Fjällfest på Storulvån

by | Jan 20, 2008 | Utomhus hobbies

17-20 april i år ordnar Storulvån och Sylarna Fjällfest. Det rycktas att även M.A.S.C, mountain and snowkite competition skall gå av stapeln då. Kanske man skulle satsa på att åka upp en sväng då.

Espresso controller

by | Jan 5, 2008 | Hacking, Kaffe, PIC

Spent some more times on the new PIC project and found some useful stuff:

Mike Pearce Heater project over at MicroChips webiste is more or less what I intend, atleast when it comes to writing code! So Basically I just need to compile it and build the electronics, atleast for a first version.

And looking for a C compiler I found out that nowadays HTSoft have a free version of their PIC C Compiler. And best of all, it has no limitations for the 12F629 or 12%675 which I intend to use!

And ontop of all these great news I also found out that HTSoft now have an eclipse based IDE! HI-TIDE – HI-TECH Integrated Development Environment

Now I just need to get Mike’s code to compile with the PIC C compiler using the HI-TIDE.

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PIC project

by | Jan 3, 2008 | Hacking

The heating regulator in my espresso machine has given up. So either I buy a new machine for 4000 SEK or I try to fix it, the later is cheaper and more fun. The idea is to have one PIC control the heating so it needs a thermometer and a relay. Also one needs probably to be able to adjust the temperature which it should strive for and it would be nice to be able to see the actual temperature. Also I need to power the whole thing.

  • Thermometer, the Dallas 1-wire chips has worked well before and there exists PIC code for them so it seems easy to use to get a very accurate reading.
  • Relay, need to find quite relay that can handle 200V and the amount of amps needed.
  • Display, this is a bit wicked idea, but I thought that adding a display to the espresso machine wouldn’t look to good, thus I’ll use a mobile phone instead and add bluetooth to the espresso machine so it can receive new temperature settings and tell current temperature.
  • Power supply, have not found a good solution yet…

So this post will be updated once I progress with the project. The first task is to find 1-wire source code for the PIC, next to get it compiled. Then test it with a 1-wire device and write the code needed.

Hama Slave unit

by | Dec 28, 2007 | Foto

Image from Hama's website of the slave unit.

Just bought a Hama Slave unit “Synchromat” for my old flash because that flash does not work anymore with my DSLR. Even though the box says “DIGITAL” the slave unit does not really work with digital cameras. Let me explain:

Most cameras today fire of a pre-flash before the main flash to measure the scene. And typically what you do with a slave unit is that you chose to ignore the first flash and trigger on the second. Though the Hama slave unit does not do this. So the only way to get it to work is to pt your flash into manual mode(which will tell it not to measure the scene). Also noticed with the Canon flashes that they wont fire a pre-flash if the head is tilted upwards to bounce in the roof.