Is anyone here a big fan of the propeller clocks? Isn’t the logo that flashed out from the high spinning propeller clock fascinated and mesmerized your heart?

So, what do you say? Do you want to build a mechanically scanned LED Display, which is having the same effect as the propeller clock did? Sounds interesting, isn’t it?

Well, the PCB is the main part of this project. It contains:

• The PIC microcontroller,

• Four HC573 latches,

• Five ULN2003A 7-fold darlingtons,

• A power supply stuff,

• A MOSFET (It is to drive the first motor)

• Two push buttons (They are for setting the date and time).

Beside that, you need to use an LM317 adjustable voltage regulator for LED brightness control. Also, make sure that the main power supply should be at least 12 volts, as the ball bearings don’t always conduct perfectly.

What is so unique about the mechanically scanned LED display is it can act like:

1. An analog clock (It displays in seconds, minutes and hours form).

2. A digital clock (It has the time, weekday, date and year form).

3. A 64×32 or full size logo.

4. The logo changer (It changes over to a 96-bit wide scrolling message every 4 minutes).

Seriously, it’s a very useful mechanically scanned LED display. Hence, it’s time for you to get busy with it…

Most of you here were very familiar with the LCD and USB in your daily life, but have you ever thought to combine these two different components into a cooler gadget? Yep, the gadget that you’re going to develop is LCD2USB!

This LCD2USB is an open source project, and the main goal of LCD2USB is to connect HDD44780 based text LCD displays to various PCs via USB. The advantage of this LCD2USB is very cheap and easy to be developed.

Since the project is based on the Atmel AVR Mega8 CPU, hence it doesn’t require any difficult to obtain parts, such as the separate USB controllers. The total cost without display and PCB are less than $10, which it is extremely cheap if you comparing with those on market! Furthermore, the LCD2USB is currently comes with a simple demo application, which allow it to work under Linux, MacOS X and Windows without any further medication!

The LCD2USB is also supported by LCD4Linux (LCD2USB support is built-in), LCD Smartie that require a separate driver and LCDProc (LCD2USB support is currently in the nightly builds).

Hope you all will love this project and remember to enjoy the great development moment!

The Atmel STK500 EVB is one of the most incredible starter kit development system features ISP and high voltage programming (HVP) for all AVR devices, which it can be either directly or through extension boards. Most of the time, the board is fitted with DIP sockets for all AVRs that available in DIP packages!

Today, you’ll have the opportunity to see and learn how to configure an Atmel STK500 as an Arduino-based development system board. You must be wondered, “Why you have to use the STK500 instead of a real Arduino PCB?” Well, no one said you could not use it here, unless you already had it and the board carries eight switches, eight LEDs and a variable, software programmable AREF voltage as well as a variable power supply!

When you’ve done with this project, you will have an STK500 running Arduino with the added advantage of pushbutton, LEDs on board, variable power supply and variable Analog Reference (AREF).

Note: You must pay attention that the AREF short pin must be carefully inserted when the on-board voltage reference is to be used or you can remove the short otherwise! The Analog Reference Voltage can be easily controlled with the “Connect” dialog box.

As we all knew that the currently worldwide economy has been moved in the downward position and most of the countries all around the globe have been seriously affected by this economy crisis.

It’s getting hard and harder to earn our living and that’s why you should learn how to save as much of money as you can! However, some of you may think that it’s easier to be said than done…

Well, guessed what! Would you believe if you could develop the cheapest dual trace scope with a cost less than $8 per unit? It seems unbelievable but this is the fact!

For your information, this submini USB dual trace scope is based on Atmel Tiny45 CPU and it’s a homemade PCB. It has two analog inputs and can supply 5V onto the four pins header on the right. Beside that, one of the inputs can be scaled down with the trim pot.

Instead of the low development cost, this dual trace scope’s size is about a credit card and it’s a very cute and compact component as well! As a result, it can be easily plug into a project breadboard and you no need any power supply here.