I need an idea

[SeanHatch]

I am a novice in the field of electronics. I have a class about electronics right now, but I really want to build some more interesting stuff on my own, and I was wondering if you people could help me figure out a good project to start off with. I mean, sure, I've built a few circuits that make lights blinks with 555 timers, and yeah, I've made a half-adder, but now I would like to move onto things that are actually somewhat useful. So if anybody could maybe recommend a good, simple project for me to start with, that would be a nice start to a good hobby.

:arrow: One more thing...what happenend to that garage door hacker circuit, that didn't look too difficult although the picture was terribly grainy. Anyway, If anybody knows where that is please tell me...I'm sure its around and I'm just missing it...crap.
__________
Thanks,
Sean

"Sell the kids for food..."

 

[LApprenti Sorcier]

Garage door hacker circuit

It's right at

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/led-matrix.68/

 

[Ragnar]

You could help me with my litle project at.
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/change-username.351/.
I am building a circuit in proteus (a circuit simulation program).
I would be gratefull for any help...

 

[electrogeek]

Have you ever considered about build a digital tape measure . Yea , I know that this sounds corny but if you was to place the circuit on a stand with a pre-measured wheel and wires that go the circuit from the wheel itself it does work .
Worse comes to worse if you was to ever decide to transfer to Old Dominion University here in Norfolk, Virginia you would already have 1 course 50% complete by just building a workable digital tape measure circuit .
Good luck in what you decide to do .

 

[daviddoria]

got any more info on this digital tape measure? a schematic maybe? that sounds fun lol

also on the garage door hacker... isn't there something like 300000000 codes that garage doors use now? how does that work then?

 

[mammanoti]

How about designing a circuit to control a 'traffic light'? To make it more interesting design and build the circuit to control the lights so that Red is lit for 10 seconds, then green for 10 seconds and then yellow for 5 seconds and have it cycle all over again. If that sounds to 'simple' add a digital read out to show the count and if you really want to have fun add a traffic light for the opposite direction.

You can do this with JK flip flops and and/nand/nor gates or if you want to catch your professor on a technical loop hole - build it using only 3 chips.

:wink:

 

[herbymcduff]

How about designing a circuit to control a 'traffic light'? To make it more interesting design and build the circuit to control the lights so that Red is lit for 10 seconds, then green for 10 seconds and then yellow for 5 seconds and have it cycle all over again. If that sounds to 'simple' add a digital read out to show the count and if you really want to have fun add a traffic light for the opposite direction.
:wink:

Actually, you could use a simple non dedicated Micro. Like right now, i'm working with 8085 micros. I know, it's a bit simple, but fun. Writting the program above would be easy.

On the garage door codes. Ya, it's just about as bad as the Viper alarm sysem codes. What they do, is that they are smart enough not to use the same code more than once, and just change everytime. Thus making it nearly impossible to crack.

 

[mechie]

Digital Tape Measure

Have you ever considered about build a digital tape measure . Yea , I know that this sounds corny but if you was to place the circuit on a stand with a pre-measured wheel and wires that go the circuit from the wheel itself it does work .

So is this just counting the turns of a wheel as you trundle it along a path? I would have thought ultrasonics in a hand-held box would have been nearer to a "digital tape measure" - sort of "point-and-read".
Still, if the route isn't a line-of-sight path then electrogeek's idea is more flexible and probably a lot easier to implement.

Just my penneth's worth. :wink:

 

[mammanoti]

[Actually, you could use a simple non dedicated Micro. Like right now, i'm working with 8085 micros. I know, it's a bit simple, but fun. Writting the program above would be easy.[/quote]

Yeah that is true, but getting the circuit down to 3 chips is the fun of it, sure you can do it with 10, but try just 3 or course with the Micro. :lol:

 

[herbymcduff]

hard to do with just three. A non dedicated micro needs more than that. It needs an address latch, data latch, address decoders, RAM, ROM, serial port, parellel port, and one to access the keypad. So you see, i don't think you can just run it off of just 3. But if you can, I would be interested to know. I can only think that you would need a minimium of 6.

 

[kinjalgp]

If you use Microcontroller like 8051 or its variants (out of some 1500) you can do most of your projects using only 1 single chip. Isn't that cool? 8)