Chip with simple program for Toy

[the Wiz]

www.x10.com If you watch for the sales, you could get a wired, low-light B&W
camera (with a 60 foot cable), a wireless motion detector, and their VCR
controller (triggered by the motion detector) for $100-$125 for the package.
Add $30-$50 for a color camera, but be aware that they are wireless and thus
larger.
If you want a smaller camera, you will have to go elsewhere (and pay more).
You might find a "naked" camera at www.mpja.com - CCD chip (maybe with a lens)
and the electronics on a small circuit board. You design a mount for it.
Flower arrangements, baskets, books, etc, make good concealments for most
cameras.
Commercial concealed cameras (built into books, clocks, etc) are more expansive
because of low volume and lots of handwork (like cutting a cavity in the pages
of a real book).

m.posey@cox.net (Perry Noid) wrote:

The few VCR controllers on the market (sends IR signals to ordinary VCR
to record and then stop after a delay, triggered by motion detector or
other security device), but VCR controllers cost about $150, and then
add to that the cost of the camera/motion detector combo.

After the controller I had went out I realized that an ordinary univeral
remote costs only about $10 and could be adapted by wiring the record
and play buttons to a custom timer. I have various switches and cheap
cameras that would work fine.

Then i found this device:

http://www.globalmart.com/page/z/zev208.htm

However after i recieved it in the mail i discovered it is supposed to
be plugged into a "CCTV System's Distribution Box" (which i'm not going
to buy because it's getting too expensive). Since there's just 3 wires
to it (red, black and blue) which apparently powers the unit and
provides the trigger signal.

Can somebody give me an expert guess as to how to hook these up? (so i
don't fry it) I thought I'd start with about 6 volts DC, negative to
black and positive to red, increase the voltage until it appeared to
work, then try momentarly connecting the blue wire to the black to see
if that triggers it.

There was no schematic in the little manual that came with it (

Or should I trash it and go with a universal-remote/custom-timer?

Either one would sure beat shelling out $150 /

More about me: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/
VB3 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vbsource.html
VB6 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vb6source.html
VB6 - MySQL how to: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/mysql.html
My newest language - NSBasic for the Palm PDA: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/nsbsource.html
Drivers for Pablo graphics tablet and JamCam cameras: http://home.earthlink.net/~mwbt/
johnecarter atat mindspring dotdot com. Fix the obvious to reply by email.

 

[Electromechy1]

thanx dana,
haven't done much c/c++ yet, but i get the gist, especially having to look up
the bits,
but i use mplab that has all the register bits in equates tables as standard,
even the idividual bits relate to the data sheets so a simple 'include'
statement sorts the readability of code. however may come useful for other
microcontroller families.

best regards

shaun

 

[Bob Masta]

On 24 Aug 2003 14:41:01 -0700, glenn.barlow@db.com (Glenn Barlow)
wrote:

"Amplify and rectify the output" - OK this is the bit where I profess
huge ignorance as a novice to Electronics. How do I do this?

Glenn

First of all, if you have a DVM with an AC Volts range that
goes low enough, you can read the coil output directly.
However, many cheap DVMs only have sensitive DC
ranges, and the AC ranges are up in the 200V range
for reading power mains.

To amplify the coil output, you will probably want a simple
op-amp circuit, run from +9V and -9V batteries. Look
at the application notes for any of the standard op-amps,
like LF351, TL081, etc. Just takes 2 resistors plus the
op-amp chip itself.

The active rectifier is only a bit more involved, and you may
be able to turn up diagrams on the Web.

Good luck!


Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
Shareware from Interstellar Research
www.daqarta.com

 

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

John wrote:

How the heck could this happen?? Isn't there safety systems in place to
prevent this? I mean really, we have circuit breakers in our homes to
prevent mishaps. I would think that on this scale, someone would have
thought of a system to prevent this from happening.

Can anyone shed any light on the matter??? How does a whole grid overload
without something being tripped before it got to this level? Are there not
measures in place to contain a power outage?

If a power plant shuts down, others take up the additional strain, if
they have the spare capacity and if the connections in the grid can
carry the current.

So you need some spare power plant capacity and good interconnections by
highest-voltage long-distance lines (several 100 kV). Both are
expensive, and have apparently not been build in the US to save costs.

There would be a simple way to prevent that sort of thing even in a
liberalised market: Hold the power companies liable for the damage that
power cuts cause to the consumers. When such damage payments become more
expensive than building a proper grid, things will improve (just imagine
the costs of car manufacturers shutting down, plus the contents of all
those freezers).

