Computer Interfaces

�C Reprograms Audio DAC Via Serial Interface: 01/07/99 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit.

10 Base T Solutions Network Interface Adapter: National Semiconductor Application Notes,28 Jun1996

12Bit ADC Interface:

18 bit ADC uses PC's serial port: 09/27/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / A PC usually requires a plug-in ADC card to process analog signals. However, with the circuitry in Figure 1, a PC can communicate with an 18-bit ADC through its serial port. The port provides both positive and negative power supplies as well as control signals. IC1 is an 18-bit MAX132 ADC with a serial interface.

2 Channel, Port Powered RS232 to RS 422 Converter: information on commercial product, datasheet includes full circuit diagram

2 Transistor Circuit Replaces IC #1: 02/07/02 EDN-Design Ideas  / Jim Hagermans article  Linear Technologys recently introduced LTC4300 chip buffers I2C clock and data lines to and from a hot-swappable card. This task is difficult because the IC must work bidirectionally.

2 Transistor Circuit Replaces IC #2:  02/07/02 EDN-Design Ideas  / Linear Technologys recently introduced LTC4300 chip buffers I2C clock and data lines to and from a hot-swappable card. This task is difficult because the IC must work bidirectionally.

24 Bit Parallel Port Interface With 8255 for Commodore Computer:

24 Line Parallel Interface for the PC :

4 Channel 8 Bit Analog to Digital Converter for PC:

8254 Timer & Counter Board:

9 to 9 Pin (Female) Null Modem Cable:

AC Switching With TrIAC From TTL:

ADCx RS232 Interface Schematic:

Add CAD functions to Microsoft Office: 03/21/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / Microsoft Word has excellent drawing capabilities. You could use it effectively to perform some CAD tasks, such as schematic entry. Word is by far the most popular text processor on the market, and it would seem desirable for technical writers to be able to create a single integrated document file combining both text and graphics in an editable format. .

Add current boost to a USB charger: 09/19/2002  EDN - Design Ideas /  The popular USB interface can charge a portable device while transferring data. But for high-capacity batteries, the 500-mA output current of USB hosts and powered hubs greatly extends the charging time. (Unpowered USB hubs supply no more than 100 mA.) Thus, a system that accepts charging power from an ac adapter as well as the USB port is more convenient..

Add Speech Encoding/Decoding to your Design: 02/04/99 EDN-Design Ideas  /  PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find circuit.

Add voice command to virtual instrumentation: 05/30/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / Debates still persist in the engineering community about the relative merits of analog and digital controls of instrumentation. Meanwhile, a revolutionary new type of control—voice-command control—is gaining acceptance in many application areas (Reference 1). This Design Idea focuses on the practical implementation of the Voice Commander voice-command interface in a virtual-instrume....

Add voice commands to your CAD system: 05/02/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / The first time I activated the Language Bar (Speech Tools) in my Microsoft Word 2002 and started dictating this Design Idea, the on-screen title displayed "cat" instead of "CAD." By using the "Add/Delete Words" feature, I've trained the system to recognize the "CAD" acronym. This was my first experience with the MOSR (Microsoft Office Speech Recognition) tool, which is part of the latest Micros....

Adding Second joystick to PC joystick Interface:

Analog Signal Acquisition for PC Printer Port:

AVR DMX 512 Dongle for PC's: simple interface between DMX-512 equipments and personal computer that is connected to computer parallel port, can transmit256 channels and receive128 channels DMX data simultaneously

AVR microcontroller makes improved motor controller: 10/17/2002  EDN - Design Ideas /  The circuit in Figure 1 provides a novel method of reading the pulse train using an Atmel (www.atmel.com) AVR processor, from a typical radio-controlled receiver, and to determine the velocity of a motor. To capture the pulse train from a typical receiver, you need an external interrupt that triggers based on a rising and a falling edge..

