-..- Electronics -..-
I
started learning and working with electronics a little bit before
I came to college in '03. Inspired from learning assembly, I wanted
to go even lower level and design my own devices. I started out learning
latter logic, TTLs and gate arrays. Recently I have been going more
towards microcontrollers, but for most projects I still use 'basic'
parts and Quartus/PSpice. I am interested in making computer-like
devices, ICs, and autonomous robotics. Most of my passion from electronics
comes from my passion for programming and problem solving. To me electrical
engineering is just a hard-wire version of programming. These are
some of the projects I felt compelled enought to post online.
Projects:
Autonomous But Kit
Finished: 01/01/2004 Version: 1.0
Runs on: 2 AA
Description: This was my first venture into robotics, so I
decided to by a cheap kit to learn the basics. This is just a light
seeking (shadow fearing) robot. Simple design, basicly just two LDRs,
two motors, and 4 NPN transistors. It is a wheeled robot, so I hope
to make a BEAM walker soon.
Images and Data: [ In Action Movie
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Modular Autonomous Robot
Last worked on: 03/01/2004 Version: 1.0
Runs on: 12volt for Programming and basic circuit, and 9volt
for motors and LCD.
Description: This is a Robot I designed to pretty much do everything.
The 12volt (Very little current is used) is to program the PIC16F84A
and when not programming the voltage is steped down to 5volts. A extra
and external 9volt supplies the power to the motor and LCD. The plan
is to have a programmable autonomous robot that is modular. Right
now I have the modular 'brain' done. It is a redesigned version of
the NOPPP and is able to be programmed in circuit. I am currently
prototyping the main board which will host the motors, sensors, output,
as well as expansion slots (or connectors). The modular brain is designed
so that I can reuse it in several other projects I am working on that
require a microcontroller (Pong for the TV, and a basic computer).
The modularity of the brain and main board will make it easy to have
this be an on going project that grows and gains any functionality
I later think of. Not to mention cuts down on how many times I have
to make certain componets for different projects ;).
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Modular Brain:
 
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Distortion Pedals
Last worked on: 05/04/2006 Version: 1.0
Runs on: 9 Volt
Description: I designed and built several different distortion
pedals using quite of a few methods for clipping: diodes, opamp feed-back
diodes, combinations of BJT, JFET, and MOSFETs, 386, and CD4049. I
breadboarded about 15 different designs (my own and some from the
web) and picked the best two to solder and case. I did not built any
fuzz face pedals and after a nudge from a friend I found a few sets
of matched germanium transistors and I plan to experiment with them
soon.
Pepper Mill 2: I based the design on runoffgroove's
pepermill. My modifacations include changing the baising of the driving
Mosfet, lowing radio noise, and adjusting the filtering. Most of the
modifactions came from pSpice simulations and changing to taste. The
pedal gives a very dynamic blues type of distortion while allowing
the notes to be easily heard. I like this pedal because the harder
to play the more distortion and you can more notes than most pedals
before it turns from music to undistinguishable mud. If you build
this pedal play with the 4k7 resistor biasing the MOS and play with
more emphasis on the bridge pickup. A mosfet driving a jfet into distortion
is probably the best distortion sound I've heard so far.
Tube Screamer: I built several Tube Screamer variants. I went
to the local guitar store and tried several of the models they had.
This pedal is said to be the holy grail of distortion; I don't know
if I believe that but I did give it a biased amount of time. I found
that runoffgroove's
version was the most pleasant sounding. For me this pedal sounds a
bit too harsh (there's no real distortion adjustment; only highend
filtering). From my experiance I built my own pedal from scratch using
pSpice as a guide. I added a clipping method selector that switches
from Ge/Si diodes to LEDs (Si sound thrashy, Ge is a bit smoother,
and LEDs are darker). The cliping is socketed to that in the future
I can add/change the methods. If I work on this pedal again I would
add a real way to control the distortion level; for now the biasing
resistors are socketed.
Casing Lessons: Building the cases was a new experiance. It
was my first time with power tools and ever trying to package something
I built. Next time I would make on the connections (Pots, LED, switch,
jacks) using a ribbon cable or the like instead of having wires everywhere.
I would also either use plastic housing or find some way to expertly
insulate the metal from my circuit (electrical tape can't solve all
the worlds problems). I would also like to add a small, screw secure,
back panel to aide in changing the battery.
VGA Breakout Game
Last worked on: 10/12/2006 Version: 1.0
Runs on: 5 Volt DC adapter
Description: I designed a VGA circuit that (using counters)
generates the signals neccessary to sync a 640x480 VGA monitor. This
circuit then drives another circuit that controls the color pins (RBG).
It updates 'variables' and polls inputs every time VSync has a falling
edge.
Using a bunch of counters, a few adders, logic gates, and a very small
ram (needs to be around 64bytes) I made a very simple breakout game.
In total it uses some 300 gates (not packages).
The design could be built out of descreet components but I used a
FPGA. The game has very simple hit boxes and a few angles of deflection
(45, 60, 20 degrees). Input can come from a keyboard or hacked ps/2
joypad.
Using an FPGA, the game can be loaded on a ROM and the FPGA programmed
when power is applied. The ROM could be housed (in cartridges maybe)
and many games could be played using the same board. Sounds familiar
=P.
Robi - Robots of Orgainized Biological
Intelligence
Homepage: www.projectperception.net/ROBI.htm
Last worked on: on going since 12/15/06 Version:
1.0
Runs on: ~11V AA NiMh pack (8 Batteries)
Description: ROBI (Ro-Beye) is a term used to describe a co-operative
autonmous family of robots. These robots include Robi (Ro-bee), the
parent, and Remi and Multi, the two children. The robots are modeled
after real bological behaviors that are close in nature to a family
of ducks. The robots must communicate to each other, see and be aware
of each other, and their environment while interactting intelligently
through these channels in meaningful ways to acheive a lifelike interaction
between parent-child, child-parent, animal-environment, and prey-predator(me).
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