Tag Archives: project

GSM Based Projects Buyer’s Guide

Today the market is flooded with so called project guidance institutes who provide ready made projects to the students of engineering. Over hyped and flashy names are the characteristics of such projects. I am writing this for the guidance of both students who are planning to buy such things or the faculty members of the collages evaluating such projects. Below I am giving some simple tests that could help you judge how well the software is developed. Start up the system with GSM Module disconnected from the MCUs Rx and Tx line and check if the system is able to detect this fault. Start up the system without inserting a SIM card, and check if the system is able to tell you the exact problem. Use a SIM card which has NO balance and SMS pack and check if the system is able to tell you weather message sending failed or not. Check if the system is able to detect presence of network before sending message. Faculty members of collage should arrange a mobile blocker, turn it on and then boot the system. If the system is designed to receive the message, try sending more that 32 SMS to the system to make the SIM memory full and then check what happens. A properly designed system should delete the messages […]

Microwave Controller using ATmega8 – AVR Project

Microwave Controller’s User Interface Fig. Microwave Timer using AVR ATmega8   The user interface has the following parts. Output Device: A 16×2 alphanumeric LCD Module is used as the main output device. It can display numbers, alphabets and few symbols. It can show two line and each line can have 16 characters. The backlight enables the text to be visible even in dark. A buzzer beeps when the system receive input from the user and the input is successfully processed. For example if the user presses 10 MIN button to increment timer by 10 min and this is successfully carried out the buzzer beeps. But if the timer is already at the maximum setting (90 minutes) the operation could be carried out, so the buzzer does not beeps. This buzzer also beeps a few time when the food is ready (countdown is finished) Input Device: Input from user is received by a keypad which has seven push buttons. The details of button is given below. Button Function Microwave Selects Microwave mode. Grill Selects Grill mode. 10 MIN Increment timer by 10 minutes. MIN Increment timer by 1 minute. 10 SEC Increment timer by 1 sec. STOP/Clear If the microwave is in on condition, this button turns it off and pauses the timer count down. If you are setting the timer, […]

Making A Thermometer with PIC16F877A

At basic level on microcontroller you can create this interesting project of digital thermometer. It teaches you how to acquire analog data from a sensor and display it on a lcd. We will use a popular MCU PIC16F877A to implement this mini project. The temperature will be read using a LM35 precision sensor. Final result will be shown on a 16×2 alphanumeric lcd module. Fig. PIC16F877A Based Thermometer with LCD   Stuffs Required S. No. Item Image Cost 1 40 PIN PIC Development Board Rs. 769 2 16×2 LCD Board Rs. 296 3 Single PIN Burg Wires Female/Female 20 units Rs. 100 4 12V 1A DC Adapter Rs. 127 5 LM35 Rs. 60     Total Rs. 1,352 Connections The PIC16F877A development board has the PIC16F877A microcontroller chip and its supporting basic circuitry all in a nice high quality PCB. The development board comes fully assembled and tested, thus makes it ideal for doing experiments for learning by beginners. 40 PIN PIC Development Board In the bottom portion of the pic development board you can see a row of male headers. Most of these pins are the microcontrollers general purpose input/output lines and the rest are 5v and GND supply lines. Using these pins you can connect external peripherals (like the LCD board or something else) to do your experiment. […]

Remote Temperature Monitoring using GSM – AVR Project

If you want a live demo of this, please register from the link given below. (Only in Pune) REGISTER NOW! This project can also be implemented using a PIC18F4520 microcontroller. Temperature monitoring have wide application in daily life. In modern day keeping an eye on temperature of places such as server rooms, hospital rooms, warehouses and green houses can help solve many problems. But with the use of normal temperature sensors, someone needs to go to the place in order to view the temperature. But with the development of GSM network, one can easily connect the sensor with GSM network, so that you don’t need to be present near the sensor in order to view the temperature. You can just pick up your cell phone and send a request to your sensor by a text message and in no time you will receive the temperature of the remote place ! The advantage is the you don’t need any kind of "special" device at the receiver end. You can use any cell phone to view the remote temperature. This reduces cost as you already have a cell phone. Other benefit is that the range is not limited. You can be at any place in the world (with mobile coverage of course!), to request temperature data from your room. Fig. SMS Based […]

SMS Based Voting System – AVR GSM Project

If you want a live demo of this, please register from the link given below. (Only in Pune) REGISTER NOW! This project can also be implemented using a PIC18F4520 microcontroller. Hi friends ! Here I am showing a microcontroller based project called the "GSM Based Voting System". Using this system you can ask your users to vote for any of the four options. Four available options are identified by a letters ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’. User can vote for any option by sending a text message to the mobile number. For example if you want to create a poll like this. Which is your favorite phone brand? A: Nokia B: Apple C: Samsung D: L.G. So your user can vote for any of the four brands by sending a message like this VOTE x where x is the choice he/she wish to vote for. For example if they want to vote for Nokia, then they should send a message like this : VOTE A The number of vote received for each option is shown in real time on the LCD Module. The votes are stored in the internal EEPROM of the AVR so they are not lost on power failures. That means even if you switch off the device and switch it on after few days (or few years!) […]