Build Logic Gates using Discrete Parts:

Build your own joysticks:

Casio Organizer Interface:

CCD Video Capture Camera Circuit on Request:

Centronics Port DA Converters & Lowpass Filter:

Circuit Adapts Differential Input to Drive Coax: 05/08/97 EDN-Design Ideas  / Uses an HFA1100 or HFA1105 to convert a balanced input signal to a single-ended output signal, uses positive feedback to characteristic-impedance matching while increasing the available output swing, as compared with using a simple series termination resistor

Circuit Eavesdrops on RS232C Lines: 12/05/96 EDN-Design Ideas

Circuit Protects Computer's Input: 05/26/94 EDN-Design Ideas

Circuit Translates TTY Current Loop to RS232C: 08/03/98 EDN Design Ideas / Provides signal translation between a passive current-loop (TTY) interface and a duplex RS-232C ports

Commonly used RS232 Serial Port Cables:

Computer Controlled Model Train Set:

Computer Microphone: adapting electret microphone to soundcards with dynamic microphone inputs

Computerize your Room / Home:

Computerized Infrared Remote: control your stereo, TV and VCR from Windows, includes schematic and software

Connect other Circuits to PC joystick Port:

Connect Two CD ROM Drives to One Soundcard:

Connecting Sega 3D Glasses to a PC Serial Port:

Control 120VAC Relay With TTL:

Convert Atari Style Joystick to PC Joystick Port:

Convert Ataristyle joystick to PC joystick Port:

Convert Hauppauge Infrared Remote Control to IRMAN: How to modify Hauppauge Infrared remote control receiver to work as IRMAN compatible remote control receiver. The text is in Finnish.

Data Bus Monitor:

Data Transmission Lines & Their Characteristics: National Semiconductor Application Notes,05 Oct1998

Decoder Safely Drives Data Bus Buffer: 07/18/96  EDN-Design Ideas

Design a visible optical link for RS 232C communications: 01/09/03  EDN-Design Ideas / The design in Figure 1 is a visible optical link for those who need to see the transmitted data. An isolation figure of more than 5000V is a bonus. Tests of the system used the COM input of a data-acquisition system, as well as a standard PC's COM port. The MC1489 converts the RS-232C data to TTL signals...

Differential to Single Ended Converter: 03/14/96 EDN-Design Ideas

Digital to Analog Centronics D / a & Filter:

Disco Lights: software and hardware for controlling disco lights from your PC

Drawing Power From a PC Serial Port: This circuits derives fairly low power, (mA at5V) from a RS-232 serial connection. (NOTE: ASCII drawing)

Drive Local Interconnect Network With PCType UART Device : 04/15/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design /  A new single-wire serial communication system, called the Local Interconnect Network (LIN), is intended for electronic control units in vehicles (www.lin-subbus.org). Using a PC UART for LIN provides a convenient and low-cost solution for...

Driving a N Channel FET From TTL: Meant as a quick n easy example of how to switch high current12V dc from TTL.

Driving a Relay With a CPU:

Electrical Equipment Control using PC:

Embedded processor directly drives LCD: 01/09/03  EDN-Design Ideas / Driving a bare LCD does not necessarily require specialized interface circuitry or peripherals. This Design Idea describes an alternative drive scheme, which you can easily implement using the general-purpose outputs of a microcontroller. Many embedded-system applications need to interact with a user by displaying simple numeric or alphanumeric character…

Emissions killers Trap Common Mode Currents: 03/03/98 EDN-Design Ideas  / Unshielded twisted-pair cable that is transformer-coupled to a digital system can easily act as a radiating antenna because of common-mode currents induced by unwanted stray coupling from the digital portions of the system

Encoder and PC make complete motor control system: 12/12/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / This Design Idea combines a simple ISA-bus-resident interface circuit; a garden-variety PC; a high-resolution optical shaft encoder; and a PWM-controlled, 0.05-hp, brushed, permanent-magnet dc motor to make a high-precision and high-power motion-control system. The system sequences the precise rotation of an evacuated steel bell jar several feet in diameter, such as those used in molecular-beam....

Encrypted routines impede hackers, protect licenses: 04/04/2002  EDN - Design Ideas /  The use of public-key-encrypted algorithms within licensed applications can prevent hackers from cracking the licensed algorithms. Moreover, you can use them to disable licensed features that a user doesn't purchase. Licensing schemes eventually arrive at some critical decision point at which an algorithm decides whether the user is entitled to run that application.