 

[Apollo]

"E Draisma" <draisma1@xs4all.nl> wrote

When the MP3 player is powered by the LM317
(instead of AAA battery) I hear a lot of noise;

Try connecting capacitors from all power supplies
to ground. Use a few values - whatever you have -
100nf, 100uf, its all good.

 

[Clifton T. Sharp Jr.]

Voltaic wrote:

people generally rub 3 conductor romex type wire (as i think is actually a
code requirement) from the breaker panels for "normal" household watages.
which includes 2 grounds and a hot.

One ground, one neutral and one hot. The distinction IS important.

--
"Here, Outlook Express, run this program." "Okay."

 

[Baphomet]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/nyregion/26POWE.html

"Dr Engelbert Buxbaum" <engelbert_buxbaum@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bif4gb$gef$07$1@news.t-online.com...

John wrote:

How the heck could this happen?? Isn't there safety systems in place to
prevent this? I mean really, we have circuit breakers in our homes to
prevent mishaps. I would think that on this scale, someone would have
thought of a system to prevent this from happening.

Can anyone shed any light on the matter??? How does a whole grid
overload
without something being tripped before it got to this level? Are there
not
measures in place to contain a power outage?


If a power plant shuts down, others take up the additional strain, if
they have the spare capacity and if the connections in the grid can
carry the current.

So you need some spare power plant capacity and good interconnections by
highest-voltage long-distance lines (several 100 kV). Both are
expensive, and have apparently not been build in the US to save costs.

There would be a simple way to prevent that sort of thing even in a
liberalised market: Hold the power companies liable for the damage that
power cuts cause to the consumers. When such damage payments become more
expensive than building a proper grid, things will improve (just imagine
the costs of car manufacturers shutting down, plus the contents of all
those freezers).

 

[Howard Henry Schlunder]

No, that isn't harmful, but overloading UPS's generally sounds like a
self-defeating procedure. As some electronics will damage themselves when
brownout conditions occur, and in the interest of preventing overheating and
catastrophic failure or fire, UPS's include current sensing capability. If
your devices draw more than the UPS is rated to handle from the battery
supply, the UPS will shutdown by itself. For the smaller and cheaper UPS's
(like this one), when on mains power, the device likely won't sense current
and shutdown, but it also may very well be able to handle more power than
it's battery powered rating (up to any limits set by circuit breakers or
fuses).

Howard Henry Schlunder

"Animesh Maurya" wrote in message
news:58eab14a.0308252341.41da73f4@posting.google.com...

Iam using my 500VA offline UPS to load up two PCs. Is this loading
harmful for the UPS or it will happen only if power failure occurs and
battery backup is used.

Thanks

 

[Andy Dingley]

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 12:26:17 -0400, Cornelius
<analytical@engineer.com> wrote:

I am a student attempting to manufacture thin film heaters by depositing
platinum on a ceramic base. My heaters keep burning open when I apply
even low voltages.

Measure the current. Are they failing by over-current, because the
overall resistance is too high ? Or are they failing by localised
over-heating, which is probably caused by a small region of high
resistance. Identifying this might give you a hint as to their failure
mode.

And never test with a constant voltage source that isn't current
limited !

 

[Arthur Jernberg]

Real aggravation is the fact that the same area was hit by a blackout in
November of 1965. The failure was blamed again on the "Niagara Power Grid"
which physically comprises most of the affected area. Detroit Edison,
Ontario Hydro, Consumers Power, and Both The Canadiean and American
Governments published a plethora of paperwork of how it happened and what
was then considered necessary means to assure it would never happen again.
Somehow all the ideals got missed in the expansion and loading of the
system. At this point technology has replaced a lot of the mechanical
devices that were in use back in 1965 but basically the same snafu
happened. A current overload initiated in northern Ohio produced such a
situation that it affected over 50 million people. Now, will the producers
and affected national governments again publish ideals that will never be
implemented. Will again this happen in to two of the most technically
advanced nations in the world. Only time will tell, that is if you don't use
a clock connected to the mains, Eh?? By the way, might be a good idea to buy
a good supply of bottled water and batteries, Eh??
"Baphomet" <fandanospam@catskill.net> wrote in message
news:vkmk0j4h626oa6@corp.supernews.com...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/nyregion/26POWE.html

"Dr Engelbert Buxbaum" <engelbert_buxbaum@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bif4gb$gef$07$1@news.t-online.com...
John wrote:

How the heck could this happen?? Isn't there safety systems in place
to
prevent this? I mean really, we have circuit breakers in our homes to
prevent mishaps. I would think that on this scale, someone would have
thought of a system to prevent this from happening.

Can anyone shed any light on the matter??? How does a whole grid
overload
without something being tripped before it got to this level? Are
there
not
measures in place to contain a power outage?


