Starting on electrical projects

[xx6heartless6xx]

One of my dreams is to one day build a robot that can be programmed to move around, pick up items, etc. To get there I know it requires a lot of work so I want to start at building some basic electrical toys. Which projects would you recommend working on?

Also what projects have you guys worked on?

[ZachO]

I'm about to do some modifying of an AlphaSmart pro and turning into a computer(which it basically already is) with some work and add a bigger (color) screen and DAC. I also plan on writing an assembler for it so i can program on the road. Then once I have that with its ins and outs I'm going to be designing my own single board computer(8 bit) which was my ultimate goal........ Don't even ask why, because to that I always respond why not?

Thanks,

ZachO

*EDIT* btw forgot to say the alpha uses a 68hc11 (Motorola) which is really, really, well documented.... theres already a version of basic for it.... gets me thinking, alphasmart basic?

[k1net1k]

one of my side projects is an arduino, some servo motors, and sensors. looks very promising for prototyping stuff

[dandymcgee]

So campus safety decided to reprogram my door code while I was at work today.. got back and had to climb in through the window to get into my own room. I wired up a toggle switch to the override inside the back of the keypad and stuck it where it's not visible but just reachable under the door. Now I just push a button and my door opens regardless of what keycode is programmed into it.

I'd reset it to my own code again, but I'm leaving in a week and have no way of knowing the current code to fix it before I leave.

[dr-snipe]

So campus safety decided to reprogram my door code while I was at work today.. got back and had to climb in through the window to get into my own room. I wired up a toggle switch to the override inside the back of the keypad and stuck it where it's not visible but just reachable under the door. Now I just push a button and my door opens regardless of what keycode is programmed into it.

I'd reset it to my own code again, but I'm leaving in a week and have no way of knowing the current code to fix it before I leave.

Never fuck with an engineer

Back to the topic, right now I'm working on a 2 Row LCD based game using my Arduino and some toggle switches. I'm going to be ordering some AVR chips and tools soon so I can start working at a lower level than an Arduino

For starting embedded electronics, I'd recommend getting an Arduino because it is quite simple and makes grabbing the concept easier. Or at least that worked for me. On E-Bay they sell Arduino starter kits with different models that come with a lot of parts that are good to start experimenting with.

[dandymcgee]

Back to the topic, right now I'm working on a 2 Row LCD based game using my Arduino and some toggle switches. I'm going to be ordering some AVR chips and tools soon so I can start working at a lower level than an Arduino

I think a recreation of the handheld "Lights Out" game would be really cool as an intermediate electronics project. It would require some work, but I wouldn't imagine it'd be too awfully difficult.

[ZachO]

Forgot to mention, I'm also going to be writing new firmware for the AlphaSmart....... this is going to be uh...fun? :D

[Falco Girgis]

I'm actually building myself an electrical lab now that I've graduated and have the money to do so.

Kendall just got me this for my birthday:


It's an FPGA-based board with a bunch of peripheral interfaces (VGA, IDE, USB, SD Card slot, PS/2, etc). It has an Altera Cyclone II FPGA and a NIOS II microprocessor.

The NIOS microprocessor has an extendable instruction set through the FPGA. Essentially you can write your own assembly opcodes that can be submitted to the FPGA as a coprocessor (like a vector unit or GPU). Then you write the digital logic within the FPGA to decode the instructions and implement their functionality. FPGAs are field programmable gate arrays, and you can configure/program the digital logic within them using Verilog or VHDL.

I also got the optional 3.5" LCD screen with it. I'm very interested in making my own video game console at some point in the future (I can't let my electrical side projects take precedence until ES is done). A good starting project idea of mine was to emulate the Dreamcast's VMU in hardware with it.

It also comes with a compiler that is capable of scanning your C/++ code and configuring the FPGA to hardware-accelerate commonly used functionality.

My hardware interests are slightly more low level than you guys (I'm more into microprocessor design and digital logic), but I still thought I'd share while we're all on the subject.