Envelope follower combines fast response, low ripple: 12/26/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / Envelope followers extract amplitude information from complex audio waveforms. The resulting dc voltage often drives nonlinear stages, such as voltage-controlled amplifiers or filters. You must make a careful trade-off between the speed of response to a rapidly changing input signal and the amount of ripple in the dc output that you can tolerate..

Envelope Tracker quells jitter: 07/07/94 EDN-Design Ideas

EPROM Emulator:

EPROM Prog / Emul PSU:

EPROM Programmer Mk1:

EPROM Programmer Mk2:

Ethernet / Cheapernet Physical Layer Made Easy With DP8391 / 92: National Semiconductor Application Notes,04 Nov1995

Excel Formula Calculates Standard 1%Resistor Values : 01/21/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / The Excel cell formula below calculates the nearest standard 1%-resistor value without using a lookup table or macro. Type or electronically paste the text below into any cell (other than A1). The formula will calculate the nearest 1%-resistor for the...

Fake Joystick Circuit: This simple circuit can be used to make the computer to think that there is a real joystick connected to joystick port. This adapter might be useful in some special computer testing applications when you dont have real joystick available.  ASCII drawing.

Fax to Modem Interface:

Filtering PC Bus Power:

Four Channel 8 Bit Analog to Digital Converter for PC:

Frame Grabber W /  Parallel Port Interface:

GameBoy Camera Parallel Port Interface:

General Purpose 48 Bit ISParallel I / O Card:

Get Power Out of PC Parallel Port: An article which includes circuits, shares how to us a parallel port to connect to a very wide selection of devices like software protection dongles, removable disks, modems, network adapters, printer sharing units, parallel port extenders, soundcards, electronic telecard readers and many circuits.

Getting Power From Serial Port:

Group Delay Equalizer has Gain More than One: 10/12/95 EDN-Design Ideas

Hints and kinks for USB decoding: 02/07/2002  EDN - Design Ideas /  The USB is a serial data-transmission system that uses cables to connect peripheral equipment to PCs. All new computers have two or more USB receptacles, and the predictions are that they will replace most of the legacy receptacles on older PCs. The 1.0 and 1.1 standards for USB were for 1.5 and 12 Mbps at low- and full-speed rates, respectively.

How to get Power From PC to your Circuits:

Hyperbaric FallTime Viscometer Is PCBased : 10/28/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / The measurement of the viscosity of solutions is an integral element in analytical chemistry and chemical manufacturing. It has particular value in designing and controlling the processes of polymerization, an essential step in the production of...

IC Adds Full Duplex RS485 Operation: 11/23/94 EDN-Design Ideas  / Simple RS-485 repeater provides full-duplex communications with only tow ICs

IDE hard Disk Interface for Amiga 500:

Infrared Computer Controlled Infrared Device:

Infrared Interface With Windows CD Software: use infrared technology to remotely control a CD-ROM drive with an audio CD

Infrared Remote Control Of your PC Is Easy!: simple device that connected to the computer serial-port enables the reception of infrared codes emitted from any commercial remote control unit and with a little Windows program the computer learns to recognize sequences and simulates key pressing or executes a program

Infrared Remote Control Repeater:

Infrared Remote Home Control: software Remocon Con for Windows98 able to fire remote control signal through built in infrared port (IrDA) that is of notebook personal computer standard equipment

Interface 20Bit SigmaDelta ADCs Through a PC's Parallel Port : 03/04/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / In most sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (ADC) applications, the serial data transfer occurs through a serial port. A microcontroller configures the serial port as required

Interface a serial 12 bit ADC to a PC: 07/10/03  EDN-Design Ideas /  Over the years, IC manufacturers have devised various ways of effecting interfaces and paying special attention to reducing the number of ICs' interface-I/O pins. The MAX187 is one such device, a 12-bit A/D converter. You can create an interface to this ADC using serial data communications techniques....

