Electronics and me

LCD/RS232 PIC Project

Above you will see a picture of what I was playing with recently. It is just a simple interface implemented using a PIC16F84A microprocessor, a Hitachi 16x2 LCD panel, the MAX232 line voltage converter and some miscellaneous electronic components.

Basically the PIC listens for data on one of its pins connected to the RS232 serial port on my laptop. When I type some ASCII text in a communications package like Hyperterminal using 9600 8N1, the data gets parsed by the PIC and sent off to the LCD display panel using dual 4-bit transfers. It also transmits (echoes) the received character back to the laptop via the RS232 interface. I did this to experiment with implementing an RS232 communication interface as well as to rekindle my knowledge and interest in PIC microprocessors and electronics in general. By the way - it works perfectly :)

100W 3-Way Speaker System I have built

My interest in electronics started in 1991 somewhere when I first attached extra speakers to my tape player - one of those small tape recorders used also for interfacing to a ZX Spectrum computer. I thought that by adding a speaker in parallel to the existing one, it would play louder. But alas! It did not work quite so easily. It took me many hours of research and experiments before I realised that you need an amplifier to make the sound go louder, that you cannot simply attach additional speakers in parallel to existing ones as this will lower the impedance (hence possibly destroying the amplifier) as well that electronics is a complicated subject! I remember looking at my uncle's electrical engineering handbook dated 1969, and trembling at the complexity (both mathematically and scientifically). I thought to myself that although this is a nice hobby and I have an intense interest in it, it is way too complex for me to pursue formally.

Between 1993 and 1995 I built myself some decent speakers. This was a consequence of a growing interest in audiophile and hi-fi technology. I designed my own 3-way crossover by a combination of some formulas I found, gut feel, a little bit of reading on the subject as well as intensive critical listening exercises. The speakers sound pretty decent for a novice Audiophile! I also built my own amplifier (actually I built several, but I am only using one for 7 years now - still working perfectly).

In January 1996 I made a very impulsive decision when I was about to start with my first year as a university student at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. I changed my course (one day before I started going class) from B.Sc Computer Science to B.Eng (Electrical). This had no practical impact for me as far as the change is concerned, but it had some other dramatic effects in various other areas of my life.

Firstly, it caused me to study for four years, not three. Secondly, in my personal humble opinion B.Eng is much more difficult than B.Sc. Thirdly, I think the way the engineering faculty taught us was completely different from the natural sciences faculty. They were much more indifferent towards the students, much more unforgiving and especially focusing on generic ideas and concepts, rather than specific technologies. The effect all of this had on me was to change my life paradigm. It changed the way I see things (I look twice at a transmission line etc.), the way I solve problems (I am much more analytical than ever before) and the way I handle abstract and difficult subjects.

Currently I am investigating the viability of integrating electronics (in specific - digital embedded systems) into my company. This seems like a good idea as I have an intense interest in the field and am quite capable as well (again - in my humble opinion).

THE SEX LIFE OF THE ELECTRON

by D.C. Current

One night when his charge was pretty high, Micro Farad decided to seek a cute little coil to let him discharge.

He picked up Millie Amp and took her for a ride on his Megacycle. They rode across the Wheatstone Bridge, around the sine waves and stopped in the magnetic field by a flowing current.

Micro Farad, attracted by Millie Amps characteristic curves, soon had her fully charged and excited her resistance to a minimum. He laid her on the ground potential, raised her frequency and lowered her reluctance.

He pulled out his high voltage probe and inserted it in her socket connecting them in parallel, and began short circuiting her resistance shunt. Fully excited, Millie Amp mumbled, "OHM OHM OHM OHM".

With his tube operating at a maximum and her field vibrating with his current flow, he caused her shunt to overheat and Micro Farad was rapidly discharged and drained of every electron.

They fluxed all night, trying various connections and sockets, until his magnet had a soft core and lost all of it's field strength.

Afterwards, Millie Amp tried self induction and damaged her solenoids. With his battery fully discharged, Micro Farad was unable to excite his field, so they spent the rest of the night reversing polarity and blowing each other's fuses.