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…

If you’re living in a place that have a lot of natural wind, no matter it’s breeze or strong winds, you might want to know about the speed of a wind. In this case, there’s nothing better than create your very own PIC Microcontroller based Wind Gauge!

The main objective of this wind gauge is to measure the wind’s speed. It has a hemispherical window cup that rotated and the method of measuring wind velocity at that number of rotation is used. After that, the measured number of rotations sent to a personal computer with a USB interface, where the wind velocity will be displayed on the computer’s screen!

For your information, the serial interface is being used for the interface of USBN9604 and PIC of the USB driver. Beside that, the USBN9604 is included with the parallel interface in addition to serial interface. By the way, the serial interface with few signal wires is used, as the high-speed transmission is unnecessary.

The main reason why USBN9604 can be used as a USB driver, because this IC supports USN version 1.0 and 1.1. Honestly, the version 1.0 is more than enough for this project.

For those who are too lazy to get up and turn off the lights in the middle of night, this homemade IR light dimmer V1 can be your great helper!

Basically, it is a very simple IR light dimmer and it can be connected to existing home wiring installation inside a junction box, where it normally located above the light switch. You need to make sure that you’ve connected the dimmer to installation one properly. If you’re wrongly connected it, then there’s a very big chance of some unexpected accidents, such as the PIC microcontroller got burned out, serious fire or much more! Thus, you should pay highly attention on this matter and never underestimate the consequence.

Beside that, you also need to learn to remote control IR codes. Don’t worry about it, as it’s only a 5 easy step-by-step guide, where you can certainly master it in few minutes! By the way, during the programming procedure, you’ll notice that LED is blinking, even you didn’t press aby buttons on your remote control. This is mainly due to the reason, where you used TSOP11xx instead of TSOP17xx receiver module. As a result, you cannot program your dimmer accordingly!

Do you have the passion on music industry, especially with the drum? Honestly, most of the neighbors can’t really stand with all the loud drumming sound all day long, hence you’re probably ended up by getting endless complaints from the neighborhood!

If you’re frustrated and want to find the solution for the above matter, then this eDrum might be the perfect match for you! For your information, it’s not a hard task to build an electronic Trigger to MIDI converter module that based on PIC Microcontroller.

Basically, the eDrum design is mainly based on PIC16F877 RISC microcontroller from Microchip running at 20MHz, by two line LCD with backlight on it and some operational amplifiers. eDrum will has these following features: 22 analog inputs, 2 digital inputs, 22 input gain potentiometers, 4 control buttons, one MIDI out and one serial RS-232 out.

For your information, the main goal of this design is to use the cheap and easy to find electronic components, but it must be maintaining the optimal results.

By using this eDrum, you’re now can slow down the volume and play till you drop!

Guys, have you ever been mixed up with the word “message” and “massage”? Well, if you did then try not to blame yourself, as these two words were very similar and most of the people will misspell and misuse it all the time!

Let’s back to the topic… Today, you will have the chance to create a tiny but powerful “Message Pump,” where it is a intelligent device that can be used to connect a LCD display directly to your computer or laptop.

For your information, it uses a PIC microcontroller to drive the LCD and a FTDI USB to serial chip to connect to your computer. What is so great about the FTDI chip is the drivers are compatible for Windows, Linux and Macintosh!

Basically, the principle of FTDI chip is works by creating a VCP or also known as Virtual com port. If you’re using an Arduino Diecimila, then you may already have these drivers on your computer.

One of the easiest ways to use the Message Pump is to open Hyper-terminal or other terminal software, select and open the COM port for the Message Pump, then just start typing any words on it! The words that you’ve been typed will be displayed onto the LCD display.