Interface Connects ISBus to �P: 10/09/97 EDN-Design Ideas

Interfacing 16x2 Character: LCD to parallel port

Interfacing Microphones to Computer Sound Cards:

IS48 I / O Digital Card: ComInt was designed and built for a colleague at work. He needed a device with a large number of I/Os to control his Gameboy device from the PC. A simple circuit using only4 ICs proved to be a good solution. It uses two 8255 Programmable Peripheral Interface chips and provides48 I/O signals, each being software programmable.

ISBus Provides Access to Serial Peripherals: 02/17/97  EDN-Design Ideas

Isolated Full Duplex RS232C Interface:

Isolated RS232 for PIC16F84:

Joystick Interface Projects:

Joystick Interfaces: analogue interfaces for joysticks for motor controllers

Joystick Port As General Purpose Input:

Key Reading Circuit Saves I/O Pins: 03/06/03 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit

LAN Switch Eliminates Redundant PHY Chip: 03/31/03 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / Advances in notebook technology create a thirst for new features and increased functionality, culminating in greater cost and shrinking space. One solution to the cost/space issues is to use a wide-bandwidth analog local-area network (LAN) switch that...

Laptop Computer Serial Port Power Booster:

Line Driver Economically Synthesizes Impedance: 01/06/94 EDN-Design Ideas  / Line-driver circuit uses a second op amp to synthesize the output impedance rather than inserting a power-hungry resistor in series with the op amps output

Linux Infrared Remote Control (LIRC):

Lookup Table Facilitates Bit Flipping: 11/23/00 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit.

Low Power Ethernet With the CMOS DP83910 Serial Network Interface: National Semiconductor Application Notes,05 Aug1995

Low Power RS232C Driver & Receiver in CMOS: National Semiconductor Application Notes,05 Oct1998

Low Voltage Powers ParallelPort Interface : 06/24/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / For portable-sensing and data- acquisition applications, a laptop computer and its parallel port (LPT) make good bedfellows. Yet in the effort to extend battery life, many microprocessors and entire systems operate with logic levels down to 1.8 V. The...

Mains Manager:

Maintain precise timing with PC's speaker logic: 07/11/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / Precise timing control is paramount in data acquisition and analysis and especially in digital-signal processing. The easiest way of maintaining timing control in a PC is to use delay loops. The disadvantage of this implementation is that the delay loop's elapsed time depends on the system's operating frequency

Make Eight Channel Measurements through An LPT Port: 06/13/02 EDN-Design Ideas /  The circuit represents a simple and cost-effective way to obtain eight-channel analog-signal acquisition through a PCs LPT port. IC1, a12-bit, serial-output MAX187 ADC, operates from a single5V supply and accepts analog inputs of0 to5V.

Make eight channel measurements through an LPT port: 06/13/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / The circuit in Figure 1 represents a simple and cost-effective way to obtain eight-channel analog-signal acquisition through a PC's LPT port. IC1, a 12-bit, serial-output MAX187 ADC, operates from a single 5V supply and accepts analog inputs of 0 to 5V. IC2, an eight-channel MAX338 analog multiplexer, also operates from a single 5V supply..

Microcontroller Interface for 5KW Microwave oven:

Microprocessor RS232 Reset:

MIDI Controlled Switches: can drive up to128 individual relays, solenoids, motors, etc. with a MIDI note-on and note-off messages

More Accurate PC / AT Clock: Nixie Tube Clock

NES to Atari 2600 Controller Interface:

Novel idea implements low cost keyboard: 04/03/03  EDN-Design Ideas / Many applications that use a microcontroller also use a keyboard. If your application uses a relatively powerful microcontroller, you can use several free I/O pins or an unused input with an ADC to effect an easy keyboard connection. But, if the microcontroller in your system has too few free I/O pins and no on-chip ADC, you can be in trouble...

Null Printer Adapters:

Parallel Port Central: information on using PC parallel port for I/O and Windows drivers for that, useful for your own circuit interfacing

Parallel port controls arbitrary waveform generator: 06/13/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / You can use the parallel port of your PC and a few additional components to generate a powerful, easy-to-use arbitrary-waveform generator. By using a Visual Basic program with the circuit in Figure 1, you can generate any waveform (for example, sinusoid, triangle, amplitude- or frequency-modulated, or exponential decay) by simply entering its characteristic equation..

