Vortex Electrica

Wireless Infra Red(IR) TSOP Design Tutorial 2

2011-10-31T21:30:00.010+08:00

May the peace and mercy of Allah be with y'all.

PART II : IR CARRIER PULSE

You guys!We continue our journey in Infra Red (IR) communication in more practical approach. From the previous introduction article, IR pulse frequency play important role in determining the TSOP IR detection sensitivity level. How do we start?? Below is how we calculate the timing. Lets go!
From the calculation above, we need to light on the IR LED for 12.5us and turn it off for 12.5us. This is for a period/cycle. Repeating this cycle will generate IR LED pulse oscillator of 40kHz!

Go grab your Microcontroller (uC) or any IC that can generate pulse like we discussed. *I prefer uC as I can easily tune the frequency by modifying my code and not my hardware.

Eg : Carrier pulse 40kHz using mikroC and PIC12F629(cute and small uC). We can't set 12.5us delay as the input x to the function delay_us(x) as x should be round integer and not floating number.

While(1)//forever loop IR LED on and off producing oscillating pulse!
{
GPIO = 0xFF; //IR LED on
delay_us(12); //wait 12us
GPIO = 0x00; //IR LED off
delay_us(13); //wait 13us
}

The actual result : Use oscilloscope to probe at output pins.

On time(Delta) = 12.40us
Off time(Delta) = 12.01us

Period/cycle = (on time + off time) = 24.41us ;
1/Period = frequency = 40.9668kHz(Good enough!)

Oscilloscope helps a lot. From my experience, when the frequency is not exactly at the right specification (error = +/-1kHz), the TSOP sensitivity decrease! Some cases, I need to place the IR LED extremely close to the TSOP receiver to make it detectable!!! (T^T). Please verify your frequency pulse generated. Don't 100% trust on the code you write(especially high level coding) for timing restriction coding unless you use assembly language with precise calculation.

I love that expression.. See ye in the next part.

Wireless InfraRed(IR) Design Tutorial 1

Wireless InfraRed(IR) Design Tutorial 2

Wireless Infra Red (IR) TSOP Design Tutorial 1

2011-10-24T22:37:00.015+08:00

May the peace and mercy of Allah be with you.

PART I : INTRODUCTION

More than a years I haven’t post any article in this beloved knowledge-base blog! I miss vortex electrica so much.OK! This time we talk about an idea on how to make a IR communication from scratch!

Component: TSOP4840,TSAL6200(IR LED 940nm wavelength)

I choose TSOP4840(use in my own project) as IR receiver. It was design to be used inside remote control(TV,DVD player..etc). When we know how to design it, we can implement it anywhere such as in robotic project. Below is the internal circuit of it.

From the block diagram above, we can see the internal circuitry of the TSOP48XX. Band Pass filter is the most important part where it can filter out the noise from ambient IR wave.*TSOP4840 (40 = 40kHz bandpass filter,38 = 38kHz,52,36) .

What the bandpass filter do???? it reject any light which have frequency other than 40khz. In non-technical way represented as cartoon below. (^^)

You can read the pins assignment from TSOP4840 datasheet,the circuit for the receiver shown as below/datasheet:application_circuit.

TSALXXXX is a IR LED. Ignore the transmitter part 1st. In my design, +Vs I used is +5V. The OUT pins can be left unconnected 1st to test it functionality. When the voltage +Vs and GND supplied, the OUT value should be high almost ~5V. TSOP48XX working in active low mode, if it detect any IR light pulse ~40kHz,the the OUT pin will be ~0V!

This Infrared receiver(TSOP) only sensitive to an IR light pulse 40khz with 50% duty cycle. From the data sheet, the minimum 10 pulse should be send by the transmitter to make the TSOP able to detect it.

That the introduction, in the next tutorial, I'll show you the working example + video!

See ya!

Wireless InfraRed(IR) Design Tutorial 1

Wireless InfraRed(IR) Design Tutorial 2

Announcing The Sketch Plotter Bot!!

2011-06-03T13:32:00.004+08:00

The UNO is here!

The sketch plotter bot is now officially on its way to construction. The sketch plotter bot will be an XY plotter using pens/markers as the drawing media.

A CNC machine

Unlike normal CNCs and plotter machines however, the sketch plotter bot will take an image file processed using Processing and sketch an artistic representation of the image instead of line art. Much like the Drawing Machine. After months of contemplations I've decided on using the Arduino platform as it seems to be the easiest to use in terms of assembly, connectivity and especially programmability.

The basic parts list for the project is as following:

Arduino UNO to control the motors
Adafruit motor shield kit for driving the following motors
12V 350mA 200step/rev bipolar stepper motor (2) for axis control
Standard servo for pen lifting
2 used printers for mechanical parts and chassis (These are more cost effective than buying timing belts, gears and rods separately if I don't need any additional parts. They will also include some stepper motors and drivers)
Sharpie ultra fine point markers ~1mm tip. I may consider using draft pens if these don't work out well.

I just received the arduino, motors and motor shield kit in the mail today and the arduino proves itself to be as good as it claims. In minutes of troubleshooting (installing the driver and selecting the right COM port) and even fewer minutes of coding I got the on board LED to blink.

Blinking LED code:

void setup()
{
// set pin 13 as output:
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
    digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
    delay(200);
    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
    delay(200);
}

That's it! Good riddance assembly.

Future milestone accomplishments will include videos. I just won't bother uploading a video of a blinking LED. Although the UNO only has 32kb memory it should be sufficient for plotting data. If it isn't then I'll probably resort to multistage plotting.

The next step will be controlling the 3 motors to work together to plot the image. As the motor shield cam as a kit I'll have to take some time to assemble and test it. Controlling the motors using Arduino should be a breeze though as there are libraries available for both stepper and servo motors.What are libraries you ask? Basically they're just code that you don't have to write and can use for your own convenience. Don't worry I'll cover this in the next post on motor driving and control.

Other projects/products worth looking at are:

contraptor.org open source hardware kits developed by a couple of passionate guys. The kits are pretty inexpensive for making your own CNC/plotter machine but I'm not ready to spend that kind of money yet. I'll definitely look into the xy-plotter further down the road.
The drawing machine kickstarter page (different from the above drawing machine link) all I have to say is:

The Incredible Egg Bot! it's a robot that draws on eggs/spherical objects. What more do you want?
The Makerbot Thing-O-Matic plastic 3D printer. A relatively (and I stress relatively) low price 3D prototyping machine.

And as an honorable mention, The no programming LED cube since it's so cool.

As you can see I won't go too deep into technical details or concepts in my posts to maintain focus on the sketch plotter bot itself, but feel free to ask questions in the comments. We'll be glad to answer them.

- dc

Construct your own DC Power Supply Mark II: Phaserion Reporting.

2011-03-24T01:35:00.015+08:00

All Glory to the Almighty Allah who governs every detail of our life. No one can do anything except with the will of Allah SWT.

As told before, this is the sequel of the article about Wall Warts before this. So.. this article focuses on more structural insight, which is very simple but saves a lot of money. Before this, I used an adapter which has tuning knobs to it. However, the voltages are fixed with a fixed increment of several values. So... Some kindergarten electronics to kick in!

Initiation

This time, I want more freedom in choosing a voltage, and I have a very good quality adapter for this purpose. The one I obtained looks like this:

A Canon K30155 AC Adapter for printers, where I keep busted printers and managed to scavenge this. The other components below are some of the parts needed for the construction of the prototype; a perfboard, a plastic tuning knob from an ancient radio, a potentiometer and an LM317 Variable Voltage Regulator.

From the adapter, there are two outputs, a 5V/0.2A rail and a 24V/0.55A rail with respect to a common ground. So, I'd like to channel the 25V out to be fed into a regulator, which in our case is an LM317. The LM317 has a maximum current output of 1.5A so the adapter is tolerable for output variation.

The circuit to vary the voltage is very simple, as shown in the datasheet:

Construction

So from the structure of the adapter, it's quite obvious how would it serve its purpose as a Power Supply, where it acts as a platform. Now.. Some imagination would be useful:

You may need to open the figure above in a new tab if you'd like a closer look. *winks*

So.. from the figure:

1. Plastic panels from an old clock.... looks pretty suited for the job.

2. Estimates of the dimensions so that the circuit and everything else fits in properly. The springy cable is from an old phone charger, I thought it's very good for messy jobs where you might tug your circuits accidentally, so the springy part sort of absorbs some motion. Just an idea guys... no need to follow everything.

3. Holding the structure using rubber bands so that rigidity is achieved for the epoxy glue to dry out properly. Note that the epoxy glue is applied on the inner side so that the smear of the glue is not exposed. For aesthetic purposes. (Rubber bands? Oh noooo....Nah, it's okay, they're proper for the job)

4. The curved plastic sides added, also from the clock panels, glued accordingly.

5. Added the small plastic pieces to act as a platform for the screw threads for the panel to close the opening.

6. The front view, see the parts where the epoxy glue fills in. Also, the previous Variator Wall Wart is shown there for size comparison. Note that they have the same output socket to be plugged into the conditioning circuit, so it's easy for us to alternate between the two supplies according to our preference without changing the interfacing power sockets.

7. Added indicator LEDs for three categories: A green LED to indicate the input power to the regulator, a red LED to indicate the 5V rail, and blue for the 24V rail. Note that for the LED which is powered from the 24V rail, we'll need a Resistor with a higher tolerance. Also, note that the technique used to protect the wiring is similar as shown in the Variator article, where I encased the wiring using a pen casing, glued to the male socket.

8. Plastic panel cut to size as closure, which can be reopened for inspection if necessary.

9. Just a dash of aesthetics... sprayed black paint at the upper part of the structure.

10. Phaserion Power Supply completed. Below, the circuitry of the Phaserion is provided.

Foreclosure of a Design.

Now.. at last, just for fun, I also would like to construct the plug to supply from the mains, but just so you guys know, there are ratings of the wiring which may be ahead of you guys, so do this only under supervision from someone who has electrical knowledge. I take NO responsibility if you get yourself injured through electric shock. This part is not necessary if you already have your own standard main power plugs.

So... knowing the risks mentioned, we proceed:

1. A plug from a CRT circuitry which fits the dual terminals of the adapter, an ex-soldering iron cable (you know... they get damaged easily, especially the cheap ones.. so just so that you know, I prefer Ceramic Heater Soldering Irons. ) .... and to cover the whole thing, I used scavenged keyboard buttons to encase the exposed part of the wiring.

2. Soldered the terminals.

3. Some extra insulation using electrical tape, and fitted into the keyboard buttons, which now serve as a casing.

4. Press 'em using the cute G-clamp and glue 'em.

5. After drying, fit and a dash of black spray paint, you can try it.. looks like any normal plug, hopefully. *winks*.

6. The LEDs light up, ready to be used.

Conclusion

So... there you are. The structure is simple, rigid, and insyaAllah will last for a long time. The Recycletronics theme is still utilized at its best in this project, where I probably used up around only a few ringgit. Useful for research projects and prototyping as well, and you don't have to fish out fifty bucks for branded DC supplies... just fish out your junk and use the rest of the money for charity.

