Raspberry Pi. Arduino Maker Projects. Build a Hinge Tracker for Astrophotos. Modern digital SLR cameras have made nighttime photography tremendously popular.
Star-filled landscape photos and glorious images of the Milky Way and distant galaxies are now within the reach of aspiring astrophotographers. Combining previously unheard-of sensitivity with game-changing image quality, these technological marvels can turn night into day. But what a DSLR can’t do is stop the Earth from turning. Put your camera on a regular tripod, and in just a few seconds of exposure, the stars begin to transform from intense points of light into elongated streaks.
The longer the exposure, or the greater the focal length of your camera’s lens, the more pronounced the effect becomes. The Hinge Tracker accomplishes this trick the simplest way possible. Spinneret Web Server. How I Built the Media Center of My Dreams for Under $500. Hacks & Mods,DIY Electronics Projects,Circuit Diagrams,Schematics. Electronic Projects and PIC Programs. Site Information. Irradiance Meter [223]
Written by Jon Chandler Published on 17 July 2010 Hits: 13067 A friend of mine is evaluating solar panel technology for a large-scale home project.
![Irradiance Meter [223]](http://cdn.pearltrees.com/s/pic/th/irradiance-amicus18-projects-23181417)
An irradiance meter is a handy tool to help evaluate various options. This irradiance meter is a fusion of pieces that came together to make a simple solution possible. A Handspring Visor PDA provides a slick user interface and logging capability. The Sensor The heart of this project is the TSL230R Light-to-Frequency converter, which may still be available at some Radio Shack locations. Amicus Compiler The Amicus compiler's PULSEIN command makes it easy to read the pulse frequency so it seemed like the ideal choice.
TAP-28 Board The TAP-28 board can use the 18F25K20 required by Amicus, so it's an excellent low-cost means of implementing the circuit. Microchip 8-Pin SOIC/MSOP/TSSOP/DIP Evaluation Board The temperature sensor is in an 8-pin DIP package with little support circuitry required so many construction methods are suitable. Output Device. Solenoid - 5v (small) DIY solar powered automatic chicken coop door opener. Christian Wolpert's automatic chicken coop door opener and closer is the second one I've seen so far that is completely off the grid and designed to work on a battery that gets charged with a solar panel. It uses an MSP430 microcontroller as the brain along with a customized Linux source code that Christian is kindly offering as a free download.
I know building and programming your own microcontroller can sound advanced, but Christian describes a clever short cut where he makes use of a tutorial as his starting point. This trick reduces most of the number crunching work to a process of adjusting specific interrupt routines to fit your automatic coop opening needs. Edited to add: After years of research, Mark eventually settled on this automatic chicken door. You can see a summary of the best chicken door alternatives and why he chose this version here. If you're planning on automating your coop, don't forget to pick up one of our chicken waterers.
Electronic Circuits. Pocket-Sized Power Supply. Step #1: Materials PrevNext LM317 Adjustable Voltage Regulator, 0.1 µF Capacitor, 1 µF Capacitor, 220 ohm Resistor, 7 x 270 ohm Resistor (preferably 1/8 watt), 8-Position DIP Switch, Perf Board, 9V Battery Connector, 2 x Alligator Clip Wires,Note: All these parts are available at Radio Shack.
I highly recommend using 1/8 watt resistor because they take up less space on the board which makes it easier to fit everything into a smaller space. Unfortunately I only had five 1/8 watt resistor so, I had to use two 1/4 watt resistors. Step #3: Solder the Circuit Together After testing the circuit on a breadboard, I soldered the circuit together on a small perf board.