This year projects

tmack

Member
I was thinking that maybe we could list what projects we did this year using a picaxe.Maybe it could help give others some ideas etc. I am new to them this year. Ill start and see if anyone else wants to chime in.All of these weren't possible without the great help from people on this site.The projects I (we) did using a picaxe in 2007 were.....
-A sequencer to toggle between 3 or 4 cameras using one relay connection and video server over the net (depending on code).
-Numerous servo drivers for robots etc.
-A robot controller that drives a tank robot using a L293 and uses a webrelay to control it over the internet.
- rs 232 controllers.
- firing a motion activated airsoft gun.
- Numerous timers for fun
- Stepper motor driving circuits.
- an alarm that activates a voice recorder and transmits over a family radio when the alarm sensor is set off .( Normally open or closed)

This coming year I want to get a good grasp on sending rs232 through the simple Lan over the net, build a hobby radio controller relay board, use the stepper motor circuits to control a small CNC machine, and build a joystick interface for rs232.Thats all I can think of for now.
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
A year's a long time and I cannot really recall what I did last year. Some esoteric things with multi-tasking, timers and in-chip hacking and a not entirely successful stint at downlading via XBee come to mind.

This year I do have some practical PICAXE projects to do. I want to get to grips with VMUSIC2 and integrating with the Spinning Thing from the Dark Side to deliver TV Video for the PICAXE. The planned logic analyser is still on the cards.
 

demonicpicaxeguy

Senior Member
i think sd card interfacing can probably go on there as a partial success,

having given up on that and finding out that the xd card interface is really just the same as the samsung nand chips i'm very hopeful since i've had success with the samsung nand memmory - it's just a pain because it's surfacemount.....:D
 

Wombat_In_Space

New Member
Well my projects for this year finish off motorising my telescope mount, after that look at some small robots. That should cover the year.
 

Brietech

Senior Member
-Picaxe-based Laptop with text-editor and compiler (which got me a job!)
-remote-controlled strobe-light controller for rc airplane
-magnetometer array for detecting iron ore concentration
-gps data-logger (which flew in a rocket to 4 miles up!)
-a revised "meta-interpreter" written in picaxe-basic (much more similar to a normal basic variant)
 

mackingu

New Member
I hope no one minds a n00b posting here, but regarding the Airsoft gun triggering, may I suggest using a paintball marker instead - one with either an E-grip or a (very expensive) electronic marker? I figure you could hack the grip (like from a Tippmann A5 or X7) to trigger the solenoid and shoot single shot, 3-shot burst, fully auto. Airsoft guns hurt too much compared to paintballs.

And since safety would be of utmost importance, a remote shut off would be in order (it would suck to accidently walk in front of a loaded marker/ASG and get bagged in the jewels). As an aside, at my father's farm, we have a propane cannon to scare off birds, to which I have a cheap 2-channel RC control from an old toy that controls a servo to switch the cannon on/off from about 10 metres away.
 

womai

Senior Member
Mostly stuff for my day-time job - yes, the Picaxe can have valid application in a bleeding-edge electronics industry lab :)

- controller for an 18 GHz RF relay switchbox driven from a PC
- hand-held femto-farad capacitance meter to measure gate capacitance
- time domain reflectometer (TDR) that sends a 100 picosecond rise time step into a transmission like (e.g. cable, connectors, printed circuit board) and observes the reflections, measures line impedance, etc.
- simple datalogger

- 433 MHz sender/receiver
- ultrasound distance sensor with display
 

MFB

Senior Member
Drivers for smart sensors

Some generally useful software development would be in the area of ‘sensor drivers’. By this I mean I2C and SPI interface routines for smart sensors like the Honeywell HM6352 compass and the VTI Technology SCP1000 pressure sensor. They are pretty complex devices with lots of options and internal registers to play with.

Although Sparkfun Electronics sells these sensors pre-mounted on breakout boards, they normally provide software examples for their products in C (even worse, they seem to be moving increasingly towards supporting ARM applications). Maybe now that they distribute the PICAXE we can also expect examples in Basic. We could always keep asking!
 
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