Arduino Library Import & Errors

After hours of searching on Internet without success I finally find out how to import library in Arduino IDE to work properly. I will write it down so you don't need to lose couple of hours on search without results.

Firstly, internet is full of advice and ways how to import library in Arduino but for me none of these doesn't work.

After I tried import library in the way to copy downloaded library into Arduino libraries as internet says. I got errors like this:
multiple definition of `LiquidCrystal_I2C::pulseEnable(unsigned char)'
LiquidCrystal_I2C.cpp.o: In function `LiquidCrystal_I2C::send(unsigned char, unsigned char)':

What I figured out is that the way I "import" library is totally wrong.
The way I solved it is below!

1. Download library (.zip file)
2. Open Arduino IDE 
3. Go to Sketch --> Import Library --> Add library...
4. Select your .zip file of Library --> Open
5. Now your library is Imported correctly --> Everything works, no errors!

NOTE:
Do not UNZIP Downloaded Library.



If you work with Arduino NANO and Arduino UNO the most common Error is below:
avrdude stk500_getsync() not in sync resp=0x00

To fix this ERROR Only thing you have to do is:

1. Open Arduino IDE
2. Go to Tools --> Board
3. Select appropriate Arduino 
4. That's it! Enjoy!

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How to make Positive and Negative voltage

One of the most common question when it's about amplifiers is how to make +/- voltage needed for IC-s  for instance (TDA7294 or even amplifiers with complementary transistor). btw it's not like when you connect battery in opposite direction to voltmeter and it shows negative voltage!! There are two ways how to make Negative voltage. 

 * First and the easiest way is to use two the same DC power supplies. 

 How to connect it?

1. Connect positive(+/RED) terminal from 1st power supply to negative (-/BLACK) terminal on the second one. That will be your common terminal, ground, point whatever.
2. You are done, but you don't know it yet. Now you have common point and if you connect your  voltmeter(-) to common point and with (+) side of voltmeter to BLACK terminal it will show negative voltage while on the RED terminal will be positive voltage. That's it, instead of voltmeter you connect you own load or voltage stabilizer.

 *Here is the second way to make negative voltage, it's a bit complicated but not too much. If you understand basics of transformers and rectification then it's no big deal. ;)

 Parts you need:

• 1 - Transformer with 2 secondary
• 1 - Bridge rectifier or 4 diodes
• 2 - Capacitor usually 2200uF

Normal transformer with one secondary has 2 wire on primary(which goes to wall AC) and 2 wire on secondary(AC) while transformer with 2 secondary has 2 wire on primary and 4 wire on secondary. That's basic difference.

Now you have 4 wire on secondary. You have to connect 2 wire together but not from the same secondary it has to be one wire from first connected to one wire from second secondary and that will be your COMMON POINT. If you connect 2 wire from the same secondary you will make short circuit which can destroy transformer. So be aware what you doing.

With that COMMON POINT you have 2 more wires. These 2 wires have AC voltage you assume that we need DC voltage so we have to rectify it. You take these 2 separated wires and connect to bridge rectifier to get DC voltage. With 2 capacitors fix dumps in voltage and you are done. It will be more clear when you take a look at picture below.

I hope that negative voltage become more clearly now :) enjoy!
Like, comment, subscribe :)

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LM7905, LM7906, LM7908, LM7909, LM7910, LM7912, LM7915

As 78XX version, 79XX is also voltage stabilizer. But like 7805 have +5V stable the same is with 7905 just with opposite (negative) sign or -5V that's the only difference between these two voltage stabilizer. And here also the last two digit of 79XX represents negative output voltage. More detail about power consumption you can look at my previous post about LM78XX it's the same calculation.