If a power plant shuts down, others take up the additional strain, if
they have the spare capacity and if the connections in the grid can
carry the current.

So you need some spare power plant capacity and good interconnections by
highest-voltage long-distance lines (several 100 kV). Both are
expensive, and have apparently not been build in the US to save costs.

There would be a simple way to prevent that sort of thing even in a
liberalised market: Hold the power companies liable for the damage that
power cuts cause to the consumers. When such damage payments become more
expensive than building a proper grid, things will improve (just imagine
the costs of car manufacturers shutting down, plus the contents of all
those freezers).

 

[Robert Monsen]

"Dana Raymond" <draymond@austin.rr.com> wrote in message
news:iH83b.5787$Pn6.1877@twister.austin.rr.com...

The PIC is based on a different kind of architecture than most other
micros.
It gets a lot of efficiency from having *separate* instruction and data
busses. Keep in mind that the PIC was first created as a "Peripheral
Interface Controller", a very low end replacement for printer interfaces,
etc. The first one I know of was made by GI and was 40(+?) pins in NMOS.
The
PIC has come a long way baby!

If you want to know more about the differences then research "Harvard
Architecture". Other Micros use "Von Neumann Architecture".

Actually, the Z8 Encore (which is a flash programmable Z8) also uses the
Harvard Architecture. Its hard to consider it a uController, however, since
the smallest package is 40 pins.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_architecture

Hope this helps
Dana Frank Raymond

"sine" <nomail@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:bihoiq$klq$1@hercules.btinternet.com...
Why did the designers of this chip not use the 8th (<7&gt data bit bus as
the selector or bank0/1, why do we have this "unnatuaral arrangement" ?

 

[the Wiz]

Heating water takes a LOT of power, which simply isn't available from "a small
12 volt, sealed lead-acid battery". An engine-powered (gas/diesel) generator
is a much more likely source of sufficient power.

A battery might be able to power a "stirrer" (think food mixer or pump) to keep
the water in a small section of the pond in motion and therefore less likely to
freeze (such as a pond used for watering livestock).

------------------------------------------

How big is the pond (gallons, liters, cubic feet, etc)?

What is its surface area?

Does the entire pond need to be freeze-protected?

How big is the battery?

How will the battery be recharged?

-----------------------

If you have the battery, try this:
In a large container, put a gallon (4 liters) of room temperature water.
Connect a 12 volt light bulb to the battery via a switch, using enough wore that
the bulb can be placed on the bottom of the container, then put the bulb in the
water.
Put a thermometer in the water, away from the light bulb.
Turn on the switch and measure the temperature change of the water when the
battery has run down.

Now extrapolate the measurements to match the quantity of water in the pond.

For example purposes, say the battery is rated at 10 amp/hours and the water
temperature changed by 10 degrees. This gives an approximate change of
temperature of one degree per gallon per amp/hour capacity.
If the pond is 500 gallons, the full charge of a 500 amp/hour battery (better
have a BIG truck to move it) would raise the temperature of the pond by one
degree.
The full charge of the 10 amp/hour battery would make an imperceptible change in
the water temperature of the pond.

aa_spaceagent@yahoo.co.uk (Abdul Ahad) wrote:

Any suggestions out there for the type of material & design I should
use so that I can heat my pond with an immersion heater in the winter
to prevent ice sheets forming?

I want to know what type of easily obtainable material to use for the
heating element, and how to minimise the wattage and current-drain, as
the supply source will be a small 12 volt, sealed lead-acid battery
(the pond is remotely based with no mains access). I want to attach
it to a thermo sensor, so that the device will be switched on for a
small interval once the temperature starts to approach zero degrees
C... and then switched back off. This will maintain the water temp.
just above freezing.

cheers
AA
(AA Institute of Space Science & Technology website:
http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagent/)

More about me: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/
VB3 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vbsource.html
VB6 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vb6source.html
VB6 - MySQL how to: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/mysql.html
My newest language - NSBasic for the Palm PDA: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/nsbsource.html
Drivers for Pablo graphics tablet and JamCam cameras: http://home.earthlink.net/~mwbt/
johnecarter atat mindspring dotdot com. Fix the obvious to reply by email.

 

[Lord Garth]

"Loan Nguyen" <nguyenld@perkinselectronics.com> wrote in message
news:b1de94c.0308291159.38b5b6e3@posting.google.com...

Hi all,

Suppose there're 2 identical charge particals (let say 2 electrons)
stays at rest at a distance L. I know that the particals will "push"
each other with cetaint force which depends on the amount of charge
and distant L (I'm out of school for long time, that's all I
remember).