I named this prototype Phaserion because the variation of the voltage can be changed accordingly, so as to a phase shift. So there you go: Phaserion and Variator, working in tandem.

May Allah be pleased with us when we reduce our expenses for ourselves and more for other people who may need more.

All the best to the ones out there.

Construct your own DC Power Supply Wall Wart! Variator Reporting.

2011-03-20T06:31:00.021+08:00

Alhamdulillah. All Praises to Allah SWT who created and governed everything in this world.

So guys.. we'll be doing something very important for hobbyists here. All electronic circuits require a steady power supply, and you'll get fed up using batteries for testing purposes, which run out of juice for only an hour's worth of running time.. That excludes the electrolytes which leak out after some time.. (NOOOO!!!).....

So.. normally people would opt to: Buy a costly DC wall wart, with fancy controls and an indicator (which is sometimes deceiving) and risk thinning your wallets......

.....or construct their own by buying cheap DC supplies and hacking it to suit their applications. In my experience, after some time the cheap DC supply will be overheated and you'll be left with a fuselage of burnt plastic and a dead transformer.

....or you can opt to take a leaf out of the book of Vortex Electrica and use your own adapters in your house. There are tons of adapters for various applications; Laptop chargers, printer adapters, cellphone chargers (especially old ones), and so on. What's the difference between the ones you buy? Normally adapters for branded stuff have more quality and more protection circuitry. So... This is my collection:

A lot huh? Some of 'em are damaged, and some are okay. Each can be tested easily using an LED and a 100 ohm resistor.

So... the obvious steps for anyone with basics is to cut the wires loose and connect crocodile clippers to them, right?

WRONG! From experience, the weak points are always attributed to the connection between the wire and clip, because the CLIPS SUFFERS THE MOST MECHANICAL STRESS HERE, SO THEY BREAK APART EASILY AFTER SOME TIME. So if you don't want to have to repeatedly re-solder the clips to the wires, the best thing to do is to make separate connections, which can be plugged when in use. In short, see below:

So.. the figure should give an idea. Also, this means that the power from the DC adapter can be plugged into other circuits i.e not only the crocodile clips but also to a breadboard, or any other devices which have the corresponding socket to fit.

Now, another series of ideas comes into play: I want to have.....

a. indicators to know that it is ON, and

b. I want to be able to switch ON/OFF the power at hand, not at the mains where things might get messy, and

c. I want it to be STABLE, not fluctuating power, and

d. I want it to be VARIABLE, not fixed.

So the rest is easy... Add a green LED to indicate ON, a mono-state switch, a filter monolithic capacitor across the terminals, and a variable voltage regulator, like an LM317 or other equivalent components. In short, everything'll look like this:

So as we go along I'll explain the tips and tricks I employed, which may be of use, since we're all about IDEAS at the first place. So here goes:

First Prototype: VARIATOR^TM
Wall Wart (I named it for reference... Heh heh..)

So the figure shows some simple stuff:

1. Solder the male socket wiring to the Adapter wiring. In this picture, notice that the GREY insulation is there, standing by to sheath the exposed soldered part of the wiring. This means BEFORE soldering, fit in the insulation first. You can get that type of insulation from various types of wiring which has thicker wires.

2. The exposed part of the wiring is now covered properly by sliding the grey insulation over it. Take note that you have to make sure the inner part of the wiring is also insulated so that no short-circuit takes place. Note that the adapter has a tuning knob there, with fixed values from 3.0,4.5,6.0,7.5 until 21 Volts.

3. Now, add a plastic cover over all the stress points, and glue it accordingly. This makes a nice, difficult-to-break-apart socket. This means if there are any mechanical stress suffered by the socket, the wiring will out of the way, and the plastic cover will take the load. The figure below explains better:

See that the one on the left is one without the casing, so the break points are easily formed at the soldered points, rather than the one on the left, where the load is shifted to the plastic casing, reinforced with epoxy glue.

Next, a conditioning circuit is shown here:

The conditioning circuit is also a separate entity, as declared in the plan before, which fits in a green indicator LED, an ON/OFF switch, a freewheeling diode (to counter backward EMF spikes), a filter capacitor to stabilize supply, and a female USB port.

Now, why did I use a USB socket? Because I have a lot of 'em, and they don't leave room for reverse connection, which could be disastrous. The male USB connector is wired to the crocodile clips, which we'll explain in the following. USB ports have four terminals, so I combined two terminals together to get two crocodile clip terminals.

So now.... The crocodile clips. The main problem with most clips is also due to the mechanical stress it faces. So here's my design:

So the epoxy glue is very important to secure the connections. Also, the plastic casing protects the wiring and shifts the mechanical load of the wiring to itself. The USB socket is a bonus; it's strong and has only a single orientation when you plug it.

The figure above shows the transition according to the design mentioned above.

First, fitting the wires inside the plastic casing. I must warn you, it is pretty tricky to fit in the wires in such a cramped space.

Second, the clips' wiring and gluing is done.

Third, just to show when everything's in place.

So, the conclusion is that while it takes a bit more time to do this, you'll save more time than attending to the wires again and again when they break off due to the wear and tear effect.

So that's it! You have a sturdy Wall Wart for yourself and you don't need to spend much in constructing one. A variant of this (more hardcore DIY-ing) will be provided in future articles, InsyaAllah. For such a simple project, a lot of drilling down is done to provide IDEAS. So.. hopefully some of them will be of use.

All the best to ones out there struggling with their lives... May we live to please Allah more.

Vortex Rechargeable Battery Pack Mark II

2011-03-16T02:23:00.030+08:00

Assalamualaikum to all VE readers... it has been a while since we posted anything new, but I'll try to put up some old stuff, which is pretty simple but nevertheless provides a new perspective in DIY stuff.

So... I suppose you have read some of our older articles regarding rechargeable battery packs? Well this article is pretty similar conceptually, but with some major changes in reliability and structure. What I found out when I was using the older version is that, when one of the batteries conks out, it is pretty difficult to know which one is so, so you have to test them using LEDs, while fumbling through your prototype wiring and so on. This design is more rugged, stable, and takes safety into consideration, if the battery leaks or explodes, etc.

Let the graphics speak for themselves.

Initiation.

Here is the transition from raw batteries into being wired up (soldered of course), geared for testing & combination. So... Some notes to be taken:

1. In the bottom of the figure, both of the batteries in the left are Samsung batteries, and they have three and four terminals respectively. The way to know the right wiring is not only by testing it using a Digital Multimeter (DMM, check the highest voltage) but to also test using LEDs and see which combination produces the brightest intensity, because voltage itself doesn't mean it delivers the desired amount of current. Third is a Nokia battery, and fourth is a Sony Ericson.

2. Color Coding is very important (red: positive terminal, black: negative). When the whole thing is connected, you'll easily see from the color. Also, it is a good practice for all projects as well.

Quality Check

The next figure is the QC part. You'll see how two batteries are recharged on a breadboard. Explanation:

1. LED's off, meaning the battery's conked.

2. Now we'll recharge it for a few seconds....

3. LED's on. Battery is still functioning. Result: PASS

4. Sony Ericson battery's status: Charging....

5. LED's on. Battery is still functioning. Result: PASS

The image above is just to show how much voltage will it generate if all the batteries are connected. If you're afraid of combining different batteries together, read a reply to a my similar worry a few years ago. :)

Quote of the reply:

There's no problem of using batteries of varying capacities in series as long as each is delivering it's share of the power.

The problem occurs when the battery with the lowest capacity runs out of charge. Since the current is still flowing in the same direction (courtesy of all the other cells), it's effect is to place a reversed voltage across the dead cell. This could lead to the depleted cell either overheating or exploding.

Terminals of the batteries

Next, let us show how the terminals are derived. This may take some time, but Nokia handphones' sockets are rugged and doesn't leave room for misconnections due to polarity confusion i.e sometimes you insert the terminals incorrectly due to structural reasons. Some elaboration:

A. All sockets harvested from Nokia cellphones.

B. One of them looks like this, with a tape at the back. Remove the tape.

C. Now you can see the metal contacts clearly for halving. You might cut it wrongly, so observe the metal contact regions.

D. Clamp it using a small G-clamp (they're VERY useful)

E. Saw it (a hacksaw is also very useful)

I. Now you have extracted a socket, and you can bend the terminals for fitting it into a holed circuit board.

F. Another instance (from the ubiquitous 3310)

G. After being sawed....

H. Bend the terminals to reveal the metal contacts.

J. Solder them on a donut perfboard. I know this seems tedious, but believe me, The task of connections after that is a breeze, since you don't need to worry about the terminals anymore.

IMPORTANT: Make sure of the right terminals (positive/negative) are identified on the sockets' terminals by sticking a Nokia Charger into each socket, and check the polarity using a DMM or an LED.

Basic Structure

Now... The next step is to combine the rest. So... the figure above shows the combination done from 1 to 3. The boxes number 4 & 5 show the sockets being combined with the wiring (Hence the importance of color coding the wires).

Box No. 6 show the batteries being recharged. I used a Nokia 3310 Charger, which is very common in my house as an attic material.

Battery Tester Systems

Next, I wanted an off-board testing capability for the batteries, so I thought of using some old cellphone keypad boards which have pretty LEDs to it. They're very bright, and aesthetically good as well.

The figure above (You may want to click on it for a clearer view) tells:

a. A cellphone keypad board, which has SMT LEDs on it.

b. Just test the LEDs by connecting a supply to the terminals of the revealed LEDs. All of them are connected in parallel, so the rest of the LEDs should lighten up as well when you supply to only one of them

c & d: Screwed the LED board to the battery pack as a platform.

e. Another view of the unglued structure.

f. Epoxy glue comes into play.

g. Drying the structure under heat

h. Halved pen casing to cover the external wiring of the LED keypad circuit. A white female socket is used for the Battery Tester Pad.

i. Pressed using another G-clamp and glued.

Basic structure complete.

Male Socket Extraction.

Here, I have some male sockets from broken Nokia chargers and they'll be used to interface the battery to external devices. And:

A. Four different male sockets shown there, un-scalped except the second one from the left.

B. All male sockets harvested and stripped.

C & D: A plastic piece to act as a frame for the sockets

E. All wired up

F. Epoxy glue kicks in. (I like this stuff)

G. Completed part of the external male socket.

This looks easy, but it takes time also. So... take your time.

Lastly... The figure above shows the last part, which is the Interfacer circuit. The way I wanted my battery to be is that it has an on-board tester, so that when you connect it to a prototype, you can continually monitor the condition of the battery. Also, a common interfacing connection between the battery and other circuits are needed. Explained as follows:

i. Male socket soldered to a donut perfboard

ii. A plastic case, which fits the imagination.

iii. Cut it into half.

iv. Now some ingredients shown here: green LEDs salvaged from keyboards, switches from mice, and drilled plastic casing to emphasize on the DIY and Recycletronics scene. (Heh heh...)

v. Fitted them all together.

vi. The Epoxy Glue Guy being nosy again...

vii. Added 100 ohm resistors for each tester LEDs and extended the LED terminals using the wires.

viii. Everything on display again; note that anti-ripple capacitors are added on the board for steady supply, alongside the USB female sockets.

ix. A side view before enclosure.

x. All connections soldered, fused, clamped and glued together.

xi. All ready for testing.

xii. The interfacing circuit, which is very simple, but I just wanted to fill in the box there.

xiii. Testing... testing.... Yup everything's good.

