Recent content by xstamp

The following description of a PICAXE based Flight Recorder for Model Rocketry - Par2 article is from www.nutsvolts.com/preview.php?issue=61 " Last month, we introduced you to the basics of model rocketry and outlined the hardware design of a compatible flight recorder. This article will...

The August edition of Nuts & Volts has another PICAXE article. This time the subject is a compact and low power Flight Recorder for model rockets. However, the opposition is fighting back with an article about the Basic atom.

The latest issue of Circuit Cellar has an article about a Dew Point Monitor that would make a good add-on for all those PICAXE based weather stations out there. Briefly, the dew point is the temperature at which air must be cooled, at constant pressure, so that it will be saturated with...

I am trying to develop an angle based distance measuring sensor and would like to know if anyone has any experience of used an optical linear array (Texas TSL1401 or TSL3301 etc) with a PICAXE ? The data sheets for the above examples describe a synchronous serial protocol but a bit-banged...

I have just been looking at the latest version of the Gameboy DS. At under £100 it represents incredible value, presumably because the real money is to be made from the £25 plug-in games modules. The combination of two reasonably sized colour displays (one a touch screen), powerful...

Anyone interested in importing, processing and displaying large amounts of data, via a PC serial port, might like to take a look at the new SelmaDAQ add-on for Microsoft Excel. It cannot only import up to 26 columns of data to a spreadsheet but also allows control of the remote microcontroller...

Whilst playing around with IR beam techniques I come up with the following demonstration of a robot homing beacon. Two narrow angle (20 deg) IR diodes are used to produce parallel beams. The transmission pattern from each diode is of the normal lobe shape but there is a much narrower...

As automatic weather station projects seem to be popular with PICAXE users, I thought the following bit of historical information would be of interest and also show that the idea has been around for quite a long time. Two types of unmanned weather station were used by the Germans in the Artic...

When sending information from a sensor that’s mounted on a rotating component, the options are normally to use slip rings or radio telemetry. I found that both these techniques have limitations and therefore developed a very cheap and simple optical telemetry link. By connecting an IR...

For a comprehensive introduction to miniature RC servos and their application to robotics, including details on how to modify them for continues rotation; you might like to visit www.dprg.org/projects/2003-05a/

Analog circuitry and sensors often need to operate from a voltage that is greater than the PICAXE supply. I have found a free-running PWM output to be a useful means of generating such voltages. For example, I needed about 9 volts to operate an AD 590 temperature -to- current sensor from a 5...

The February issue of Elektor has an interesting PICAXE telemetry article that can be downloaded from : www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=27&art=53266&PN=On

Following a rather ‘trial and error’ process, I managed to use some of the maths features of StampPlot Pro. The example code below generates ramping data to which StampPlot applies maths before plotting, thus avoiding any PICAXE maths. The maths used is for the following typical...

I recently downloaded (from www.stampplot.com) the latest version of StampPlot Pro. Which is a free, for home and educational use, plotting, storage and control Windows application. Release 7.5 has many new features, including improved math instructions. Very useful when using the PICAXE because...

If your writing that list to Santa this weekend, you might like to take a look at this two channel 25Mhz bandwidth DOS (with colour LCD) for only about £200. www.saelig.com/downloads/pds5022s.pdf