Parallel port provides high resolution temperature sensing: 10/03/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / High-resolution temperature sensing at low cost is possible using only one chip attached to the PC's parallel port (Figure 1). The Dallas Semiconductor (www.dalsemi.com) DS1722 digital thermometer allows measurement resolution as fine as 0.0625�C in digital form and with linear response. The accuracy specification is only 2�C, but you can improve this figure by careful calibration..

PBUS, Multi Drop RS422 / 485 type Ne2 Rk for Interconnecting PIC Nodes:

PC / XS Transfer: (PDF) A circuit and C code for bidirectional transfer of data between an XS40 Board and a PC.

PC and LongBaseline Chronography Measure Ballistic Parameters Acoustically : 07/22/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design  /  Ballistics is an ancient art

PC Based 7 Segment Rolling Display:

PC Based Biofeedback Monitor:

PC based configurable filter uses no digital potentiometers: 01/23/03  EDN-Design Ideas / Modern instrumentation requires digital control signals. These signals come from a central microprocessor or, in modern context, the popular parallel or serial PC ports. In recent times, digital potentiometers have eliminated the hassles from this interface for the analog section. Designers can replace the resistors of the analog design with digital potentiometers, thus providing the necessary .....

PC Based Configurable Filter uses No Digital Potentiometers: 01/23/03 EDN-Design Ideas  / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit -- Modern instrumentation requires digital control signals. These signals come from a central microprocessor or, in modern context, the popular parallel or serial PC ports. In recent Times, digital potentiometers have eliminated the hassles from this interface for the analog section.

PC Based Digital Storage Oscilloscope (DSOA):

PC Based Digital Storage Oscilloscope Mk3:

PC Based EFI Programmer:

PC Based Lighting Control: short pointer to each of the available commercial PC based lighting console systems

PC Based Lighting Control: short pointer to each of the available commercial PC based lighting console systems

PC Based Oscilloscope:

PC board layout eases high speed transmission: 11/08/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / As digital techniques move to higher speeds, designers become aware of the need to treat pc-board traces as RF transmission lines. In these lines, you strive to hold the line impedance, Z0, to a constant value-typically, 50U-and to terminate the line with the same impedance. Data families such as ECL, PECL, and LVDS send data over a pair of traces known as a balanced tra... .

PC configurable RLC resonator yields single output filter : 08/07/03  EDN-Design Ideas / This Design Idea presents a versatile filter circuit for low-power-consumption instrumentation that you can program from your PC using the parallel port. The circuit uses analog switches and latches instead of digital potentiometers for the digital control (figures 1 and 2). By running simple software code on the PC, you can configure a single robust design to work as a lowpass, highpass, or b......

PC Controlled Current Source Supplies 100V, 1A, 16Bit Pulses : 04/29/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / The current source shown in the figure is designed to support toroidal-cavity nuclear-magnetic-resonance electrophoresis (TCNMRE) measurements of molecular electrical mobility in chemical samples. To do so,...

PC Controls inexpensive Waveform Generator: 06/05/96 EDN-Design Ideas

PC Controls Light Dimmer: 08/19/99 EDN-Design Ideas / Circuit design idea from EDN Magazine to control one light dimming from PC

PC hardware Monitor Reports the Weather: 01/18/01 EDN-Design Ideas  / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find the one of interest   -

PC Infrared Remote Control #1:

PC Infrared Remote Control #1:

PC IR Remote Control:

PC Monitors twoway RS232 Transmission: 02/01/01 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit.

