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  • It’s the 80s again at Coventry Station

    Mike’s Blog Oct 9, 2018 | 20:17 pm

    It’s the 80s again at Coventry Station Some posters have been taken down at Coventry railway station, revealing some 80s vintage poster fragments. I first noticed these a couple of weeks agoRead More

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  • Ngopi Coffee Shop

    Mike’s Blog Jul 13, 2018 | 20:33 pm

    Ngopi Coffee Shop I walked past this place (opposite the small Ikea showroom in Birmingham city centre) occasionally while it was being fitted out. A few days agoRead More

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  • Coventry Motofest

    Mike’s Blog Jun 3, 2018 | 20:48 pm

    Coventry Motofest These photos were taken back on the 3rd but I didn’t get around to copying them off my camera until today. This post is mainlyRead More

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  • The Art of Cookery

    Mike’s Blog Mar 28, 2018 | 21:09 pm

    The Art of Cookery This morning I noticed that the Google Doodle was celebrating the 310th birthday of somebody called Hannah Glasse. The name sounded familiar. It turned outRead More

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  • Same Bull with a new hat

    Mike’s Blog Mar 16, 2018 | 09:24 am

    Same Bull with a new hat A few days ago I noticed that the bull outside the Bullring was wearing a new green hat, ready for St. Patrick’s Day. This morningRead More

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Playing with PICs

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Written by Mike
Category: PIC microcontroller
Published: 03 April 2018
Hits: 261
  • pic
  • arduino
  • raspberry pi

A few months ago I decided to have a play with the PIC microcontrollers, but on the cheap. Since I've been using Raspberry Pi and Arduino for a while I thought I'd see if I could use those as programmers. I'd already used an Arduino to program an ATTiny so I thought it should be possible. I found several different ways of doing it. The arduino-based PIC programmer seemed to be the easiest since, in addition to the arduino and a 13v supply, it only needed a few resistors and one transistor.

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Very Slow Clock Speeds

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Written by Mike
Category: PIC microcontroller
Published: 03 April 2018
Hits: 245
  • pic

This is the second article dealing with my experiments with the PIC 16F628 and the Arduino programmer. The first thing I tried was the usual blinking LED. I then tried sending data to the Raspberry Pi using the serial port. The datasheet for the 628 mentions several different ways of controlling the clock speed, including the internal oscillator, an external crystal, an external RC timer and an external 'logic level' clock signal.

PIC and slow clock

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Vintage Electronics Kit

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Written by Mike
Category: electronics
Published: 31 July 2018
Hits: 167

50 in 1 electronics setYears ago I had one of the Tandy 200-in-1 electronics kits. I followed most of the projects in the book but never got around to creating my own circuits. I lost interest after accidentally wiring a transistor incorrectly and it blew the top off. My interest in electronics was revitalised when I bought a Raspberry Pi 3 and soon after got one of the many electronics starter kits which came with a breadboard and a set of components.

Earlier this year I was looking for some components on ebay when I saw one of the old Tandy kits for sale. This was a late 60s kit and pre-dates affordable LEDs. It had a selection of resistors and capacitors, a single bulb, transistors metal casing and a few other bits. A lot of the projects are of their era and less suitable for modern times. The ones aimed at radio hams aren't much use for the average person.

I tested the resistors and capacitors and they seem to be ok. The solar cell also still works. I have tried a few of the experiments with mixed results. The water purity meter, which measures conductivity, seems to be 'all or nothing' and reads either zero or maximum conductivity. A morse code circuit has a very harsh sound. I will try to repeat some of these with new components to see if the results are different.

 

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