Migrating to HI-TECH C compiler for PIC MCU is not really a hard task. The developers have taken much care in keeping it that way. In addition to the existing features of the C18 compiler, there are a lot of other added features in the HI-TECH C compiler. This post...

In this post we will discuss logic and interface of a matrix keypad (4x4 for this post) with microcontroller to reduce the number of port pins required to read a certain number of inputs (digital). The same logic applies to any matrix keypad of order NxN. Where, N is the...

The 7 segment display is widely used to display numeric data. They are limited by the number of segments (LEDs) they have and hence are not suitable for displaying text. There are some variants of this kind of displays that have 11 segments which enables them to display text also....

I wanted to make a breadboard breakout for PIC microcontrollers after seeing this arduino breadboard breakout from adafruit. This product is fully standalone and yet has very small footprint so that it can be conveniently plugged into the breadboard. The most amazing part was that it still has 2 rows...

Toner Transfer method for making PCB at home is probably one thing that went as viral as the Arduino. Electronics hobbyists around the world started using it to make professional looking PCBs at home. Here I will document the steps involved in fabricating PCBs with things that you can mostly...

In this post I will document the procedure involved in making a tray to suspend PCBs. The enchant (FeCl3 solution) is toxic and cannot be handled with bare hands. So I devised this easy and reusable method for suspending the PCBs with the toner into the solution. If you are...

In my previous post Introduction to Stepper Motors and How they Work, we had a look at stepper motors and how they work. This post will deal with the programming and circuitry involved in the stepper motor interface with PIC microcontroller. Usually a microcontroller is used to produce the stepping...

Stepper motor is a specially designed DC motor that can be driven by giving excitation pulses to the phase windings. They cannot be driven by just connecting the positive and negative leads of the power supply. They are driven by a stepping sequence which is generated by a controller. The...

Digital clocks are are very commonly (cheaply) available these days. Some of them have a built in RTC to keep the time running even if the main battery fails and some of them don’t. In either case, for a standalone embedded application to get time, an RTC in almost the...

Linux is fast becoming the order of the day. Gone are the days when hackers, techies and geeks were the only people who could use it. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) of the Linux machines have also improved so much that one can use the computer without having to know...