ATTENTION

I know a lot of people who asked me if they can normally connect +12V on LM7905 as on LM7805 and the output voltage would be NEGATIVE -5V. Answer is NO!!!! Don't even try it otherwise your IC is DEAD! It would be remarkable to connect +12V and then he convert to negative voltage. But the man who would invent that hasn't been born yet. :D  If you want stabilized negative voltage you must have negative input voltage. Now transformers with two or more secondary coil come to expression. but that in the next episode :)



They can be found in different package as well as LM78XX, that's standard type TO-220, TO-3, SOT ... more about it you can find in datasheet.



How it looks in schematic

LM79XX DATASHEET

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Power supply [1.2 - 25V, LM317]

After a quite a while, finally, I'm coming with new project.  It's about simple power supply which anyone can make at home for really cheap price ($10) without transformer. It gives max 25V with 2A. Why can't give more than 2A? It's because LM317 can max handle 2A (TO-220 package), but i predicted that maybe it won't be enough so i made PCB board which can handle at least 5-8A of course without LM317. If i want more power, with output of 5A i can easily remove LM317 and replace 2N3055 (TO3 package) but then you need bigger cooler, but everything will working perfect. Also LM317 can handle up to 37V. That's not everything i assumed, also there is Volt,Amp meter integrated on board and stable +5V (LM7805) I'll show it below

Parts:

• 2 - Electrolytic capacitor - 2200uF/35V
• 4 - Block capacitor - 100nF
• 2 - Bridge rectifier - 2W10
• 1 - Green LED
• 1 - LM317
• 1 - LM7805
• 1 - Resistor - 1k5
• 1 - Potentiometer -10k
• 1 - Resistor - 460Ohm
• 4 - Terminal connector -1x2 (you can use them or you can solder wire direct to PCB)
• 2 - Header - 1x2 (Amp, Voltmeter again you can use them but you don't have to, It's up to you)

 What you MUST consider before you make it

First some general knowledge, when you connect 120AC[US] or 230AC[EU] to appropriate transformer you will get 12, 15, 18, 24AC etc. on secondary,  it's variable, depends of transformer. When you finish the rectification (AC to DC) you don't have 12, 15, 18, 24DC anymore. Actually you have the nominal secondary voltage multiplied with square root of 2. So it looks like 12*√2=17V,  15*√2=21V, 18*√2=25V, 24*√2=34V. Therefore you have to be aware of this, example: if you want 12V power supply and you have transformer with 12V AC on secondary, let's say you put 1000uF/16V Capacitor but your DC is 17V so when you connect this to city network, your capacitor is dead.

Second, YOU MUST BE CAREFUL when you working with 120AC or 230AC it can kill you instantly.




Schematic

Power supply schematic

Power supply PCB

PCB 3D TOP

PCB 3D BOTTOM

You can find and download ALTIUM DESIGNER file (PCB, Schematic) on the link below.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I hope you like it :) Thanks

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Music Box

As the title says it's one box which contains amplifier, speakers and LED :) I found that project when I was cleaning my room there was a watch box in that moment it seems like nice cleanly box and after some time i got amplifier and i started to combine these two. One afternoon i made sketch and said to myself that i must finish it, and that day i drill hole for input, output and also for turn ON/OFF and Volume Up/Down. That's how it started. Next day I experimented with Green LED and LM3915 because i wanted to made equalizer. That's it for now. After I'll explain what LM3915 do and some other stuff. :)


Let's see what do you need for it.

Parts:

• 1 - Empty Watch Box
• 1 - Amplifier 5-10W
• 1 - Prototype PCB 5x5cm (1,97x1,97 inch)
• 1 - 7.4V Battery 
• 1 - LM3915
• 20 - LED 5mm (Color? - it's up to you)
• 1 - 3.7V Battery (for supplying lm3915)
• 2 - Switch button (1st for POWER ON/OFF, 2nd for inside or outside SPEAKER ON/OFF)
• 1 - Potentiometer 
• 1 - Connector 3.5mm 
• 1 - Male To Male 3.5mm Cable
• 2 - Speaker Terminal Connector
• 50cm of wire
• + About one free day :)

