who lives surrounded by 'their' PICs?

[Cagao]

Just a curious question really.

How many of you have put PICs into your houses performing a special function, and if so, what exactly?

 

[jacob.zurasky]

A few things I created over the past month or two. 1.) An Ipod speaker dock with 50w amplifier, and an output to start my coffee maker when the alarm sounds and starts playing my wakeup playlist. 2.) Automatic cat feeder to feed my hungry cats. 3.) Motorcycle alarm that can alert me up to 3 miles away of a disturbance. -Jacob

 

[kchriste]

Practical PIC Projects I've finished:
House alarm system interface to DSC alarm keypad.
Delay circuit/timed disable for wav file door chime.
Mod for cheapo Curtis MP3 player for rapid track changes.
Battery charger/voltage booster for camper battery system.
NIMH battery charger.

Automatic catfeeder to feed my hungry cats.

This'll be one of my next projects for feeding the cat outside but not feeding everything else.

 

[ikalogic]

3.) Motorcycle alarm that can alert me up to 3 miles away of a disturbance. -Jacob

what do you mean by disturbance? you mean trafic diturbance?

 

[jacob.zurasky]

By disturbance, I meant someone sitting on, or moving the bike. I installed a shock sensor on the bike and it can detect small movements and trip the transmitter to alert me.

 

[ikalogic]

By disturbance, I meant someone sitting on, or moving the bike. I installed a shock sensor on the bike and it can detect small movements and trip the transmitter to alert me.

may i ask again.. how do you detect movement all over the bike? are there many sensors? or just one sensor that get trigered if it moves...? i am wondering..

 

[Hero999]

I presume he used a vibration sensor, you don't need more than one, if someone tries to tamper with it all the shaking around will be strong enough to trigger the alarm.

 

[ikalogic]

I presume he used a vibration sensor, you don't need more than one, if someone tries to tamper with it all the shaking around will be strong enough to trigger the alarm.

okay, that's what u had in mind.. but what is a vibration sensor? a 3D accelero-meter? or a simple swich arrangement... ?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

okay, that's what u had in mind.. but what is a vibration sensor? a 3D accelero-meter? or a simple swich arrangement... ?

Often it's just an inverted pendulum with a weight on the top.

 

[jacob.zurasky]

I went to a place that installed car alarms and asked to purchase just a shock sensor, it was 20$. It has 4 leads; 12v, Gnd, Warn, and Alarm. Warn and Alarm are pulled low when a vibration is detected. Warn being a slight vibration and Alarm being a stronger one. The sensitivity is adjustable by potentiometer. There looks to be a magnet suspended by both sides by a type of rubber with what I guess to be a hall sensor in front of it. When the magnet is vibrated out of position it detects it.

 

[kirant400]

home

me created a gun.at the end of it a ir is placed.and use to shoot at light for turning on and off
i used pic as a latch

 

[Sceadwian]

PICS are good, but if you want SERIOUS timeing for a rail gun you should use discrete logic and seperate the elements properly.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

PICS are good, but if you want SERIOUS timeing for a rail gun you should use discrete logic and seperate the elements properly.

How fast are you hoping your rail gun will work?.

 

[Hero999]

You shouldn't need any timing for a rail gun, if you use the right value capacitance and inductance in the PFN so it's critically damped a timing device isn't necessary.

I've done some research into rail guns and I can tell you that the chances of building a working model are very low and it will cost a lot of money.

 

[BackFire1]

I've done some research into rail guns and I can tell you that the chances of building a working model are very low and it will cost a lot of money.

I've made a coil of wire fire a paper clip out a rolled paper tube by charging a 22,000:mu: F cap from 30v DC and dump it into the coil, the paper clip dribbles out the end but with this kinda performance from a really poor setup surely there's scope, what are the limiting factors that increase complexity and cost??

 

[Hero999]

Mainly the huge capacitors required to generate the huge pulse and the cost of machining the parts can be pretty high too.

 

[BackFire1]

What parts would you have to machine? If there was no intention of real power, a length of pumming pipe that fits into the core of enammelled copper wire spools, allowing cheap, powerful coils to just be slipped onto the barrel (the pipe)

 

[atferrari]

As far as I recall, currents involved was the chief limitation. Just from my readings, not hands on experience!