PhirePhly

So You Want to Build Electronics is a nicely done blog post by our member PhirePhly on the ever-popular subject of "so I want to build electronics, what inventory do I need to get started?".

Well someone's gotta be first:
 
A basic battery-powered LCD clock. Tells time in 24 hour format through a 4 digit seven segment LCD. Two buttons for setting hour and minute. Running current is below 12uA, which means this thing is looking forward to a good 2.5 years running off a CR2032 coincell, like it is. With just the 100uF capacitor and no battery, it can run for more than 15 seconds, so even battery replacements can be done without loss of time, if you're fast enough.
 
The display is wired to display full hexadecimal, so it can really be used for any project that needs a 4 digit LOW power display. A 20DIP MSP430 would probably help the power budget to a degree, removing the need for the shift register between the MSP430 and LCD driver. If only I had waited another month to build this one...


Source code
 
Full writeup with video and parts list
LCDClock.c

Well someone's gotta be first:
 
A basic battery-powered LCD clock. Tells time in 24 hour format through a 4 digit seven segment LCD. Two buttons for setting hour and minute. Running current is below 12uA, which means this thing is looking forward to a good 2.5 years running off a CR2032 coincell, like it is. With just the 100uF capacitor and no battery, it can run for more than 15 seconds, so even battery replacements can be done without loss of time, if you're fast enough.
 
The display is wired to display full hexadecimal, so it can really be used for any project that needs a 4 digit LOW power display. A 20DIP MSP430 would probably help the power budget to a degree, removing the need for the shift register between the MSP430 and LCD driver. If only I had waited another month to build this one...


Source code
 
Full writeup with video and parts list
LCDClock.c

Well someone's gotta be first:
 
A basic battery-powered LCD clock. Tells time in 24 hour format through a 4 digit seven segment LCD. Two buttons for setting hour and minute. Running current is below 12uA, which means this thing is looking forward to a good 2.5 years running off a CR2032 coincell, like it is. With just the 100uF capacitor and no battery, it can run for more than 15 seconds, so even battery replacements can be done without loss of time, if you're fast enough.
 
The display is wired to display full hexadecimal, so it can really be used for any project that needs a 4 digit LOW power display. A 20DIP MSP430 would probably help the power budget to a degree, removing the need for the shift register between the MSP430 and LCD driver. If only I had waited another month to build this one...


Source code
 
Full writeup with video and parts list
LCDClock.c

Try plugging in the GoodFET and running # lsof | grep USB as root. The replacement for HAL, upowerd, has a bad udev rule for the FTDI chip and grabs it. The FAQ on goodfet.SF.net just got updated, but I've only done testing on Ubuntu 10.04, but it would probably effect the newer version of Debian as well.