The rest of the performance is demonstrated in the video here:

.

Conclusion.

So... a pretty lengthy article for such a simple project. What I'm trying to explain here is that there are myriads of techniques that can be employed when constructing a prototype. This is only a blog of IDEAS. So hopefully some is provided as well. The theme of my project orbits around using only the stuff I have in my house, so that's why the components used seem restricted. Probably just my habit, but I just wanted to demonstrate that it doesn't take much money to get practical experience actually, because everything's around you. I spent no money on building this prototype, if you exclude the epoxy glue.

As a reminder to everyone and myself, don't spend too much time on satisfying our needs (like doing projects, working, relaxing, etc) . This article is only an expression of a hobby, and nothing more. There are lots of duties to be fulfilled to Allah Almighty, which should be our focus in our life. Hopefully after reading this article, we'll realize that in our hustle and bustle, we'll quickly spare more time to please Allah SWT, for the life in hereafter is Eternal, and life in this world is only transient. InsyaAllah Tuan!!!

Best Regards to UM's Electrical Engineering Graduates.

Vizier87

Epoxy Glue Basics

2010-10-02T07:15:00.004+08:00

Assalamualaikum to all VE readers,

This'll be a very simple article from VORTEX ELECTRICA's structural personnel which will be referred in future articles, especially for the ones who love getting their hands dirty and assemble stuff with an eye for aesthetics in constructing things.

I'm not trying to make things rigid here, but the best one I used is made by Bostik, called Bostik Epoxy Super Steel. It costs a bit more than the other Bostik type (which is still sticky after drying out half of the time, and the strength is only so-so), but I'll have to say that if you're looking for durability and sheer strength, then this is the glue for you. Also, it'll be incredibly handy for other construction of prototypes as well.

The picture above shows a very simple info about this component:

i: The Epoxy Super Steel, its full fury and sheer strength trapped within the tube containing it

ii: After pulling out the tubes, DON'T THROW THE PACKAGING! The highlighted area in green is a perfect space to contain the components for mixing

iii: Mixing of equal parts of both components (1:1 ratio) and..... I used a toothpick, which is perfect for an artistic job rather than use the "spatula" provided, which will be a mess if you use it.

After the glue dries up, it's practically a hard lump of plastic which can be sandpapered and drilled! So... right now you just have to have your pile of junk, a small saw, a cordless drill and your imagination to build yourself a prototype!

Take note that you should wash your hands immediately if your skin comes into contact with the glue. There is nothing to be afraid of, they're very easy to remove unlike the nasty, nasty, nasty, naaaaaasty Elephant Glue (Yuck!!! I'm never buying those anymore!). Epoxy glue is a hundred times better.

I take no responsibility for accidents which may happen if you don't take precautions. Wearing gloves is the best, and if you're not then just be careful.

Take care,

Vizier87.

Jumper Cables from Junk

2010-10-01T23:40:00.015+08:00

Ach-tung to all VE readers!!

I think I owe an apology for not regulating this site, since we're all out of the juice needed to write articles here. I'll be giving some simple, very simple stuff which no-one has done yet, at least in my circle.

Beautifulmind and Deathclaw are pretty busy engineers at the moment, and I'm kinda busy too.. but in a different way since I'm not working or continuing my studies yet, and yes, I'm going for the latter after this. So... Enough of my lugubriousness here... we'll get to the topic now.

One aspect of being an electronics hobbyist is that we'll need to channel voltage/current supply to our circuits or motors or even a single LED to a Wall Wart or a DC Supply or a battery. Rather than using wires to touch the terminals using your hands, or doing that messy temporary soldering to connect the terminals, people like to use jumper cables.

Heard of this one before?

"The strength of a chain lies in the weakest link"

This is also the golden rule with jumper connectors. No matter how beautiful or strong the grip is, you'll always end up with broken jumper connectors with the usual crocodile clips. This is because the wires are not adhered to the clips properly. You'll notice it takes more than soldering the contacts to have good quality jumper cables.

There is absolutely nothing going on here except that you'll notice: You don't need to buy the jumper cables, you don't need to be a geek to build one, and you certainly don't need to fish out three or four bucks for each jumper connectors which USUALLY don't last and will need to be repaired after some time due to wires breaking off after some time, which is due to the mechanical stress.

So.... Naturally mistakes were made, and better solutions were discovered...According to five years of experience of building my own jumper cables, I'll name a few ingredients needed for this recipe (assemble your junk collection and you'll get more options, these are only the ones I made, you might be able to make better ones):

1. Name Tag clips, which are made out of steel. They're very strong, and the grip is MUCH stronger than the generic crocodile clips., they have holes which aid in knotting or fitting in other strengthening elements. Here's my collection after extracting 'em from various name tags:

I used pliers to pull out the aluminum rivets which hold the plastic and the steel clip together. Notice that the rightmost one is an anomaly, that one is cut from plastic name tags which has the metal clip part on it. It serves a lot of purpose too.

2. Wire. (Duh!!) I got mine from radio wiring, they're very sturdy and thick, which means the tolerance is much higher if you're considering heating problems in your connections which require a large current.

To be taken into consideration: We're building jumper cables, which are prone to a lot of mechanical stress (wear and tear) so it'll be nice if you have the type of wires with a groovy and fancy-looking insulation at the end of the wire, which may be salvaged from basically all type of appliances. Something like this:

The fancy-looking "grooves" on the wire will be very helpful in making the glue bond between the wire and the clip very strong and durable.

3. Epoxy Glue: Please view this link.

The steps are pretty obvious, so I wouldn't want you to waste time reading details which don't matter, but I'll put up a single picture to show how I did it:

The picture above shows the soldering process (solder sticks pretty properly, don't worry). And a combination of the full-steel clip and the half-plastic half-steel clip is VERY useful for some applications.

The picture below are the variations of my construction for other cables:

Description:

a: The red highlighted area is the part which will be soldered, note that the wires are wounded around the upper part before putting it to contact with the metal surface of the clip. This aids additional strength of the connection after gluing.

b: The next sequence shows the contacts are soldered generously, and the "groovy" part of the fire is fitted into the hole of the clip, which again adds a significant durability to the "weakest link" (yes, in my experience, this is the frustrating part) after the applied glue to the crevices dries and hardens up.

c: This picture shows another technique used; I looped the wire around the hole (which is why name tag clips are just the thing for this purpose) and I glued the loose part.

After all of this is done, my collection is displayed as follows:

When everything's all said and done...... BOW DOWN!!! You have your own collection of the strongest type of jumper connectors for your electronics projects. Connect it to motors, LEDs (with resistors, I must remind you people), breadboards (stick a male connector into it and clip to the revealed part), and so on.

I know this article is pretty light and simple, but I find that these cables provide to be more than a chain to the missing link (intended there) which is called: convenience.

InsyaAllah, may God be pleased with us for living our lives trying to spend less (by improvising and recycling more) and use the money for better purposes.

Vizier87

For the Electrical Department's consideration (Lecturers and Students alike)

2010-07-04T03:20:00.007+08:00

Assalamualaikum to all Vortex Electrica fans.

One of the problems faced when we, as electronics/electrical students do projects is that very little practical environment pervades within the department. Aside the fact that we all have laboratories, an electronics store to distribute components with the permission of supervisors, some geeks carrying around toolboxes with some perfboard circuits inside, there is still so much to learn regarding electronics.

Kudos to the current Head of Department of Electrical Engineering for making changes to the department, for a lot has changed for the better then, and it is time to move on to further our experience in doing circuits and introduce some tweaks as well.

So how do we start?

For ambitious students, a full fledged tutorial on PIC microcontrollers is the best way to go around it. However we must account for students who are only willing to do simple projects which will make them appreciate the beauty of electronics. And most students are unwilling to spend much money on buying components.

I am not saying my suggestions are the best, but for a lot of subjects, very valuable experiences can be provided to students who do some projects which pertain to the subject itself. Electrical students are divided into four, in my experience:

1. The ones who just want to finish their degree and nothing more

2. The ones interested in doing projects in hardware form (electronics, power, etc.)

3. The ones interested in software/programming

4. The ones who are not interested in anything.

The second and third will be our discussion.

This is the layout of Universiti Malaya's Electrical Engineering curriculum (download the file for a complete listing) which can be used as a medium to do projects:

First year

1. Electronics 1:

-Construct a temperature sensor using an IN4148 diode and some transistors, best marks goes to the ones who manage to linearize the output of Temperature versus Voltage (and the hardware can be passed for further research on low-cost sensors). Should cost only RM10.00 max.

-Drive a relay using different transistors, a report can be done with each team using different transistors, response time, backward EMF study due to relay chatter, how to suppress relay chatter, etc. Costs perhaps RM5.00

-Build a bridge rectifier (Reaaaaaalllllllly frustrating when EE students don't know how to use a damn diode, OKAY!!!) for AC signals. The best marks will be given to the ones with lowest drop-out voltage, and fastest response time, with lowest ripple, and so on. Cost? perhaps RM3.....

-Build a H-Bridge to control motors using transistors. Best marks to the ones who manages lowest drop-out voltage, highest input/output current ratio, efficiency, etc. Each team will use different transistors, zero marks to duplicate circuits. Cost?.. I think RM15.

2. C++ Programming:

-Change it to C programming, and let 1st year students blink an LED or two at the generic PIC main boards. Using a PIC12F and some perfboard, the circuit can be completed in one day, costs at most RM 10. More advanced programming? Drive a motor speed using PWM. More? Interrupt. More? At your discretion.

3. Digital Systems

-Build logic gates using diodes/transistors. Each team will be assigned to different types of diodes, and different gates as well. Cost? Less than RM5, assured.

-Learn to use Flip-flop ICs/Logic Gate ICs and do some applications. Cost? Less than RM15.

....And so on.

2nd year

4. Electronics 2:

-Amplify signals from the heart using any type of sensor. Cost: RM 20. Best marks go to the ones who manage the best accuracy compared to a standard ECG.

-Make different types of filters/instrumentational amplifier using op-amps (SAY NO TO THE LOUSY 741 ICs!!!) Cost: RM 5

-Process signals from various sources using a software in a PC. Like quantifying heartbeat signals, bird calls, light intensities, temperature, and so on.

-Build an oscillator using op-amps.

.....And other millions of op-amp projects.

5. Instrumentation

-Start using PICs to drive motors, detect readings using ADC, display signals, use temperature signals, strain gauges, range sensors like IR diodes, RF modules (315 or 418 MHz ones), drive relays to operate a 30V motor, for instance... and so on. This project has most options actually. Cost: From RM 20-100.

6. Electric Machines

-Build motors... Now this is very fun. Different motors for different teams, so students can build stepper motors, DC brush motors, brushless motors, relay switches, alarms, etc, anything which requires electromagnetism and mechanical motion. We managed to introduce this culture during our 2nd year. Voila!!

