Past meetings: 2008 At the August meeting Alex demonstrated using HAPSIM, a software component simulator. HAPSIM simulates components such as buttons and leds in software, and can be used to test AVR microprocessor applications on a computer screen before committing to actual hardware. Stuart explained some details of his reduced instruction set language for PICs. Andrew discussed interfacing a PICAxe chip to the Xbee module for wireless remote control, as described in http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/axe210.pdf. At the July meeting Peter showed us some articles from Elektor, EPE, and Silicon Chip magazines. Bob introduced us to Joomla, a webpage template that allows members to easily upload articles and comments. He proposed Joomla be used for the PIC Club website. At the June meeting Stuart continued his description of his tiny programming language for the PICs, that he introduced at the March meeting, this time showing us the interpreter. Peter showed some articles from the March Elektor magazine. At the May meeting Martin showed the pressure/temperature monitor he built using an ATMEL HP03 sensor. He built it into a transparent floppy disk box, so all the components and the display could be seen from the outside without having to place components off the board and wire them up, and the flip lid gives easy access. At the April meeting Martin showed the accelerometer he built, using the ATMEL LIS3LV02D6 chip. He donated a couple of PIC display and development boards, which were auctioned off at a bargain price. Steve showed us Ted Rossin's website where a Logic Analyser based on a PIC873 is described. Andrew introduced Microchip's PIC24FJ family, a new range of high pin count (64/80/100 pin) devices with 64-256KBytes of flash memory. Les discussed the merits of the serial data formats FM0, FM1 and Manchester. At the March meeting Tony showed his stepper motor, operated by remote control. Stewart showed a tiny programming language he wrote for the PICs. He wrote an interpreter which is loaded into a PIC, enabling programs to be written in a few lines that would take several pages in Assembler. At the February meeting Steve showed his depth sounder alarm for a yacht, David discussed using the PICkit2 as a debugger. At the January meeting Tony showed the hardware he is developing for his solar tracker, Alex showed his Alpha system monitor that displays on a website environmental data of a remote site, and Neville suggested a User Language Program for the Eagle PCB Program. 2007 At the December meeting Les showed us the webpage of the Amateur Radio NSW Radio Homebrew and Experimenters Group and talked about some of the homemade electronic and mechanical devices the members have displayed at their monthly meetings. David showed us through his tutorial How to Drive Multiple 7-segment displays. The full tutorial can be seen on his webpage.
At the November meeting Tony discussed using the PIC for remote control, and demonstrated some devices he built. Andrew discussed the PIC24 family. David showed us a PIC simulator and debugger. At the October meeting David demonstrated the Eagle CAD program for designing circuit boards. Neville showed two of the four Instructables, Schematics and Layouts, for learning this program, and examined Eagle's User language Programs. Tony demonstrated two PIC devices he built. In the first a 3-colour LED was made to show many colours by its PIC driver. In the second a Passive Infrared Detector (PID) was set up to detect movement of an intruder and radio an alarm signal to a remote station. Geoff showed his PIC-controlled triac driver set and discussed some problems he was having with it. At the September meeting Andrew explained the use of several PICAXE-08Ms as linear digital position sensors using optical switches. He showed pictures of a rig that is currently in use plotting profiles of model beaches in a wave flume. The sensors monitor the displacement of rocks in the model under wave action, providing information for the construction of breakwaters. Martin showed how his ATMEL controlled LCD display graphically represents the movement of strain gauges on a structure. Tanjim and Paul presented their project for a dashboard display of the speed limit zones a car is travelling through.
At the August meeting Bob reviewed the final chapter of the PIC C course from EPE magazine. He said the course is a good overview, but you need to refer to a book on C while reading the course. Martin showed more details of his LCD display. It was built from Myke Predco's design: www.myke.com/lcd.htm. Peter showed us some Thai websites containing various kits and gadgets: www.silaresearch.com, www.mynpe.com.
At the May meeting Alex introduced us to the Wikipedia comparison of programming languages. Andrew showed his project for measuring temperatures at many layers of ocean depths using a string of 26 PIC processors. Neville explained how he adapted a plotter for use as an automatic drilling machine, and Bob showed the software he wrote for it. Martin showed his LCD display driven directly by an ATMEL microprocessor.