LED Moving Message Display using AVR ATmega8

An interesting project that can be done using Microcontroller is a LED message scroll er. It teaches you a quite lot of things. So I decided to make one. I made the hardware design modular and cascadeble That means the whole display is made up of several 15×7 modules. Each module has everything to drive 15×7 led matrix which includes a ULN2003 row driver IC and two shift register IC to drive the 15 columns. Data is loaded serially into the 15 columns. and multiplexing is done along the row. Video Demo The 15×7 Smart LED Board. The 15×7 Smart LED Board.   Schematic. The Controller Board. Any cheap AVR MCU like a ATmega8 can be used to control this board (also up to 4 such boards which give a total of 60px by 7px display). We are using our low cost development board as the controller to the LED matrix board. This board can be purchased at a price as low as Rs. 249 including the MCU ! So wiring this project is a matter of ten minutes ! Low Cost AVR Board   Whole Setup. Connecting The Display Module with Devboard. PIN Diagram.   PIN No PIN Name Devboard PIN 1 GND GND 2 N/C   3 +5V IN +5V out 4 N/C   5 Serial Data In […]

AVR RGB LED and Sound Show

Here is a nice and entertaining project created by http://www.ermicro.com . The author has a very good programming, teaching, drawing and artistic skills. The tutorial is well planned and executed. I really liked the RGB LED and Sound show given at the end. I will try it and tell how it works. Till then you can read the rest of the article here. Working with Atmel AVR Microcontroller Basic Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Peripheral AVR RGB LED and Sound Show. The article also explain various PWM techniques like Fast PWM, Phase correct pwm, phase and frequency correct pwm. You will also learn tone generation using PWM technique. Here is a Video for Various PWM Experiments

AVR Project – ATmega8 Based Multi channel IR Remote

Hi Friends, Today I will present an easy to build Multi channel IR Remote control system. It can control heavy loads (Up to AC 220V 6 Amps or smaller) with a touch of remote control. A total of 5 devices can be controlled from a distance of up to 20 feet. We will be using a standard remote control protocol that is called the NEC format. The NEC format is common in remote controls used with Chinese made CD/DVD players. They are easily available in Indian Markets. They also come in variety of sizes from full to small 21 keys (used in car audio systems). Our system is smart enough, so the user can set which key controls which load. Their are five load indicator LEDs which provide the state of five loads. When the device is powered on for the first time, the load LEDs start to blink one by one. That is the first load LED starts to blink, this means the system is waiting for the user to assign a key for that load. So you should press the key you want to use for that load. Once the system receives the key of your choice it stores it in internal EEPROM. From now on you can use that key to control that specific load. In this […]

AVR Project – ATmega8 Based Smart Code Lock

Here is a project for beginners using Atmel AVR ATmega8. The project uses some techniques that are very useful for designers to learn and utilize. Alphanumeric LCD Module Interfacing. 4×4 Keypad interfacing. PWM Control of LED (Used to dim the back-light of LCD, like in some Nokia Phones) Basic Circuit design for AVR MCUs Connecting relays and other current demanding devices. AVR Studio and project management. compiling using free avr-gcc compiler. Using eXtreme Burner – AVR to burn hex code to AVR MCU. NOTE: Don’t waste time finding each part running from shop to shop. Get all the parts with exact specification in a ready to use kit! Purchase ATmega8 based smart code lock KIT.   Fig.: ATmega8 Based Code Lock Fig.: ATmega8 Based Code Lock Project     Functions of the Project. This device can be used to code protect any electrical device (like an electronic door, lock or safe). The user must enter a correct password to gain access. The password is entered using the built in 4×4 keypad matrix. The main LCD Module is used to display messages to the user. As soon as correct password is entered the relay is activated. This is indicated by a LED which is placed near the relay. The relay remains on as long as the user wishes. You just need […]

AVR Project – ATmega8 based RPM Meter

Hello All, Today I will show you how you can make a simple RPM Meter using AVR ATmega8. The RPM meter we will be making is a contact less type, i.e. it measures the RPM of a rotating object without actually making any contact with it. An IR reflectance sensor will be used to sense the speed. You have to attach a white reflective object (like a white paper sticker) at one point in the periphery of rotation . Then you need to place the reflectance sensor such that the white reflector comes just above it once per rotation. In this way the sensor will give one falling edge to the MCU per rotation, we will measure number of such pulse in one second to get the revolution per second, multiplying this with 60 we get RPM. For this project I will use a ATmega8 MCU connected to a 16×2 LCD Module for showing the RPM. Design of AVR based RPM Meter. The sensor part is made up of TCRT5000 IR Reflectance sensor. It it wired as shown below. The sensor will give a LOW output whenever it detects a white reflective surface just above it. This output is feed to the INT0 pin of MCU. INT0 is a general purpose external interrupt source. It can be adjusted to interrupt […]

Remote Controlled Fan Regulator using ATmega8

This device can be used to remotely control the speed of an AC fan and to switch it on or off. The remote control is a cheap NEC Format remote, usually supplied with small DVD players. Three buttons are used to command the circuit. The UP key increase the fan’s speed while the DOWN key decrease it. The ENTER key is used to switch on or off the fan. The unit provides 10 way speed control from 0 to 9. The current speed is displayed in a seven segment display. The yellow LED on the PCB indicates the power status of the load. If the load is switched off using the R/C then the LED will also be switched off. In the Video below you can check out the project in action. The main parts of the circuit is labeled below. The seven segment display used to show the current speed level. The TSOP1738 sensor is used to pick up commands from remote control. The Yellow LED indicates the power status of the load. OUT – Here the AC load is connected in series. Tested on 220v 50Hz AC line. IN – Power supply from a 12-0-12 transformer is applied here. MCU – ATmega8 AVR 8 bit Microcontroller. SWITCH – Manual Switch used to operate the unit without the remote […]