3rd Year

7. Electromagnetic Theory

-Build RF modules. Longer ranging, the better. Give some restrictions: Doesn't introduce interference to the existing signals (otherwise it'll jam things up), low power, and so on.

-Build inductive current sensors, like the ones used in Power Electronics Labs.

8. Microprocessors

-NOW.... proceed to using higher quality PICs and give 'em any kind of project which involves sensors, robots and whatnot. Too many projects are on the 'net. Build a frickin' Asimo if they want.

9. Energy Conversion & Power Transmission

-Again, we manage to be the pioneers of projects involving generators. We can settle down with the DC/AC generators, or also explore Solar Cells, Wind Power Turbines, Thermal Energy, and so on.

Example: Make a portable battery charger using a small water tank which is heated up to propel a turbine to charge a cellphone. Campers can use it when they're going in jungles, so when they make bonfires, they also can charge their cellphones. Also, with solar cells too.

10. Feedback Control Systems:

-Aha.. there is so much we can do around here. I suggest: Build a coffee-maker using stepper motors, which need to be modeled using Laplace/Fourier/Z Transforms. This utilizes transient responses of the motors as well. Usage of PICs required.

Also, we can build a simple pick-and-place robots using PICs and servo motors too.

11. Power Electronics:

Build your own buck, boost, buck-boost, Cuk, and so on Regulators. Is it so difficult? We'll never know if we don't try. The problem is many EE students don't even understand the meaning of Power Electronics.

There is one very interesting circuit:

It demonstrates the usability of a nearly dead cell to power up an LED! Therefore it 'boosts' the voltage, demonstrating the significance of power electronics and boost circuits. This project can be assigned EASILY!!! So why do we hesitate in giving students such simple projects?

In conclusion, look at how much projects can be done with just Googling around. To the ones who think it ain't important, I'll just ask one simple question: What do you remember during lectures? Even for a geek like me, I remember nothing except jokes from lecturers!! BUT I remember nearly every detail of projects done by our Team VORTEX ELECTRICA, and it is the memory which made me value the experience in the University. I'm sure all the other members felt the same way.

I hope future Malaysian students who take up EE in any university will ask their lecturers to give projects like these. They're fun and most importantly, life is a lot about memories, and this is an experience which will be hard to be obtained in the times you are already working.

And oh, if you're going to bitch about cost of the projects, remember that you have spent more on food in a single day than most of these projects! So to the lecturers out there (if you're reading this) just give the projects to them and you'll be surprised how capable Malaysian students are actually! This SHOULD be the main part of the continuous assessment for the students. Honestly, I'd put 30% on projects, and 10% on tests/assignments. The rest is exams, and it's fine by me. To me, all that mattered during my tenure (academically speaking) in UM are three things: Kind lecturers who demonstrates "formidability", the three projects in hardware form assigned by lecturers themselves, and finally our final year project. The rest will be very scantily remembered, sorry to say, even the labs and equipments don't mean much to me except the times I actually needed it.

Vizier87 is signing out.

Solid-State Weather Systems Electronics: Part 2>> Acoustic Disdrometer Rain Sensors

2010-06-01T01:00:00.010+08:00

Hi guys.. I've just finished my thesis project documentation, now I'm taking a break in my home. This is the next part from my final year project in this blog, a continuation from the article: Solid-State Weather Systems Electronics: Part 1

Where the first article has the least difficulty regarding detection of three weather parameters: Ambient temperature, humidity and Barometric Pressure.

---------------This article has a moderate difficulty level in construction.--------------

Remember that the documentation regarding this article is pretty scarce, since most of the sensors out there are tested using million-dollar equipments, therefore they are patented technologies. I'm just doing this project from a hobbyist perspective... so if you manage to build an industrially-challenging one, good for you! References in the internet regarding rain sensors can be done by yourselves, but I'm gonna put forward ORIGINAL research and WORK done here... and the RESULTS are all original as well... So hopefully we're not part of useless Google searches regarding DIY Rain Sensors.

So.. We have come to the next parameter, which is pretty complex to process, but the hardware required is pretty simple. Yep, we're gonna do a rain check here.. So what is the importance of reading rain? Not important at all, if you are a common guy, but it may have a lot of significance to a farmer who wants to monitor his crops for farming precision. Remember that agriculture is a very-very important field in Malaysia, where a paddy field in Kedah,Malaysia will certainly benefit from precision in rain-reading, Insya-Allah.

First things first- how do you sense rain? How do you know if it's a torrent or a drizzle out there when you're sitting in your home snoozing or drinking milk tea? You know the answer, but it is difficult to answer it using technical terms. So I'll do my best to describe what I'm doing here to a layman.

There are several techniques used, apart from the standard but disgustingly bulky rain gauges (if you don't know about rain gauges you can do a quick wiki here.)

As for rain detection, the following electronics solid-state designs are briefed after processing the 'net's worth of info. NOTE: There are surprisingly very little amount of documented projects regarding DIY rain sensing.. so the combination of info is siphoned into a useful collection of info, hopefully... :)

i) Drop count: Water drips from an orifice that produces drops of known size which are
usually counted optically (which means the usage of optical sensors like Infrared, or light intensity fluctuation detection>> How to imagine the function: It's like seeing a mutilated image of a person at the back of an aquarium, since the water produces aberrations in the light... oh well that clears THAT.). This design is good for light rain, responds quickly to the changes, but requires a reservoir be maintained at a certain level. Ain't good if you're measuring light rain.

ii) Optical rain gauge: This technique uses scintillation effects to detect/calculate rainfall. This
is an electronic solution which is very pricy, since optics requires a lot of complex analysis. This
design is good for rates, but it is easily deceived by fog and mist. Used by Malaysian weather researchers or whatnot MOSTI... The concept is similar to the one used in the drop count. Xenso (A company making sensors) sells them at $99 (RM 300) to 'em weather guys in Malaysia.

iii) Self-siphoning capacitance gauge: This contraption uses a collection tube with a level
gauge, which is self emptying. This is a good method for measuring rainfall accumulation, which not good for light rains. Hard to DIY. No explanation needed since I don't understand it anyway.

iv) Doppler detection: This method uses reflected microwaves to determine intensity. This is an electronic solution which requires a high level of technology, meaning high cost issues. Even I could find much documentation regarding this thingy. Again, I still don't understand it too.

v) Ultrasonic sensors: This method is also an electronic solution, and also very pricy. It
measures rain by detecting the interference signals generated by the raindrops in an array of
ultrasonic network systems. EXTREMELY hard to DIY. And again, I don't understand the details much too. :(

vi) Disdrometers: AHA!! Bingo!! This concept uses impact of rain, where rainfall is measured by detecting the raindrop impacts via a piezoelectric sensor, which produces a voltage proportional to the volume of the raindrop. Used in the $3850 WXT510 Weather Transmitter (You're a fool to not sense a hint of sarcasm in this sentence)

Heh heh.. But this last option above proves to be the easiest to reverse-engineer and DIY, since Vortex Electrica is ALL about saving money and still being able to do kick-ass projects!! Credit needs to be given to Rolf Hut in his Instructables project.
The details regarding the electronics and techniques of detection are original, from Vortex Electrica though.

So.... what are DISDROMETERS? It is a meter which detects impact, simply put. A raindrop has impact, therefore a disdrometer reads it. The simplest analogy I can give is: Imagine a microphone being tapped by your finger. What does it produce at the speakers' end? TAP! TAP! TAP! Similarly, when you're sitting in your room, you know whether it is raining heavily or not. Now... to make it analyzable and quantifiable... we're gonna start on the construction:

STEPS IN BUILDING A DISDROMETER:

1: You'll need:

a. A plastic CD/DVD platter (or something flat, take your pick)
b. A piezoelectric transducer, like shown here:

......which can be scrounged from broken telephones, or broken clocks or.. anything which produces monophonic sounds.

c. Some electronic components, which are pretty simple:
a) an op-amp IC like the LM358 or LM741.
b) A potentiometer
c) A schottky diode
d) A donut perfboard.. of course.

2. Glue the piezo transducer to the CD platter using EPOXY GLUE.. very important. The one I did looks like this:

3. Construct the rest of the electronics according to this picture:

This is called signal conditioning... where the output spike is isolated from the rest of electronics by freewheeling the negative spike voltage produced by the piezo transducer using an IN5817 Schottky diode, where it is a diode with a forward voltage of 01-0.2 V only, where a lot of op-amps can only withstand -0.2 inverse voltage at it's non-inverting input, and also the signal is amplified by the gain setting using a single potentiometer. If you don't understand, never mind, just build the circuit. :P

4. The finished product in my project looks like this:

5. Now, you can at least observe the output from a location by placing a voltmeter between the output terminals of the circuit. The output is with regard with the raindrop volume, the higher the volume of the raindrop, the higher the output.

Quantification and calibration techniques will be dependent on the transmission of the data to a PC, where we can utilize the full power of a PC computer to do an acoustic analysis of the signals of the raindrops. We'll cover the data conditioning in further articles, since it is a fully different entity of hardware which needs to be discussed, which is also pretty complex.

Conceptually, the area under the graph depicts the raindrop volume, shown below here is me testing my disdrometer (The graph can be predicted according to the typical output shown in the oscilloscope):

The cost of the network is only around RM4.00... impressively cheap if you're daring enough.
For now, enjoy seeing the output which comes out when rain hits the drum!!
In the following article, we will uncover my most difficult part, which are solid state wind sensors, or anemometers, also built by myself, also with not much documentation in the 'net.

See ya all real soon, InsyaAllah.

Regards,
Vizier87

ABOUT US.

2010-05-19T18:03:00.002+08:00

ELECTRONIC WASTE???

Are you an electrical engineering student in Malaysia?

Do you feel that engineering education is a waste of time when you will not be using much of what you've learned in school after entering the industry?

Therefore this blog invites all Malaysian bloggers who publish articles regarding electronics/electrical/ software engineering to join this blog and contribute your unique projects.

This blog concentrates on simple projects which are done with unique approaches, so that we don't become part of the dilution of the information in the 'net. Put simply, you shouldn't be finding us as part of a useless blog link after Googling for "motors" or "PIC" or "comparators"... You will find some info in this blog unique which is not featured in other articles.

REMEMBER: This is a hobbyist corner. Anyone interested in building their own RC car, for instance, can refer to this blog if provided. The terminologies used here are simplified and explained at its best for a layman, hopefully for you guys (Or gals?)

Here is a short description of Vortex Electrica's current members (more will join, hopefully):

Fakhruddin @ Deathclaw, specializes in Software development and will be feeding us info and news regarding programming for software gung-hos! A drum enthusiast as well.

Electro-tech's Halim @ Vizier87, Masters degree candidate, will be giving insights on improvising construction of mechanical and electronics' networks... his eccentricity includes one rule: 95% percent of stuff used to construct gizmos must come from scrap appliances, a strict Recycletronica.

Shahril @ Beautifulmind, specializes in electronics and PICs and other things as well... He is also plays guitar during his free time besides doing projects. His articles will be focused in a combination of PIC and electronics projects, done in our own way.