At the April meeting Aras Vaichas introduced us to the Dorkbot, a worldwide network of 'people doing strange things with electricity'. A local chapter of Dorkbot meets monthly in Sydney. Steve showed us some ways of increasing the number of ports of the picaxe, and discussed using a clock module as a cheap and accurate time base for microprocessors. Bob presented Part 3 of EPE magazine's PIC C course. At the March meeting Chris Velevitch introduced us to Flex programming, an application of Flash. Chris is Manager of the Flashdev, the Sydney Flash Platform Development Group. Stuart Oliver showed us his program to write out data from his PIC-based analogue to digital converter. At the February meeting Martin introduced us to the Atmel range of microprocessors, Alex showed us how to interrupt the PIC SERIN command, and Bob Backstrom presented Part 2 of EPE magazine's PIC C course. At the January meeting Peter showed some websites he had found, Andrew discussed an interface between a PICaxe and a memory card, Bob presented Part 1 of EPE magazine's PIC C course, a four part series beginning with the November issue, David showed us the Assembler programming course he is writing, viewable on his website. 2006 At the December meeting Steve reviewed the available PIC programming hardware and software, Peter reviewed Maestro, a program that generates prewritten code, Alex presented a PIC to PIC communication device, Tom invited comments on a problem he has with a C program. At the November meeting David demonstrated MPLab IDE v7.50, a free download from Microchip. He demonstrated compiling and de-bugging programs, using its CCS compiler, and discussed the PIC24, the new 24 bit microprocessor. Andrew showed us a circuit board he made using the Press 'n Peel process, double-sided, with a surface mounted PIC and other components. At the October meeting Andrew demonstrated his PIC development board, comprising a socketted PIC with power supply, and data input and output connectors, allowing hardware under development to be plugged into this board and run. David demonstrated his PIC rendering of Hangman, the 20 year old electronics game. The electronics was greatly simplified by transferring the complexity to the program, written in Assembler. As the program only needs to be written once, the product cost was reduced. Also, errors due to component variability are removed, and the game can be easily upgraded. At the September meeting Andrew and Alex continued their presentations from last month, Steve showed some Pic projects he'd built from Pete's World, and we examined some members websites. At the August meeting Alex presented his graphical interface for the PIC, developed using AutoIT, a freeware scripting tool. Andrew spoke about his high resolution thermometer using a PIC and a thermister. At the July meeting we examined Microchip's PICkit2 programmer. At the June meeting David installed the PIC C Lite program, and demonstrated a simple "flash a LED" program, written in Picaxe BASIC, PIC assembler, and C. Bob Bunton demonstrated his PIC-based device to enable a quadraplegic to move a curser on a computer screen, and to click and double-click, by blowing into a tube.
At the May meeting Andrew showed his test instrument for a tide gauge, and showed how he used symbols in programming its PIC, simplifying the code. Peter reviewed Speed Camera Watch, a PIC project of EPE magazine Nov 2005. Bob Bunton discussed making a PCB using the Press 'n Peel method. At the April meeting Steve demonstrating designing a circuit board from a schematic, using Circuitmaker and Traxmaker. He also reviewed the PIC-based Energy Meter circuit of the July 04 Silicon Chip. Tony displayed his remote controlled number display, and his Pill Timer, both PIC controlled. At the March meeting we discussed controlling remote devices wirelessly, using infrared and UHF.
At the February meeting Patrick showed an application of the PicAxe to measure the speed of toy jet cars. Powered by soda siphon cartridges, they achieve speeds up to 150kph. Peter discussed the theory of connecting a keyboard to a PicAxe. His circuit diagram was drawn in ExpressSch, part of the ExpressPCB program. At the January meeting Tony discussed interfacing a clock with the serial port of a PIC. Steve demonstrated a configuration wizard he wrote in Visual Basic for the PicAxe18X. Geoff introduced the Magic application development system, showing receiving serial data from a PicAxe, storing it in a database, display, manipulation, export to a spreadsheet etc.
2005 At the December meeting Andrew discussed the data sheet of the PIC12F683, the IC used for the PICAXE-08M. Steve showed us the printed circuit board he built for his PIC-driven LCD display, using the PCB-making techniques discussed at a previous meeting. At the October meeting Peter displayed a program for simulating a PIC, Bob demonstrated some programs he wrote for the sound command on the PICAXE-08, Andrew showed some uses of the serial pin, Andre showed the finished version of his development bus. At the September meeting Bob showed the programming needed to get input from readers into a web page, and Steve demonstrated using the the infrared command in the PICAXE-08M, using a working prototype to activate a LED. At the August meeting Tony reviewed the programming involved in driving an LCD display module with a PIC, Steve showed how he developed his PIC data logger with LCD display, Andrew described the tune-playing feature of the PICAXE-08M, Andre showed his Universal Development Bus.
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