PC Mouse Implementation using CoP800: National Semiconductor Application Notes first published05-Aug-1995

PC Mouse Implementation using CoP800: National Semiconductor Application Notes first published05-Aug-1995

PC Parallel Port Output Capabilities: includes instructions how to connect a relay to PC parallel port

PC SmartCard Reader:

PC Speaker Volume Control Circuit:

PC Thermometer:

PC to SRAM Interface: for the XSV Board (Univ. of Queensland)

PC's IRQ7 and INT1Ch measure currents, charges: 10/12/00 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit

PIC Based Keyboard Emulator:

PIC Project #1 RS232 to I2C Interface:

PIC16F84 Debugging Terminal:

PIC16F84 Serial I / O Expander With PicBasic:

Playing a Mac through a Standard Telephone Line: how to get sound from computer to Telephone line

PLD code reveals pc board revisions: 10/17/2002  EDN - Design Ideas /  The PLD (programmable-logic-device) code in Listing 1 implements a pc-board-level revision-detection system that detects whether PLD pins are shorted together on a pc board. It is often advantageous to field a single PLD programming file that works for several generations of physical hardware. The PLD needs to understand what the board revision is, so that it can enable or disable functions, pi....

Port Interface:

Post Tray Email Service: PoTrES is a small stand-alone 8-bit embedded system capable of sending emails to several recipients on an Ethernet network (corporate intranet, world-wide internet). It uses a minimal TCP/IP implementation consisting of several network protocols.

Practical Limits of RS485: National Semiconductor Application Notes,05 Oct1998

Preprocessor for rotary encoder uses PAL: 08/02/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / Rotary encoders usually provide quadrature pulses that indicate both the amount of rotation and the direction (Figure 1). A microcontroller can calculate the rotation direction and keep track of angular movement. Many microcontrollers' interrupt inputs, such as those on the Zilog Z86C90, can detect only a falling edge..

Printer port activates CMOS switches: 05/02/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / The cost-effective design in Figure 1 provides control for CMOS switches without the need for an external power supply. Analog switches such as those in the MAX4663 are ideal for use in low-distortion applications. They are preferable to electromechanical relays in automatic test equipment or other applications in which you need current switching..

Printer Sharer:

Program Predicts VSWRmismatch RF uncertainties: 02/01/01 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit.

PSX Controller to PC MIDI Converter:

Rounding Off' a Square Wave:

RS232 / 485 Converter has Automatic Flow Control: 04/12/01 EDN-Design Ideas  / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find the one of interest / RS-485 communications can provide longer range and better noise immunity than RS-232, as well as multidrop capability. Because it does not have separate transmit and receive lines, RS-485 requires flow control. RS-232/485 converters often use one of the RS-232 handshaking lines to control direction, but several communications-software packages do not support flow control. This circuit an RS-232/485 converter that uses the transmitted signal itself to control the flow.

RS232 Port Monitor:

RS232 Serial Port Buffer Circuit:

RS232 to RS232 Port Powered Optical Isolator: Brochure with schematic in PDF format

RS232C Circuit has Galvanic Isolation: 02/04/99 EDN-Design Ideas  / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find circuit -- You can obtain longer transmission distances with the RS-232C interface if you use galvanic isolation between the two linked terminals

RS232C Handshake Lines Transfer Data Frames: 10/23/97 EDN-Design Ideas

RS232C Interface Meets Telecommunications Safety Specs: 09/28/95 EDN-Design Ideas  /  RS-232 isolation circuit

RS232C Level Converter using Transistors:

RS232C Level Converter:

RS232C Powers & Reads 8 Bit Switch Matrix: 04/11/96 EDN-Design Ideas

RS232C Serial Port Scans Remote Keypad: 12/04/97 EDN-Design Ideas

RS485 Repeater Extends Standard's Reach: 05/26/94 EDN-Design Ideas

S Video to Composite Video Adapter:

Schematic of a Standard PC Joystick:

Screen Blanker:

Sega 3D Glass Interfacing Circuits:

Serial Data Multiplexer:

Serial Infrared Remote Controller: a simple, cheap device that can be connected to any serial port to control most components that have infrared remote controls, includes schematics for receiver and transmitter

Serial Isolated I / O Module: 8-Relay Module (mains rated - to250VAC), kit K108 from kitsrus.com

Serial Port a / D Converter:

Serial Port A/D : 12bits, no power, cheap!

Serial Port Break Reset Circuit:

Serial Port Controller infrared Transmitter (PIC16F628):

Serial to ECP Interface:

SerialPortPowered ADC Streams Data To PC : 01/07/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design /  The circuit shown in Figure 1 provides a simple, low-power means of digitizing analog signals and sending the data directly to a PC's serial port where it can easily be read, analyzed, and stored. The low...

