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    PC board fabs

    I've seen videos explaining the parametric approach to customise generic enclosures, e.g. this one I wondered if it could help. I find it easier to learn a new software package when there's already a model to tinker with, rather than generating something from scratch. I expect many other...
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    PC board fabs

    Do you have any tips for cutting acrylic for the boxes? I don't have a bandsaw so I score the sheet, snap it and then sand the edges. I agree, openings are the toughest part for me. I bought a drill press (and can finally get my holes square to the board) and attempted milling openings with...
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    PC board fabs

    I've considered 3d printed enclosures in the past. I just checked jlcpcb prices to have a useful enclosure (https://grabcad.com/library/enclosure-for-digital-electronic-part-tester-pcb-1 - approx 65mm x 75mm x 20mm) printed. The cost (excluding shipping and taxes) would be about £2.70 for white...
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    PC board fabs

    KiCad is open source so is free and has no limits on board size that I've found yet. I think the JLCPCB price jumps up a bit if your board exceeds 100mm in either dimension, but is still very reasonable. Interested to hear how your boards turn out.
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    PC board fabs

    Well done persevering to get your protoboard drafted. Here are my comments but be aware that I am a KiCad user and not familiar with DipTrace. I have used JLCPCB though. The screengrab seems to show a copper layer with pads and traces but I see no holes inside the pads. Have you used plated...
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    PC board fabs

    I am also impressed with JLCPCB boards. I started with Eagle for laying out PCBs but then switched to Kicad. I found the learning curve ok and the support (forums and YouTube) to be good. Whichever package you use I think it’s just good to get started and build up experience designing boards...
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    Philips EE & Picaxe: a happy marriage between old & new, sustainable for the future ...

    My enclosure build has been a learning curve, mainly in drilling and crimping. Here are 2 of my finished detectors with an acrylic sandwich construction. One has survived falling off my shed roof onto concrete so gives reasonable protection. I heard bats 2 nights ago so they're not hibernating...
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    Dead links in the Picaxe store

    This link is also broken... https://picaxe.com/docs/led020.pdf I noticed it seems to redirect there from http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/led020.pdf which is the datasheet link given on the LED020 page on the store https://www.picaxestore.com/led020
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    Tune Command Output

    The sounder you've shown (with the black resin-potted bottom) looks like one I have that is indeed a beeper, i.e. it includes an internal oscillator that generates a tone. I find you can use these to listen to other sounds but they superimpose their internally-generated tone so the output is not...
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    Using a single cell LIPO to power an 8M2 or 14M2

    I've implemented the 150 ohm shunt resistor solution for now with routines for high and low voltage protection. I have quite a few 18650 lithium ion batteries (I don't know the exact chemistry) available so will use those for now and monitor how the battery varies over the year (I have the...
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    Using a single cell LIPO to power an 8M2 or 14M2

    I have been mulling over some battery protection to add to a 14500 battery powered (recharged by a solar panel approx 50mm x 50mm) circuit that flashes red and blue LEDs to tell me the temperature at the bottom of my garden. My existing circuit is identical to that of the attached schematic but...
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    Bad Gallery Youtube Hot Links

    I'm a fan of the gallery, it's good for showcasing what picaxes can do and it's also great for getting inspiration of projects to try and to see how others package their projects. I see the project archive ends in June 2020. Is the monthly competition still active? Or has archiving been stopped...
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    Philips EE & Picaxe: a happy marriage between old & new, sustainable for the future ...

    Since my post in May I've made no changes to the design. I have now included a small speaker directly on my board as you have, I sometimes get a little audio feedback using the local speaker but it no longer causes high current draw and just prompts me to turn the volume down. My board does...
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    Fixing Grandpas Robot

    Very glad you've got the bot moving. My guess is that the two sensors on the front are light dependant resistors, they look to be angled slightly to each side of the forward direction so the difference in resistance between them would allow the robot to sense a light source direction. The solar...
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    Clock, and Games console, Pong, Snake and Tetris.

    I have repackaged this excellent project by Howardandhopkins to run tetris on a handheld console that is essentially a 28X2 driving LED arrays using three MAX7219s. If anybody would like to build one of these I can provide gerber files that would allow you to get the PCBs made cheaply. The LED...
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    Philips EE & Picaxe: a happy marriage between old & new, sustainable for the future ...

    It has been a busy summer of listening to bats for me. So far I think I've only heard the common pipistrelle. I especially like the noise they make when they do a sharp U-turn in the air. Whilst listening the other night I heard some non-bat sounds that initially made me wonder if there was a...
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    Fixing Grandpas Robot

    I hope your efforts to understand the functionality go well, please let us know how you get on and if you need any support. If you don't manage to get it working I would advise you keep the 18M2 with your Grandpa's code so it is preserved and you can return to the project in the future. I would...
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    Philips EE & Picaxe: a happy marriage between old & new, sustainable for the future ...

    Yes, that's it. I found it improved the bat sound significantly. I scoped the SA612A output at pin 4 and it looked to me that with the capacitor present at pin 6 the mixer does a much better job of removing the input frequencies of pins 1/2 from the output. And I 'felt' (I don't have a spectrum...
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    Philips EE & Picaxe: a happy marriage between old & new, sustainable for the future ...

    Hi Jurjen, I found the sound output is improved with a cap in the nF range (I'm using 10nF at the moment) directly at the mixer input pin 6. I think this may be needed to avoid upsetting the biasing of the mixer's gilbert cell. I find the audio out is less 'clipped' with this cap and I also see...
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    Philips EE & Picaxe: a happy marriage between old & new, sustainable for the future ...

    Hi Jurjen, I agree this alternative volume control seems much better and I want to use this method too. I've tested a few setups now, they are all good: The arrangement from the article I sent: 470k 'pullup' to 9V rail (8.3V for me) and 100k pot: allows range of 0.01 V to 1.17 V at amp pin 4...
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