Suppose the 2 particals are moving at same speed, and same direction,
the question: is there any additional force? My poor physic tell me
that the two particals are still at rest relative to each other, so
there's no addition force. Am I rite?

Only if the observer is in the same frame of reference as the two
particles. Please read about 'Relativity'.

 

[Rich Grise]

aa_spaceagent@yahoo.co.uk (Abdul Ahad) wrote in message news:<3416b228.0308290413.99303b6@posting.google.com>...

Any suggestions out there for the type of material & design I should
use so that I can heat my pond with an immersion heater in the winter
to prevent ice sheets forming?

I want to know what type of easily obtainable material to use for the
heating element, and how to minimise the wattage and current-drain, as
the supply source will be a small 12 volt, sealed lead-acid battery
(the pond is remotely based with no mains access). I want to attach
it to a thermo sensor, so that the device will be switched on for a
small interval once the temperature starts to approach zero degrees
C... and then switched back off. This will maintain the water temp.
just above freezing.

cheers
AA

Uh... Electric (presumably resistance, possibly thermoelectric) heat,
in a pond, outdoors, in the middle of winter.

I hope you have about eleventy jillion dollars for batteries and
heavy equipment to haul them to the site. ;-}

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Sir Charles W. Shults III]

That's the funny thing- from the perspective of a stationary observer, the
two particles zipping by have a force that pulls them together. The faster they
appear to be moving, the more strongly they are attracted, so they tend to move
apart more slowly. How slowly? Exactly the amount that equals the time
dilation based on their velocity, due to relativity. Isn't that cool?
Now, what is the force? Magnetic induction. Each has a magnetic field,
from the perspective of the stationary observer. This means that they represent
two parallel currents. The field induced in the vacuum around each electron
attracts the other electron. This means that while they are indeed repelling
each other, they are also attracted to each other and that is what makes them
appear to move apart more slowly, the faster they go.

Cheers!

Chip Shults
My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip

 

[Abdul Ahad]

richardgrise@yahoo.com (Rich Grise) wrote in message news:<3df9fd6c.0308291320.7916cc66@posting.google.com>...

aa_spaceagent@yahoo.co.uk (Abdul Ahad) wrote in message news:<3416b228.0308290413.99303b6@posting.google.com>...
Any suggestions out there for the type of material & design I should
use so that I can heat my pond with an immersion heater in the winter
to prevent ice sheets forming?

I want to know what type of easily obtainable material to use for the
heating element, and how to minimise the wattage and current-drain, as
the supply source will be a small 12 volt, sealed lead-acid battery
(the pond is remotely based with no mains access). I want to attach
it to a thermo sensor, so that the device will be switched on for a
small interval once the temperature starts to approach zero degrees
C... and then switched back off. This will maintain the water temp.
just above freezing.

cheers
AA

Uh... Electric (presumably resistance, possibly thermoelectric) heat,
in a pond, outdoors, in the middle of winter.

I hope you have about eleventy jillion dollars for batteries and
heavy equipment to haul them to the site. ;-}

Good Luck!
Rich

Thanks chaps, (esp the the first reply above)... I will stick to the
"stirer" methodology to stop the freeze-over. I plan to use a solar
panel for keeping the battery charged and a small motorised fan to do
the stirring of the water. My thermo sensor is only suitable for
sensing air temperature surrounding the pond, guess I'll have to
establish what the air-water differential is and adjust the settings
accordingly.

On to a space-related application of battery-powered
heating...preventing a pond freezing over in your back yard is one
thing. Imagine the challenge facing space exploration wizards who plan
to land battery/solar powered space probes on Mars' north/south poles
in the future. The thinking is to bore holes into polar ice sheets on
Mars down to a decent depth to get samples of primitive fossils/life
forms that may have once existed on the planet. They plan to use some
kind of resistive heating device which is probably as yet under
research... Fascinating parallel application to my humble little pond
experiments!

AA
http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagent

 

[Sir Charles W. Shults III]

I experimented with this one winter and came up with a simple solution.
Get some black plastic hose or tubing like they use for irrigation systems.
Coil it loosely and make a flat light collector that can get sun exposure during
the day. Also get a couple of those plastic buckets that hold about five
gallons and cover them in insulation. Spray foam is fine and painting them
black on the sunward side won't hurt.
Plumb the tubing to circulate to the buckets. They act as a heat mass.
During the day, the sunlight is gathered as heat and stored in the water in the
buckets. A small solar panel can run a pump that slowly circulates the water
when the sun shines. During the night, the extra few degrees will make a world
of difference, even without the pump running.
Oh, and when it gets dark, it should open a valve that lets the water out of
the pipe so it will not freeze in them.

