic devices that need for displaying numeral information.

For this project, you’ll need to use 6 pieces of CD4543 BCD to 7-segment decoder. These for driving the 6 digit LED 7-segment display for the sake of simplicity of the software. Before that, you have to know the technique of Multiplexing, where it’s a method that based on the idea of Persistence of vision of the human eyes.

By using multiplexing technique, the number of required connections for 6 digits display can be reduced from 42 pins to 7-segment + 6 digits = 13 pins! Yep, with this method, you can drive 6 digits 7-segment display by only using a PIC16F627A.

The multiplexing implementation is very similar to drive the LED Dot Matrix, hence you can use Timero (Timero is an 8-bit timer) interrupt for switching through each timer easily.

You love to shoot all the marvelous photographs, especially the insects in flight motion. However, the ordinary digital camera doesn’t allow you to do so. Thus, you’re a little bit upset about it?

Well, it’s time to sweep all the frustration away! With this incredible setup for insects in flight, you can take pictures of insects in flight as easy as ABC. This unit is works on reflected laserlight, so it doesn’t require any laserbeam, or long arms to put the receivers on the top of the system. The full distance is now free between camera and insects.

The units can work perfectly, either in full dark or even in full bright sun! You can adjust the lens sensitivity by mean of a simple potmeter. In order to work in full dark, 2 to 4 extra high power LEDs are added. Two of these high power LEDs are UV LEDs at 405nm. For your information, this UV light can be used to attract some insects in flight.

Beside that, an optical extra lens system is added to look for insects in focus. With this extra system, you’re only need 40 usec to check if there are objects in focus!