This is my entry for the 555 Contest recently started by Jeri Ellsworth and Chris Gammell. It is a camera timer (aka. intervalometer) for taking time lapse videos with my DSLR. It is a very simple circuit designed around a 555 timer IC. It has indicator LEDs, a relay to control the camera, and a potentiometer which allows me to set the photo interval between 15 seconds down to around 1 second.
Controlling a servo motor with an Arduino or other type of microcontroller is probably the easiest way to get started in robotics, motion art, or any other reason you may have to make your electronic project interact with the real world. Servos are very simple to interact with and in this post I’ll show you how to connect one to an Arduino.
Many treadmills have a way of folding up to save space, but often, as is the case with mine, the latch is very simple and not enough to keep little hands from unlatching it. The base is also very heavy, so if it were to fall on anyone, it could cause serious injury. This is how I child proofed my treadmill using a padlock and a few parts from the hardware store.
Build your own HDTV TV Antenna to cut the cord from your cable provider and save $1000 a year. This DIY antenna is very easy to build with just a few basic tools and a few supplies available from the hardware store.
After being disappointed with the current channel offerings and ever increasing price of our local cable provider, we recently decided to disconnect our cable TV service and go for over the air broadcasts as well as the many online services available now. I built this DB4 antenna, also called a bowtie antenna, to increase the rang of signals I could pick up over the basic rabbit ears antenna.
Have you ever had a cassette tape adapter that quit working all of a sudden and just keeps getting ejected from your tape deck? Here is an easy and virtually free way to fix your cassette tape adapter and get you back to listening to your iPod, iPhone, or whatever mp3 player you use it for.
Here is a nice resistor color (colour for some of you) code diagram I ran across online. I used to read resistors so often that I didn’t need a guide, but It has been so long that I can no longer decode them from memory. Lately I’ve needed to read some resistor color codes occasionally so I found this chart online. I thought it was very easy to read and have it hanging on the wall in my lab for quick reference. I don’t remember where I found it and I’ve seen it in several locations so I don’t know who to credit but I wanted to repost it here for everyone to make use of.