[RyanPridgeon]

So campus safety decided to reprogram my door code while I was at work today.. got back and had to climb in through the window to get into my own room.

Wait. WHAT? Why would they do that?

[dandymcgee]

So campus safety decided to reprogram my door code while I was at work today.. got back and had to climb in through the window to get into my own room.

Wait. WHAT? Why would they do that?

Because there's 4 people living on campus this summer and they're too lazy to remember which rooms we live in.

[xx6heartless6xx]

I'm actually building myself an electrical lab now that I've graduated and have the money to do so.

Kendall just got me this for my birthday:


It's an FPGA-based board with a bunch of peripheral interfaces (VGA, IDE, USB, SD Card slot, PS/2, etc). It has an Altera Cyclone II FPGA and a NIOS II microprocessor.

The NIOS microprocessor has an extendable instruction set through the FPGA. Essentially you can write your own assembly opcodes that can be submitted to the FPGA as a coprocessor (like a vector unit or GPU). Then you write the digital logic within the FPGA to decode the instructions and implement their functionality. FPGAs are field programmable gate arrays, and you can configure/program the digital logic within them using Verilog or VHDL.

I also got the optional 3.5" LCD screen with it. I'm very interested in making my own video game console at some point in the future (I can't let my electrical side projects take precedence until ES is done). A good starting project idea of mine was to emulate the Dreamcast's VMU in hardware with it.

It also comes with a compiler that is capable of scanning your C/++ code and configuring the FPGA to hardware-accelerate commonly used functionality.

My hardware interests are slightly more low level than you guys (I'm more into microprocessor design and digital logic), but I still thought I'd share while we're all on the subject.

So what can you do with a board like this or an arduino board? Are they basically the brain of your project?

[Falco Girgis]

I'm actually building myself an electrical lab now that I've graduated and have the money to do so.

Kendall just got me this for my birthday:


It's an FPGA-based board with a bunch of peripheral interfaces (VGA, IDE, USB, SD Card slot, PS/2, etc). It has an Altera Cyclone II FPGA and a NIOS II microprocessor.

The NIOS microprocessor has an extendable instruction set through the FPGA. Essentially you can write your own assembly opcodes that can be submitted to the FPGA as a coprocessor (like a vector unit or GPU). Then you write the digital logic within the FPGA to decode the instructions and implement their functionality. FPGAs are field programmable gate arrays, and you can configure/program the digital logic within them using Verilog or VHDL.

I also got the optional 3.5" LCD screen with it. I'm very interested in making my own video game console at some point in the future (I can't let my electrical side projects take precedence until ES is done). A good starting project idea of mine was to emulate the Dreamcast's VMU in hardware with it.

It also comes with a compiler that is capable of scanning your C/++ code and configuring the FPGA to hardware-accelerate commonly used functionality.

My hardware interests are slightly more low level than you guys (I'm more into microprocessor design and digital logic), but I still thought I'd share while we're all on the subject.

So what can you do with a board like this or an arduino board? Are they basically the brain of your project?

An arduino board is a preassembled board with a processor and some peripherals, I believe.

This board is sort of like that, except you can build/extend your own processor and digital circuitry through the FPGA. It's more for designing and developing your own microprocessor.

And yeah, they could be described as the "heart" (main CPU) of an electrical/embedded project.

[K-Bal]

That one looks pretty much like your board, Falco:

[Falco Girgis]

Holy shit! It is! Hell yeah!

One of our class assignments for graduate VHDL design was actually to write a VGA driver to display our initials. This guy is a badass.

[xx6heartless6xx]

So campus safety decided to reprogram my door code while I was at work today.. got back and had to climb in through the window to get into my own room. I wired up a toggle switch to the override inside the back of the keypad and stuck it where it's not visible but just reachable under the door. Now I just push a button and my door opens regardless of what keycode is programmed into it.

I'd reset it to my own code again, but I'm leaving in a week and have no way of knowing the current code to fix it before I leave.

Sweet stuff. How the hell'd you guys learn to do cool stuff like this?