Bromsmurfs projects and experiments

Projects and experiments, overview

Current main project: Krokus development

Bromsmurf has carried out a wide range of projects and experiments. For many of them there exist no photographs, schematics or source code anymore. Interesting experiments will be reconstructed from the remaining documentetion as well as from memory.

The more recent projects are reasonably well documented and can be presented here relatively easy.

Monitoring the washing machine
Here is my first successfull project using a microcontroller after I built and used the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982. Almost two decades later I tried Ohsmans Matchbox microcontroller, it worked but I was never able to do something usefull with it. This "Monitoring the washing machine" project is very successfull and the Smurfin really loves it :-).

The washing machine project in a way ignited the following microcontroller projects using the Basic Stamp and soon after that the Microchip PIC controllers

Instrument will sense and log activity

First setup for the instrument It uses a thermal accelerometer where a heated gas bubble is moving in a tiny cavity. Temperatures at the sides of the cavity are monitored and indicate movement of the accelerometer.In the netherlands there is a growing concern for overweight as a health risk. This system would be iIdeal to monitor activity of fat children and adults or to measure hyperactivity (ADHD). Now quantification of these health problems will be within range.

Serial transmission, MAX232 Module

Serial transmission, FTDI 232BM

Results of a the same dataset using FTDI 232BM The only irregularities here are a few positive spikes coming from switching the datalogger to upload mode too often.

Transmission settings for both experiments:

115.200 BAUD-8N1-No flow control

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