After finding an old style desk telephone in the trash at work I decided to use it in an office prank, the phone that shouldn’t ring but does. The goal, modify the phone so that it will ring without any connection to the phone line. The stretch goal was to also have a message play on the handset when it is answered, maybe a creepy voice or loud breathing. Now to modify the phone.
Read More An Office PrankOne of my current projects involves cycle counting for durability purpose. My original plan was to build a microcontorller circuit, using the ATMEGA328P, to do the counting and display. I have been building the circuit in my head and was putting together a parts list over the weekend when I realized that I may be putting a lot of time into designing this circuit without first testing my mechanical system. I needed a quick and easy circuit which got me thinking about using a cheap calculator. I’m sure I have seen this method used before, it is probably where I got the idea, but I though I would post something about it anyways. Let me explain how this works.
Read More Calculator CounterA few weeks ago I received an email from LT that was showcasing the LTC2946, a power monitoring IC that communicates using I2C. I was intrigued and ordered a couple, part number LTC2946CMS#PBF. This is the MSOP-16 package and I would need a breakout board so that I could play around with this chip on a breadboard and explore all of its functions. I looked at my normal sources for electronic goodies; Adafruit and Sparkfun had MSOP break out boards but they were all low pin count. I was able to find another source for a MSOP-16 breakout board but at ~$7 a piece plus shipping I knew I could have my own made much cheaper. On to KICAD.
Read More Breakout the MSOP16
SD Perry 