All the articles in this blog are not to compete with other companies, but an expression on how we came around and jumping on stepping stones to achieve our own mastery in our fields regarding Electrical Engineering Curriculum in Malaysia, which is not very easy. We hope to share our knowledge to pave an easier way to realizing projects and inspire future generations to take this course seriously.

Enjoy reading 'em! And please comment constructively too. :)

Contact either: abdulhalimpoh@yahoo.com.sg , mashaari87@yahoo.com.sg, fakhruddin087@gmail.com

GENERAL IDEA.

2010-04-30T22:53:00.000+08:00

GENERAL

INTERNSHIP
The Roots of Vortex Electrica (VE)
Verdict: Silver!
Vortex Electrica Dominion
For the Electrical Department's consideration(Lecturers and Students alike)

Construct your own Electric Generator!

2010-04-04T14:30:00.023+08:00

Establishing Server Connection to VE headquarters......
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Connection secured.

Hi guys, (or gals?) this is an overdue article on our third year project on Energy Conversion and Power Transmission, by our lecturer, who was our also our Electrical Machines lecturer. I figured out that now I have some time to impart the depths of the Vortex Electrica secrets which should be shared. Since our DIY motor project has gained a reputation with our lecturer, he was inspired to tell us to build a generator. The VE bloodline is again revived!! So here we are.

The most satisfying aspect of building a generator is you can see a form of energy that can't be harnessed properly, and it transfers itself into something that can be properly used (like charging a battery from wind flow, an so on). See the video:

Output Demonstration

Why did I post the video first? This is just for you guys who are skeptical at our product. So we'll just impart it all for you to see. This generator generates 30V at around 3500 rpm (revolutions per minute) with no-load (that means the terminals are directly fed to a voltmeter/multimeter. So how are you gonna build it? The concept is too simple since you guys can also see the link regarding our DIY motor: Here

Basic concepts and physics regarding generators can be read from the wiki here:
Concepts on generators
.... and please read 'em properly if you're a complete newbie.

Anyway, here's a simple diagram on our construction (this diagram is property of Vortex Electrica, references must be with citations) :

From the diagram, (study it carefully!!) The construction is pretty simple, and saves a lot of time regarding analysis. The reason we used this design (which is not the best, since industrial generators use more complicated but efficient windings) is to save you from the trouble of winding and re-winding it due to mistakes. Trust me, the biggest problem in construction of this thing comes from winding the coils, which may be up to thousands of repeated windings. You'll not want to unwind 1000 windings after discovering that the generator has problems regarding orientation or discontinuity of the coils. The details regarding winding configuration will be covered in the following sections.

Here comes the important part: Construction.
What are the ingredients we used? Here you are:

1. Broken hard-drives:

We'll need the permanent magnets from these hard-drives, which are NEODYMIUM magnets. These magnets are the strongest magnets ever produced in the industry. A good documentation regarding hard-drive magnets can be seen in this link: Neodymium magnets
A very good tip: You can get them virtually for free or for very cheap prices if you haggle the prices properly in some shops selling computer hardware, where they usually keep scrap hard-drives for scrap metal, but they'd gladly sell them to you for RM2-RM5 apiece.

2. A non-magnetic metal shaft (can be found in CD-drives)

3. Copper coils is pretty easy to obtain cheaply, from broken transformers and so on, but we bought CRT field coils (from old TVs) for RM10 from a shop selling CRTs. You can get yours for free if you have broken TVs in your attic/store. Haha!!

Here's some pictures:

CRT field coils : RM10, undismantled

Extracted copper coils

It takes great patience to extricate the coils, which are bonded together with resin, but you'll manage, InsyaAllah.

Now, the basic ingredients are covered. Now, we'll proceed to construction, where the other materials will be described as we go along.
Construction:
A) First Sequence:

Framework for the generator

Description:
1. Neodymium magnets on brackets

2. Separated magnets, that's how those magnets look like

3. Halved for polarity isolation (see the documentation regarding Neodymium magnets on the link above. In our case, since cutting it in half using non-magnetic blades is not an option, we used a steel hacksaw to make a dent at two positions for weak stress points, then carefully snap 'em in half using your bare hands, they ARE that brittle, so make the dents sparingly)

4. Armature built using the non-magnetic shaft (usually you can get 'em from toys/CD/DVD drives) we held together the magnets with the tubular structure using epoxy glue (A VERY IMPORTANT COMPONENT!!!). The white tubular structures are actually ballpoint pen casings. Very strong and reliable structural material!

5. Materials for the generator frame (we omitted the metal screws for they produce a very large reluctance in the armature movement.)

6. The basic framework completed, note the neodymium magnets' orientation, please use this configuration.

B. Windings:
The pictures here are simpler, just to show the coiling progress:

Winding orientation: Two planes of separate winding (Singular winding shown in the figure is for simplification, you'll need to wind as much as you can for both planes SEPARATELY, combined after completing the space provided by the generator framework.)

Description:

1. Coiling like normal: Remember, the coils are separate between the two planes we used to maximize the space usage. Combination between the two planes are done after the winding is completed.

REMEMBER: We coiled one plane, then the other after completing each layer alternatively, this way the coils are uniform (imagine this like doin' hamburgers, you don't make two big layers, you put thin layers of goodies but lots of it alternatively, like bread,meat, salad, dressing, then fried egg, then dressing back, salad, meat and bread in the bottom)

2. Hmmm... are we done? The CRT coils are still abundant.

3. We added an extra nozzle (the white plastic thingy) to increase the winding space and to avoid the coils from colliding with shaft.

4. Covered some of the parts with tape to hold the windings in place, they tend to loosen after a 2 cm layer worth of coils.

5. Looks like an egg ain't it? That's what we called it, "The Golden Egg"... the thing can roll like one too. Hahaha!!

6. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you test the output from the coils after completing a number of thin layers. Just directly connect an LED to the terminals, if there is no output you'll just have to unwind a small number of windings rather than unwinding the whole damn thing.

C: Finalization

Finalization on Structure and Testing

Description:
1. Covered with electrical tape to rigidify the fuselage

2. A presentable platform, using plastic frames from the CRT and some other scraps, held together using screws and epoxy glue.

3. Testing the output by connecting the generator shaft to a shaft of a DC motor.

4. The outputs are indicated using LCD display (Special division of programming of the PIC by Mr. Fakhruddin (Deathclaw)

Alhamdulillah, the result is extremely satisfying as we've managed to produce the prototype properly and met the objectives with the best output/efficiency (30V DC output for us, other teams got 3V at most, smallest weight/volume and weight/output power ratio also).

Both the outputs are rectified using our own Bridge Rectifiers, each windings got one. Both the rectifiers are connected in series to produce a combined DC output:

Vortex Rectifier Circuit Diagram

This is the final picture of the presented prototype:

All the personnels are involved in the completion of this project:
1. Abdul Halim Poh (Vizier87), Electromechanical Systems
2. Shahrilhafiz (beautifulmind), Power Electronics
3. Fakhruddin (Deathclaw), Programming
4. Nazmi Zulkifli, Team Manager
5. Mr Lew Han Kit, Misc. Assisting Personnel.

There were many mistakes made and we rectified the problems one-by-one, not to mention the pain we experienced due to the wires which tore after the sharp edges of the revolving magnets cut it for being too close, and at one time the magnets flew apart because of the unbelievable velocity of spin, and also two scrapped major designs, each taking a LOT of bloodshed, and for the ones who wish to add an external revolving field similar to this:

.... With the assumption that it will make the output larger with denser magnetic flux, IT'LL NOT WORK, and the output will be even less. This is true for our case and another team's generator. Anyone who can submit the reason, please do so, and your name will be embedded in this article for giving the explanation.

Thanks to everyone involved. May Allah bless us all with the understanding of His creations and ultimately seek refuge under his mercy.

Regards,
Vizier87

Vortex Electrica Dominion

2010-03-21T22:26:00.005+08:00

Hi.. it's been some time. I'd like to dedicate to all the Vortex Electrica brethren with lyrics I made on my own, cryptically telling stories of the virtual bloodshed we went through in nearly four years in our university to achieve what we have attained now.

Only some people will read these lyrics in the way I perceived!

Here we go:

Vortex Electrica Dominion

How long did it take to realize
All the time we spent together
Lies only in the smoothed edges
In a scarred piece of lumber

Masters of our own carved pieces.... So REMEMBER!!

Chorus:
Still marching forward to make a kill
Histories of our own time
After conquering the thrill
How long did it take to finalize?
Reliving the chronologies down to a dime!

I am the the Vortex
Living in each of us

Forged a brotherhood of elders
And branded each members
"Keepers of our own knowledge"
"Harvesters who are always at the edge"

So CRINGE!!

Chorus:
Still pounding forward to make a kill
Histories of their own time
After dominating the thrill
How long did it take to finalize?
Reliving the chronologies down to a dime!

I am the the Vortex
Living in each of us

(Solo)

None of us will stay forever
As we will go through the never
Zealots of our own cause
Masters of our own force

I am the Vortex..... Vector SWIRL!!!

Chorus:
Still marching forward to make a kill
Histories of our own time
After conquering the thrill
How long did it take to finalize?
Reliving the chronologies down to a dime!

I am the the Vortex
Living in each of us

Zealotry Seal branded on this page
Regards,
Vizier87

Solid-State Weather Systems Electronics: Part 1

2010-02-24T01:08:00.010+08:00

This would be one of the didactic posts I'll be putting here... since we're gonna talk about electronics... but wait.. I can't be serious for a minute! So here we are breathin' and talkin' electronics like we're talking 'bout football (except I DON'T talk about football).

Let's start with the first three weather parameters which doesn't need secrecy: Ambient temperature, humidity and barometric pressure. To newbies in electronics, keep this in mind: DOWNLOAD DATASHEETS OF ANY COMPONENT YOU'RE USING, EVEN IF IT IS A DIODE!!!

Ah, I'd like to note: I won't elaborate too much on the electronic connections and circuitry because Google contains billions of 'em, including crappy ones. The best testimony that can be obtained by an electronics hobbyist is a hands-on experience, so please don't expect things to run smoothly after you've connected every terminals with that thinking that you followed a RANDOM circuit you took from Google is said to be FUNCTIONAL by a RANDOM blogger, so your circuit must work. Anyways, you'll still make that mistake everyone commits: the thought that "the circuit is provided, problem solved." so be my guest, make the mistakes, and you'll learn it the hard way.

Firstly, an LM35DZ is a simple thermal sensor which I used for ambient temperature detection, manufactured and used by the billion, so there's nothing much to it. In stores they usually cost RM5.00 (about 1.50 USD) and Farnell (an international electronics components distributor) offers much better prices.

Figure: LM35 Centigrade Sensor

To anyone using it, or who wants to use it, remember that there is a very important rule: connections! See the figure below:

Note that it is a BOTTOM VIEW!!!! I made this simple mistake and wasted a lot of time so don't mess your sensors!!
So after this, give it a supply of 5V from a voltage regulator LM7805. This'll cost another RM1.50.