Simple FSK Modulator:

Single �C Pin Makes halfduplex RS232C: 08/05/99 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit.

Software makes full use of 8051's interrupt system: 12/06/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / The program in Listing 1 uses a pseudo-RETI instruction to provide a five-priority-level interrupt system for the 8051P microcontroller. The interrupt-priority order, from high to low, is INT0 IT0 INT1 IT1 INTP. Before the pseudo-RETI instruction arrives in the IT0 or IT1 interrupt-service routine, the address of the first instruction, which is after the pseudo-RETI instruction, goes ba... .

Software Provides Interrupt System for 8051: 11/23/00 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit.

Software reset uses I�C I/O port: 05/16/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / You can use the circuit in Figure 1 to allow the I2C or SMBus to control device resets in a system by using the PCA9554 I2 C I/O-port IC. Normally, a reset function takes an active-low signal. On power-up of the PCA9554, the IC sets all the I/O pins as inputs. The 4.7-kO pull-down resistor on each I/O ensures that all the active-low reset pins are initially in a low state during power-up..

Software snippet provides improved subset sum algorithm : 09/25/03  EDN-Design Ideas / The subset-sum problem is one of the most frequently occurring NP (nondeterministic, polynomial-time)-complete) problems. It asks whether a subset of numbers in a set of positive integers adds up exactly to a given value. A relaxed version of the problem tries to identify a subset of numbers that adds up to a maximum value no greater than a given value....

SONIC EISBus Master Ethernet Adapter: National Semiconductor Application Notes,05 Aug1995

Soundcard joystick Port Problem Solver:

Switched Fabric Eliminates CPUbus Bottlenecks: 02/20/03 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit

Synchronizing Controller Detects Baud Rate: 03/03/98 EDN-Design Ideas  /  A simple and inexpensive implementation using an eight-pin12C508 controller (Microchip Technology, Chandler, AZ) provides both bit-rate detection and a synchronous, appended-clock output from an asynchronous input-data stream

T Volt RGB Signal Output From a SVGgraphics Card: To achieve a CCInfrared conform TV signal with50 Hz vertical interlaced refresh and15.625 kHz horizontal frequency on most SVGA cards its possible to re-program CRT Timing and generate output signals outside the normal specification range. Then some pretty simple hardware is needed for rest of the signal conversion.

Take Power Out of PC RS232 Port:

The Wire Between MultiIO Card and joystick Connector:

Thermocouple Interfaces to Serial Port: 11/09/95 EDN-Design Ideas

Tricks improve on Excel LCD initialization: 04/11/2002  EDN - Design Ideas /  A previous Design Idea on using Excel for LCD initialization relies on the user for cutting and pasting from Excel into an editor (Reference 1). It appears that it would take a minimum of six keystrokes or mouse strokes from one character to a.

Tricks increase utility of parallel port: 09/27/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / In this simple application of the 68HC68 microcontroller's serial-I/O utility, the goal is to configure a simple circuit, driven by any LPT parallel-printer port, which you can use as a remote I/O for a PC. You can independently program each I/O line as either an input or an output. The protocol in this application is an SPI (MISO/MOSI/SCK) type, using synchronous serial communications. .

TTL to RS232 Interfacing:

Two Channel, Port Powered RS232 to RS 242 Converter: information on commercial product, datasheet includes full circuit diagram

Two transistor circuit replaces IC #1: 02/07/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / Linear Technology's recently introduced LTC4300 chip buffers I2C clock and data lines to and from a hot-swappable card. This task is difficult because the IC must work bidirectionally, meaning that you can simultaneously and actively drive both sides. However, as is sometimes the case, you can replace a complicated circuit by a simple one without much loss of performance. .

