LEAP#447 Measuring Capacitance with Digital Logic
Capaci-meter is a Boldport remix of a classic capacitance measurement circuit designed in high school by Jez Siddons of Peak Electronic Design.
The device takes a very interesting approach - rather than trying to measure the actual capacitance or charge time, it uses a derivitive function (the capacitor’s effect on the frequency of a 555 timer) to infer capacitance.
As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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LEAP#446 RGB Joule Thief Night Light
I recently got hold of some 5mm RGB Flashing LEDs from a seller on aliexpress - some slow and fast flashing varieties just out of curiosity. Here I’ve put one the slow-flash kind in a “night light” circuit.
I decided to power from a little 1.5V CR1216 coin cell. To boost the voltage sufficient to power the LED, I’ve attached a toroidal joule thief circuit. The oscillating voltage produced by the joule thief is not suitable for the flashing LED as it is liable to get stuck on a single colour, so I’ve added a diode/capacitor charge pump to provide a more stable power source for the LED.
As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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LEAP#442 Boldport ResPot
As any good electronics hobbyist must have done, I’ve already built a decade programmable resistor box - see LEAP#414 - but this is one with the Boldport twist. Yes, real pots.
A decade box is an old-fashioned bit of test equipment, allowing an arbitrary resistance to be dialed up to order.
As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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LEAP#441 Pollen8
“Pollen8” is an exploration of contrasts and patterns in a freeform wire circuit.
I was interest in playing with a design that avoided the harsh angularity of most electronic circuits, instead using graceful lines that attempt to mimic a more organic structure.
The second goal was to achieve a chameleon-like LED display, where the visual effect depends on the perspective of the viewer: random from some angles, but clearly sequenced from others.
I created this for the Hackaday Circuit Sculpture Contest.
As always, all notes, pictures and schematics are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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