On this particular project there is no so much to explain. Everything has been already made and i just need to connect each other how i imagine! First i will show you how to connect lm3915
On the lm3915 datasheet you can find simple circuit how to connect it. There is not much philosophy with connecting just wire it like on the schematic but with one little EXCEPTION that is I'll use 3.7V instead 12-20V on PIN 3. Let's see how it looks like on schematic (theoretically) and practically

Let's see the amplifier, input, potentiometer

Amplifier

Input

Potentiometer

And finally the box

Now it's time for drilling hole and mounting :)

From left to right: 1st hole is for POWER ON/OFF and 2nd for SWITCHING speakers

Input

Inside box (input)

3rd one is POTENTIOMETER

Inside box

That's the terminal connectors for external speakers

I don't have anymore picture of the final product so when i get some time i will publish them too.
Thanks for reading and looking :)
If you like it please like, comment :)

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All About DIODES

This is the first of several tutorials about basic electronic. In this tutorial we will see symbols, uses and basics staff of DIODES. In the next tutorial known as  "Rectifier Circuits" we'll make and explain half-wave rectifier, full-wave rectifier and filtering of Voltage after that transitors etc. :) 
Stay tuned.


There are several types of DIODES. I'll look for the most used diodes. So let's see the Symbols.

GENERIC DIODE
As her title says it's generic diode which can be made from silicon (Si) or germanium (Ge). The breakdown voltage of Silicon diode is 0.7V and for Germanium is about 0.3V.




TUNNEL DIODE
Tunnel diode has breakdown voltage = 0V, in the forward direction has MAXIMUM (max) and MINIMUM (min) between these two acts as a negative-restistance element. What does it mean? That is when we increases voltage the Current will decreases. Because of that negative resistance it can be use for making high oscillations up to 20GHz also they can be used like faster switch.

PHOTO-DIODE
It's Germanium diode with dotted or surface PN junction. In the shut-off area presents resistance which value changes depends on intensity of light. This diode uses like faster light switch or indicator of brightness.

ZENER DIODE
In the breakdown area big changes of current doesn't occur almost no changes in voltage so it can uses for voltage stabilizer. Breakdown voltage is from 1.2V up to 150V. Zener diode connects vice versa in circuit, then Anode is on (-) and Chatode (+). 

LED (Light-Emitting Diode)
At least one time everyone see this diode it's well known LED (3mm, 5mm, 10mm) with all kind of color. What to say about it?  Well, everyone knows how it looks like and a lot of you who will read this, is at least one time checked it with Higher voltage than nominal and if you hit the right + and - the diode is DEAD :) hahah but I have little advice for you how to determine where is anode and cathode. First if you have the new LED the LONGER LEG IS ANODE (+) and the shorter one is CATHODE (-). Next, a lot of times we don't have the new one and then we have to desolder from some PCB. Then you can't see the longer LEG but you can see inside LED  and the smallest piece is ANODE (+)

VARICAP DIODE
Capacity of the PN junction changes with changes of voltage. They made of Silicon or Gallium arsenide. They uses on the High frequency up to 20GHz. Also they are used as Capacitor for tuning resonant circuits and for automatic frequency regulator in TV/Radio devices. 

  

That's it for these All About Diode #001 Tutorial :) 
Stay tuned :)

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RGB LED 3W E27 bulb

RGB LED  i bought on ebay for i don't remember how much. It was very cheap and nice looking. I ordered and it comes for 2-3 weeks. I was impressed how well packed it was. I have to say that quality build is very high, i can't complain, and IR remote controller was very good.
After i tried it I realize that glows in beam/directed light. So if you have to lights up some particular part it's ok but if you want to use it for room lighting it's not very useful.

What about color?  Well as RGB says (Red, Green, Blue) are the same, but some other colors like white, orange and variation on the same theme it's a bit messed up. Especially white, which is not white at all. There are also programs that loops. (Flash, Strobe, Smooth, Fade)


Few pictures :)

Package

IR remote controller

EU standard E27 bulb

Directed beam

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