Our Keeloq Shield wins ChipKIT Design Challenge!

Keeloq_ck765

We are so excited that we won the Level 3 ChipKit Design Challenge.  Please view the other levels and contestants here.  Thank you everyone who voted for us.  With the winnings we will be gaining some new tools from Microchip and Digilent.

If you want to look at the published files design and source files, they are available on github.  There are 2 sets of hardware and firmware.  The hand held keyfob schematic / firmware, and the chipkit shield schematic / library.

 

If by chance you haven’t seen our entry video yet, check it out.

Robotfest 2013 success!

Thanks everyone who participated in the event.  Our booth was a huge success.  If you didn’t make it, view the entire article to see a picture flood of what you missed.

To name a few thing’s you missed:

See you next year!

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Basic Electronics Class #2

555timer

You must register for this class on Meetup; Limited seating available.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

 

You will learn:

How to use a breadboard
What capacitors are
How to use capacitors for filtering power
How to use capacitors for basic debounce/timing circuits
Connect a 555 timer circuit for blinking an LED

This will require the purchase of a breadboard and some more expensive parts that last time (I’m thinking it will be about $15 — I may need to adjust this after I buy the parts). I will bulk-order and get everyone more parts that you need.

700pt breadboard (Like this: )
A few voltage regulators (LM317, 7805) in TO-220 packages
A few 555 timers (DIP-8)
A couple potentiometers (5k, 10k, linear taper)
More resistors (assortment)
Some capacitors (.1uF, 1uF, 10uF)
etc.

I’ll update this as I develop the slides.

You will need to bring:

1 power supply – can be a wall transformer that is between 9 and 15 VDC and greater than 200mA output. You should be able to salvage on of these from any number of places.

22ga Solid Core wire (for connecting to you breadboard)
Some kind of wire cutters. I got some of these the other day:
(Small version – will handle anything that can fit on a breadboard)

Some kind of wire strippers. I like these but any kind that can strip 22ga solid wire is fine.

The parts kit from the last class (need the resistors, LEDs, and multimeter from it) or you can buy a kit for $5 (we may not have more multimeters available if you wait too long)

Either $15 or all of the parts that I listed in the parts section above.