Cheers!

Chip Shults
My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip

 

[Terry Pinnell]

"Tom Del Rosso" <tdnews01@att.net.invalid> wrote:

BRAVO!

Well...except for one thing. The K should be low or else Q will just
bounce half as many times as the clock.

Thanks Tom. It was a circuit I'd hand-drawn in some very old notes, so
I just re-drew it in CircuitMaker. I've tracked it back now to page
105 of R.M. Marston's 'CMOS Circuits Manual'. Here's the accompanying
text. (A timely exercise for me, BTW - I was forgetting how to use my
OCR software!) I've edited the text a bit to refelect the component
labels I used in my schematic.

=================================
Figure 6.16 JK-type flip-flop used as a monostable

This circuit ... operates with the IC wired in the frequency divider
mode by suitable connection of its control terminals (J,K and Set in
the 4027B), but with the Q terminal connected back to Reset via a C-R
time-delay network. The operating sequence ... is as follows.

When the circuit is in its quiescent state the Q output terminal is
low and discharges timing capacitor Ct via R2 and the parallel
combination D1-Rt On the arrival of a sharply rising leading edge on
the clock terminal the Q output flips high, and Ct starts to charge up
via the series combination Rt-R2. Eventually, after a delay determined
mainly by the Ct-R2 values (Rt is large relative to R2), the Ct
voltage rises to such a value that the flip-flop is forced to reset,
driving the Q terminal low again. Ct then discharges rapidly via R2,
and D1-Rt, and the circuit is then ready to generate another pulse on
the arrival of the next trigger signal.

The timing period of the Figure ... 6.16 circuit is roughly equal to
0.7 CtRt and the reset period (the time taken for Ct to discharge at
the end of each pulse) roughly equals CtR2. In practice, R2 is used
mainly to prevent degradation of the trailing edge of the pulse
waveform as Ct discharges; R2 can be reduced to zero if this
degradation is acceptable. Note that the circuit generates a
positive-going output pulse at Q, and a negative-going pulse at Q'
(not-Q), and the Q' waveform is not influenced by the R2 value.
=================================

I see nothing there that alters your point about the transmission of
noise from the clock. But presumably Tim will de-bounce his button
signal if that's to be the clock input, so all should be well in
practice.

--
Terry Pinnell
Hobbyist, West Sussex, UK

 

[Animesh Maurya]

animesh_m@yahoo.com (Animesh Maurya) wrote in message news:<58eab14a.0308292048.77cccb28@posting.google.com>...

Consider an PNP transistor in Common-Base configuration.
Emitter-Base region is forward biased and that of Collector-Base
region is reverse biased.

______________________
| | | |
-------| P | N | P |-------
| | | | | |
| _________ __________ |
| | |
|+ =======>> | - |
----- | ---
--- | -----
|- | +|
| | <<======== |
| | |
------------------------------------


Now replace the transistor with a hollow cylindrical container.

Place two porous membranes vertically opposite to each other at the
centre of the cylinder and call the enclosed region as base.

Distance between these two membranes is considered small as compared
to the length of the cylinder due to the fact that base region is
small in a transistor.

A small hole in made on the body of the cylinder in the base region.
Diameter of this hole is small than that of emitter & collector.

Connect this assembly using tubes in Common-Base configuration and put
pumps in place of a battery.
Fill up the tubes with water. Assume that water flows in the same
direction as that of the conventional current of battery (i.e. form
+ve to ?ve).

Now put on the pumps and see what happens.

Let us first highlight the Emitter-Base region.

Water flowing form the emitter reaches the base and will start
dividing. But majority of water will be transferred to the collector,
as the base opening in very small.

Moreover in Collector-Base region the pump is applying force which is
just opposite to that of the base and thus making base current less
and less, which in turns facilitates large collector current. This
causes amplification.

Analogies are seldom perfect and at times can be misleading. I don't
know to which extent it is correct.

Also one major drawback in that I cant explain amplification in case
of a NPN transistor, if the above assumption are unaltered.

Animesh Maurya

Sorry the subject line was "Analogy about Transistor" rather that
"sci.electronics, sci.electronics.basics, sci.physics" which was some
how mispasted.

Animesh Maurya

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Terry Pinnell wrote:

I see nothing there that alters your point about the transmission of
noise from the clock. But presumably Tim will de-bounce his button
signal if that's to be the clock input, so all should be well in
practice.

Do you mean debounce it before it goes to the clock? I thought this
monostable was supposed to be the debouncer.


--
-Reply in group, but if emailing please add two more zeros and delete
the obvious-