Two Transistor Circuit Replaces IC #2: Linear Technologys recently introduced LTC4300 chip buffers I2C clock and data lines to and from a hot-swappable card. This task is difficult because the IC must work bidirectionally

Understanding Power Requirements in RS232 Applications: National Semiconductor Application Notes,05 Oct1998

Universal Infrared Controller for a PC: This simple circuit allows you to record any Infrared remote control signal on your PC, and then play it back. This is particularly useful if you want to control appliances such as TVs, VCRs, CDs etc. from your computer. The device simply connects to the parallel port of your PC. You can also use this circuit to analyze the waveform from any Infrared remote control. This circuit was originally published in Electronics Australia, September1998

Use a PIC for automatic baud rate detection: 08/22/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / Automatic baud-rate detection is desirable in many applications. Microchip's (www.microchip.com) standard USART module that the company embeds in most of its PIC microcontrollers lends itself to a simple and easily implemented automatic baud-detection scheme. The PIC18FXX2 data sheet defines the following baud rate in bits per second: where X is the value for the baud-rate generator and FOSC ....

Use power line for baud rate generation: 08/16/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / One cost-saving measure associated with 8-bit embedded microcontrollers is to use a resistor-capacitor oscillator. These RC oscillators are inexpensive, but the trade-off is low stability with temperature and voltage. In many applications, the low cost of an RC oscillator is alluring, but the application requires a stable clock source for baud-rate generation or event timing..

Use Power Line for Baudrate Generation: 08/16/01 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this one

Use printer port as programmable frequency generator: 10/11/2001 EDN - Design Ideas / A simple and inexpensive circuit ( Figure 1 ) and a simple C program ( Listing 1 ) are all you need to turn your PC's printer port into a programmable frequency generator. Using a few low-cost and readily available components, the circuit occupies little space and is easily attachable to the printer port. .

Use The PC's Parallel Port for Fast Data Acquisition and Control : 12/09/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / Many designers require that their PCs act as complete control systems without any internal hardware. For this function, users need at least one channel of analog data acquisition to monitor the controlled signal. They also require one digital output...

Use time domain analysis of Zobel network: 06/27/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / A Zobel network is useful in making a reactive load appear as a pure resistance to a driving source prone to stability problems (Reference 1). A typical situation is an audio power amplifier driving a loudspeaker, modeled at first approximation as an inductance and a series resistor (Figure 1a). The addition of a series R2C network in parallel with the series R1L network forms a Zobel network ....

Using the joystick Port As General Purpose input:

VC++ Program Converts Hex Strings To Integers : 12/09/02 Electronic Design - Ideas for Design / Binary numbers are seldom implemented in Visual C++ applications because C++ is considered a "high-level" language. Yet in communications systems, where information is transferred between two different devices through a network, using binary or...

Velleman Universal Relay Card With 16 Relays: This page has information on Vellan kit which take computer input and controls up to16 relays. This page has full kit documentation including the circuit diagram.

VGController for the ALTERUP1 Board: This page contains basic information describing the use of the VGA output port provided on the Altera UP1 Educational board. VHDL source code for a simple VGA controller ( VgaCon ) is provided. The purpose of VgaCon is to isolate the details of VGA signal generation from all the other modules in a design. VgaCon allows the pixel information to be written into its video memory using a very simple interface, while it is al1-responsible for generating the required signals for displaying the pixel information on a VGA monitor.

VGConverter for Video Projectors & Fixed Frequency Monitors:

VGGenerator: (PDF) that displays an image in the XS Board RAM on a VGA monitor.

VGto T Volt Converter:

Visual Basic MDAC Offset: 02/18/99 EDN-Design Ideas / PDF contains multiple circuits - scroll to find this circuit

VTG 01 PAL / NTSC Video Title Generator: Overlays text over Video screen, takes input from PC keyboard

Where is the wiper?: 08/08/2002  EDN - Design Ideas / You enjoy significant advantages when using DPPs (digitally programmable potentiometers) with increment/decrement serial interfaces. Programming the serial interface is simple and fast, and you can adjust the potentiometer in real-time applications. The interface, however, provides no information about wiper position, and this information is important in some applications..

X Y Keypad uses �C's Serial Port: 10/10/96 EDN-Design Ideas

XSBoard Parallel Port Interface: (PDF) that is programmed into the CPLD.