Second, humidity sensors... I used HCH1000 capacitive humidity sensor, which is the hygrometer for my weather station and the cheapest by far, around RM26. See below:

Figure: Honeywell's HCH1000 capacitive humidity sensor

This sensor needs to be conditioned according to a circuit provided by the datasheet for HS1101-HS1100 here and the circuit is here:

Figure: Circuit for HCH1000 capacitive humidity sensor conditioning

You'll need to adjust the ratio between R4 and R2 and I added a 10uF non-polar capacitor in series to the HCH1000 to make the response readable by my Digital Multimeter (DMM) in frequency read mode (Buy a good DMM, not the cheap Korean or Chinese ones). Note that it took me a lot of time just to find the right links to introduce these fine adjustments so go figure if yours didn't work.

To test the sensor, put a damp cloth or tissue near the sensor, and the frequency of the timer output will reduce. This frequency'll be used to be translated in PIC microcontrollers (See Deathclaw's intro into microcontrollers in this blog if you don't know anything about microcontrollers here) or you can visit this page: Nigel's PIC page.

Third part: Barometric pressure sensors... I chose the cheapest one, MPX4115A available with a price of RM39.00 by Farnell. This sensor is very simple but the documentation regarding it sucks in the 'net. Don't look at the the datasheets if you're figuring out the pinouts, they'll confuse you with three 'styles' of terminals... see this figure which is painfully extricated from a book by Ibrahim Dogan:

Figure: MPX4115A pin descriptions

This sensor detects changes in barometric pressure, translated in outputs of voltage, so it's simple because its output is from 0-4.8V for a supply of 4.75-5.2v (plug-and-play component, no amplification needed).

For what's worth, I've presented 6 months of research (finding each sensor took a lot of time!!) and labor where the simplicity of these things are evident. Mistakes have been made and rectified, so I hope this'll pave an easier route for weather systems' researchers who wanted to build a solid-state weather system on their own.

Alhamdulillah, all this experience is very humbling to me since the more work is poured, the more I realized how much I didn't know about the complexity and beauty of electronics in the human body (no one has been able to explain why images in the brain, in the region of nanovolts doesn't get mutilated in the presence of even the strongest magnetic fields like in MRI- Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines, where electronic cameras get fuzzed easily with Electronic Jamming devices.) Masya-Allah. This is also the case in weather systems, even with the advancement in technology nowadays, weather prediction are always done with a certain amount of certainty, but it is never certain.

I'll cover the more powerfully complex parameters for the electronics in the next part, which is rain precipitation, wind speed and wind direction. Stay tuned with Vortex Electrica!!!!

Allah has made Vortexes ubiquitous in nature!

Regards,
Vizier87

Verdict: Silver!

2010-02-10T01:54:00.008+08:00

Alhamdulillah, Vortex Electrica gained a silver medal in MTE (Malaysia Technology Expo) 2010 for the Solid-State Weather Transmitter.

Personally, I am genuinely very thankful to receive this award since we are undergraduates competing with the larger party of projects done by postgraduates which are far more sophisticated. The 'but' part comes butting in when you can't but feel a bit disappointed with the way the other innovations are being judged in this expo.

I have seen other 'gold' projects which are slammed with only silver or the worse bronze medals (where my university received substandard evaluation, in my opinion), and the reverse also occurred: Projects which are unfit to be called innovation but made their way through the expo. Also, some of the innovations which received 'gold' are an eyebrow-raiser. I'll spare the details to avoid any controversy.

All of what I mentioned are not meant to discredit the judges since my opinion is not the only one which matters, but there are fields where I concede fit to be within my jurisdiction, at least in electronics and structure. I HAVE seen electronics exhibit in the expo which in my kinder words would be said as "redundant". I am totally sure if these projects are uploaded in Electro-tech online (an electronics forum I'm actively involved) they'll pelt these 'innovations' with remarks fit for complaints to moderators, to put simply- they'll CRUCIFY those projects. (Trust me, I have 500 +/- posts in that forum, I know how the Americans and Canadians will respond to news like this)... but don't worry... I won't do it.

Therefore it is highly important we have judges which are not going to be biased; this is analogous to having Pepsi come and evaluate Coca-Cola's latest beverages- of course what you'd expect is "this stuff is nothing much, ours is better 'cause blah blah blah" and all that rubbish.

No offense to any party who felt offended, since there are some innovations which deserved what they got. But I won't say our university were fairly judged except mine. PERIOD.

If any MTE 2010 JUDGES read this, and felt this article is a face-slammer, just take it as a feedback not from me, BUT FROM MY SUPERVISORS!!

Regards,
Vizier87.

Surveillance Sentinels: Recycletronics

2010-02-03T07:44:00.005+08:00

Did you know that mountains are assigned to the most skilled sentinels? They look out in far, and report in silence using signals oblivious to anyone else except their clan. This is one of the most popular combat tactics' topic: intelligence. But fortunately, we are just waging a war against our own superiors who needs the job to be done. (Wink)

Also, snipers (who may reside in mountains) have additional senses: that humidity, temperature, wind speed and direction or even the earth's centrifugal force (Coriolis Force) is in the mind when aiming at a target.

Here's my picture of the mobile weather station for the MTE 2010:

I heavily improvised the structural part using scraps like telephones, bicycle chain, CD-ROM drives, radio parts, Norslan incandescent light bulbs thrown by my father (if you can't see a trace of it you really need a pair or glasses with the size of an aquarium-just joking guys), marker pens, CD platters, a good amount of screws, some epoxy glue and shafts from printers. This is also a concept in do-it-yourself (DIY) I'd like to promote: Recycletronics and as I coin the term, I'll be heavily featuring this concept through my artcles in the past (see my article on battery packs!!) , present (you're looking at it) and future. The complete structure will be unveiled in a final article on this prototype.

I admire both of the aforementioned concepts , therefore I will elaborate a bit more on weather surveillance:

Most weather stations are mostly mechanical in existence, therefore vulnerable to a lot of factors like extreme conditions and wear-and-tear effect. Also, electronic solid-state equivalents of such systems are very costly. Remember the mercury barometer and thermometer we used to have in secondary school? Scrap that, because solid-state electronics is making way!

The challenge is to reproduce this system with minimal resources for various applications like agriculture (farming precision: raindrop monitoring for precise use of additional water for crops, humidity regulation, etc), events’ planning (wind speed and direction for launching airborne systems, atmospheric hazmat conditions), early warning system (vortex and storm prediction), environmental studies (monitoring system for solar output, wind, and water quality, hazardous materials carried by wind) and so on. So basically the more access we gain over our surroundings, the better it is for ambient precision controls.

The techniques on solid-state wind speed and direction reading features latest improvisation using lower-cost resources with comparable sensitivity as opposed to the sonic technology featured in more advanced and costly designs.

Some details regarding structural characteristics and electronics are discovered and is a genuine implementation of some discoveries, which is true for the solid-state wind sensors, and the rest are mostly improvised, with a small amount of plug-ins to complete the design.

There'll be another article on how I built some of the sensors, so stay tuned with Vortex Electrica!

Regards,
Vizier87.

EYE (coordinate measuring machine)

2010-01-23T11:05:00.003+08:00

What don't kill you made you more strong..I'm here to present you the project that I currently work with. The others Vortex Electrica members already show up their final year project. Now, it;s my turn. ;p

I'm not really sure about my thesis title because it always change due to the time. But there are basic targets for the system to operate which :

System should be able to do coordinate measurement by using single camera and a laser pointer.

System have the ability to perform basic detection of external object from a predefined area and pointing the laser mark on detected object.

FIGURE 1 : Laser Pointer Mechanism.

I'm more interested doing research and experiment in the field of sensor and how an electronic system interact with outside world. This project will cover a simulation of how the interaction of an eye and the brain with the help of light reference can perform a task in doing polar distance approximation.

Mobility of any robot really depend on their sensor. Image processing offers variation of algorithm than can replace infrared and ultrasonic range sensor. For a distance measurement, stereo vision is used. But to give more narrow and precise coordinate measurement, multiple camera needed.

FIGURE 2 : Plan view of trigonometry distance approximation.

There are no extra-ordinary super complex method implemented here. The idea is to try the other method rather than stereo vision system for distance approximation to mono vision system with the help of light reference for coordinate approximation. From Figure 2, simple trigonometry is used to make approximation calculation using a distance,d and other two angles reading from internal image camera angle and mechanical laser pointer rotation angle.

FIGURE 3 : View from inside camera and image angle calculation.

The precision of the system should be as precise as a narrow laser point area on the object. Rather than measuring a distance of the object to the system, perhaps this system will give a coordinate from a point on the object surface to the system after critical mechanical calibration.

To get a better servo motors response, fuzzy-controller is used to make sure the laser is pointing directly on the interest object(red dot in FIGURE 3) with less oscillation error. This process monitored using real-time image processing(MATLAB).

Challenge that will be faces will be error in coordinate calculation approximation due to non-precise mechanical construction and non-linear of camera behavior. Artificial Neural Network will be a good solution for those non-linearity approximation but the speed of system response should be consider.

This is just a brief introduction about my project. Technical stuff will be discuss later. Hopefully we do have time to share all the ideas together. All the best guys!!

Vortex Electrica Swizzled!

2010-01-22T11:30:00.000+08:00

The Vortex Electrica logo Swizzled by yours truly.

The Swizzler 0.72 Effects Showcase Video

2010-01-19T22:21:00.001+08:00

Visit the Swizzler blog at Digital Dreams in HD: The Swizzler Blog:

Visit the Swizzler blog at Digital Dreams in HD: The Swizzler Blog

Vizier of Weather Systems

2010-01-18T15:52:00.007+08:00

(Crackles knuckles) Here we go.

Being a final year student, the thesis titles brought up to the attention of the Electrical Engineering (EE) students are somewhat watered down to suit the students' capabilities. Like I said before, we are all seriously underestimated by some of the lackadaisical lecturers, so let's just say that I measure students' barometer by the level of pride they put in their work in their thesis projects. It doesn't need to be 'fanciful' (the type with acronyms of techno-savvy stuff with superfluous words... oh you'll get it when you get there), but being meaningful is what this is all about.

My thesis supervisor (beautifulmind's as well) went for a technology convention in Geneva 2005 (check out for a smart cane for the less capable) and out of 1300 exhibits, his innovation came out Number ONE. How did he do it? In my own words, I say "An idea which is expressed with authenticity and meaningfulness is always favored over the ultra-complex fuselage of engineering enigmas which is not unknown" ..

So, my interests has always been about being a hacker in electronics amalgamated with structure and with a dash of moderate programming (ask my fellow bloggers) so I googled for low cost sensors for the scrooge and found out about low cost humidity sensors using scraped carbon film resistors, then the next two months' worth of Googling, a solid idea came through: An electronic weather station featuring mobility, solid state per se, fully constructed and improvised by a Vortex Electrica member!

I can't spill out the details now, remember it is a patented thesis, (or so I was informed) but I'll be glad to share the rest of the circuitry, the electronics, and the structural integrity which is essential in the construction, all in this blog after the submission of my dissertation. Some are original discoveries, some are improvised, and some is the icing on the cake, so to say.

