Category: Projects
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About word clocks…
A bit over a decade ago I built a word clock – one of my first microcontroller projects. The project was fairly expensive: It uses a large stainless steel front panel (ca. 39cm x 39cm, laser cut) and a similar sized PCB. Over the years I had to resolder one or two of the RGB…
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Breakout box for Agilent 6611B AC Power Source
I got my Agilent 6611B AC power source/analyzer a few weeks back, but hadn’t used it as much as I wanted. The reason was simple: The connections are made with rear mounted screw terminals – hence it was just a bit inconvenient to interface with products and circuits. The solution was really simple: A Hammond…
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Displaying graphics and text on an oscilloscope screen
While playing with an old Hameg HM504 and the Tektronix 465B oscilloscope that I repaired recently, I thought that I should do yet another mandatory tinker project: Using a microcontroller to write text on an oscilloscope screen via the XYZ-mode. And so I designed a small USB powered board around the STM32G441KBT6 which seems to…
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A Nice Case for Projects
For projects like the programmable resistor I was looking for a case, preferably made of aluminum and 19″ compatible. In order to save some space on the desk I hoped to find one with a width of 42HP (i. e. half width). What I found was a beautiful case made by ELMA (2 RU, 42HP),…
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SCPI Capable Thermometer
For a long time I wanted to build an SCPI capable thermometer to keep track of the ambient temperature in my small lab. The list of requirements was fairly short: Design After researching temperature sensors I chose a Texas Instruments TMP117M temperature sensor with quite impressive specs. With an accuracy of ±0.1°C (max.) between 25°C…
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Simple and Cheap TDR Pulse Generator
As many people in the community I really enjoy watching W2AEW’s YouTube channel. Almost a decade ago he posted a video showing a cheap and easy to build pulse generator for time domain reflectometry (TDR), consisting of only a simple hex inverter with schmitt-trigger inputs 74AC14 and a few passive components. The schematic looks something…
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Precision Resistors
With the availability of affordable precision resistors it has become fairly easy to build a diy “resistance standard” that is more than good enough for (most) hobby use cases, e. g. checking DMMs and comparing them with each other. So a while ago I built a simple enclosure for such a precision resistor with 4-Wire…
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Yet Another Nixie Clock
I‘ve always been fascinated by lights and all kinds of displays. Nixie tubes certainly are no exception. So I had to built my own Nixie clock as probably every EE does. A word of caution: Nixie tubes require high voltages that might cause damage, serious injury or death. If you’re not authorized or qualified to…