Staffans projects

Year: 2011

  • PIR sensor

    Just got a PIR sensor. PIR, as I understand, stands for Passive Infra Red. It’s a cool little thing that detects motion, or actually changes of infrared light. Infrared, in this case, is heat. So whenever a person, or part of a person, or perhaps an animal, or part of an animal moves infront of…

  • Encounter with a rotary encoder

    Out of curiosity (which btw is one of my main driving factors in life), I bought a couple of rotary encoders. A rotary encoder is a knob that turns in small steps. It has no minimum or maximum turning angle – you can turn it as many turns you want. They are often used in…

  • Button Bouncing

    Buttons can bounce? Oh, yeah! If you’ve ever tried programming a microcontroller, you most certainly have come across the problem: buttons can bounce. This means that when you push a button, it goes from off to on, but sometimes it goes back to off again before going to on. This can happen several times within…

  • Oscilloscope

    An oscilloscope? Yes, I want one, but is it really worth the money? Will I use it enough to justify the investment? It’s cool and all, but… An oscilloscope is certainly not necessary for someone programming microcontrollers and building small electronic projects. But it does provide a way of looking at electrical signals – and…

  • Four-digit-display

    When I first saw them for sale in a catalog, I immediately knew I needed them! I just had to figure out a good use for them. Each kit includes two fairly large 7-segment LED displays from Velleman (K8063) controlled via RS232. Perfect for hooking up to a computer to display… digits..? So I ended…