I truly spent a lot of time gathering information on this, so see the pictures with the knowledge I spent nearly a year building it. This project is due for exhibit for the MTE 2010 in Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur between 4-6 February

Here are the pictures of my work:

Figure: CRAE Solid State Weather Sensor System

Figure: Some of the electronics

This system is designed to measure:

a) Ambient temperature
b) Barometric Pressure
c) Humidity
d) Rain precipitation
e) Wind Speed, and
f) Wind Direction

The cost of the electronics is around RM100 as opposed to the commercial weather transmitter, WXT510 which is around USD 3000 (around RM10000). If this may replace the current model, oh my. The discoveries (Bi'iznillah) with Allah's guidance include the wind sensors improvisation which helped me complete a solid-state wind sensing system.

Figure: Commercial Weather Transmitter WXT510, priced at USD 3850 (Weatherzone.com)

The rest of the details will be uncovered in four months time, InsyaAllah.

That's all for now. See you again!

The Swizzler Download

2009-12-30T07:33:00.046+08:00

[edit: The Swizzler now has it's own blog! Check it out at: Digital Dreams in HD: The Swizzler Blog]

Ever wanted to apply high quality special effects to video in real-time instead of pre-rendering effects?

The Swizzler (currently version 0.1alpha [edit: not really alpha, this version is stable and working quite well. It was named alpha due to being the first release. version 0.7 is coming soon! check out Digital Dreams in HD: The Swizzler Blog]) is a GPU accelerated windows media player application capable of applying special effects to high quality video (up to full 1080p HD video has been tested to run smoothly) System requirements are windows, .NET framework 3.5 sp1 (installed if you have the latest windows update). It is now available for preview download here.

Some screenshots:

The screenshots quality have been lowered due to upload limitations.

Some of the effects included in this software are:
- Color Correction
- Brightness and Contrast
- Edge Detection
- Banded Swirl
- Pixelate
- Light Streak
- Toon Shader
- Directional Blur
- Emboss
- Color Emboss
- Grayscale
- Invert
- Sharpen
- Color Threshold
- Outline
- Zoom Blur
- Edge Fade
- Vignette
- Erode
- Watercolor
- Splitscreen
- Splitscreen flip
- Swirl
- Pinch

Effects can be stacked (you can apply different effects simultaneously) and many of their parameters may be adjusted using the controls on the fly. The interface is simple and straightforward.

This application is brought to you by the power of WPF (windows presentation foundation) and will only work on windows XP, Vista and 7. A dedicated GPU is not required but is highly recommended as the effects are quite graphics intensive. Integrated graphics cards will work as long as they support pixel shader version 2.0 (which most do).

Thanks for taking the time to try out my software = ) If the above link doesn't work, or you didn't find it. Click here: http://ifile.it/iu31ql0/The%20Swizzler.rar

Not all of the shaders were written by me. Some shaders were taken from the Microsoft DirectX shader library and some from Shazzam, a great tool for pixel shader programming. The video used in the screenshots is Coral Reef Adventure HD taken from the Windows Media HD content showcase.

There are many more features to come. I appreciate any feedback and comments. Please feel free to contact me with bug reports, suggestions, errors, etc @ fakhruddin087 at gmail (thats zero-eight-seven). Thanks for trying out my software ;)

This program was written and published using Microsoft Visual C# 2008.

Microchip programming. It's a lot easier than you think ;)

2009-12-17T15:13:00.003+08:00

Greetings all. This is my first post on Vortex Electrica and I hope it will be the first of many. Today I'm going to write about basic microchip (or microcontroller for you purists) operation and application. First of all allow me to define what a microcontroller is. A lot of you may know the terms microcontroller and microprocessor, but what exactly are the differences between these devices? They are different by the way. Both microcontrollers and microprocessors can be called microchips.

Basically, microprocessors are CPUs. They can process data. Whereas microcontrollers are a combination of CPU, memory, and peripherals in one device. Peripherals are devices that have other functions that allow for interfacing between the microcontroller and other devices, such as input/output pins, analog to digital converters, digital to analog converters, and etc. Memory can be RAM, ROM, EEPROM, and etc. In this post I'll be focusing on microcontrollers and what we can do with them. More specifically, I'll be posting about the 08M PICAXE chip which is a great chip for beginners.

Above is the PICAXE-08M package picture and pin descriptions. The first pin is always the topmost pin left of the notch. Referring to the above figure, we can see that the 08M requires a +5V power source, it has a serial input and output, 4 digital inputs, 4 digital outputs, 3 analog inputs, a PWM (pulse width modulation) output, an infrared input and output, a tune output, and a ground connection. However, not all of these functions can be used at once due to the restriction of pins. What can we do all these?

Digital inputs and outputs: Can be used for anything from turning on LEDs to controlling robots when used as outputs and can be used as switches or condition checkers as inputs. For input, a low (0) signal must be between 0-1.5V and a high (1) signal would be from 3.5-5V. The nominal voltages for output are 0V for a low signal and +5V for a high signal.

Analog inputs: These are ADCs or analog to digital converters. The range of voltage allowed for the analog signal is 0-5V. The ADCs in the 08M convert an analog signal to a digital signal with 8 bits. For example, 0V analog would be converted to 0000 0000 binary, 5V = 1111 1111 binary, and 2.5V would be approximately 1000 0000 binary. ADCs are useful to check signal strength, for example in sensors, and also for reading analog values which we may want to manipulate. For example, we could make a voltmeter using the ADC function.

PWM: PWM is pulse width modulation. A PWM signal is basically a square wave signal which can be asymmetrical, meaning it can have a longer on time than off time and vice versa. PWM signals are useful for control purposes. For example DC (direct current) motors speed can be controlled using PWM signals.

Infrared input and output: These are pretty self-explanatory. They are infrared ports which can be used for receiving and transmitting infrared signals. Using these the 08M can communicate with other devices using infrared signals. For example, we can use the 08M to create an infrared remote for TVs, DVD players and etc. Device commands for common Sony devices are even included in the 08M datasheet! On the other hand, we can use standard infrared remote controls to control the 08M. Imagine creating a remote controlled robot that can be controlled using a TV remote ;) Maybe I'll try building one myself in the future.

Tune output: When this pin is connected to a buzzer/piezoelectric speaker, we can make music using the 08M. Monophonic ringtone 3310 type music yet music nonetheless. The 08M datasheet has a great guide for making music and even has a musical keyboard reference for making your own tunes. The 08M also has four inbuilt tunes which are Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Silent Night and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

So, how do we get started on using all these functions? First we have to construct a main board for the microcontroller as an interface for the microcontroller with sensors, leds, infrared leds, buzzers, and also to supply power to the microcontroller. Below is a typical 08M mainboard.

Shown above is the circuitry for the mainboard. You can design your own mainboard or order boards online from the PICAXE website. The website also contains excellent documentation with all the datasheets and information you need to get started. In my opinion, absolutely anyone can learn to use these PICAXE chips in a short time with diligence due to the simplicity of the systems.

Programming for the microchips: The microchips can be programmed easily using free software from the PICAXE website. The software programs the microchip using the BASIC language which is fairly straightforward and easy to learn. Most of the syntax is self-explanatory and simplified for easy use and application. Besides using the BASIC language, the microchips can also be programmed using flowcharts! You can't get more straightforward than that. All of the required information on programming can also be obtained from the PICAXE site. To show you a glimpse of how easy the programming is (some of us give up just at the thought of having to write a program) below are examples of using BASIC and a flowchart to turn a LED on and off at pin 4 with a pause (in milliseconds) of 1000ms and 500ms.

Even if you've never programmed a line of code in your life, that has to be pretty easy to understand right?

Programming the microchip: After creating the program, we need to program the microchip. The microchip has to be connected to the COM port or USB port using a COM port to serial input cable or USB to serial cable respectively. Then the programming software can be used to program the microchip. The microchip has to be turned on during programming. After programming, the microchip will instantly run the new program. It's as easy as that.

With that I conclude this post. I hope it has been as much fun reading as it has been for me writing this. More than that I hope that you have learned something and developed an interest in microcontrollers. You are all welcome to share anything you may want to here or on a forum that I am a member of for extended discussion.

helpful websites:

PICAXE website (They even have more advanced projects such as a fully functional net server!)

Student Portal Forum (Great new forum for academic engineering discussion)

IEEE site

IEEE Malaysia

Disclaimer: Some of the above material has been taken from an IEEE robotics workshop. I suggest any electric/electronics fan to look into the IEEE as the programs they conduct are extremely helpful in many ways.

PROJECT LIST

2009-10-24T23:42:00.007+08:00

POWER ELECTRONIC
Vortex Rechargeable Battery Pack Mark II
Construct your own DC Power Supply Wall Wart!Variator reporting.
Construct your own DC Power Supply Mark II : Phaserion reporting.

SENSOR
Vizier of Weather Systems
Solid-State Weather Systems Electronics : Part 1
Solid-State Weather Systems Electronics : Part 2 >> Acoustic Disdrometer Rain Sensors
Wireless InfraRed(IR) Design Tutorial 1
Wireless InfraRed(IR) Design Tutorial 2

MOTOR,GENERATOR AND DRIVER
Construct your own motor!
Construct your own Electric Generator!

CONTROL SYSTEM
For you the 1st eyes
EYE(coordinate measuring machine)
Announcing The Sketch Plotter Bot!!

SOFTWARE
Microchip programming.It's a lot easier than you think ;)
The Swizzler Download
The Swizzler 0.72 Effects Showcase Video
Vortex Electrica Swizzled!

DIY
Get your own rechargeable battery pack!
Surveillance Sentinels: Recycletronics
Jumper Cables from Junk
Epoxy Glue Basics

The Roots of Vortex Electrica (VE)

2009-10-13T14:29:00.005+08:00

Assalamualaikum guys....... Here I'm providing for a perspective article on how each of the members of this blog felt about this whole thing.

VE started out as two students (me and beautifulmind) started having discussions of the on-goings of the Electrical Engineering Curriculum, which in our opinion lacks project based approach. We were 2nd year students at that time and no EE projects were given by the lecturers, who also in my opinion sees us as incapable and unambitious as the ones they see prevalent among Malaysian students (at least most of them do).

Well it's time we prove that we're not of that breed. So when a lecturer, who was in charge of Electrical Machines, gave us an assignment on taking specs of a motor and study it, we decided that's it, we're building one. So we told the lecturer, and he gave an incredulous look, but then said, "Well if you CAN do it, then that is the best thing we all can do".

Result? There's the picture of the motor on the right side of this blog page.
This is why the logo of this club is in the form of an armature of a motor, our debut project which contributed to the origin of this club.

So, two years already, 3 major projects have been done, all in physical form, no softcopy, simulations or paperwork crap included. Excluding our projects which are self-driven, which are countless, we headed to newer dimensions of practical electronics, and that, my friends, needs the interest and zeal to realize.

Now for the big question: Why this blog? The way I looked at it, this is a place to put in projects done the Malaysian way; this is because being Malaysians means limitations in investments and resources due to the public perception in stuff like these, where the Malaysian mentality is like: If you're smart, you do medicine. Otherwise there is no future out there for you.

Not all of us can bear to invest too much in electronics projects, which tend to be demanding of MONEY. So this blog discusses the way to get through projects and spending a lot less than the ones used by the 'net users, which is like: Buy. Assemble. Test. This blog endorses the idea of Electronics: The Malaysian Way, as I see it.

We're all tight up on schedule due to being final year students, and whatnot our thesis titles are among the ones rated 'very difficult/challenging', supervised by one of the most respected and strict Professors in the department. So in time, perhaps when things start to fall into place, there will be more articles, insyaAllah.

THE BLOOD STILL WHIRLS A VORTEX IN OUR VEINS.

Get your own homemade rechargeable battery pack!

2009-09-06T22:56:00.005+08:00

For electronics hobbyists, money has always been one of the most demanding constraint, and so every little improvision will save a lot of money. In this article, I’ll demonstrate a simple and VERY money-saving approach to obtain your own rechargeable battery pack. These battery packs power my DIY RC battle tank, The Howitzer, which will be featured in future articles, Insya-Allah.

First, scrounge on every source of rechargeable batteries you can get, for instance cellphone batteries from your family’s broken cellphones, broken mp3 players, broken PDAs, any device that needs charging. Also, you can buy cellphone batteries from very old models like the Nokia 3310.

The cellphone also contains excellent DIY stuff that can be hacked like the LCD panels, small motors for vibration, and others for your use! So don’t throw them away first, they’ll be useful for future projects.
Here are the batteries in one place:

Note that the second battery from the left is a PDA battery, and the rest are cellphone batteries.
I’ve soldered the terminals with red (as the positive terminal) and black (as the negative terminal).
Then, assemble the batteries according to your preference. Mine’s like this:

You can use plastic panels to build the casing if you like, but I prefer it to be simple so I used electrical tape, which is quite strong and durable.
As for the recharging, use any extra battery chargers that you have (I had a lot of it!)

Just dissect the charger from its plug, and solder new pins so that it can be plugged into the new battery pack. The basic rule is that the positive terminal of the charger should be connected to the positive terminal of the battery, and so for the negative terminal, while charging.
I always had people from the ‘net warning about the battery might explode if we recharge it ourselves, but I had been doing the things I did with around 20 of them, and none ever did. Just to be safe, you might want to cover it with a protective casing so that IF it does explode, the casing will take the load.

One tip I discovered: A weak battery can be 'recrystallized' by reverse charging it for a few hours to restore some of the battery electrolytes. To be safe, put some protection in case the battery leaks or ruptures when doing so. I take absolutely NO responsibility for any accidents which might happen.

That’s it! A 4.5V rechargeable battery pack costs around RM70 here, but you can build one yourself virtually for free! And what’s even better is that you can customize your battery pack design to fit your prototypes!

Another thing to bear in mind: It is okay to connect different types of batteries in series, because as long as each battery is delivering their own share of power, it should be okay, except if one of the batteries run out of power to be delivered, then you need to recharge it so that it doesn’t reverse-charge itself (a phenomenon inherent to batteries; it reverses its polarity when it runs out of power. Beware that it might explode if ignored) so you need to continually monitor each battery from time to time.

That’s all, see ya soon!

INTERNSHIP

2009-05-23T16:32:00.006+08:00

"Faces of birds" , that what we call when in this suite . This is the protection suite to avoid silicon die and small electronic component effected by dust. 11 Mei 2009 , we are going for another level of engineering education process, internship which will expose us to real engineering working environment.ON semiconductor Seremban , a multinational company with the headquaters locating at Phoenix Arizona , USA doing silicon wafer fabrication and packaging for electronic component become our choice ( actually there is no choice for us ). This internship will end 17th July 2009. So,the progress for updating this blog become slower. But , staying together make our "Vortex Project" become more powerful in the night side after back from working.

There are more project will be done in this 10 weeks. Wait for the next project that will be uploaded here.And please , if you have your own project and want to share with us , send your article at vortexelectrica@yahoo.com .Some preparation for the next ROBOGAMEZ 2009 competition also in our schedule.

If you want to join this competition , more information you will get from this link http://www.uniten.edu.my/newhome/content_list.asp?ContentID=3803 . Practical approach for better engineering education.

For you the 1st eyes

2009-05-06T02:44:00.001+08:00

ROBOT is something that build to fulfill human needs, to obey ( artificial intelligent robot ) certain rule that have been thought (programmed ) in its brain (microcontroller / microprocessor / BEAM brain) , to do specific repeating process/progress (dull robot).For me , human that create robot are intelligent because they are manipulating those robot to do their job. There are two different dimension of time between the robot and human. Average reaction time for homosapiens mechanically is 215 milliseconds. When entering into the dimension of time domain for robotic responses , the fastest reaction time that I was programmed until now is ~500 nanoseconds which mean 400000 times faster than ordinary human response. Simple arithmetic 8-bit binary can be done in 200 nanoseconds. That why , the solution for a complex problem is only with manipulating semiconductor brain. We(Human) are manipulate them. Realized either you or robot have the highest IQ. Now use your beautiful brain to think!!

For this post , I’m actually want to share the idea and knowledge about electromagnetic wave sensor or in simple way the frequency fall into visible light and it is know as light sensor. Its feels good seeing something you build works as what you want.

First autonomous robot that I ever build known as “Photovore” from BugBot,Junkbot books. Photovore is BEAM family robot and functioning as light seeker . But ,is it enough for you to satisfy something that you build 100%(+2% noise) totally copied from a book? from internet? If not , understanding what is happening inside Photovore system become necessary. Doing something without knowing anything same as wasting your time even it is for your thesis. The brain is only contain a single chip of LM339 Operational Amplifier. The LDR(light dependent resistor) eyes is used as input for the comparator ,the first light sensor that I worked with. LDR is made of high resistance semiconductor. If light falling on the device is of high enough frequency , photons absorbed by the semiconductor give bound electrons enough energy to jump into the conduction band. The resulting free electron (and its hole partner) conduct electricity, thereby lowering resistances.

We as a electric/electronic student should know very well about the operation of operational amplifier in comparator mode. Change in intensity of light at LDR(Photovore eyes) will result changing in resistance through it. From 5V supply, there will be a ratio in dividing 5V in two LDR. If Left LDR have higher intensity of light compared to the Right ,then it will have a lower resistance through it. Using simple theory of voltage divider, the lower resistance will get lower voltage on it. This voltage act as an input for the LM339.Right and left reference is actually is connected to a variable resistor. By adjusting that resistor , right and left reference will change. Reference is a comparing value to the input. Example right reference=2.5V , voltage drop across Left LDR=3V,the output from left system of LM339 will be 0.5V.Right Motor will get 5V-0.5V through 2.2K resistor = 4.5V feed to the right motor. The same thing also happen in the other side. We are manipulating the changing of LDR resistance to make that system works as what we want. At dark point , resistance across LDR can be around 50~100 K.ohm and it can be as higher as 200K.ohm and above .From that only we can think further the used of LDR. It is beautiful.

For the next stage , we will see how LDR works as line sensor and colour sensor. Make sure you really understand the simple “super double basic mayo” function of LDR.

Construct your own motor!

2009-04-10T01:45:00.002+08:00

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Good day everyone. This will be my debut post for this blog.

There is one very important rule when you want to start building something with engineering sense- the parts needed for you to assemble the prototype is AROUND you; you just need to realize that it is already there. (a modified quote from McGyver)

For my part, I started with gathering some parts which can be scavenged; plastic bottle tops for the winding frame, insulated wire from transformers (from broken electrical appliances-don't buy any insulated wire PLEASE. They're everywhere, from broken TVs, large inductors, etc. When you start to dissect your own scraps, you'll understand.), gears from broken mechanical clocks are excellent for mechanical reasons, you'll see, shafts can be obtained from broken toys and pens for extra structural reasons. From all these, you will spend virtually zero for this project, apart from some glue for good measure. Anyway, this is the challenge from us of VORTEX ELECTRICA: How cheap is your prototype? 'Coz the cheapest WINS.

We'll start on the armature. There are two configurations which I considered; the first one will be an alternate two pole armature shown below:

The coil winding is perpendicular to its commutator contacts, which I constructed using a tubular radio antenna, which I halved using pliers (this is a bit tricky, you can flatten the antenna and deflate it until it breaks apart using pliers, you should get it halved nicely). Personally I think the contacts works best using radio antennas; most project from the 'net uses aluminum wraps or from cans, they tend to oxidize and leave an insulation on the surface after some time.

The halved antennas are glued onto a cylindrical plastic spacer, from pens. REMEMBER: THE INSULATION ON THE TIPS OF THE WIRE NEED TO BE SCRAPED.

I used a second, more powerful armature design, using transformer cores shaped like in the picture below:

You can see that the transformer cores are drilled so that it can be mounted to the shaft. Now, drilling is a very important process in construction of prototypes; make sure you have a cordless drill-it should cost around 70-150 bucks depending on quality.
The important part is: how do we orientate the coils? This is difficult to explain, but imagine three solenoids oriented likewise, and the contacts are 'commoned' identically with respect to each other. Of course, you must solder these joints, and for soldering, I assume you had the basics. See diagram below:

This should give you some idea. And oh, the three contact plates/commutators should be placed so that between two solenoids, one plate of the commutator is placed coaxially in between. Then, solder the 'commoned' windings onto the plate. Use some soldering paste to aid this. So that should do it. Three common terminals soldered on three plates.

Either way, you can use one of these configurations for starters.

Now, the rotor should be mounted using metal frames or anything on a magnet, in my case I used a speaker magnet from a broken radio (also an excellent source for scavenging) and test the armature's functionality using stripped wires connected to batteries (3-9 volts is enough). Just touch the contacts and you should at least see some jerks from the armature.

By principle, once power is supplied to the armature, only two solenoids is electromagnetized. This process happen repeatedly for each of the respective solenoids, sequentially. The orientation of a 3-pole provides sort of a way to counter neutral points, where the motor always will need a startup torque using external force; this happens sometimes if the number of poles are even, but for odd number of poles, InsyaAllah it will never happen. So, to put simply, the motor will forcefully turn upon the orientation of the poles.

If it doesn't move, check for short circuits and other stuff and try again until it's done.

From here, everything else is easy. I used plastic plates from scraps and used to construct the body. See below:

Next, the construction of the permanent brushes should be done. I encountered using strips of aluminum from cans for brushes, but the oxidation on aluminum, even after sandpapering, is quite inevitable. So I opted using wires instead. But there is a problem; wires aren't springy, which means after a while the wires will not be in contact anymore with the commutators. So what I did is to straddle the stripped wires with springs from mechanical pens, and they did an excellent job.

Here's the diagram:

I finalized the motor with extra touches of mechanics for the batteries and so on:

Notice that I added another magnet to homogenize the permanent magnetic field, and a metal turbine to indicate rotation.

This motor turns quite fast for 6 volts (4 AA batteries). Screws are always needed to assemble the plates; this makes drilling even more imperative.
Try it! It's very interesting to see something that moves from your works!
Have a nice day.
May Allah bless all of you. See ya!
Vizier87